3 Scary Mistakes That Could Kill Your Business


At this time of year, all around you are ghosts, werewolves, vampires and all sorts of creepy monsters – but all year ‘round, businesses are faced with real terrifying obstacles. The best way to combat these scary statistics is to learn about them and be able to create your own plan of protection against these real life monsters!

#1 Poor Cash Flow Management

The number one reason why small businesses fail is cash flow. According to a U.S. bank study, 82% of all businesses fail because of poor cash flow management. Yikes!

Cash flow problems occur when the funds exiting a business exceed the inflow of funds, or when the timing of this delicate process is thrown off. Managing cash flow at the small business level is tricky. It requires careful management of accounts receivable and accounts payable, forecasting of trends, getting the best possible terms from suppliers, diligent invoicing, and above all an “I’m prepared” attitude.

Although these cash flow woes are inevitable, small businesses can prepare themselves for this predicament. Finding a funding source to help cover cash flow gaps—before they happen—can mean the difference between a successful business, and one that ends up six feet under. 

#2 Failure to Plan and Test Your Marketing Campaigns

Advertising is not marketing in its entirety—it’s only part of the pie. All your marketing efforts should be guided and informed by your marketing plan—one that aligns your tactics with your budget and goals (getting leads, building good press coverage, signing people up for demos, etc.). Similarly, give it time. Although it can hurt to invest a whole bunch of money up-front and not see an instant result, it takes time to build brand equity and foster the relationships that are needed to ensure your customers are emotionally ready to buy.

Finally, test and track your campaigns and tactics. This will give you insight into what’s working and what isn’t so you can refresh your approach and waste less money.

#3 Too Many Hires, Too Quickly

This is especially true of start-ups and those in the vulnerable first two years of business. Startups that hire too early have a 146.7% greater chance of failure than those who take a slower approach. Plus, the true cost of hiring an employee can be much higher than their hourly rate. Benefits, payroll taxes, and other expenses, such as workers’ compensation insurance, can add several percentage points onto a basic salary and burn through your revenue per employee. All this adds up to depleted cash resources when you need them the most.

Scaling back your hiring plans can equate to more hours and pressure on you—but it does give you more time to focus on your priorities without the cost and time of managing employees during the start-up phase. And, of course, you can always turn to self-managing independent contractors to supplement your own skills.

Combat your fears and start your business TODAY!

With the opportunities for small businesses booming, why wait another moment. What else is keeping you down? Financial restraints have been a complaint for many of the dreamers, limiting themselves to their immediate funds. There is an alternative. If you have the dreams and decent credit, Small Business Loans and No Doc Loans are available to you. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge you need and the resources available to make your dream a reality. Give us a call – we have the education and the perspective to help you obtain the loans you need for your small business. Visit our website or give us a call to find out what financial backing is available to make your business soar!

Unsecured Finances has over 10 years in the consulting business! We specialized in educating and assisting clients on acquiring Unsecured Business Loans and Start-Up Business Specialty Loans including; Unsecured No Documentation (No-Doc Stated Income) Loans, Unsecured Business Loans, and Unsecured Start-Up Business Loans and Lines of Credit from $10,000 to $500,000 without Assets.

Apply on our website to find out if you qualify, or call today for a free consultation: 1-888-294-2584

Yikes! 5 Scary Small Business Statistics

& how to deal with them


This month is all about facing your fears to level up your business to success. Being able to target and anticipate these scary situations will allow you to navigate smoothly around the obstacles and steer straight to the bank instead. Here are the top 5 Scary Small Business Statistics:

1. Recruiting & Retention Struggles

79% of employees that leave a job will state that a lack of recognition and appreciation is the key reason for quitting. This means that roughly 8 out of 10 employees leave a job because they don’t feel appreciated. For anyone who knows the costs associated with recruiting and retention, this is a shocking statistic!

What you can take away from this small business stat: If you work with either internal team members or external contractors, let them know you appreciate their hard work and contributions. Having happy employees who enjoy coming to work and feel their contributions are recognized will work harder than those who don’t. From a simple thank you to an unexpected gift, make sure your team knows they are valuable.

2. Fierce Competition

543,000 new businesses are started every month.

This is both exciting and a little scary. It’s inspiring to see businesses getting off the ground, but it’s another reminder that there’s a lot of competition out there.

What you can take away from this small business stat: Focus on customer service. This makes your small business stand out from the competition. It also reminds your customers why they work with you and not your competition. 

3. Responsibilities Overload

66% of small business owners and leaders are personally responsible for three or more of the following areas of their business: operations, finance, sales, marketing, human resources, customer service, product development, or IT. You care about your business and success. Sometimes that means putting together the budget, running ad campaigns, handling customer questions and being tech support for your website all in one day. It’s a lot.

What you can take away from this small business stat: As much as you want to do everything, it’s hard to keep all those plates spinning. Delegation can help you get your time back and allow you to spend it on the work that you do best. There are countless free and competitively priced software options available. For help with small business marketing, this one is our favorite.

4. Budgets & Finances

57% of small business owners use their personal savings for startup capital.

If you take personal credit cards, “other personal assets” and home equity into consideration, this number reaches 74%. Starting a business is expensive. While some take the financing route, the majority of small business owners are using their own savings to get their business off the ground.

What you can take away from this small business stat: This is probably the least surprising item on our list of small business stats. All small business owners are familiar with the expenses related to starting a business. Every penny of your hard-earned money should be used as efficiently as possible. One way to do this is to set a budget as early as possible, considering everything from staffing to marketing costs.

5. Marketing ROI

Content marketing gets 3x more leads than paid search advertising. Content marketing is a cost-effective marketing method that sees solid ROI. This type of content isn’t super easy to create, which is part of the reason why more small businesses aren’t taking advantage of it.

What you can take away from this small business stat: Content marketing should be part of your overall marketing plan. By crafting and sharing useful, insightful content, businesses are able to position themselves as thought leaders. They can also promote their business alongside the industry adjacent content.

Face your fears and start your business TODAY!

With the opportunities for small businesses booming, why wait another moment. What else is keeping you down? Financial restraints have been a complaint for many of the dreamers, limiting themselves to their immediate funds. There is an alternative. If you have the dreams and decent credit, Small Business Loans and No Doc Loans are available to you. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge you need and the resources available to make your dream a reality. Give us a call – we have the education and the perspective to help you obtain the loans you need for your small business. Visit our website or give us a call to find out what financial backing is available to make your business soar!

Unsecured Finances has over 10 years in the consulting business! We specialized in educating and assisting clients on acquiring Unsecured Business Loans and Start-Up Business Specialty Loans including; Unsecured No Documentation (No-Doc Stated Income) Loans, Unsecured Business Loans, and Unsecured Start-Up Business Loans and Lines of Credit from $10,000 to $500,000 without Assets.

Apply on our website to find out if you qualify, or call today for a free consultation: 1-888-294-2584

Overcoming Your Fear of Running a Business


October is a month full of scary things, so it only makes sense for us to tackle some of those frightening topics in the business world. One of the most common is simply the fact of starting a business. More than a fear of the business itself, it is a fear of failure. 

If fear of failure is what is preventing you from starting a small business, you have to get around it and forge ahead. Breaking your paralysis and getting past being scared of failure is as simple as these two concepts: Preparing to succeed, and changing your attitude towards failure.

Prepare to Succeed

The first thing you need to learn is how to succeed. You already know how to fail. You can fail simply by doing nothing or you can fail by doing stupid things. But how do you succeed? By finding out exactly what you would need to be successful and ensuring that those needs are met. Arming yourself with knowledge is the path to success.

For instance, suppose that you want to start a small business selling herbal soaps and bath products. For this business to be successful, you need to have essentially four things:

  • Potential Customers / People with enough interest in your product or service 
  • Competitive quality and pricing
  • A way to bring the product and people together
  • A compelling factor

The best way to figure out how to meet these needs is to work through a Business Plan. Creating a business plan will fill in the gaps in your knowledge and provide the details of how you’re going to do what needs to be done to start and run a particular small business successfully. Your business plan will be your blueprint for success.

Change Your Attitude Towards Failure

Why are you specifically scared to start your own business? Most people fear failure because they think that people will look down on them or that they could lose all their money or possessions. 

Failure Is Not Life Threatening

As for losing all your money and/or possessions if your new business fails, it’s not very likely. You can structure your business in such a way as to limit your liability by incorporating or by forming a partnership. Even if you do structure your business as a sole proprietorship and end up filing for personal bankruptcy, some of your property will be exempt from seizure.

So you won’t lose all your money or possessions, even if your business does go belly-up. How important is the amount that you might lose? That’s a matter of perspective. Money is never as important as your health, for instance, or the health and well-being of your loved ones.

The point is that failure can be uncomfortable and unpleasant, but is not life-threatening. Failure is always an opportunity of one kind or another – an opportunity to stretch beyond our usual boundaries, to learn something valuable, or to make previously undreamed-of connections. Remembering this positive face of failure and focusing on it will go a long way towards changing your attitude about it.

Starting and running your own small business could be one of the most enriching experiences of your life. Don’t let your fear of failure make you miss out. Once you build on enough successes, you will tame your fears. Why not start now?

Ready to Tame Your Fears and Start a Business?

Businesses are always evolving, and keeping an eye on the trends is one of the best ways to make sure to take advantage of the trends that are relevant to your industry. If you haven’t already started a business, maybe one of these trends will inspire you to create an entire new business.

With the opportunities for businesses booming, why wait another moment. What is keeping you down? Financial restraints have been a complaint for many of the dreamers, limiting themselves to their immediate funds. There is an alternative. If you have the dreams and decent credit, Small Business Loans and No Doc Loans are available to you. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge you need and the resources available to make your dream a reality. Give us a call – we have the education and the perspective to help you obtain the loans you need for your small business. Visit our website or give us a call to find out what financial backing is available to make your business soar!

Unsecured Finances has over 10 years in the consulting business! We specialized in educating and assisting clients on acquiring Unsecured Business Loans and Start-Up Business Specialty Loans including; Unsecured No Documentation (No-Doc Stated Income) Loans, Unsecured Business Loans, and Unsecured Start-Up Business Loans and Lines of Credit from $10,000 to $500,000 without Assets.

Apply on our website to find out if you qualify, or call today for a free consultation: 1-888-294-2584

Kolaches – Not a bug, just a popular pastry in Houston


You heard it right! Kolaches. For a name that sounds like it should be crawling around on six legs, it is actually a delicious pastry — a Texas kolache can contain sausage, eggs, cheese, or any number of other creative delicacies. Kolaches are officially the number one thing Houstonians are obsessed with, beating out “breakfast taco,” “crawfish” and “Kroger,” according to Yelp.

For the website’s 15th anniversary, online review site Yelp looked at the language people used in their reviews, searching for keywords or phrases that define each city. While Chicago loves “Italian beef,” Orlando loves “Harry Potter” and Las Vegas loves “gambling,” it’s apparent H-town loves its Czech creation-turned-Texan-comfort-food.

Of course, Houston is a city with many obsessions. There are the top ten most Houstonian phrases, according to Yelp’s list:

1. kolache

2. breakfast taco

3. crawfish

4. Kroger

5. Tex Mex

6. garlic butter

7. gumbo

8. eggroll

9. fried shrimp

10. fried catfish

Food Obsession as a Business Opportunity

As Houston has been described as America’s number one food city, it is no surprise that their love of food spans an array of different tastes. For aspiring small business owners, this opens up a lot of doors for those looking to open a new spot. The world of “noms” is just brimming with possibilities, and right now is the best time to get in on the action. Being able to use these Yelp lists as a resource, a potential business owner can search for concept inspiration by checking out what foods are most popular. As it is no secret that Kolaches are trending, food-truckers could jump on this idea from all angles. 

Looking to Start a Business in Houston?

Businesses are always evolving, and keeping an eye on the trends is one of the best ways to make sure to take advantage of the trends that are relevant to your industry. If you haven’t already started a business, maybe one of these trends will inspire you to create an entire new business.

With the opportunities for businesses booming, why wait another moment. What is keeping you down? Financial restraints have been a complaint for many of the dreamers, limiting themselves to their immediate funds. There is an alternative. If you have the dreams and decent credit, Small Business Loans and No Doc Loans are available to you. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge you need and the resources available to make your dream a reality. Give us a call – we have the education and the perspective to help you obtain the loans you need for your small business. Visit our website or give us a call to find out what financial backing is available to make your business soar!

Unsecured Finances has over 10 years in the consulting business! We specialized in educating and assisting clients on acquiring Unsecured Business Loans and Start-Up Business Specialty Loans including; Unsecured No Documentation (No-Doc Stated Income) Loans, Unsecured Business Loans, and Unsecured Start-Up Business Loans and Lines of Credit from $10,000 to $500,000 without Assets.

Apply on our website to find out if you qualify, or call today for a free consultation: 1-888-294-2584