Business Debt Settlement - The Nitty-Gritty You Cannot Afford To Miss

If you are facing difficulties repaying individuals and organizations whom you owe money as an entrepreneur of a small business establishment, then debt settlement can turn out to be a viable solution for you. 

It refers to a process where you sit across the table with your lenders to negotiate reconsidering the existing terms of your outstanding contractual liabilities with them. 

During the discussions, you ask them whether they can accept the lump-sum repayment of a certain percentage of your debts that they consider as severely delinquent and write off the rest. 

This can go a long way in maintaining your creditworthiness in the marketplace as a reliable businessperson.

When you consistently fail to make timely repayments on your contractual obligations, your creditors may be willing to be lenient on you. 

Being businesspeople themselves, they are usually ready to accept an agreement that allows you to make a one-time lump-sum payment for the entire amount of money you owe them. 

This is because they are aware that in the worst-case scenario, they may not receive any form of payment at all if you can apply for bankruptcy. You should note such negotiations usually are never easy for any entrepreneur in your situation. 

However, such lenders hold the view that receiving a payment of 80% of the total amount of money you owe them and writing off the remainder is a viable option. 

Unfortunately, such creditors will not negotiate such terms if you make timely payments on the amounts you owe them.

What happens when you hire a debt settlement company?

You can opt to hire the services of a company that specializes in debt settlement to carry out the discussions with your creditors on your behalf. 

 You need to pay a reasonable sum of money to them to arrive at an agreement, which is acceptable to you and your lenders. The officials of such a corporate enterprise tell you to stop making repayments to your creditors and start depositing this money into an escrow account they set up for this purpose. 

They use the sum of money that accumulates in this account to make the one-time payment to your lenders for the outstanding debts you owe them.

In the initial stages, which may spread over a period of several months, you may notice that most of the money you pay to this organization is towards fees. This amount could exceed a total of a thousand dollars before money starts to accumulate in the separate account to repay your creditors. 

You need to remember that the outstanding amount you owe your lenders also grows as they begin to charge interest and penalties for late payments. If the situation further deteriorates, your lenders may even consider taking you to court for failing to repay your contractual obligations to them on time. 

This can also hurt your creditworthiness and reputation in the marketplace. Even if you do reach a settlement with your creditor, you have to pay taxes to the internal revenue service(IRS) on the amount of your debt they write-off.

When you opt to go down this road, you need to provide the business debt settlement company with the name of all creditors and the outstanding sums of money you owe them. 

The officials of this corporate enterprise then give an approximate estimate of the monthly installments you have to make to them at a lower rate of interest. As soon as the amount accumulates to a reasonable sum, which usually after paying the fifth installment, they contact your creditors to begin negotiations.

This is for reaching an agreement on the lump sum payment you have to make towards your outstanding debts to such lenders and the percentage they are willing to write-off.

Debt consolidation loans

Most companies specializing in this field of business usually advise you to opt for a debt consolidation loan. Under this scheme, you may combine all your many contractual obligations of creditors that are outstanding till date into one single loan. 

This debt allows you to make a single monthly installment payment rather than many. In addition to this, it carries a lower rate of interest than the previous ones. Banks, various credit unions, and similar financial organizations offer their customers this mode of debt settlement. Its advantages of this form of debt settlement are as follows:

1. Single payment

Under a debt consolidation loan, you convert all your many outstanding contractual obligations into one. You also make a single monthly installment payment for such a debt. This relieves you of the tension of having to remember of deadlines for making loan payments.

2. Lower rates of interest

Such loans carry a lower rate of interest than other forms of debt settlement options. This implies that you can save a considerable amount of money on interest payments. This is beneficial for entrepreneurs who have trouble repaying their business credit card dues and other contractual obligations on time.

3. Put an end to collection calls

When you have some outstanding dues that you owe to your suppliers, you usually fall behind in making timely repayments. If this trend continues over an extended period, your creditors have no option but to hire the services of a reliable collection agency. 

Once this happens, you start receiving phones from the officials of such organization asking you to make your payments on time. However, you can put an end to such harassment by opting to combine all your minor contractual obligations into a single debt consolidation loan.

4. Credit scores

If you are not repaying the monthly installments on your debts on time, it can adversely affect your creditworthiness. This can give you a bad reputation in the marketplace. However, if you decide to opt for a debt consolidation loan, you only have to make one timely monthly installment payment, which boosts your creditworthiness.

Settlement options like debt consolidation loans can go a long way in saving your business from bankruptcy as the above advantages go to show. Moreover, you will also be improving your relations with your creditors in the long-run.

Author Bio: Karen is a Business Tech Analyst. She is very responsible towards her job. She loves to share her knowledge and experience with her friends and colleagues.

How Teens Can Organize Their Finances for Essential Expenses

Teens who learn to manage their money will reap the benefits of financial stability, goal attainment, and monetary self-control. There are many life skills to teach a youth, but financial responsibility is one of those skills that needs to be taught, not only by academic knowledge, but by example.

Create a Budget

No matter how much money a teen has to spend, a clear understanding of what their expenses are is necessary. A written budget is a great tool to use for itemizing necessary and discretionary expenditures. 

When this information is in written form, there is more awareness of which expenses are truly valid and which are too extravagant for a teen’s budget. The method used to prepare a budget can be computerized, as a basic spreadsheet, or in a more simplistic way, as a handwritten list.

Shop Wisely

If a teen looks hard enough, there are usually lower prices for the products and services that a teenager spends their money on. Brand loyalty can be sabotaging to a limited income so buying less advertised, and less popular items becomes a better way to stay within their budget. 

Comparative shopping may take a little extra time, but a wise consumer, even a less seasoned one, should not want to squander their money. This can be one of their first lessons in developing an eye for quality and fair pricing.

Buy an Automobile

When a teenager purchases a car, this is one of their first steps toward independence, and learning the value of setting financial goals. 

Teaching a teen to save money for a car is a lesson that requires emphasis of patience, perseverance, and accomplishment. A teen’s budget that includes provision for saving, will be the starting point for buying a car. 

Some companies, such as Bay Ridge Nissan, know that setting a monetary goal like this is crucial. When the lesson of spending less, and saving more becomes a habit, a teen will begin to master the skill of reaching important goals in their life.

Document Spending

A budget is not effective if there are no records to show spending transactions. Again, a valuable lesson for teens is to be disciplined enough to keep a money log. This written account of their expenditures will be a wake-up call to them if they are being careless with their funds.

Teenagers will grow up to be fiscally responsible adults if they receive early guidance about saving and spending money. Our society will prosper if our younger citizens accept their financial obligations, and create monetary stability for themselves and their future families.

4 Mistakes to Avoid While Web Designing for Your Financial Services Business

You need to think about responsive web design when it comes to your financial services business. While thinking in terms of website design ideas for your financial services website, you must consider your brand and all precise and unique website requirements for your business.

When potential clients would be hunting for a finance company to manage their finances, obviously, they would be expecting the company to be reputable, reliable, organized, innovative, and definitely, hardcore professional.

When all these characteristics are added together and translated into your web design, it would generally lead to a complete clean edge, orderly appearance, bright and colorful. 

You need to be alert while designing the website for your finance business and avoid some of the usual mistakes. Here are some common web design mistakes people tend to make all the time.

Mistake No.1: Not Designing to Cater to Your Buyer Personas

Before you consider designing your finance company’s website and creating appropriate content for your business website, you must get a clear picture and understand clearly about your buyer personas. 

If you are simply designing your website in whatever way you want without paying attention to the customers, you would soon be ending up with a website that is not capable of generating leads for your finance business. 

To avoid this mistake, it is better to read and understand thoroughly the important buyer information which is relevant to the project.

Mistake No. 2: Not Making Your Financial Services Website Mobile Responsive

The need of the hour is mobile responsiveness, as far as, the website designs are concerned. Your business is involved in debt financing. 

You give loans to your clients at a fixed interest rate to repay their outstanding balances and with a previously determined maturity date. You must understand the consequences if your site is not mobile responsive. 

48 percent of the people believe that if a website was not mobile responsive enough and not working effectively on their smartphones, it was a clear indication that the company did not really care about their clients. 

Your business simply cannot make any progress without a mobile responsive business site.

You may consult a professional web design company and seek their assistance in providing you effective web design solutions so that your business website becomes relatively more user-friendly, intuitive, and mobile responsive.

Mistake No.3: Busy Navigation

The navigation bar would be guiding visitors to your content existing on your business website. 

If navigation is not easy and convenient for people to find the exact information they are looking for, then you need to do some work to spruce up your navigation. The greatest flaw in web designing is disorganized content on your site. 

You must organize your content. There should be only five or even fewer classifications in your navigation. Do not have too many pages as that would make your site look unnecessarily busy.

Mistake No.4: Missing Calls-To-Action

Your website must include a strong call-to-action. You must convey clearly what are your services and tell them how to avail your professional services or see some more information. 

Include your address and phone number and ask visitors to contact you or include a form and ask visitors to fill it up.

Conclusion

As you are thinking in terms of building a new and robust website for financial business, remember that all the rules are flexible and they could be altered slightly but that has to be done not ignorantly but intentionally. 

While marketing your company as a financial services organization, you must focus on portraying the company as reliable and trustworthy. Do not try to be too playful or personal as that could transmit a wrong message and people may think that you are not serious. Keep the above mistakes in mind and stay away from them if you wish to succeed in your financial venture.

5 Essential Finance Tips Every Small Business Should Follow

Most startups and small businesses are looking for ways to manage their finances more effectively. Success in the early stages takes both operating capital and controlling costs to allow profitability. 

This can seem like a delicate juggling act, but there are some financial strategies that small business owners can use to support growth.

Think Lean

Lean practices consist of limiting your spending and reducing waste of all kinds. Don’t indulge yourself with a big, fancy office if the money is better spent elsewhere. Look for lower-cost alternatives in everything, such as office furniture, electronics, equipment, supply chains, and so on. 

Don’t spend based on anticipated growth that isn’t guaranteed. And always, in every aspect of your business, look for ways to eliminate wasted time, effort, and materials.

Use Capital

While it’s a good idea to save up as much operating capital as possible, don’t be afraid to spend it on good opportunities, including building your credit. Work on building it by borrowing and using some capital to cover interest payments. 



If you have enough credit, acquisition of other startups can be a fast path to growth. Outside investments, such as real estate or bonds, may support positive cash flow over time.

Realistic Budgets

You have to balance your budget so that you’re left with useable net income every month, not just covering the bills. Identify a suitable gross profit margin for your industry and try to stick to it. 

Your budget should include normal business expenses, current payroll, utilities, and certain amounts to be set aside for marketing, emergency funds, and business investment. The budget has to be adjusted constantly to allow for a changing business environment.

Delay Hiring Help

Payroll is often one of the highest expenses for any company. For every new employee, you have to think about things like raises, benefits, workman’s comp insurance, and other issues. Hiring additional help should be the last resort. 

Instead, it might be cheaper over the long run to look at alternatives such as additional training, reorganization, better tools and technologies, or establishing a company culture of collaboration and mutual support.

Aggregate Spend

This is a process for the healthcare industry used to aggregate and monitor spending by manufacturers on individual doctors or caregiver associations to avoid inappropriate influencing. 

This includes products from related industries like pharmaceutical and biotech companies. You might face a penalty of $10,000 per violation. Providing gifts, bonuses, and other benefits must be transparent through mandatory documentation and reporting. 

This can be streamlined with tools designed to simplify aggregate spend compliance, such as those like Porzio AggregateSpendID®.

Managing finances takes a system of tracking and controls, as well as discipline. You should develop a smart financial plan and stick to it, while making adjustments as needed.

Managing Your Healthcare Costs During Retirement

For many Americans, especially those suffering from chronic illness, healthcare ends up being the most expensive part of your budget. For retirees, or those who are looking to retire soon, there is a lot of anxiety over unexpected health issues that could bring a large financial burden with them. 

It is worth your time to manage your healthcare budget carefully, so you know what to expect, and are prepared when sudden or unexpected costs arise.

Medicare

Let’s talk about Medicare first. The biggest misconception people have with Medicare, is that once you qualify for it, your healthcare costs disappear. It is certainly portrayed that way in the Media at times, but in fact Medicare does not cover everything. 

The average couple will still end up paying over $200,000 in health care costs from the age of 65 on, including the Medicare premiums. What Medicare is good for is covering the basics. It is similar to buying an economy class seat on an airplane. 

You will get where you need to go, but the first-class lounge seems a lot comfier. Things Medicare will not cover include routine dental work, cataract surgery, newer drug treatments, state-of-the-art medical care, or more personalized medical care. 

The cost for specialized drugs can be expensive as well, even with Medicare covering most of the tab. Many cancer drugs, and other drugs necessary for multiple-sclerosis can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.

You can still choose to keep a private insurance along with your Medicare, to help mitigate some of the costs, but there is simply no denying that healthcare is expensive. Even a couple who has Medicare and private insurance can expect to pay upwards of $20,000 a year from the age of 65 on.

How Do You Pay for It?

One way to prepare for the costs of healthcare after retirement is to open a health savings account or HSA. HSAs are a great way to save money that will be used for medical expenses thanks to a triple-tax free feature. 

As long as the money is used for medical expenses, a person who owns a HSA can add money to his account tax free, grow the money tax free, and withdraw the money tax free. 

There are yearly maxes you can contribute to the account – $3,400 for a single person, $6,750 for a family, and those 55 and older can add an extra $1000 per year. The sooner you start one the better, as the money can grow tax free. 

They are ideal ways to confront sudden and unexpected medical expenses, such as a loved one getting injured in a car wreck, or a new illness. The caveat with HSAs is that they usually are paired with a high deductible, so your yearly healthcare costs can remain quite high. Ideally those costs are paid with funds outside of the HSA, so the money inside of it can continue to grow.

Find Low Price Options

Many health care experts recommend searching out low price options for treatments. You can find similar treatments for wildly different price points. For example, an MRI in a hospital can cost you up to $3000 while the same service would cost $300 at a standalone clinic. 

Participating in trial cases is another way to save money. Drug companies are always looking for clinical trials to test their new products, and you can get potentially effective treatment and drugs for a fraction of what you would pay otherwise.

Your overall health is as much a factor in your healthcare costs as any chronic illness. Eating healthy, and getting regular exercise will keep you away from the doctor more than any miracle drug. 

Mental stimulation is also an important part of your health, as consistent mental exercise prevents dementia which is one of the biggest costs in long-term care. A lack of social inclusion, or deteriorating mental and emotional health can contribute to higher levels of stress and anxiety. 

This only serves to complicate and worsen already existing medical issues. Making sure you are taking care of yourself mentally and physically, even as you age, will give you the best chance at avoiding an outrageous hospital bill.

Wrap Up

Planning for healthcare costs during your retirement is the most glamorous task around, but it is necessary. Costs continue to go up and it doesn’t seem like Congress is going to find a solution anytime soon. Still, if you plan ahead of time you should have no problems meeting the costs of healthcare during retirement.

How to Handle and What to Expect with Social Security Disability

If you’ve had an accident that leads to disability and can no longer work, applying for disability may be something you’re considering. Social security disability is granted to people of all ages. 

Much of it depends on what type of disability they have, how this affects their ability to work, and what their situation is. The process is sometimes difficult to understand. If you depend on social security as soon as you apply for it, you’re in for a long wait. 

Social security disability is granted after the sixth month of disability, so there is a minimum wait to have your claim processed. If you believe this is the correct option for your situation, here is what to be aware of, and how to proceed in filing your claim.

Only Certain Types of Disability Is Eligible

Before you apply, be aware of what disability is accepted. You won’t’ qualify for disability if you have:

• Short term disability
• Partial disability
• You must be younger than retirement age

Although you’re unable to work, many individuals report their disability taking a lot of time to go through. Some only wait six months, while others wait years. 



Many seek an attorney to help them, because getting disability granted is not easy, even in cases where it is legitimately needed, and the individual doesn’t have other options for income. 

If you have Social Security disability issues, seek the help of an attorney who is knowledgeable with disability, and will help you win your claim.

What Information You Will Need

If you seek the services of a professional, help them as much as possible to prepare for the case. When going before applying, disability requires consideration of various factors. Give them all the information they need. This will include facts such as:

• Information from your doctors about your disability
• How your disability is preventing you from working
• How long you’ve had the disability for
• If your disability will last for a long time

You need to have worked a minimum number of years depending on your age. Individuals who are 34 must have worked at least three years in their life. If you are a certain age and haven’t worked the years required, you don’t qualify for disability. 

You must show that you cannot do the same type of work you were previously engaged in. If you cleaned houses for a living and are now disabled from the neck down, there is a high likelihood that your attorney has a successful case for you. 

If your problem is minor and you can still work, but suffer pain as you do so, building you case becomes increasingly difficult. Make sure you are transparent and have documentation that makes your case stronger.

Cut Back on Your Lifestyle to Prepare for Disability

Being disabled and unable to work means you’ll need to cut back as much as possible. Even if you have a spouse or another party who is helping you provide for yourself, cutting back and saving money benefits you in the long run. 

Consider getting rid of items you no longer need by having a garage sale. Cut back on dining out, buying expensive clothes, and having luxuries that are nice, but not needed, such as cable TV. 

 If you have difficulty in buying food, heating your home, or other matters, seek government aid, at least until your disability comes in. While this creates some difficulty and additional work as you apply for various assistance programs, it keeps your head above water in the meantime.

Focus on What Is Important

While you are applying and waiting for a verdict on disability, it’s easy to become discouraged and fall victim to depression. Make time to visit with family, spend time with friends, and even go to church or a house of worship. 

Feel uplifted by the positive feelings of others, and learn to appreciate yourself for the valuable and wonderful person you are. Many folks become downtrodden because they feel worthless if they are not working. 

Try to do little activities that keep your mind busy, but don’t interfere with your health. Reading, gardening, and even some volunteering that works for your situation can be a bonus to your life.

When you apply for disability, keep in mind the guidelines that are required by the federal government. Work with your attorney and give them as much documentation as they need to make your case stronger. 

Although getting disability takes time, once you have it, it will provide much-needed financial relief to your family.