Student car loans have some distinct advantages.

The student car loan helps out students financially (they save time and money on public transport). The loan contributes to the student’s credit history – every payment made by the student gets reported to the credit rating agencies and adds up to the students credit rating positively.

With student car loan the students have to make no capital payments in the beginning to the loan lending agencies. Even if the student has a bad credit history, the loan agency has the car as a security to take from the defaulting student – that is why no problems to give a loan.

So student car loan is really great, but make sure you don’t forget this is a loan.

Among the list of the solutions you can think about student loan debt consolidation – in other words make all monthly payments to just one lender. This is more of a refinancing. By the way, one of the advantages is that the interest rate on the student loan debt consolidation is the weighted average of those other loans. Some student loan debt consolidations are settled at a fixed rate – this is good, as the rate does not grow up the next payment cycle.

Different student repayment plans help to handle the debt consolidation.

First of all -  the Standard Repayment Plan. A maximum of 10 years to repay, but payments are divided within that time limit at a fixed interest rate.

Extended Repayment Plan goes by stretching the time to pay off the loan to between 12 and 30 years. Again, the interest rate is fixed for that time period, and the payments are lower.

Another option is the Graduated Repayment Plan – it allows to spread your monthly student load debt consolidation payments over a period of between 12 and 30 years, but the amount of your monthly payment will increase every two years.

One more option – the Income Contingent Repayment Plan, a reasonable monthly payment amount is determined based on your annual gross income, family size, and total direct student loan debt. This student loan debt consolidation repayment plan spreads the payments over 25 years.

An alternative is a grant. But grants are tricky and you know this from other posts on this blog. Grants are BETTER, but you must prepare for them in advance, because grants can have very special rules. It is much better to be wise and prepare in advance, because you will see that grants are a more fair option is terms of robbing your pockets.

Sufficient ready capital is essential to start a business. But it is not enough to have that sufficient financing; proper knowledge and planning are necessary to manage it well.

That is why before inquiring about financing, make sure you gave yourself fair answers about the following:

1. Do you really need more capital or, perhaps, much capitals can be taken just by managing existing cash flow more effectively?

2. Do you need money to expand or as a cushion against risk?

3. How urgent is the need for money? Much better loan terms are possible when you anticipate your needs.

4. How great are the risks? The degree of risk affects the cost and the list of available financing alternatives.

5. In what state of development is the business? Needs are most critical during transitional stages.

6. For purpose of the capital being used? Any lender asks that capital is given for very specific needs.

7. What is the state of your industry? Businesses that prosper while others are in decline will often receive better funding terms.

8. Is your business seasonal or cyclical?

9. How strong is your management team? Management is one of the most important elements assessed by money sources.

10. How does your need for financing mesh with your business plan? Make writing a plan with the loaned money involved one your first priority. All capital sources will want to see your for the start-up and growth of your business.

One of the examples of microloans implementation is the SBA’s Micro-loan Program with short-term loans of up to $35,000 to small businesses and not-for-profit child-care centers for working capital or the purchase of inventory, supplies, furniture, fixtures, machinery and/or equipment. Proceeds cannot be used to pay existing debts or to purchase real estate. The SBA guarantees a loan to an intermediary who makes the micro loan to the applicant.

Specially designated intermediary lenders (nonprofit organizations with experience in lending and in technical assistance) lend you the money and make the microloan program work in real life.

The Microloan Program provides very small loans to start-up, newly established, or growing small business concerns. SBA makes funds available to nonprofit community based lenders and they make the loans available to eligible borrowers in amounts up to a maximum of $35,000. Applications are to be submitted to the local intermediary, as well as all credit decisions are made on the local level.

The maximum microloan terms is six years, but loan terms vary according to the size of the loan, the planned use of funds, the requirements of the intermediary lender, and the needs of the small business borrower. The interest rates vary, but as a rule they are between 8% and 13%.

Business owners who send an application for a microloan should be aware that microloan intermediaries generally require some type of collateral, and the personal guarantee of the business owner. Individuals and small businesses may also be required to fulfill training and/or planning requirements before a loan application is considered.

Small businesses that are interested in applying for a microloan should contact a microlender in their area. The following link contains a state-by-state list of all SBA participating Microlending Intermediaries and their ares of operation. You can find a micro loan lender in your state by Googling your state + “microloan”.

Moreover, receivables from card purchases will enable business owners to apply for business cash loans. In case the business is unstable, the company may still qualify for a steep loan.

One of the drawbacks of some businesses is that few of them have to transfer cash from one bank account into another one, thus, resulting in operational delays which generally lead to banking overdrafts that can cost more than the fees on payday loans. However, business payday loans differ from common cash advances. Another disadvantage of business loans is that they can cause a lot of troubles when acquired through banking institutes. Therefore, some businesses prefer cash advance loans, since the cash is delivered faster, especially if you meet the lenders qualifications.

Business fast cash loans are optional loans, often considered when emergencies occur.  As a rule, such loans are available for renovations, emergencies, marketing, expansions, and inventory expenses.

The repayments on advanced loans for commerce differ from company to company. Once determination is concluded and the parties agree on a loan, a portion of the receipts generated from the credit cards will be deducted often. After the balance of the receipts reaches the balance of zero on the loan, the company will cease debiting any payments electronically. Thus, this provides business owners with the option of paying on another loan.

Unlike common payday loans, commerce loans may take up to ten days for approval. The loans do not include fixed repayment measure, and there are no fixed payment schemes. The process of the loan is like many types of loans, which are computerized. Once the application is accepted, the owner will take delivery of openhanded commissions which are centered on interest fixed.

Afterwards, several business lenders may offer purchase by taking receipts’ interest generated from credit cards. Some companies will offer prompt acceptances, without introduction of schedule for repayments or fixed repays, guarantees on hard assets, and 250K capital towards the business owned.

Summary

For the most part, business loans are different from common payday loans, since higher stakes are involved, and most business loans will offer higher cash advances in payment sequels. In other words, similar to the Stock Market Exchanges, business are offered x amount of dollars, and, in exchange, business proprietors agree to provide a share of card receipts to the lenders who rarely fall short of repayment under the agreements, since the company will have access to the credit card processing system located in the business. Still risks are involved for both lender and borrower.

Therefore, if you feel a loan is needed check your options carefully before entering into an agreement that may cost your business. If you are considering a loan, contrast and compare company’s fees, loans, agreements and so on prior to concluding the agreement with a single lending company.

When decided to get a car loan, one should know that it’s needed a proper procedure. You should collect all the details regarding the loan of the car to understand what car loan suits to you.

The first thing you are supposed to do is to figure out the place where you want to get the loan from, as there are different institutions such as banks, dealers, auto manufacturers and private lenders that offer car loans.

The second thing has to be considered is whether you need a loan for buying a new car or a used one. This is an important factor since the interest rates depend on it. Generally the interest rate for new cars buying loans is lower than for used cars ones. Besides that, the term available for repaying the amount of loan for new cars are far more stretched than that for used ones, which is for sure a big advantage.

Having decided to get a car loan you should be very careful, do not believe the fake advertisements that are published and displayed now and then. Check the information given in commercials to make sure it is true. Fake loans have high down payments and immense high rates, which make them really impossible for the customers.

Assumptions:
 1 seminar weekly for 52 weeks
 1 paid local newspaper ad for each seminar
 Maximum mileage charged: 200 miles one way

Budget:

Newspaper ads: 52 ads X $8.00            $ 416.00
Mileage: 400 miles X 52 X .30                $ 6,240.00
Slide Projector: **                                      $ 300.00
Handouts: 1000 X .05                               $ 50.00
Instructional Time 208 hours X 15.00   $ 3,120.00
Misc. Costs                                                  $ 174.00
 
Total Budget:     $10,000.00

** I have already purchased this item in anticipation of using it in this project. It is not added into the budget.

The budget is pretty straightforward. You will notice I put a cap on how much mileage I would charge.

The question of time value is also discounted. In the majority of state grants, you make most of your money in mileage reimbursements.

State departments understand mileage deal with it on a daily basis.  Most of them get reimbursed for their mileage when they travel on state business. They are in their comfort zone with this strategy.

Did you notice the asterisk? Nice step – yeah?

Now go on and start on your budget. Remember to stay within the funding levels established by your state. AND to stay within their comfort zones.

Every department that awards grants has a budget they have to work within. They have to work hard to get the money from the state legislature. They have to be able to show the politicians results! So, the departments are very dollar conscious.

Some departments have certain levels of funding. The high level of value being awarded to an individual is $20,000.00. Most departments have a $5000.00 and $10,000.00 program and not anything in between. You understand that if your Project Budget comes in at $7,500.00 it doesn’t fit.

That is why do some research and see what levels the department you are planning to apply to offers. This will help you set up your budget accordingly.
 
Look around their site and see if they have a list of grants awarded in previous years. This is very instructive – you can see what has been successful in the past and how much money was awarded.

Again, try to work within their comfort zone as much as possible. The department budgets are very tight right now, so they are not very apt to take a whole lot of chances with the money they do have.

After the research on funding levels done, it’s time to start on your project budget. You need to be able to justify every dollar you ask for.

A simple example that nearly everyone messes up is this. The Federal Guidelines for travel expense is somewhere around 36 cents a mile. Most states do not use that figure. You need to see what your state figures mileage reimbursement at. For example, use Google for that.

The sample project budget in the next post shortly.

You need to list things like mileage, your time, printed materials you will need, special equipment, (like slide projectors, sound equipment, etc). Anything you would use exclusively for your project.

P.S. If you need a sound system (or anything) for your project and you already have one, put the amount you paid for the piece of equipment into your budget with an asterisk after it.  Then write that you have already purchased this item. It shows your commitment to the project! Always helps the approval process.

After some personal research, I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of crafters in our state are very talented and passionate artists. However, they are usually not so talented when it comes to business practices.

I propose to remedy that situation by offering my considerable business knowledge to crafters throughout the state. I will accomplish this by holding free seminars for crafters where we would go into detail about all of the following topics:

 A simple bookkeeping system
 Are you making money on that item?
 Best business practices
 Business rules and regulations
 How to market effectively
 Do I need to be on the Internet?

There are 14 more topics included in the course outline I have included with this application.

I am certain that, with some simple fine-tuning, our crafter community in this state would be more vibrant, more profitable and perhaps be able to create more job opportunities as they grow.

I propose to offer this service free of charge to all crafters in our state. 

In my proposed budget, I have figured 1 seminar a weekend for 52 weeks. The amount I am requesting reflects my minimal travel expenses and 4 actual hours of instructional time plus the cost of paper handouts given to the seminar attendees.

My project also entails follow-up with these crafters by phone, mail and email to reinforce the lessons and to track the program’s effectiveness.

A project end report will record all of this data in order to monitor and record our success as well as tweak the program to make it more effective in following years.

After a reasonable amount of grant-supported seminars, the program would have a track record of successes and could start to charge a small fee from each crafter attending the seminars. This would lead to the program being self-sufficient in future years.

In summary, this would have a positive affect on our crafter community by allowing them to be more organized, more legally compliant and, most importantly, more profitable.

I have included a course outline as well as a videotape of me actually holding a seminar for crafters in my county.

I urge you to approve this grant.  It will make a huge difference to the crafters of our state.

You didn’t try to explain the whole project. Just the highlights. Said enough to get them to read the rest of the application.

That’s an important point. Let the application work as a whole; don’t try to make the different parts of it sell the whole thing.

The Project Summary is just that, a summary. Use it to spark interest. Interest enough to read the whole application. The people who screen these applications see them all day.

You should also notice that I referenced the additional items I included with the application…the course outline and a videotape. This gets across the fact that these are an important part of the application and should be taken into account.

So, your first project is to write your Project Summary.  Get enthusiastic, get positive and get it done!

There are a few things common to every grant application. The grant you apply for will probably have a few more requirements. First, let’s go over the basics.

Before you even start on the paperwork, you have to do some work yourself. Before the lady (the Mary Todd Lincoln example) even applied for the grant, she studied up on Mary Todd Lincoln and wrote an outline of what her presentation would cover. Started practicing her presentation and taped it each time. Found the costume she would be wearing during the presentation. Videotaped herself actually doing the complete presentation in costume.

She had this ready BEFORE she even touched an application form.

Surely the lady is just an example. Whatever you have decided to pursue as a grant project, do the work upfront.

Have a finished product before you apply. You’ll see that every grant requires, at the very least, a detailed explanation of your proposed project. Many want a sample of it, so Mary Todd Lincoln’s video was definitely a winner.
 
Don’t make the mistake of just filling out the application. It will be obvious to the people who review the applications. Do the work upfront!

After you have your project designed and ready, go get the application form from the department you are going to be working with in your state.  Most states have the forms online so that you can just download it and print it out. Download it now and print yourself about 5 copies. Read over it and understand it. 

Some of the forms will ask for your project summary on the form itself. It is usually very important to keep these summaries brief and to the point. If the form asks you for more detail or gives you an option for additional sheets, write out a detailed project summary similar to the example I’ve placed on the next page.

Another example – a man who travels around the country, again on the weekends, and helps craft businesses organize their businesses and setup a simple bookkeeping system. Last year, he made an extra $12,000.00 by doing that. Plus, he got to meet some great people, stay in some areas of the state that he had never been in and had his expenses paid.

Put it in your own words so that your enthusiasm for the project comes through.