Improving Business Productivity with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has sought to revolutionize our world. The impact of AI can be noted vividly in the business sector, where companies can now complete their operations and tasks with greater efficiency and speed than ever before. It also helps businesses boost their productivity by overcoming human limitations.

The development of machine learning systems has further supported the emergence and growth of AI. From its influence in revolutionizing the gaming experience of a virtual escape room to the beneficial use of chatbots to improve customer relationships, the impact of AI is diverse. 

And given that your business knows how to implement AI, you can easily boost your company’s productivity seamlessly.

In this article, we have compiled a few important ways companies can benefit from using AI and enhance their productivity over time. Read on to learn more!

1. Improve your customer services.

With the help of AI systems, you can now offer enhanced and much more efficient customer service than you can ever imagine! One of the most common instances of using AI for customer services is leveraging smart chatbots. 

Chatbots are efficiently designed programs that can sort out customer queries and respond within seconds, without human intervention.

Therefore, once you start using chatbots for offering your customer services, you can reduce the immense workload on your existing customer service agents. Chatbots are smart enough even to detect the customer’s emotions and respond accordingly!

AI-enabled chatbots still have a long way to evolve as they learn more about human behaviors and become more efficient with time. Therefore, with the help of smart AI-enabled chatbots, you can now build stronger customer relationships and boost your business productivity over time!

2. Prediction of your sales.

Your business is already gathering customer-related data. Now, with the help of AI, you can efficiently use this data to serve your purpose! AI systems are efficient in detecting patterns and trends in your data. 

It can then help you understand which of your customers are more likely to purchase your products or services. The effective use of AI systems can also help businesses to generate more new leads over time.

AI analyzes every customer and behavioral data to let you know which customers will buy the products on their cart! The system analyzes past sales records, market-related data, common behavioral patterns, and several other factors to efficiently design customer profiles. These profiles then help them to predict which of your customers are most likely to make a purchase soon.

3. Transformation of your procurement.

AI systems are also evolving the way businesses used to procure their goods and services earlier. AI systems will offer beneficial insights into how different factors may affect your business operations at a particular stage. 

In this way, it allows you to stay prepared from before. Also, your business can make efficient and effective decisions with the cumulative help of machine learning systems and detailed analytics.

One may also expect advanced AI systems to help lower the forecasting errors that usually occur in supply chain management. Furthermore, businesses can also expect to reduce their transportation costs with the effective use of AI for forecasting errors.

It will also reduce the excessive need for human intervention in mundane processes like invoice processing, reporting the details of capacity utilization, etc. Thus, your workers and managers can now shift their focus to the higher-level strategies and processes rather than these tasks.

4. Reviewing and finding out essential data and information.

Going through those long and tedious documents, statistics, and papers to analyze them and draft helpful insights can often get too tiring for your workers. But with the help of AI systems, you can now accomplish this task without much need for human intervention!

The combined use of AI and ML can help companies create beneficial insights from all the data they have gathered. The efficient use of AI in reviewing and extracting any vital information that may lie hidden in your piles of data will help you reduce manual labor. It will also help businesses to gain creative insights about their future decisions.

Legal and management industries have already started using AI to extract crucial data. Once you start using AI to extract relevant and useful data, you can get a more efficient output than you can ever get from manual labor!

5. Improving your hiring process.

AI systems can help you even in the process of hiring your employees! Usually, it takes long hours for businesses to glance through the various resumes that pour in almost every day. But with the help of AI, you can now avoid the long and tiring manual labor for a much better and more efficient process.

AI technology now allows businesses to scan different resumes in just a few minutes. After that, recruiters and your hiring team can quickly find the most efficient candidates to have onboard! 

AI systems can help you achieve this task faster than usual and allow you to do it with greater accuracy than before.

Conclusion

While we just listed five effective ways Artificial Intelligence has sought to boost business productivity, there are still many other ways. Given that the technology is still evolving, businesses can continue to expect even greater efficiency soon!

Author Bio: Aniya more is one of the brightest content writer at Breakout escape room. She is a passionate writer who loves to read books and explore different escape rooms. With a great work ethic, she spends most of her time researching and reading. When she is not working, she likes to relax with a cup of coffee and enjoy watching her favorite tv show or walking her dog peanut. You can find her on LinkedIn.

Run a Business? Why Business Management Services Can Help With Finances

Business management has always required broad-ranging skills, but it can be a particular challenge in today's fast-paced and increasingly digital world.

Contemporary brands need to work harder than ever to stay on top of things like bookkeeping, benchmarking, and balancing budgets. Here are just a few ways that managed services can help.

Software

Software for business management can be a real time-saver, especially when it comes to your finances. Not only can it compile and calculate large volumes of financial data, but it can also automate a lot of everyday processes like payroll, resulting in less employee labor and a reduced likelihood of human error. 

It can also be a useful tool for tracking trends, assessing risks, filing taxes, and cross-referencing invoices and bank statements in your financial department.

Access to Experts

One of the benefits of business management services is being able to tap into a conglomerate of experts that have more information than you do. Even if you, personally, aren't familiar with a certain topic, a good business management company can either find or educate a team to handle it. 

Whether it's reviewing revenue models or building new financial databases, they can leverage their skills and knowledge for the benefit of your brand.

Business Strategy

Good business acumen is a cornerstone of business management. If you're a first-time business owner, however, or if your company is struggling for whatever reason, you might benefit from cultivating new business strategies. 

In addition to helping overall, big-picture goals like increasing profits can also be used to build a better workplace as a whole. You can figure out how to do things like improving employee productivity or streamlining processes in the financial department.

Up-to-Date Financial Planning

The world of finance is an ever-changing one. You never know when markets will change or when new legislation will hit the books. 

Being adaptable can be one of your greatest assets in business management, and hiring a flexible, future-oriented team to oversee your finances can be a big boon to your brand. 

For example, they might keep their finger on the pulse of new trends in software security, allowing your company to stay on the cutting edge of privacy protection for sensitive financial data.

These are just a few ways to integrate more business management practices into your workplace, especially if you deal with finances. It isn't always easy to be a business owner, but with the right tools, plans, and resources, you can overcome the obstacles in your way and build a better brand.

The Six Biggest Reasons Why Businesses Fail

Businesses fail for a variety of different reasons. It can be scary to think that your company could fail. A lot goes into running a business, and having it come to a sudden end can be disheartening. However, failing is a part of business. It’s part of the risk your company takes when it begins operating.

The fact is that most of these failures can be attributed to one common factor: a lack of business acumen.

Businesses thrive when they have a detailed understanding of their individual needs and their resources. They fail when they don’t. Understanding the reasons why businesses fail is an important part of running it. It can also be the greatest relief at the same time.

Here are the six biggest reasons why businesses fail:

Insufficient capital

According to Pearson Law, a renowned Scottsdale Bankruptcy Attorney, one of the common reasons a business fails is because it doesn’t have the funding it needs to be successful. This could be because the business owners simply didn’t realize how costly their idea or product would be to manufacture, or it could be that they didn’t take into account the costs of running an actual business.

Whatever the case, a business that doesn’t have enough capital to be successful is doomed to fail. Most of these businesses, at their inception, often have much higher overhead costs than mature businesses. In fact, many of the problems that plague businesses today are due to this fact.

High overhead, which can include a wide range of costs, is the most common reason for failure in the new business environment. It’s like putting a band-aid on a problem that should be solved. 

There are many ways to solve this problem. One way is to start by fully understanding your own business model and your costs.

Once you understand these things, you can develop a plan to make your business model more efficient. Another way to solve this problem is to find an investor. This is how many start-up businesses get their start on the ground. 

Once they have some traction, they can often find an investor who will provide enough capital to grow the business to the next stage.

Lack of a clear vision and strategy

This is the result of poor leadership, poor decisions, or faulty processes. It can also be the result of a lack of clarity when it comes to the core values and principles that guide the business. If you don’t know where you are going, it’s very difficult to get there.

This is why it’s important to have a clear vision for your company. It can be as simple as writing down your company’s mission and values. If you don’t have these things clear in your mind, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to keep your business going in the long term.

If you lack a clear strategy, it’s likely that your company will fail. That’s because strategies are geared toward achieving goals. Without a clear strategy, you won’t know where to begin.

Poor location

It’s one thing to have a business in a poor location, but it’s an entirely different thing to have a profitable business in that location. This is why location is such a critical factor when it comes to success in the start-up business environment.

For example, a business that’s located in a poor neighborhood may have trouble making sales. On the other hand, a business located in a neighborhood with good access to transportation and other amenities might have a much easier time succeeding than its poor neighbor.

Over-investment in fixed assets

This happens when a business doesn’t take a good look at its operations and determine which assets generate the most revenue. The worst place to make a mistake like this is during the start-up phase. 

This is when most businesses are making a lot of investments in their physical properties, especially if they’re leasing a space for their business.

The mistake that most new businesses make is making huge investments in fixed assets, such as buying expensive equipment. This can lead to cash flow problems for the business in the long run.

Low patronage

Many businesses fail because they have too little patronage. This happens when a business doesn’t have enough regular customers who continue to buy its products and services over time. 

Unfortunately, this is a result of the business failing to understand and identify its core customer base.

If you have a business, then you should make an effort to understand who your major clients are and what you can do to expand them.

This way, you can increase the number of customers who buy from you over time. Over time, not knowing and not growing your potential client base can lead to low patronage and eventually cause the business to fail.

Competition

Another common reason why businesses fail is competition. Many businesses fail simply because they’ve entered a highly competitive market, which makes it difficult for businesses to earn a profit.

This is because the business is competing with other businesses for customers, employees, and investors, making it difficult for the company to succeed. 

This often occurs when the business is too new, which means it’s operating as a newbie in a highly competitive market. You need to listen carefully to what the market is saying and pay attention to prevent this. 

What does this mean? Essentially, it means that you need to be aware of what your competition is doing and be able to beat them at their own game.

If you can beat your competition at their own game, you’re less likely to fail. If they’re doing something that you can do better and you can offer a better product or service than what they’re offering, then your chances of failure are slightly reduced.

Wrapping up

Focusing on your strengths and not getting overwhelmed by your weaknesses is the key to success in any endeavor. Failure is a part of business, but so is learning from it. As mentioned here, there are six big reasons among many that can cause a business to fail.

To ensure your business is successful and can thrive in the long run, make sure you carefully consider these six key areas, as they will help you avoid the pitfalls and maximize your success.

Items to Budget for When Remodeling Your Store

From a modest upgrade to a major remodel, renovating your store can help to improve the customer experience and even boost sales. 

While major remodeling projects often come with a hefty price tag, knowing which items to budget for can help to ensure that you are able to make better use of your money.

Layout and Floor Plan

The general layout of a retail environment often has a bigger impact on the customer experience than many store owners might realize. A floor plan that serves to flatter a showcase or display or one that makes it easier for customers to find what they need can often lead to increased sales. 

If your shop suffers from an outdated or poorly organized interior layout, budgeting for a remodel may prove to be very worthwhile.

Roof Repairs and Replacement

Remodeling projects that result in significant changes to your business's layout, especially those that involve new additions or interior extensions, may require you to upgrade your existing roof. 

Working with professional service providers, ones like those that can be found at Commercial Solutions, Inc. can provide you with the insight and detailed information needed to budget more effectively. Repairing, upgrading, or even replacing your existing roof entirely could end up being a key part of your next remodel.

Climate Control and Utilities

Failing to provide your customers with a comfortable environment could lead to no end of problems and a new floor plan or a larger interior environment could find your existing HVAC equipment struggling to keep up. 

Outlining any climate-control equipment or utilities that need to be upgraded in order to complete the project is not a concern that should go overlooked.

Decor and Design Scheme

An attractive and stylish decor can go a long way towards ensuring that potential customers and new visitors are more likely to form a positive first impression when visiting your store. 

Decor that has begun to feel stale, dated, or that leaves your store looking shabby or rundown can be a serious liability. A major remodel can often be the perfect time to update the look, style, and design of your shop's interior.

An outdated storefront or an inefficient interior layout could be having more of an impact on your sales figures than you might realize. 

Modernizing your store, upgrading the space, and remodeling your interior layout can often be a worthwhile investment. Knowing which items to budget for makes it much easier to upgrade your store without breaking the bank.

Three Things To Know Before Running A Business Credit Check

A business credit report will give you a fair idea about how a company organizes its credit outflow. It enables you to determine if an enterprise can be trusted by the way it manages money. 

You can adequately gauge the financial health of a company with a business credit report. A good business credit score indicates that a company is a good candidate for receiving loans on favorable repayment terms. 

An exemplary business credit score proves their creditworthiness and implies that they can fulfill their financial obligations and obtain good financing to conduct their business for growth and expansion.

Before you engage financially with any company, you need to run a business credit check on them. Associating your business with potential partners who have a bad business credit score can have serious repercussions on your business credit, and it can direct the way other companies will perceive your business. 

A business credit report will enable you to provide credit to your potential business partner responsibly. It allows you to assess the likelihood of repaying the credit on time so that you can smoothly conduct your business. 

Moreover, it will give a better idea about how much credit should you lend for small business financing. Hence, with a business credit report, you can appropriately assess both credit risk and affordability before providing any credit so that you do not get into any financial difficulties. 

If you are wondering how to get business credit reports online, you can refer to various reputable e-companies that allow you to buy business credit reports to check up on your potential business partner.

Hence, as a business owner, you need to make informed business credit decisions. With the help of business credit reports of current and prospective business partners, you can adequately maintain your financial health and enable your cash flow to move smoothly. Here are few important things you should know about business credit reports.

Factors That Determine Business Credit Scores

A business credit score gives you crucial insight into a company’s financial health and reliability. The credit reporting agencies generate the report and calculate it using several factors. 

The details typically consist of public financial data and information that the company, its lenders, and other vendors supply to the credit reporting agency. The scoring model of each agency differs, and most of them combine the following factors like payment history, age of credit history, debt and debt usage, industry risk, and company size. 

A business credit report will help you know about business characteristics, older companies have better credit scores as compared to startups. A company that has sustained itself for a long time builds an adequate financial history. 

A business credit report will enable you to know about a company’s credit utilization ratio, that is, the amount of revolving credit they currently use divided by the total amount of revolving credit that is available. To have a good ratio, they need to have a credit spend under 30 to 35% of their credit limit. 

If they have a higher spend ratio, it indicates that they have a weak credit repayment schedule, and are extensively relying on external credit. You can gauge their credit history with a business credit report which generally includes the credit length, consistency and regularity of repayment history, current, and past loans, and also their outstanding debts.

Importance of a Business Credit Report

Before pairing up with new customers or suppliers and establish a partnership with another company, you can minimize and manage credit risk by accessing their business credit report. It will enable you to evaluate the likelihood of repaying what they borrow on time. 

The business credit report allows you to look into how they have managed their credit accounts in the past, and gauge their credit commitments. It allows you to predict better if they can manage the credit they are applying for. 

These reports will boost your credit-related decision-making process, and also assess how much business credit they can afford, and what risk you are taking by providing the given amount of credit. 

Business credit reports give you a better overview of the company’s information, subsidiaries, company finances, risk scores, and any liens or bankruptcies so that you can make a well-informed business credit decision.

Monitor Your Own Business Credit Profile Too

Besides monitoring the credit profile of your customers, partners, and suppliers, you should also monitor your business credit profit too. It will impact how other companies and financial institutions perceive your company and affect the decisions for conducting any business relationship with your business. 

For expanding your business, you should keep a tab on your potential partner as well as your credit score. You should try to keep it favorable and updated at all times to obtain good financing opportunities to conduct your business.

To Conclude:

Hence, you can rely on business credit profiles to access the necessary information you need to decide if you can extend credit to your prospective business partner, and gauge the credit risk and affordability.

How to Appropriately Collect Late Payments at Your Business

Clients who don't pay on time can be a frustrating disruption to your company's cash flow, and collection efforts are a time-consuming and sometimes expensive hassle. Many late payments can be collected, however, if you start collection efforts early and take the right actions.

Start With a Reminder Letter

Some people simply forget to pay, and a reminder letter is a welcome opportunity to settle the debt. You may even want to send a letter a few days before a payment is due. 

A form letter is the best idea because clients may not be offended or take a form letter personally. Be sure to ask the client to contact you if they need to discuss payment arrangements or have a problem with the products or services you provided.

Make a Follow-Up Call

If your letter doesn't get a response within 30 days, a phone call should be the next step. If you can reach a client by phone, they may be willing to explain why the payment has been delayed or give you payment information so they can resolve the issue. 

If phoning is unsuccessful, you may choose to send an email with instructions for paying online.

Use a Collection Agency

Commercial debt collection can be especially difficult because it may involve dealing with big businesses that don't respond well to collection efforts. 

A good debt collection agency that is experienced with commercial debt collection can handle your aged accounts, overflow beyond the capacity of your accounts receivable department, and more. 

Some companies, like Leib Solutions, know that agencies can usually interface with your billing system and communicate with your on-site staff for seamless collection.

Offer Options, Not Threats

Threatening your past-due clients is illegal and unlikely to work anyway. Instead, offer multiple ways and opportunities for payment and the chance to preserve the relationship with your company so they can continue to benefit from your products or services. 

Offer installment plans and easy credit card payments. As a last resort, consider offering to take partial payment to settle the account. Getting something from the client is better than nothing.

The easiest option for your company may be to require payment for all goods and services in advance. Almost as easy is when clients perform as expected and pay on time. 

Even when these things don't happen, you can collect past-due accounts with a simple system and perhaps the help of a collection agency. Late payments are a hassle, but they can be overcome when you make the right collection decisions.

How Business Owners Can Manage Their Monthly Finances

It is essential for business owners to manage their finances properly. Proper financial management ultimately ensures cash flow to the business. It will help them to keep track of their debts and credit. Additionally, it guides them towards a suitable investment to grow their business.

Create a Financial Budget

The business may not be successful if business owners fail to set up a comprehensible financial budget. Moreover, it is about setting up a monthly financial plan and adhering to it. 

A financial budget will help the business to mitigate failure. The process opens their eyes to allocate various finances to be used in the company monthly.

Keep Track of Their Spending

Typically, business owners might lose track of how money is spent daily. If they fail to keep a record of the finances spent, they might find themselves in debt and overspending. Eventually, small expenses might end up accumulating to massive bills. 

To avoid future financial problems, business owners need to record their business transactions in accounting books monthly.

Awareness of Their Deadlines

Most businesses have loans and credit card payments. To avoid these payments from accumulating, business owners should meet deadlines. 

Awareness enables them to plan throughout the month to make the payments and avoid added interests. In addition to this, it helps them to avoid missing monthly payments.

Constantly Reviewing Their Financial Reports

Keeping a close eye on profit and loss reports, receivable and payable reports, and balance sheets is beneficial for giving insight into their business finances. The information will show them the position of the business in the growing market.

Find a Reliable Business Insurance Broker

If someone wants to start a business, it is advisable to get a business insurance broker. It can be challenging to accumulate finances to start a business. An insurance broker will help to obtain affordable insurance cover. 

After getting a compatible insurance cover, the broker will be paid a certain amount. Thereafter, the business owner can start paying the insurance company according to the set terms.

Ensure They Have Extra Savings for the Business

Alternatively, every business needs to save extra finances. The additional savings will be helpful when your business is faced with unavoidable circumstances. 

Business owners need to have separate savings account to cover emergency expenses that arise randomly. They should make monthly deposits to the savings account.

Managing monthly finances is the first step for long-term success as a business owner. Proper financial management prepares the business to face challenges and to avoid making losses. Poor management has led to the downfall of many companies globally.

Top 7 Things You will come to Know Through Business Credit Reports on Other Businesses

Do you run a small business in one of the major cities of the US? How often does your payment gets delayed or stuck with your clients? Once, thrice or, multiple times in a month? Well, facing such situations frequently could lead your company to bankruptcy. 

So, the question is how to minimize such risks and improve your cash flow? Simple, get a business credit report of your potential customers through leading business credit and risk management companies.

Once you have got the credit report of your prospective clients, you can check their creditworthiness with ease. A comprehensive business report of other companies will let you know how capable they are of conducting problem-free business with you. 

That means whether they can pay your bills on time, maintain a healthy financial relationship with you, and facilitate your company's growth. Let's see what information you acquire when you get business credit report of other companies:

1 - How financially secure are they?

2 - What risks might you need to face when conducting business with them?

3 - How do they compare with the rest of your prospects?

4 - Will they pay your debts on time?

5 - Is there a solid reason to do business with them?

6 - Can you be confident about your credit decision regarding them?

7 - How likely are they to shock you when you review their credit report for a limit increase?

Collectively, all this information will give you a rough idea of how good or bad a decision could be to accept your prospects as the client. With this complete information, now let's move to another important topic:

What are the main reasons to get credit reports for other businesses?

1 - Prevention is more important than cure

Going through the details in a thorough business credit report provides you with the confidence whether or not you should involve in business with another company. 

It doesn't matter whether you want to supply your products or services to other companies or need them to provide you projects to work on; a credit history analysis is essential.

2 - Gain deeper insights into the company's ability to pay

If you want to take an in-depth look at a company's financial transactions before coming into business with them, buying a business credit report is necessary. 

All you need to get a business credit report for multiple operational firms is to get in touch with a prominent business credit report seller in the US.

Remember, a simple credit check about your prospects can help you understand if a customer can pay for the products or services you offer in a limited time or not. 

It will not just save your time and resources following up with late payments but provide total peace of mind as well.

3 - Check if they were bankrupt some time ago

Do you know that business credit reports contain details about bankruptcy as well? Yes, you might not know this, but a company's credit report shows if they have past legal notices or whether their directors were part of the bankruptcy. 

Thus, it can prevent you from working with a company that could expose your organization to high risk.

4 - Monitor suppliers you work with

Do you count on a bunch of well-known suppliers to run your business? If you do, it would be beneficial for you to access their credit report. 

Knowing their financial status will help you anticipate if they can help you maintain your cash flow properly and make crucial business decisions down the line.

5 - Reduce the need to hire collection agencies

Staying abreast of the financial situation of your prospective clients helps you minimize the chances of collaborating with debt collection agencies to extract your money. 

Hence, it will reduce your unnecessary expenses in the future if you get business credit reports on other companies in the initial phases.

6 - Keep an eye on your competitors

Do you want to remain updated with the critical financial activities of your rivals? Then, getting credit reports of your competitors will be a wise decision. It will let you know detailed information about their business development and financial position at present. 

Besides all this, you can also see if there are any legal filings against them and will their business survive in the next two to four years.

What's more, when you have so much information at your disposal about your opponents, you can create and implement strategies to be ahead of them and maintain the top position of your company in the market. 

Who knows, they are already paying attention to your financial health by getting your business's credit report from renowned credit reporting companies.

Summing-up

Now that you know how to deal with delayed payments in your business, it's time to call a well-established business credit report seller and ask them to provide their services. 

Once you are part of their customer base, you can avoid numerous risks that you may come across down the road.

Why Merchants are Using Chargeback Management Outsourcing Solutions to Effectively Avoid Chargeback Fraud

Chargebacks have massively negative impacts on the businesses of online merchants. Chargeback fraud affects their business reputation, threatens their relationship with banks (ability to accept payments from credit cards), and costs them a lot of unnecessary chargeback fees. There are three main types of chargeback fraud –

• Card Not Present Fraud - Transactions where actual credit cards are not swiped, inserted, or tapped at terminals.
• “Friendly” Fraud - Consumers make purchases only to dispute the charges later.
• Account Takeover Fraud - Cybercriminals steal/hack consumers’ payment information to use them to make fraudulent purchases and chargeback attempts.

Merchants don’t just lose the item they sell to these fraudsters or the money they refund – the exasperating truth is that each fraudulent chargeback attempt costs online businesses a lot more in hidden fees. 

Merchants who fall victim to chargeback frauds also have to deal with -

• Extra transaction fees (typically 4-5% of the transaction amount)
• Unnecessary operational costs to deliver the products to the fraudster; costs like packing, shipping, delivery, etc., make up 15-20% of a merchant’s revenue. All these costs are unnecessarily lost because of chargeback frauds.
• Marketing and lead generation expenses go to waste every time a sale results in a chargeback.

Chargeback fraud costs online businesses way more than they’re aware of. Add indirect costs like customers leaving negative reviews or customers deciding not to do business with your online store because of the security risks to the mix, and you have a huge problem.




These problems only seem to keep growing. One report claims chargeback fraud attempts increase by 20% every year, costing online merchants billions in lost revenues. 

Why are chargeback frauds on the rise? Some factors that contributed to this unprecedented growth in chargeback fraud include -

• Technological Sophistication - Since technologies have advanced, customers have found more innovative ways to defraud online merchants. Merchants may look back at previous attacks and prepare their online platforms for those types of attacks. But, identifying new types of friendly fraud chargebacks or account takeover attempts is very difficult for them.
• Online Banking – Online banking has made it easier for customers to file chargebacks as their phones have easy-to-access mobile banking apps. Technically, just by pressing a few buttons, fraudsters can make false claims and repeatedly commit chargeback frauds against various merchants. Unprepared merchants who can’t come up with evidence to disprove such claims made by fraudsters often end up being punished by the banks.
• The Pandemic – According to some estimates, payment card fraud in 2020 cost online merchants in the U.S. $11 billion. Merchants who had to let go of their customer service teams suffered the most.

It’s clear that online merchants need help to address this ever-growing threat of chargeback fraud. Unfortunately, many online businesses assume that their chargeback rates aren’t good enough because their services aren’t good enough. 

Many merchants even misjudge their win-loss ratios because they don’t have the time/resources to track data regarding their chargeback courses from their payment processors.

These inefficiencies lead to exceptionally overestimated win rates. Fake data like that can compel any online business owner to keep their chargeback disputes in-house. 

Thankfully, many online business owners have woken up to the fact that their in-house chargeback management teams aren’t experienced or skilled enough to tackle the odd circumstances they find themselves in.

No one expected the pandemic to drive online sales and subsequently increase the number of chargeback fraud attempts. That’s why many top online merchants are opting for chargeback management outsourcing solutions. These chargeback pros offer –

• Full-Time Dedication – The only job of a trained chargeback management team is to stay on top of the most recent fraud methods and techniques. They focus solely on safeguarding their clients’ businesses. In-house teams that manage online eCommerce platforms can focus on other responsibilities— not fraud prevention.
• Standard Operating Procedures – SOPs in chargeback management companies, are tried and tested fraud-prevention techniques. Online businesses can spend years establish their own in-house SOPs. Or, they can avoid those costs and have their third-party chargeback pros immediately get to work on protecting their businesses against chargeback frauds.
• Cooperation – Online businesses that already have well-jelled in-house fraud prevention teams can benefit even more from getting an outsourced managed services solution. The offshore and in-house fraud management departments can collaborate to make online platforms impervious to chargeback fraud attempts.
• Relevant Skills – Experienced chargeback pros are familiar with the best and the latest practices for fighting new types of chargeback fraud techniques in the market. From tracking each suspicious customer to constantly monitoring chargeback dispute processes – these experts use highly customized tools to make sure chargebacks don’t drain their clients’ finances.
• Insights - Chargeback pros give their clients insights into why and how chargebacks are occurring on their platforms. Based on this data, online businesses can craft customized strategies that work specifically against the types of risks their platforms face.

Having a multilayered fraud protection strategy is vital for online businesses looking to provide seamless online ordering experiences for their customers. Partnering with providers of managed services solutions can help them achieve these objectives.

Four Factors Impacting Business Credit Reports

Three of the largest and most widely known business credit agencies in the US are Experion, Equifax, and DNB. A business credit report agency is able to prepare a high level analysis of how well a company will be able to pay its bills, and this is available after seeing scores from the credit agencies. 

Different business aspects can be combined into a single report and this is very important for every business in the US.

Parts of a Business Credit Report

The following information is provided by every leading business credit report agency:

1. Risk Dashboard - It consists of repayment risk, credit limit recommendations, derogatory legal filings, and fraud alerts to show the level of risk in the business
2. Identity of Business - This is established through information such as an address, name, tax ID#, website, DBA’s, and more
3. Description of Business - It shows the history of a business, its date of incorporation, stock exchange information, number of employees, and other data. It may also indicate company size under the same heading.
4. Summary of Legal Filings and Payments - It shows creditor balances, bankruptcies, liens, days beyond terms, and other information on the same lines

The tasks that need to be done by business credit report agencies are very different from those with respect to personal credit scores. These are highly specialized tasks and require elaborate experience.

How Are Business Credit Scores Helpful?

These scores are helpful for a business that can use reports of other potential clients to know their financial positions. It helps understand the risk appetite of a new client and know how beneficial long-term business here will be. 

Businesses can avoid working with other clients who have payment default histories. Future risk can also be averted through score summaries.

Most businesses require loans either for setting up or expansion. Interest rates on business loans as well as the terms of repayment are assessed on the basis of business credit scores. 

Therefore, companies can make future plans on the basis of these accurate reports and summaries. The best agencies do not just provide services but also educate B2B customers about maintaining good business credit scores.

Top Factors Which Have an Impact on Business Credit

Any entrepreneur who wants to establish a company without giving away equity would require funding. To keep the business vision in check, 100% ownership is often necessary. 

A solid credit score will always make lenders more comfortable with the entrepreneur’s financial behavior in the present and future. Here are the most important factors that impact business credit and have the potential to make or break a company:

1. Accounts and Financials - Every entrepreneur must employ professional bookkeepers for accurate financial records. Lenders will want to see important documents such as YTD P&L statements, YTD balance sheets, and sometimes YTD cash flow statements as well. Without proper records, entrepreneurs can forget about getting the funding they need.

2. UCC Filings - This is one topic about which every entrepreneur should ask the lender. UCC or Universal Commercial Code is a legal notice that a lender files with the Secretary of State for security interest against one of the entrepreneur’s assets. A blanket UCC filing will ensure that should the entrepreneur default, the lender will get access to all the involved assets. This also means that risk in such a business is higher than normal.

3. Business Structure - It is very important to register a business with the Secretary of State whether it is or will be operating soon. If the business has not been incorporated, it means that money for a service or product is being collected under an individual name or registration for sole proprietorship has been done. Lenders will generally not be comfortable giving loans to sole proprietors. 

4. Importance of Payment History - There is no doubt that payment history does affect a personal credit score, but it may also impact the score calculated from a business credit profile. All invoices must be paid early to build this score. Entrepreneurs would also be benefited if they assign contracts with vendors reporting to D&B and Experion.

Although the above are critical factors for business credit, there are others as well. It is important for a proprietor to know about this as the journey to entrepreneurship is begun. Ideas are invariably good, but these will not see the light of day unless they are funded properly.

How to Rectify an Existing Default?

All is not lost after an entrepreneur default on a business-related EMI. Taking a short-term loan too may appear counter-productive, but it is actually useful. 

Paying the new loan on time shows the credit bureau that the entrepreneur is fully capable of clearing debts and handling credit responsibly. 

Therefore, a business credit score that may have fallen back can get the much needed boost to recover. However, all older loans must have been fully paid off to implement this tip.

4 Things You Need To Get Prepared Before You Launch Your Business

When you retire from your 9 to 5 job, you might find new business ideas come to you far more easily. Plenty of people start new businesses after they retire. 

Whether you are starting a new business to bring in a bit of extra cash, pursue a lifelong passion, or realize a great idea, there are many important things to sort out before you launch.

Of course, there are all sorts of things to prepare that are unique to individual business fields. This article, however, is focused on some rather general tips that apply to almost any small business.

Make Sure That Your Business Is Legally Registered

Every country has its own laws regarding registering businesses for tax purposes, and you need to be ahead of this before you even think about launching your own business. 

If you are in the US, the law likely even varies from state to state, as well as nationally. You should keep yourself up to date with any changes in regulations that might affect the status of your business in the future.

Build A Great Website

Having a great presence on the internet is invaluable. The internet is one of the primary ways a business can find new collaborators, clients, and bring in customers. 

A good business website is almost invariably a simple one. Simplicity keeps the user experience smooth and ensures that people surfing on mobile devices don’t see a confusing jumble of images and words. 

Make sure your website is in keeping with your brand identity and ensure that visitors are offered easy ways to contact you or make purchases. 

Hiring some professionals to design your website can save time and make sure that your space on the internet is top-notch. ALT Agency is based in Birmingham, West Midlands, and is a great choice if you want to get a website designed.

Know Your Market

Market research should be part of any good business plan. Knowing your market and your target audience can help you develop strategy, design products, and build marketing campaigns. 

Market research can take many forms. A hybrid approach is usually considered the most comprehensive. This involves seeking in-person qualitative feedback such as can be gained through focus groups and quantitative research that can be gleaned from data. 

Depending on the size of your business, you might need to hire some specialist help to plan out your market research strategy.

Plan For The Future

No matter what size your prospective business is, you are going to need to map out a long-term strategy. If you want to prepare a sound business strategy, comprehensive research is key. 

Modern business strategizing is very data reliant. The huge quantity of data produced by people online has proven to be incredibly useful to business people looking to map out projections. 

Projections are essentially evidence-based predictions of how a market might change in the future. These can be used to plan sound strategies.

Get a business credit report online and keep your standard high

Lenders, investors, and even potential business partners may use business credit reports to determine how safe the company they are dealing with, is. However, unlike personal credit reports, business credit reports are not legally required. 

A business credit score is a measurement of the company's creditworthiness. Lenders and creditors use your credit score to determine if you are eligible for financing. 

Usually, business credit scores range from 0-100. You're already aware of the value of personal financial management as a small business owner. You already know that having Transunion business credit report online is essential for getting a home loan, a personal or car loan, or even a personal credit card. 

Having said that, many business owners are unaware that the same credit monitoring and reporting system is available to them as well.

What is a credit score for a business?

Let's start at the beginning: what is the concept of a business credit score?

In fact, just as your personal credit score is a numerical assessment of your creditworthiness as an individual, your business credit score is a numerical assessment of your and your company's creditworthiness. 

As a result, just as creditors and lenders use your personal credit score to decide whether or not to accept your home mortgage, credit card, or another form of personal financing, your Transunion business credit report online is used by lenders to assess you when you apply for a loan, insurance policy, or another sort of business financing.

What factors go into determining your business's credit score?

Let's talk about how business credit works and how business credit report is measured now that we know what a business credit score is and why it's relevant. As previously mentioned, your EIN is linked to your business credit, and your business credit is dependent on how you handle your company's finances, just as personal credit is.

After you start your company, you'll build business credit based on financial activities such as how efficiently you pay invoices on time, how you control your cash flow, how you keep track of your business bank account, and, of course, how you handle credit items like business lines of credit, credit cards, and loans. 

In essence, your company's financial operations and background are reflected in your business credit history, which influences your business credit score.

Though the method for calculating and reporting a personal credit score is fairly common, calculating and reporting a business credit score has a lot more variety. 

As previously stated, your business credit score will typically fall between 1 and 100, although the factors used to arrive at this numerical assessment will vary greatly depending on the credit bureau.

5 things that affect the business credit score

Despite the lack of consistency among the various business credit reporting agencies, you should expect these five variables to affect your business credit score, at least to some degree, regardless of which agency is involved:

1. Time in business

Because of a lack of credit, the business credit score would be lower when it is brand new. This will become less of an issue after the company has been in service for two years, at which point banks will be more likely to finance them with business loans.

2. History of payments

The single most important factor affecting your business credit score is your consistency in paying bills on time, every time. Even a single late payment can have a significant impact on your potential access to capital, so you'll want to make sure you set up a system to keep track of payments from the start.

3. “Credit mix”

You can create credit in several ways, including using a business credit card, taking out loans, and creating trade lines, as we briefly described. On the other hand, future lenders want to know that you can handle your finances properly in any borrowing situation. 

As a result, your business credit score is influenced by your "credit mix"—you can improve your credit score in this category by taking out different types of credit and handling them properly.

4. Credit utilization ratio

Reporting agencies want to see if you're managing your business credit responsibly, which means making frequent payments and not depending too heavily on the credit you've been given. 

Credit bureaus can measure your credit utilization ratio when calculating your business credit score; for better performance, keep your credit utilization at about 25% of the total amount you've been extended.

5. Mistakes on your business credit report

Unfortunately, the business credit reporting process is not flawless, and reporting errors occur more often than you would expect. As a result, debt or loan defaults can be misattributed to your business credit report, significantly lowering your business credit score. 

To prevent these problems, keep an eye on your credit reports regularly and seek corrections for any errors you notice in writing.

If you use Transunion business credit report online, you can save money and avoid the possibility of bad loans and the difficulty of finding new customers when someone unexpectedly goes bankrupt. 

A professional service will help the company grow, reduce costs, and avoid the negative consequences of a poor business decision.