Your vendors are critical to your success in the market and your profits; they are at the heart of many of your organization’s processes and activities. However, you might not consider how important it is to effectively manage your relationships with them. Also, procurement should be considered as a part of your overall business strategy. Doing so will have a myriad of beneficial effects.

Creating loyal relationships with good vendors are hard to come by. When you’re working with excellent vendors, you should be doing everything you can to strengthen your relationships with them and build loyalty. With effective vendor relationships, you can ensure efficiencies that lead to smooth processes, which can help you and your business.

In addition to the benefits, the key to realizing these benefits is finding a financial partner who can help you make equipment financing a fundamental part of your sales strategy.

Vendors are a crucial part of a successful sales strategy. Creating and maintaining meaningful and long-lasting partnerships with them will lead to increased business for you as well as the vendor. You will also gain recurring business from your loyal customer base while solidifying a strong reputation in your industry and network. In today’s world of online information and resources, having vendors who can recommend you and make you stand out from everyone else is extremely valuable.

BENEFITS OF SELLING –

• Consistent order volumes
• Constant, linear demand
• Better financial standing than most businessness
• Market recognition as an approved vendor
• Equipment manufacturers have a large client list

GROWING YOUR BUSINESS WITH VENDORS AND PREMIER BUSINESS LENDING – A well-structured business finance program, with a strong, experienced partner is a great way to grow your business. Financing is a powerful sales tool, which, when used correctly, can take your business to the next level.

1. Get the capital you need to run your business in less than 5 days
2. Prime plus lending with no hidden fees or catches
3. We offer traditional small business loans
4. 2 to 10-year term loans, for $50,000 to $10,000,000 in financing, with minimal monthly payments

OUR RATES – We determine our rates by the strength of your business’s overall financial profile. As responsible lenders, we have prime plus rates and provide excellent customer service to our clients.

How is the traditional banking industry keeping up with today’s constantly changing technology landscape? Not very well!

Banks are facing challenges in several areas, but there are four that stand out in today’s market.

The top 4 challenges facing banks and financial institutions

• Not making enough money. Despite all the headlines about banking profitability, banks and financial institutions still are not making enough return on investment, or the return on equity, that shareholders require.

• Consumer expectations. These days it’s all about the customer experience, and many banks are feeling pressure because they are not delivering the level of service that consumers are demanding, especially regarding technology.

• Increasing competition from financial technology companies. Financial technology (FinTech) companies are usually start-up companies based on using software to provide financial services. The increasing popularity of FinTech companies is disrupting the way traditional banking has been done. This creates a big challenge for traditional banks because they are not able to adjust quickly to the changes – not just in technology, but also in operations, culture, and other facets of the industry.

• Regulatory pressure. Regulatory requirements continue to increase, and banks need to spend a large part of their discretionary budget on being compliant, and on building systems and processes to keep up with the escalating requirements.

These challenges continue to escalate, so traditional banks need to constantly evaluate and improve their operations to keep up with the fast pace of change in the banking and financial industry today.

What are the banks doing to help support and keep up with the technology companies in which are now in the alternative lending space such as Ondeck Capital?

A combination of changes, including: rising interest rates, a less zealous regulatory environment, tax cuts, and overall optimism among business owners will provide a much-needed profit boost for banks.

This in turn will help offset rapidly rising technology expenses and enable banks to accelerate transformative digitization of platforms and processes.

In addition, significant advisory opportunities will benefit those bankers bold enough to help clients navigate these changes in 2017.

Now the good news for small business owners out there is a clear majority of employers feel good about the growth in the coming years.

Small businesses—which are defined as having 500 or fewer employees—are the bedrock of the nation’s economy, with small businesses accounting for 54 percent of all U.S. sales and 55 percent of all jobs, according to the Small Business Administration.

The NFIB survey, which includes responses from 619 small businesses, asked companies how they feel about 10 factors related to overall optimism. Key takeaways from the survey include:

• Fifty percent of small business owners said they anticipate business conditions to improve over the next six months.
• Fifty-one percent of survey respondents reported they were hiring or trying to hire new employees.
• Sixteen percent of small business owners said they planned to create new jobs.

Key to growth for small business owners is simple, hire the right people! Sound simple enough?

Well here is a strong way to start acquiring the right individuals to help growth and retention- Good Benefits Key to Hiring Effectively

• Although the overall outlook of small business owners is positive, they also identified areas that inhibit growth.
• Specifically, 8 percent of small business owners responded that the cost or availability of insurance was the “single most important problem” confronting their business.
• When companies turn their eye toward growth, they need to attract new talent while ensuring current employees remain confident and happy about their jobs. One of the best ways for employers to maintain the balance between growth and employee retention is to offer good benefits package

One of the best tax benefits for small businesses owners just got a whole lot better. The federal government provides a significant tax deduction for small businesses that lets owners take advantage of investments in capital expenses, and this year they made the deduction permanent with the recent passage of the 2009-page omnibus spending bill. Called a Section 179 deduction, the now-permanent tax rule allows business owners to deduct the cost of equipment purchases or leasing payments up to $500,000.

Chris Wilcox, Managing Partner with Premier Business Lending, El Dorado Hills Ca based lending company stated “A bulk of our 2016 Equipment Leasing Portfolio has been made up primarily of business’s looking to take full advantage of the $500,000 Tax Benefit by making equipment purchases. By doing so, it helps them create a Tax Shelter for their company.”

In previous years, lawmakers would not pass any tax extenders until the last possible moment of the legislative session, leaving business owners in financial limbo with questions about whether they would be able to deduct more than the lower threshold of $25,000. This typically meant owners couldn’t make definitive decisions on investing in technology upgrades or making much-needed capital investments, since they didn’t know whether government officials would extend the tax deductions. This happened last year, when business owners were left to wonder the fate of Section 179 in 2015 right up until mid-December. The total cost of these Section 179 tax extenders will cost $622 billion over the next 10 years, The Hill reported.

While politicians again waited until the final seconds to pass the current extension by adding it onto an omnibus spending bill, by making the $500,000-deduction level permanent, lawmakers have built in a sense of consistency for owners, who can now make sound investment choices with the knowledge that the deductions will be available. This relieves a considerable amount of stress for business owners who need to plan their strategies for the new year by investing in their company.

Not only does the bill include the permanent extension of the higher deduction level, allowing small business owners the ability to purchase more technology and equipment, but the new rule also includes an added depreciation bonus for property acquired between 2015 and 2019. For 2015, 2016 and 2017, owners can deduct 50 percent of the cost of putting the property into service, while this amount dips down to 40 percent in 2018 and 30 percent in 2019. The added deductions should encourage more small business owners to take advantage of the new rule, hopefully making up for much of the confusion caused in previous years.

Benefiting diverse industries

Small businesses form the backbone of the nation’s economy and without the extension of these crucial tax deductions, many enterprises would be unable to find the capital necessary to grow. But with the passage of the new bill, owners will have the opportunity to invest considerable working capital in their businesses.

According to the U.S. Census Department, in 2012, very small businesses, or those with fewer than 20 employees, employed national, or 17.6 percent of the working population, while small businesses, or those 20 to 99 employees, had 19.4 million people working for them, or 16.7 percent of the population. Meanwhile, medium businesses, those classified as having 100 to 499 workers, constitute 14 percent of the population, with 14 percent. Collectively, these enterprises account for just under half of the total work force. In many instances, companies in this range must take advantage of any additional monetary assistance they can find, and in the past the Section 179 deduction has always been a key force in providing this help. Organizations in essentially every industry can deduct the cost of capital expenses, from agriculture organizations to retail shops to financial-sector companies.

As Farm Industry News noted, this extension will help farmers boost revenues in the face of sliding crop prices. For construction companies, the deduction should help account for the rising expense of labor in light of the skilled worker shortage. For retail shops, the new tax rule can assist in the costly transition to EMV point-of-sale terminals. Offices can take advantage of the change to upgrade computers or invest in new data servers. While most small businesses are eligible for this great offer, owners should speak with a tax professional or accountant before making any final decisions.

Leasing or financing equipment

While small business owners can use this tax deduction to take advantage of capital expenses, Section 179 also allows companies to deduct the payments for financing or leasing equipment. In some instances, the IRS lets owners deduct 100 percent of equipment lease payments because this qualifies as an off-balance sheet operating expenses. Going this route means a small business can then speed up depreciation for the equipment, since this can be deducted during the term of the lease rather than the life of the equipment. In addition, most equipment does not qualify as an asset, alleviating the burden of having to pay the IRS’s Alternative Minimum Tax.

With another year, comes another set of laws and regulatory issues that businesses need to be aware of.

In 2016, many issues affecting the regulatory landscape revolve around employee pay. Changes to overtime rules and paid sick leave, as well as increased minimum wages are all issues businesses need to stay on top of this year.

Business owners have been inundated with proposed regulations that will affect how they pay employees in 2016.

To help businesses deal with these changes, Premier Business Lending has identified nine regulatory issues that should be on small businesses’ radar in 2016:
 

1) Overtime regulations: In 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed new salary thresholds for white-collar workers. The proposal would raise the salary threshold from $455 a week to about $970 a week in 2016.

After hearing input from the public on the proposed increases, the agency is expected to release its final ruling this spring. Employers will need to be prepared to take immediate action in order to comply when that ruling is unveiled.
 

2) Employee pay: Employers throughout the country will be adapting to minimum wage increases, as well as new laws on equal pay and paid sick time in 2016. Specifically, there is a new industry-specific minimum wage increase for fast food workers in New York.

The country’s most stringent equal pay laws went into effect Jan. 1 in California. These new laws require that men and women holding the same positions be paid equally. Also this year, Oregon becomes just the fourth state in the country to require paid sick leave for employees. The new statewide law requires employers with at least 10 workers to provide up to five paid sick days a year.
 

3) Worker classification: New guidelines from the Department of Labor expand the definition of what an employee is in order to ensure employers aren’t designating some of their workers as independent contractors to save overtime and benefit costs.

Based on these new guidelines, employers should examine their third-party relationships and monitor state and federal agency developments to assist in the efforts to appropriately classify workers.
 

4) Privacy: Many states have either recently enacted or are considering a wide array of stricter privacy and security laws. These include new minimum levels of encryption and security controls, and stricter notification processes and remediation steps when data breaches do occur.

With this in mind, businesses should be prepared to increase the data-security measures they have in place.
 

5) W-2 filings: While, previously, employers had until the end of February or March to file their W-2 forms with the state, those dates are being moved up.

In order to close the gap between when employees receive their W-2 forms and when employers need to have those documents filed, 11 states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, now require employers to file both annual reconciliations and W-2 forms by Jan. 31 each year.
 

6) Retirement plans: By this summer, the Department of Labor is expected to release new regulations that may affect the availability of retirement plan advisors and may result in more scrutiny of a business’ selection and ongoing monitoring of its retirement service providers.

In addition, states may start to mandate that employers not providing 401(k) or similar retirement plans have their employees participate in a state-sponsored plan.
 

7) Credit card fraud: In October, new credit card security measures went into place that increase the standards for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology needed to authenticate chip-card transactions.

With this change, liability for credit and debit card fraud shifts from issuing banks to merchants who have not yet installed new EMV terminals and processes. The businesses should work with their credit card processors in 2016 to ensure compliance with the rules, so that they aren’t held liable for any fraud.
 

8) Online sales tax: Recent changes in the congressional leadership could increase the chances of legislation being passed that would allow states to collect sales tax from online businesses, regardless of where the businesses have a physical presence.

Currently, states are limited by federal mandate to collect tax only on online purchases in which the seller has sufficient physical presence in the state.
 

9) Workers’ compensation: 2016 could see some states weakening requirements related to the insurance costs and processes of workers’ compensation. Facing this possibility, some in Congress have said the federal government may need to step in to maintain worker protections and increase oversight.