KACHARAGADLA

Lending isn’t quite as tight as it was after the recent economic downturn, but it’s still a delicate process. Many small- and medium-sized businesses find it difficult to obtain bank financing because they don't know how to navigate the process. But, if you’re persistent enough, however, raising the necessary capital is still possible. At Blank Label, we were offered over $500,000 in debt financing. To help you secure the financing you need, we’re going to share the four important lessons we learned about getting bank financing. 1. You might not need financing. The most important step in the process is figuring out if you even need financing. Moreover, make sure debt financing is right for you. If you don't have the cash-flow to support interest payments, but anticipate high future growth, equity financing might make more sense for you. At Blank Label, before we raised our debt, we first   raised a $1 million equity   round. Some reasonable things to take out a bank

These four companies manifest their brands in a way that is indistinguishable from their products or business activities. We are seeing a shift in what it means to be a brand and how to build your brand. From about 2007 or 2008 -- alongside the rise of social media as a mainstream technology -- we cultivated a mindset around building our  personal brands  (where the winners were the ones shouting the loudest). This in turn led us to reimagine business brands where the focus was on humanizing those brands. Brands evolved beyond the words and visuals to describe them and manifested more as “what we do, is our brand.” In recent times, this evolution has continued as brand building has focused on greater authenticity, transparency and empathy. This evolution has been  inspired   by consumers who have become more demanding of the businesses that supply them of products and services. Gone are the days where branding was considered a marketing activity purely for the benefit of th

Reach your audience effectively without compromising quality. If you're an entrepreneur just getting started, you know the meaning of a budget. You also probably know that in order to get your business idea off the ground, you have to reach your chosen audience at the right time. To help you do this cheaply, without compromising the quality of your marketing efforts, I've put together a list of the top 10 free marketing tools every entrepreneur should know. 1. Chattypeople Chatbots  have made their mark in the marketing world this year. Despite many still believing that the chatbot is just a customer care tool, others are seeing it as a must-have in their marketing strategies. Chatbot technology has improved significantly in the past decade, allowing marketers to create bots without any coding knowledge.  Chattypeople  is the perfect tool for those wanting to quickly create a Messenger chatbot. The platform allows entrepreneurs to create a bot that not only works s

  It may be a bit of a generalization, but I don’t think that I’m out of line when I say that entrepreneurs, on balance, are an impatient bunch. In order to build a successful business, you have to hustle and be somewhat of a hard-charger. Impatience, unsurprisingly, is a common byproduct of the entrepreneurial mindset. I know that I certainly used to fall into this category. It was only after several years of running  BodeTree  that I came to realize that in business, patience truly is a virtue. Avoid “ready, fire, aim” syndrome I have a tendency to rapidly evaluate situations as I encounter them, which is both a blessing and a curse. In the best cases, this rapid assessment enables me to quickly grasp a situation and plot a path forward. In the worst cases, however, this rapid-fire though process creates a chasm between me and the people I’m working with. When this happens, I find myself jumping forward to a conclusion while others are still processing the informa

Social media is in virtually everyone's hands at this point. And that pun was intended. Social media is in virtually everyone's hands at this point: With a phone or tablet, you're connected. In fact,   there are 2.3 billion active users   on social media presently and those numbers are on the rise. This is great news for any business owner who is social media savvy. It means that as the number of people logging into social media increases, so does your potential client base. But, there's a problem: How can you convert these social media users to become your clients? The answer is simple: With an effective social media marketing strategy, you can increase your conversions and boost your sales or signups. But, first you must acquaint yourself with the tips, tricks and tactics to make high conversion rates a reality. Here's how you can get started. Boost engagement. It's called "social media": You're expected to   socialize . Tha