Business

5 Types of Commercial Real Estate Loans

Is your business in need of a commercial mortgage? Here are 5 types of commercial real estate loans you should consider for your business.

Are you looking to create or expand a business? If so, you may need a commercial mortgage.

Just like regularly mortgages, commercial real estate loans can feel tricky to understand and maneuver.

These loans don’t have to be complicated though. Commercial loans are simple enough to understand if you do a little research.

When seeking out a commercial loan, you’ll want to make sure you get the right kind. To help you in your decision, we’ve created this handy guide. Keep reading for more information on five types of commercial real estate loans that you should know about.

1. SBA 504 Loan

SBA loans are loans offered by the Small Business Administration. The 504 loans offered by the SBA apply to real estate or equipment that is owner-occupied.

When you take out a 504 loan you’re actually getting a loan from two parties, not just one.

These parties are a Certified Development Company (CDC) and a bank. Each party pays a different amount.

You’ll have to put down at least 10% to secure the loan. This is your down payment. The CDC covers up to 40% and the banks covers the rest.

This type of loan is for large sums of money, from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several million.

You’ll have different interest rates for each lender. The CDC will provide a fixed rate on your loan is processed and finalized. The interest for your bank loan will probably be a variable rate, though.

SBA 504 loans for real estate allow for a maximum term of 20 years. Visit Mortgage News Channel to find out more about 504 loans.

2. Traditional Commercial Mortgage

If you’d like to fund your real estate operations without the help of the Federal government, a traditional commercial mortgage may be right for you. This type of loan allows for purchasing and renovating many types of real estate properties.

Do you need to purchase a warehouse so you can expand your business’s offerings? Or are you interested in a retail center? You could use a traditional commercial mortgage for both of these.

Keep in mind though, the property in question will likely need to be owner occupied to qualify for a traditional commercial mortgage.

With this type of loan, you’ll need a down payment worth at least 15% – 35% of the purchase price. This is higher than an SBA 504 loan, which has a down payment minimum of 10%.

Don’t be too disappointed if you aren’t approved for a traditional commercial mortgage. In general, this type of loan is harder to qualify for than other types.

3. Bridge Loan

If you’re looking for quick money, a bridge loan is the way to go. Bridge loans provide immediate funding for commercial projects. They’re used for quick projects, or they help cover the gap before long-term financing is approved.

Bridge loans are temporary loans. This is due to their short-term lengths. Much shorter than typical mortgages, bridge loans must be repaid within six months to two years.

You’ll have to secure this type of loan through a private lender, not a bank. You’ll need to prove your income and have great credit scores.

While you’ll have to put more down, traditional mortgage loans are processed more quickly than 504 loans. You’ll be approved in 30-45 days instead of 60-90.

4. SBA 7(a) Loan

Like the SBA 504, the 7(a) loan is a mortgage supported by the Small Business Administration.

They’re more common than the 504 loans, but they’re typically for smaller amounts.

7(a) loans help with purchasing and refinancing commercial properties that are worth $5,000,000 or less.

You’ll need around 10% – 15% of the total purchase price to use as a down payment, and approval will take 60-90 days. In some cases, the down payment is waived.

To get this type of loan you’ll also need credit above 680 and more than three years of business history.

7(a) loans can be used for several commercial operations. This includes land purchases, building purchases, new construction, or renovation.

Borrowers can expect a dependable payment each month and a term of up to 25 years.

5. Hard Money Loan

Like a bridge loan, a commercial hard money loan is a short-term option and may be used in conjunction with a long-term loan. As a business owner, you could take out a hard money loan to purchase or renovate a property. Then you’d refinance with something longer-term.

Hard money loans are good options for business purchases that need to be made quickly. Term length is short, only one to three years, but so is the approval period. You could have funding in your pocket in as little as ten days.

Hard money loans aren’t available to everyone, though. You’ll still need decent credit, with a score of 600 or above. And you’ll need to have a minimum of 15% – 35% to use as down payment.

The interest-only payments that come with hard money loans may be a big draw. You won’t have to worry about the total amount of the loan until the loan term ends.

Commercial Real Estate Loans Aren’t Complicated

There’s a lot of information to go through, but when it’s all boiled down, commercial real estate loans are simple. You just need to do some quick research and comparison.

With so many commercial real estate loans to choose from, there’s one that’s sure to fit your needs. Consider your specific situation and look for options that are a good match. Whether you need short term or long term financing, you’ll be on your way to realizing your real estate dreams.

 

Are you looking to build your business’s budget? Click here to learn how.

How to Sell Merchandise Online: 5 Tips for a Successful Store

Do you want to get into the ecommerce game? It’s a growing industry with a lot of opportunity. Here are 5 tips to help you learn how to sell merchandise online.

In the US, eCommerce makes up 10% of annual consumer spending. That growing market share shows no signs of slowing down.

What that means for you is that if you can find ways to maximize your online sales presence, you stand a very good chance of capturing a massive amount of the $60,000 per year the average consumer spends on goods and services.

Therein lies the aim of this article, to teach you how to sell merchandise online.

In it, we will share some practical tips that will take your eCommerce success to incredible heights!

1. Pick a Great Niche

There’s no micro question that’s more important to answer when addressing the macro question of how to merchandise online than, “What is my niche?”

Your niche is the area that you’ll be focusing on to figure out what products to sell and who to sell to.

For example, if your niche was “pets”, right away you have ideas as to who your consumers are (pet owners) and what products you could sell (food, toys, etc.).

When selecting your niche, we recommend that you pick something you’re passionate and knowledgeable about, something that has good market potential and finally, something that is not too broad.

Again, to our pet example, you could have your niche be just “pets” but that would open you up to a wide variety of products and customers. Lizard owners, dog owners, cat owners… you get the picture.

What if instead, you narrowed your niche to the organic Dog market. Targeting that market you’d be selling to health and eco-conscious dog owners and instead of investing in broad products you could focus your efforts on natural, fair-trade toys and healthy pet food.

Being specific with your niche lets you build a brand, refine your package design and inventory and makes your online journey a lot simpler.

2. Choose Your Sales Platform

Now that you know what you’re selling and who you’re selling to, you know need to figure out the “how” in how to sell merchandise online.

Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there in the way of sales platforms.

You can use eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce on a self-hosted WordPress site. You could sell through marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. You could even look into a variety of easy online store builders like Shopify, Squarespace, and others.

At the end of the day, you’ll want to pick a platform that is a match for your technical skills and offers you the best deal as far as fees are concerned.

Are your online store grows, do your best to move towards selling through your own self-hosted website if you don’t start there from the get-go. Self-hosted platforms give you the most flexibility as far as your store is concerned and will cost you the least amount of money in fees.

3. Make Your Checkout Process Seamless

No matter which sales platform you use, you’ll want to make sure that its checkout process is as fast and as easy as possible.

Online sales juggernaut BigCommerce estimates that something as small as a 1-second delay can lead to a large company losing millions of dollars a year. For that reason, you’ll want your shopping cart to ask a minimum amount of questions and get people to complete their purchase quickly.

4. Offer Outstanding Customer Service

There are almost 30 million small businesses in the United States alone. That means cut-throat competition and a ton of other people offering the exact same products and services you do.

In order to stand out among all of that clutter, it’s important to knock people out with superb customer service.

When people want to return something, make the return process seamless. When they have questions, answer them in a timely fashion.

Even if difficult customers grind your gears, it’s important to do everything in your power to make their buying experience as beneficial to them as possible.

Happy customers mean good reviews. Good reviews can make or break your business.

5. Market Like Crazy

Our final and perhaps most important point on how to sell merchandise online is to be prepared to market yourself like crazy.

When people approach the question of how to sell merchandise online, they often think that it’s as easy as having a quality product and putting themselves out there. While those are both important pieces of the puzzle, given the fact that there are 1.9 billion websites online, it’s extremely hard to cut through the clutter without a solid marketing plan.

For that reason, you’ll want to get antiquated with SEO, develop a solid social media strategy and even invest in PPC ads to really maximize your business’ growth.

A little bit of time and money in marketing can equal a whole lot more in sales. Because of that, you should never be afraid to invest when it comes to marketing your products.

Wrapping Up How to Sell Merchandise Online

If you’re looking to find out how to sell merchandise online to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity in eCommerce, we recommend taking seriously our list above.

Our tips, when leveraged correctly, can give you the foundation you need to get online and dominate a market fast!

Want more of the best information online on how to build a business, create an amazing lifestyle for yourself and more?

If so, check out more of our articles on We Are Augustines. Our team is committed to providing you with an unmatched online magazine experience that will always keep you coming back for more.

 

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7 Tips for Getting Construction Insurance for Your Business

As the owner of a construction business, you could be liable for a lot of damages. Click here to get some tips on getting construction insurance.

There’s no doubt about it, there’s potential for damage and accidents in construction. So, if you own a construction company, you’ve got to have insurance.

Insurance will protect you and your company from paying huge amounts of money should unfortunate events occur. But what insurance do you need?

Choosing the right insurance is important. The wrong kind won’t cover all your needs. To help you make the right decision, here are seven tips for choosing and getting construction insurance for your business.

1. Know What You Need

When choosing insurance, you need to choose the coverage that applies to your needs. So before you even start to look at insurance options, take stock of what you need to have covered.

Will you have employees? Then you’ll probably need worker’s comp.

If there’s potential for injury of yourself, owners, or anyone else, you’ll need insurance that covers that. And since you’re in construction, you’ll want insurance that covers any accidental damage that may occur.

There are lots of options when it comes to insurance. Though one may sound like a great deal, check what it covers first. There’s no point to paying for insurance that doesn’t cover your needs.

Assess the level of risk involved, too. The greater the risk for a problem to occur, the more likely you are to need insurance for that problem. Consider how much coverage you may need so your coverage applies to the extent you need it to.

2. Compare Providers

Multiple insurance providers will have the coverage you need at reasonable rates. So how do you choose the right one? A little research can really go a long way.

Compare all providers you’re considering using. Once you’ve found a few who offer what you need at rates you find acceptable, start comparing the providers to each other.

Do any of them offer additional perks or coverage over the others? If so, you may want to go with that provider.

But their offerings aren’t all you should be concerned about. You need to make sure you choose a trustworthy, reliable provider.

Check the Better Business Bureau to make sure the provider is in good standing. Read customer reviews and testimonials. Even better, talk to people who have personal experience using the provider.

Choose a provider you feel comfortable trusting and who you feel will deliver when you need them.

3. Learn from Experience

As you work on projects, you may realize there are holes in the insurance policy you’ve chosen. You may have done your best to choose a great plan, but you’ll really learn the most about your coverage when you have to use it.

If, during the course of your work, you feel that your coverage is lacking, don’t disregard the feeling. Take note of what’s missing and address it.

This may mean contacting your insurance provider and changing your coverage. Or, it may mean switching providers.

While making changes to insurance may seem like a hassle, it’s worth it. Especially if you can get the coverage you feel you don’t currently have.

4. Know Your Coverage

As a business owner, you’ve got to be familiar with your insurance coverage. And, we don’t just mean the main parts of it.

You need to know every detail. That means you’ve got to read the fine print. You’ve got to remember it, too.

You’d like to think your insurance provider will be honest and correct whenever you need them, but that may not be the case. Mistakes happen, so make sure you follow up when coverage is needed.

Make sure each incident is covered the way you were told it would be in your policy. You’re paying for it, so make sure you get the coverage you agreed to.

5. Use a Broker

Wading through lots of insurance providers can be daunting and not very fun at all. To make things easier for you, use a broker or insurance specialist.

These people specialize in the type of insurance you’re looking for. They’ll know which providers and plans match what you’re looking for. This will save you a lot of time shopping and comparing.

Just like with the insurance company though, choose a broker or specialist that you trust and who has your best interests at heart.

6. Choose Extra Protection

Don’t skimp on the coverage when choosing a policy. It’s better to choose one that covers more than you need than less.

Start with the basics like general liability insurance, commercial auto insurance, and worker’s compensation. Build everything into your policy that you’ll need.

Once the basics are covered, look at your extra coverage options. If options apply to what you and your business do, it may be worth your while to add them.

7. Include Prior Acts Coverage

To give yourself the best protection, make sure you include prior acts coverage in your policy. This coverage covers claims that may come from past work.

When you set up a new insurance policy, it probably won’t cover work that you’ve done before that point. That’s why prior acts coverage is helpful. If any claims are made for work that was done before your policy started, it will be covered under prior acts coverage.

Offer Construction Bonds

Beyond insurance, make sure you’re offering bonds to your clients. They’ll want to know you’ll stick to your word and get everything done in budget and on time.

Bonds provide protection for both you and your client. You can discover more here about bonds and how they can help your construction business.

The Best Construction Insurance

Construction insurance isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. So when choosing insurance, you’ll be the best judge of what coverage is best.

Take your specific needs and circumstances into consideration, research plans, and providers, and choose the ones that are the best fit. Insurance is a must in construction, so get out there are find a plan that works for you.

Do you wonder what types of tools you’ll need to get your construction jobs done? Check out our article on choosing a trommel machine.

What Are The Benefits of PPC Advertising? Is It Worth the Investment?

Running a PPC advertising campaign isn’t just smart, it’s essential for businesses large and small. Today, we’re going to talk about the benefits of PPC advertising and discuss why (or why not) it’s worth the investment.

Are you struggling to grow your business? Does it seem like all your marketing efforts amount to is a waste of time and money?

If so, you’re not alone. 69% of business owners report that converting leads to customers is their biggest struggle. Another 54% struggle just to drive more traffic to their website.

Does this mean all your marketing efforts are in vain? By no means! Many businesses just like yours are experiencing great success with pay-per-click or PPC advertising.

Why should you give this type of advertising a try? Here are 6 compelling reasons to include it in your next marketing campaign.

1. Quick Results

If you want fast–in many cases, immediate–results, PPC advertising is the way to go.

Why? Because it puts your business right in front of the people who are actively searching for it.

With over 3.5 billion searches happening every day, there are endless opportunities for new customers to discover your business.

While SEO efforts build your business over time, PPC advertising provides “instant gratification.”

All you need to start advertising is a live website and a Google Adwords account.

2. Immediate Feedback

When combined with Google Analytics, you can easily and instantly measure how well your PPC campaign is going.

At any time, you can view and track the live results of your campaign. You can see up-to-the-minute figures for impressions, clicks, and conversions. This means you know at all times whether you’re generating profit or loss.

Which ads are users clicking on the most? How close are you to achieving your end goal? What kind of ROI are you generating?

With PPC advertising, you’ll get instant answers to all those questions–and more. Unlike other types of advertising, there’s no guesswork involved. You’ll know right away what’s working and what isn’t.

What if you need help deciphering all this important data? You can see more here.

3. Separate from SEO

Does PPC advertising mean that SEO is no longer important? Far from it!

As we touched on earlier, SEO is still important for the long-term growth of your business. What makes SEO so tricky, though, is that Google is always updating its policies and ranking algorithms. This means your SEO strategy must also grow, change, and adapt.

The great thing about PPC advertising is that it’s not dependent on SEO or Google algorithms.

You’re paying for your business to appear first in search results, so that’s where it will appear.

A bonus? Keeping careful track of your PPC campaign can help you improve your SEO over time. By identifying which search terms and keywords yield the best results, you can tailor your other marketing efforts accordingly.

4. Improved Targeting

With other forms of advertising, you have little or no control over who sees your ads. This means it’s not as targeted as it could be–and your results will reflect this.

By comparison, PPC advertising allows you to target exactly the demographic you choose. You can customize your campaign by:

• Keyword
• Location
• Device
• Time
• Date

Do you want people to discover your restaurant’s great lunch specials? You can schedule ads to appear mid-morning on weekdays when they’re starting to get hungry and think about lunch.

Is your product geared towards adolescent girls? Middle-aged women? Senior men? Parents?

College students?

Whatever your target audience, you can build a PPC campaign that will target them–and only them. Otherwise, your high-fiber bars may end up in front of pre-teens and your prom dresses could end up in front of senior citizens.

Are you trying to hook past customers or those who have already been exposed to your brand?

Or are you trying to cast a wider net and attract new customers who haven’t heard of you?

Whatever your marketing goals, you can design a PPC campaign to meet them.

5. Build Brand Recognition

Have you ever noticed how the same brands seem to pop up over and over again when you’re searching online?

That’s not a coincidence. One of the best things about a successful PPC campaign is it will familiarize your target audience with your brand.

A teen shopping for a prom dress might not notice your ad the first time she looks. But if she searches every day and consistently sees your ad at the top of the search results, she’s more likely to click on it.

As for the senior shopping for high-fiber bars? When he sees your brand mentioned over and over again, he’ll come to view you as an authority and a leader. The constant reminder makes him more likely to remember you the next time he’s grocery shopping.

6. Total Control

If you’re not already convinced that PPC advertising is the way to go, this final point should “convert” you (see what we did there?).

Let’s say you have a limited marketing budget. You want to spend your money wisely and see the biggest bang for your buck.

The great news is that PPC campaigns are perfect for small budgets. You decide exactly how much you’re willing to spend per click or per day.

When you reach that pre-set limit, your ads stop appearing. This ensures you never go over budget.

What if you start seeing good results from your campaign? It’s easy to scale up and increase the number of ads that appear. The same is true if you hit a financial bump in the road and need to scale your efforts back.

Because you have instant access to analytics, you can also make immediate changes to your ads. Is a particular keyword driving more traffic than others? Is one of your ads receiving few (if any) clicks?

You can update your campaign with a few simple clicks of your own. No other type of advertising gives you this level of control.

Final Thoughts on PPC Advertising

So, is PPC advertising worth it?

The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, it can make the difference between your business merely surviving–or thriving.

If you haven’t already, include it in your next marketing plan. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

What should you expect when your business starts growing? Click here to learn how to cope with future business expansion.

Top 10 Best Print Ads to Inspire Your Next Marketing Campaign

A brilliant print ad could skyrocket your business and brand image. Even though digital marketing is all the rage nowadays, print advertising still works. It might be exactly what you need to drive sales and convert prospects into buyers. For inspiration, check out some of the best print ads ever created!

Many people mistakenly believe that print advertising is dead. While digital advertising may be the preferred platform for businesses, running a print campaign alongside a digital campaign can net better results.

Looking for some inspiration? Here are 10 of the best print ads to get you feeling energized about your next campaign.

1. KFC’s Fowl Faux-Pa

We’ll start off with a doozy of an ad that recently made its way across the web from KFC Britain.

Last year, the chicken chain closed over 900 stores across Britain due to poor supply. Their solution? Come up with a crafty campaign that’ll get people talking.

They released an ad featuring a KFC bucket with its letters rearranged to read ‘FCK’ as a reaction to recent supply woes. While clever, people weren’t amused.

2. Pass The Heinz

Heinz’s advertising has always pretty strong, mainly because they let their products do the talking.

Their semi-recent Pass The Heinz campaign didn’t feature a single logo…just great photos of food along with the campaign’s slogan. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re getting hungry…

3. Paper Pregnancy Test

Ikea hit it out of the ballpark with their paper pregnancy test campaign. The ad was simple enough, featuring an IKEA baby cradle along with a bit of text up top advising the reader that, “Peeing on this ad may change your life”.

Seriously. The ad itself was a pregnancy test!

Better yet, if expectant mothers brought in the urine-soaked ad with a positive result, they’d receive the aforementioned crib for half-off.

4. Better Future Foundation Shows Us A Stark Reality

Better Future Foundation’s ad featured an astoundingly well-created mash-up of two women, one young and one older.

The image itself was accompanied by text that read, “Poverty knows no age”. It’s shocking, sad, and best of all, simple.

5. Penguin Audiobooks Saves Paper

Admittedly, this ad was a bit ironic since it was a print ad, but we’ll allow it. In an effort to push Penguin Books’ foray into audiobooks, the publisher released an ad with a large photo of a tree stump.

In that tree stump was the image of Moby Dick, the titular whale of Herman Melville’s classic, along with a note encouraging the reader to save paper by switching to audiobooks.

6. Stop The Violence

To combat the dangerous trend of texting while driving, Ecovia released a series of ads titled ‘Stop The Violence’. In these ads, models were punched in the face.

The fists featured sports cars on them while the models’ faces had semi trucks or other vehicles.

Together, the images created great symbolism of drivers getting hit head-on.

7. Pepsi’s Halloween

The rivalry between Coke and Pepsi is a storied one. And a few years ago, Pepsi upped the ante by releasing an ad featuring a can of Pepsi dressed as a can of Coke.

The image read ‘Have a scary Halloween’. Ouch.

8. StrongerMarriage.Org Encourages Teamwork

This ad shows that poster templates accompanied by simple, strong text can create effective print ads.

The background is a simple template of a cloudy sky. The word ‘ME’ is front and center in big, bold lettering, with dotted lines surrounding the M.

The text itself says ‘How to build a lasting relationship’ followed by instructions to cut the M and switch it to a W, transforming ‘Me’ to ‘We’.

9. McDonalds’ WiFry

McDonald’s announced its rollout of free in-store WiFi by shaping four french fries of decreasing size against its signature red background.

Together, the fries created the WiFi symbol. It didn’t say much, yet was instantly recognizable thanks to brand recognition through color psychology.

10. Lego’s Tribute To The Simpsons

One of the longest-running shows, Fox’s The Simpsons is quite iconic. So much so that The LEGO Group released an ad where they recreated the family using colored blocks.

It was cool, simple, and yet another example of how you can get your point across without even using text.

The Best Print Ads Should Inspire

Now that you’ve seen a few of the best print ads of recent years, the only question is how will you leave your mark?

Be sure to check out our business archives for more great tips on how to effectively market your brand and run your business.

Top 5 Benefits of Scrum for Your Business

Scrum is coming to fore as a collaborative and flexible management tool for software projects. However, you can use the principles of scrum for almost any business scenario. These are just some of the benefits of scrum for your business.

What do you know about the Scrum software?

If you’ve heard about it but don’t know what the benefits of Scrum are, this article is for you.

This software can bring many benefits to businesses and project management across many industries.

In order to learn how your business will benefit from Scrum, keep reading this article.

1. The Quality

Scrum, is a software that allows you to be more proactive when managing your projects.

Therefore, allowing you to complete projects that are better quality in less time.

With this software, you’ll be able to add daily testing and quickly provide feedback to the team. This way problems will be addressed as they happened which means it will decrease setbacks in the long run.

The software also allows for regular improvement and better communication with everyone involved.

2. Increased ROI

Since Scrum allows for increased quality and productivity, you will begin to see improvement in your return on investment or ROI.

You’ll see a spike in ROI since the results will come sooner. Scrum facilitates the spike of ROI because it allows for more feedback from customers and even stakeholders.

The higher ROI is also possible due to the lower cost of autonomation because there’s a lot less testing involved.

With the help of this software, there will also be a cost reduction since projects will be completed with fewer errors.

3. Improved Collaboration

The Scrum software allows for more effective collaboration within the team, which will give them a sense of ownership.

They will be able to see and track their progress in real time and communicate with other members on the team.

Expect to have more team meetings and talk about the progress, work to be completed, and troubleshoot any problems that might arise on a daily basis.

4. Better Grip on Metrics

In any project, knowing the metrics is extremely important. And with Scrum, it’s possible to keep better track of all the metrics.

Scrum will allow you to set budgets and estimates in different areas of performance which will benefit incredibly the team.

Project managers will be able to take a look at the team progress and communicate the daily advancements and setbacks.

5. Project Control

Those who adopt the Scrum software are able to keep better track of their daily projects.

This is mainly done due to the fact you can adjust to the needs of the project as you go along. It’s easier to track milestones and make adjustments as you go.

The daily updates and ability to make changes on short notice will make everyone feel like they have more control. To ensure everyone is on the same page, your team should go through Scrum master certification.

Benefits of Scrum: The Bottom Line

When dealing with project management, Scrum software brings lots of benefits to any team. For starters, the benefits of Scrum allows for a higher ROI, better quality, ability to prioritize, and project control.

Did you enjoy these tips? Check out our blog for more business tips.

To learn more about inventory management for businesses, click here.

Why Mexico is the Best Country to Start a Business

If you’re thinking about starting a business in another country but don’t know where to start, then click here. We’re discussing why Mexico is the best country to start a business, especially if you’re in a hurry.

Mexico has one of the largest economies in the world, the 15th largest to be exact.

With a GDP of over $1 trillion, it’s fast becoming the best country to start a business and more and more entrepreneurs are itching to get a piece of the action.

You may have a great business plan, but getting started is the tricky part. What do I need to do? Where do I need to go? What documents do I need?

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. So sit back, get a snack, and read on to find out everything you need to know about setting up a thriving business in Mexico.

The Best Country to Start a Business

Some may not know it, but Mexico is one of the best countries to start a business. The OECD has released stats showing that Mexicans are some of the hardest workers in the world, so you’d better have a similar work ethic!

You don’t have to be a Mexican resident nor do you even need to live there, but you can easily set up a business for just about anything (though there are a few restrictions).

It’s also super easy to do business in Mexico due to the easing of regulations and restrictions, and the proximity to the USA makes it easy to get stuff that may be hard to find or more expensive in Mexico.

Get Registered

One of the first things anyone needs to do when starting companies is to get it officially registered.

Making sure your company has a name is the first step, so you’ll have to get in touch with the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores to get it registered. Luckily, it only takes a couple of days to get approved.

Once this is done, your notary will draw up your corporation deed which will include shareholder details, your business’ aim etc.

You’ll also have to provide proof of ID and sign the document along with any business partners and boom, you’ve got a registered business!

Laying the Foundations

Okay, so there’s a lot of paperwork and admin that goes into setting up a new business abroad, but you knew that already.

Getting the right Visas, finding an accountant, commercial representation and recruitment are all part of the package. Luckily, this company can help with all of the nitty gritty and help get you up and running as quickly as possible.

Once you’ve got this stuff done, you can rest easy and start making your business a success.

Making it Work

So, you’ve got the money together to start up your business and it’s all registered, now what?

For a business to work, you have to be trustworthy and reliable to attract and retain clients.

Get to know your clients and suppliers, take them out for lunch and truly get to know about them. Mexicans are friendly people, so getting to know them as friends can take your business far.

It’s Not So Scary

Overall, it’s your business and your responsibility. You need to invest your own time, money and energy into it to make it work.

Setting up a business abroad can be scary stuff, but when you do it right it can flourish into a huge success and with Mexico being the best country to start a business, you’re getting off to a great start!

If you’re stepping into entrepreneurial shoes for the first time, check out our business section for some helpful tips.