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All homeowners should consider if they want to use the service of a letting agency before they begin to rent their property. Also this consideration is very important for tenants. For example, if a person wants to move out but he or she can not break the leasing agreement. This case, a professional agent can help find a tenant. Surely we can do everything ourselves, but is it that easy? Let’s look at the whole picture.

Being a landlord can be done part time or full time, but no matter how long you are able to devote to it, it is certainly a business you as an owner must take seriously. To begin with, every day that the property is left blank, means you lose money. I Read more…

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Choosing the right credit card is an important business. After all, should you choose to go for a 0% balance transfer credit card, an interest free credit card or something else? To help you make up your mind, this article looks at some common questions about credit cards.

Am I eligible?

Knowing whether you are eligible to apply for a credit card in the first place is important. There are a few criteria you need to meet in order to apply: you have to be resident in the UK, over 18 and have a bank or building society account. Some companies have other specific requirements you need to meet before they’ll give you a card, so check these out, too.

How do I apply?

Making credit card applications is relatively straightforward and usually involves filling in a form online. A Read more…

Before you apply for business credit cards you should first determine what strengths and weaknesses your company brings to the table. Once an honest assessment is made you’ll have a better idea of what types of credit cards your company should apply for.

There are five major factors credit card issuers use to evaluate creditworthiness on business credit card applicants.

These five factors include:

1. Legal Structure – Creditors know that certain structures carry a much higher risk compared to others. For example, a sole proprietorship and partnership is the easiest structures to create but have a great deal of risk that come along with them. Whereas, a corporation or LLC is considered “safe” structures because it offers protection for their owners and is treated as a separate being with its own tax registration.
2. Company Revenues – While this information does not help card issuers determine whether a business will repay it does indicate its ability to pay. More impo

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Lancaster University is to open a campus in Southern China in co-operation with the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Though the project has been initiated by the university, many of the programmes first taught there will be business related, including accounting and finance, international business, business administration, economics and marketing and taught by faculty from Lancaster University Management School.

The Guangwai-Lancaster University will teach undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and work on research between the two parent universities. The curriculum will adhere to that of Lancaster, including a proficiency in the English language. This will enable Guangwai-Lancaster University students to study for part of their degree at the campus in Lancaster. Some second year undergraduate students will be able to transfer to Lancaster University for their final two years of study.

Some 600 students are expected to enrol in year one but eventually student numbers will rise to as many as 10,000.

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Line of credit business loans used to be a basic part of 99% of the businesses in operation. It used to be that these loans were relatively easy to get, and were a real boon to business. Nearly every business has its ups and downs throughout the annual cycle, and the line of credit was there to help out.

No more. Now a line of credit is just as hard to capture as a standard loan, if not harder. The banks claim that they are being held to higher standards for granting loans of any kind, but I find that very hard to believe. Banks don’t seem to have any trouble lending to big companies, to the favored few. And they even get brownie points for lending to exporters, so those companies fare pretty well.

But standard small businesses of all ilk are still having a really tough time.

The first round of stimulus spending was intended to go to local banks which could then re-lend it to local businesses, and the hiring engine was to have kicked into gear. Well, it didn’t work like that. The money did make it to regional banks, and a bit of it made it to local banks, but it stopped there. Read more…