As your business grows, you may find that you need to borrow money to finance growth, replace aging equipment, hiring additional staff, and/or to meet seasonal demands.  Obtaining a bank loan is never an easy process, even for established business with a proven track record.  Here are some tips to help you prepare to apply for a business loan and put yourself in the best position to be approved. Financial Documents Needed: In the business world as well as in the SBA World – “cashflow is king”, meaning that your business needs to generate enough cashflow to repay proposed debt. To support your ability to make debt payments, a lender will need: Business Tax Returns for past two or three years Profit & Loss Statement for past two years and current year-to-date Balance Sheet for past two years and current year-to-date Debt Schedule (if your business has existing debt) Projected increases in revenues and/or changes in costs expected from the changes … [Read more...]

Adrian and Casey Silversmith recently opened their brand new headquarters on Princess Anne St for Sprelly, their gourmet PB&J business. However, the business is not new. Sprelly was founded in 2013 when Adrian was inspired after visiting a local frozen yogurt shop. He thought “instead of a variety of froyos, why not have a variety of peanut butters and jellies?!” Adrian visited the University of Mary Washington Small Business Development Center in July 2013 to discuss his business idea. Shortly thereafter, he entered the Made in Fred VA contest and won Crowd Favorite for his concert of a chain of gourmet PB&J stores. He spent the next several months in research and development and in the spring of 2014, he began selling his products at Farmer’s Markets and local events. He developed a strong local following, which led to opening his first location inside the Made In Virginia store where he made gourmet PB&J sandwiches and crepes. Through the years, the Silversmiths … [Read more...]

One of the most exciting aspects of running a small business is hiring employees, assembling a team, and creating a positive and proactive company culture. But if developing your team is exciting, it can also be a little bit daunting. This is especially true when it comes to human resources responsibilities. The reality is that there are a number of laws and regulations that govern the HR process and unless you happen to have a background in benefits or employee relations, it’s natural to find the regulatory process overwhelming. The good news is that, if you have a company of fewer than 50 employees, most of your HR duties can be broken down into three basic categories.   Maintaining Employee Files First, you need to maintain files for every employee on your payroll. These files fall into three main buckets. I-9 files. This is a government form that simply verifies that an employee is legally qualified to work in the U.S. You should keep all employee I-9s together … [Read more...]

One of the biggest challenges facing owners of new businesses is finding the funding they need to launch their business.  Commercial lender Dennis Wagner of First National Bank provided us with these tips on how to develop a loan proposal that a banker will approve. Strong Business Plan.  You MUST submit a written business plan. Your plan should answer these questions about your company: What products and services will you sell? Who will your customers be? Be specific.  Most of your sales will be made to the best 20% of your customers. Who are those customers? What is your background in this industry? Why are you the person to run this company? Just as important, you need to answer why there is a need for this new company and then support your reasoning with as much data as you can. Your goal should not be to make the business plan as long as possible – but rather, how effectively you can answer these questions. Be concise but complete. Do not … [Read more...]

Remember when taking photos meant using film and getting them developed? Then came disposable cameras, followed by the rise of digital cameras in the 2000s. Now, all you need is a cell phone to capture high-quality video. There's no turning back, and it's 2023: video has taken over all social media platforms.   YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, TikTok, even LinkedIn – every social media platform is now pushing and favoring short-form video content. And it's no surprise – short-form video has the highest ROI of any media format by far, according to Hubspot. The average user now watches 19 hours of video content per week, says Adobe. Hubspot also predicts that short-form video will see the most growth in 2023. In fact, short-form video already accounts for 80% of all mobile data traffic, according to Adobe. And YouTube Shorts alone has 1.5 billion monthly active users and sees more than 30 billion daily views, according to Google.  So, what are the advantages of … [Read more...]

Do you think you are ready to start your own small business? Starting a small business is one of the most challenging, yet often times rewarding things you will ever do. It seems like everywhere you turn there is a mountain of information on how starting a small business can be a tax advantage and different information on how to get started. There are many “experts” online that will point you in all different directions and the chance of misinformation is high. Rules and regulations are different depending on the state and county where your business will operate. Using resources such as the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) will help you find accurate information for the area in which you plan to start your business. Owning a small business comes with many challenges and is not for everyone. Before starting a business, you should ask yourself if being a business owner is the correct choice and if now is the right time. Here is a … [Read more...]

With the new year upon us, business owners are planning and setting new goals. One aspect of planning needs to be attracting and retaining employees. Over and over, we hear from employers that they are having a difficult time hiring employees. And once they find the “right” employees, many employees do not remain with them for very long.  Any time you hire a good employee, then invest the time and expense to train them, you naturally want to keep them on the team for as long as possible. As such, recruiting and onboarding are just the beginning of the employee lifecycle; employee retention is just as important, and just as challenging for HR teams.   Start planning now to attract and retain the right employees. This blog looks at ways to keep employees on your payroll.  Planning for Employee Retention  Make Sure You Hire the Right People  The best way to avoid turnover is to ensure that you are hiring people who are a good fit for your business. While this is not an exact … [Read more...]

Claudia Barnes started making her own healthy juices in early 2017 while her husband, Pat, was undergoing post-cancer chemo-radiation treatments. Pat required liquid nutrients during his recovery because cancer impacted his ability to swallow solids. What they now refer to as, "The Original" (Very Verde) was created to assist with this nutritional requirement. Claudia consistently encouraged him to drink the green juice because it's "better4 for you"; hence the name Better4You Juices.    Pineapple was one of the first flavors Pat could taste following his treatments, so they incorporated a pineapple into their logo. Claudia created three other flavor blends, and those three plus Very Verde are referred to as “The Staples.”  Better4You Juices are prepared with fresh produce...never frozen.  They do not add sugar, use preservatives, additives or chemicals which may compromise the natural result of the blends.  Produce is sourced locally from farmers markets when possible, and … [Read more...]

Are you asking yourself these questions: Are we in a recession?  What will a recession feel like for my small business?  What can I do to prepare my small business for a recession?    This blog reiterates advice from our SBDC network on recession-proofing your small business.  In my opinion, this advice works regardless of whether you are worried about a recession, inflation, a pandemic or just competing in the marketplace.  David Rodeck, a contributor with Forbes Magazine wrote in July of this year “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity that lasts for months or even years. Experts declare a recession when a nation’s economy experiences negative gross domestic product (GDP), rising levels of unemployment, falling retail sales, and contracting measures of income and manufacturing for an extended period of time. Recessions are considered an unavoidable part of the business cycle—or the regular cadence of expansion and contraction that occurs in a nation’s … [Read more...]

Small business owners have several things to consider when hiring employees. There are multiple forms, tax obligations, and insurances that most employers consider carefully. The employee handbook often gets sidelined to the “I will do that once I have more employees” shelf. The truth is that the employee handbook plays an integral part in creating your company’s culture and letting your employees know the company's values and guiding principles. Often the first employees set the precedent of how subsequent employees will view and reflect the company’s values and business practices.  An employee handbook may include the following sections:  Welcome Statement: Welcome new employees to the company and share the company’s vision and values.  Business Practices: Include information about attendance, flex scheduling, employee conduct, performance reviews, social media expectations, conflicts of interest, and outside employment.  Payroll Practices: Include information about … [Read more...]