5 Real Online Business Opportunities That Anyone Can Start
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur there are numerous online business opportunities readily available. It is much easier to make online business ideas a reality as compared to a ‘bricks and mortar’ offline businesses. Not only are the set up costs significantly lower but the internet makes it possible for you to easily expand your business beyond the constraints of your physical location.It does not matter about your age, education, technical skills or qualifications if you want to take advantage of the online business opportunities that are available. Anybody can start one. Your online earnings do not all have to come from just one source. In fact, it can be more advantageous when you have different online small business ideas so that you have a variety of income sources so that you can see what works best for you.1. Produce Your Own Information Product.People use the internet to find information and if you have valuable information about a particular subject, people will pay for it. One of the best online business ideas is to write and sell your own eBook. You need to write an eBook on a topic that people are searching for information about. The topic can be one that you’re very knowledgeable about or it can be one that you become knowledgeable about by researching the information you need to know. Other than eBooks, you can also create online courses or workshops sharing your expertise.2. Affiliate Marketing.One of the easiest online business opportunities is affiliate marketing. This is when you promote other people’s products or services and when you make a sale, you get paid a commission. You find a product that you believe is good and will sell well and you begin to promote it for a commission. Promoting just means that you’re raising awareness about a product by driving traffic to it.You can promote products without cost to you and many people find this type of an online business one of the easiest to break into. You can promote products by writing articles about it and submitting them to article directories, or you can blog about it, promote it on your own website or on any of the common social sites such as Twitter or Facebook.3. Build A Membership Website.Many successful online business ideas are structured around membership websites. A membership website is you get paid to give your knowledge and expertise to others. For instance, if you’re an specialist on repairing computers, you build a website where people can log in and get access to answers to their questions, get involved in a forum, etc. Once you are making a profit from your membership website, you can teach others how to do it by writing a how-to eBook or by putting together a course!4. Freelance Your Services On The Internet.Another one of our online business ideas is offering freelance services. Freelance just means that you are your own boss. You can take on the jobs you want and turn down the ones that you don’t. There are so many online business opportunities for freelancers. You can do graphic design work, build websites, edit what other people wrote or you can write articles from scratch for other people.5. Drop Shipped Product Website.Dropshipping means that a warehousing company makes its goods available to you for sell. This includes shipping the order directly to your customer, often without the customer knowing that it came from the dropshipper’s warehouse. It can be a very good way to start an online business as you don’t have to worry about fulfillment or inventory issues.
What You Should Know About Telecommunications Funding
It is hard to obtain a conventional small business loan no matter who you are or what your business is. However telecommunications funding is even more difficult to come by and so much harder to find. This is because lenders who are traditional in nature are leery of getting involved with the telecommunications operation in every way. Telecommunications is not easy to understand and cannot be looked at from a black and white perspective in the way that retail operations can be. Many established financial institutions do not understand how telecom works and for that reason they are nervous to help with any financing ventures.The good news is that there are entities out there that focus all of their attention on telecommunications funding. These are specialty lenders. If you are in the market for some capital to get your small to medium telecommunications business up and running then you have more than one option that these lenders will make available to you. Let us look at your options now.Factoring is one of those options. Your invoices or accounts receivable for your telecoms business are sitting quietly in a folder or on your desk waiting for payment. You can expect to wait anywhere from 45 to 90 days for payment to arrive when you become a part of the telecommunications industry. However as you wait for payment to be remitted a need may arise in your business that calls for necessary funds right away. When you work with specialty lenders, factoring means that you can sell the invoices you currently have at a rate that is discounted, and in return you can receive the cash you require right now as opposed to two to three month’s time.Asset-based loans are another option. This is a funding solution that is only viable if you have enough in the way of assets that can be used as collateral. How it works is that you can borrow against everything from inventory to accounts receivable to contracts to your equipment. With enough collateral to borrow this can help to grow your business and can help it become more successful.When looking for a specialty lender it is really important that you locate one that knows about telecommunications funding. Experience and knowledge in this area is essential for your lender of choice. This will work in your favor as the owner of the business. The assets that are connected to your agreement with the lender are on the line if you default on your loan, but it is not necessary for you to make any non-recourse agreements with the party that provides financing. The same holds true for personal guarantee.Both factoring and asset-based loans can make it possible for you to find the working capital you need to get your business off the ground. Let your assets work in your favor and explore your opportunities. Telecommunications funding is not as difficult to find if you know where to look.
Luxury Homebuyers – Here is the Good News and the Bad News
Luxury home buyers have discovered this year that securing mortgage financing for a million dollar home is not as easy as in the past. The deterioration in the credit markets have made it increasingly difficult for buyers to obtain mortgage financing for high priced homes. Nevertheless, the markets have improved throughout the year, with rates and rate spreads falling and more lenders entering the market. Nonetheless, rising rates could make today the final window of opportunity to purchase a home at an attractive price point, and with attractive financing.A jumbo mortgage loan is a home loan in excess of the “conforming loan” limit; a limit is set by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the regulator for both FNMA (Fannie Mae) and FHLMC (Freddie Mac). The current conforming loans limit is $417,000 ($625,000 in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The secondary market for jumbo loans, however, is limited primarily to mortgage lenders themselves who are backed by lines of credit provided by investment and commercial banks as well as large insurance companies. Because there is less of a secondary market for these larger loans, they tend to be somewhat more difficult to find and priced higher than conforming loans. This rate differential has ranged from.25% to 1.5% depending on the market environment.Over the past several years, as the credit markets became increasingly loose, jumbo loans gained popularity. Many jumbo loans were made to investors and to other borrowers using “stated income” programs, now often referred to as “liar loans”, which required little in terms of income and asset verification. As the credit markets tightened, so did the underwriting of jumbo loans. Full documentation is now mandatory and jumbo loan applicants must demonstrate credit scores of at least 720. In addition, jumbo applicants must not show any 30-day mortgage or rental payment delinquency in the prior 12 months.Three additional factors have created further disparities between conventional and jumbo loan underwriting. These are the required reserves, maximum loan to value, and debt to income ratios. Jumbo loans require that liquid assets equaling 12 months’ reserves reside in the borrower’s financial portfolio with three months’ of bank statements confirming the assets mandated. Conventional borrowers are normally required to prove only 2 months of liquid reserves. Traditional loans can be obtained for up to 95% of the value of the home whereas many lenders cap jumbo loans at a 75-85% loan-to-value. Lastly, the maximum debt to income ratio allowed for a conventional loan is 43% whereas a jumbo loan applicant must only demonstrate a maximum of 40% total combined debt.In addition to increasingly stringent underwriting standards, the market for securitized jumbo mortgage pools has virtually disappeared. Consequently, so did the loans. No more than a year ago, it was difficult to find any fixed rate jumbo financing in the mortgage marketplace. Most borrowers had to settle for adjustable rate loans in the hopes that they would be able to refinance in the future. Furthermore, the number of lenders in the jumbo market also declined, leading to increasingly higher rates.The good news is that, today, there are more lenders in the jumbo loan marketplace. 30-year fixed rate financing is available from select lenders and rate spreads on jumbo mortgage loans have declined relative to conforming loans. In December, 2008, we were seeing spreads on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage of almost 2%. Today, these same spreads are down to less than 1%.In addition, as interest rates have fallen, rates on jumbo mortgage have declined. Notice that both rates and spreads have started to increase modestly.This is likely the best time in recent memory and in the near future, to finance a new luxury home or to refinance your current jumbo mortgage. The low rates are due to the government adding liquidity to the market, primarily through Fed mortgage backed security purchases. Rates would be significantly higher had we not had this intervention. The announcement that this practice will be discontinued in the first quarter of 2010, coupled with the likelihood of higher rates due to the falling dollar and dramatically increased government spending, make it likely that we will see higher rates next year. For luxury home sellers this creates a motivation to sell soon despite a relatively weak housing market. It also creates a window of opportunity for buyers to secure financing that may be at the most attractive rate levels we will see for the next decade.In conclusion, we believe that there is positive news for buyers considering rates have moderated and more programs are available in the jumbo space than there were a year ago. Existing borrowers can also take advantage of the changing market by refinancing their adjustable rate loans to fixed rates. While underwriting is indeed more stringent, financing is still available for qualified buyers. The outlook for the future may not be quite as attractive as an increasing rate environment will force many buyers to a lower price point, and a contracting economy leads more potential buyers to re-trench rather than buy that new home. The bottom line: acting now is likely your best strategy if you are a buyer or a seller of a luxury home.