Have you recently started your own home business, but aren’t sure how to handle the finances? Are you nervous when it comes to business debt, budgeting for the future and balancing your gross/net figures? Below are some helpful tips to guide you through some of the most difficult tasks of business finance. You can accurately and consistently manage your business finances without a lot of stress if you’ll implement the simple principles below.

Finance Starting Point

In order to manage your home business finances, you need a definite starting point. This will be a summary of your entire financial assessment for your business. Note of Warning: Often, a home business finance plan mingles with personal finances. Try to keep these as separate as possible for tax purposes and to avoid confusion. Even if you buy something personal with business money, write it down so you’ll be sure not to include it as a business expense.

Your Starting Point Assessment Should Include the Following:

*Most Current Gross Profits/Loss of the Business

*Most Current Net Profits/Loss of the Business (your bottom line)

*Cash on Hand

*Checking Account Balance

*Debts/Loans for the Business (include payments due and balances)

*Assets

*Advertising Funds

*Miscellaneous Items having to do with your business finances

Once you have an assessment of where you stand financially with your home business, you can move forward. The assessment is not your budget, but it allows you to create a budget based on realistic figures. Budgeting on a dream is not wise with a business. You might reach your goals, but what if you don’t? Set your goals, but only budget for those amounts when you’ve actually reached them.

Creating a Home Business Budget

Most home businesses have a tremendous advantage over larger businesses because operating expenses are normally much lower. There’s no building rent to pay, additional utilities, etc. If you stay at your desk most of the day, you will save on gas, car maintenance, etc. For this reason, it’s usually easier to budget for a home business. Based on what your business has profited over recent months, or your start-up cash if your business is brand new, write down all of your business expenses that need to be paid for each month or year to get a monthly estimate. What about your salary? The salary must be determined only after your expenses are paid. If there’s any left, you’ll still want to keep extra cash in your business account for emergencies or unexpected slow times. You should determine your salary on the low end at first while building your business and stick with your salary amount to maintain a steady budget. For example, if you’re able to take a $350 per week salary in a brand new home business, that’s great! Many home business owners work a full time job while building their business and take very little (if any) salary. If you have a business checking account or some form of online account for finances, you should deposit all funds into this account and pay your salary out of the account as well as your expenses. Checking accounts make budgeting a simple process if you keep your checkbook well balanced at all times.

Create a Budget Based on the Following Categories (more if necessary):

Some of these items will be broken down into weekly figures, some monthly and some yearly. However, you should calculate a monthly average in order to create a general monthly budget.

*Business Expenses (include supplies, equipment, phone, etc.)

*Insurance (business and personal health insurance can be included)

*Taxes (estimated figure from your accountant based on profits)

*Debt Repayment for any business loans

*Advertising (amount will vary, but you can set a minimum or maximum amount)

*Your Salary

Once you have a list of expenses for each month, write down due dates for each, and pay bills as they come due. Pay on time, but not too early. Your money can sit in your bank account and draw interest in many cases while waiting on due dates.

Budget with Slow Times in Mind

Just because you have tremendous profits one month, this doesn’t indicate that you can raise your salary. Leave money in your account for those slow times. Also, budget in advance for payments which are due yearly. It’s much easier to save a little each month than to be surprised with a large bill later. Following the simple budgeting guide above will enable you to keep an even pace while managing your business finances. Handle your finances with care because this is the lifeline of your home business.

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Financial tips for loans & creditcards

Credit Cards Vs Loans

If you want to take out a personal loan you can borrow up to 25,000; the main point is you get structured repayments so you know how long youre borrowing for and what itll cost each month. If you were to borrow on the cheapest credit cards it substantially undercuts the cheapestloans on offer; so in many circumstances credit cards should be the first choice. Check out the latest loan deals at www.peekoo.co.uk.

Are you trying to make existing credit card debts cheaper?

In most cases a loan will not be the cheapest option for you. Most credit card providers offer 0% balance transferdeals and they are designed to allow you to transfer other card debts to them at a special rate, usually these rates are much cheaper than the best loan rates.

By going for this option it does not mean that you need to keep transferring debts between short term 0% deals; some of the deals available last until all of the debt has been repaid. Do try to ensure that you make at least similar repayments to what the loan would normally cost you each month

Are you borrowing for less than a year or less than 1000?

Majority of the loans available over a short period or low amounts are usually very expensive. Instead there are other options available to cut the cost. Some of the credit card providers allow new customers to spend on there cards at 0% for up to the first year. As long as you can make your purchase on a card and will definitely pay it off before the 0% deal ends, then this could be a lot better option than a loan with a high APR%.

Are you trying to cut the cost of an existing loan?

Most would think that by switching to a cheaper interest rate will save you money. Many loans, especially the older ones, have lock in penalties so even though you will end up paying less interest on the loan, when you add in the fine for switching, overall you end up paying more.

Secured Loans Vs Personal Loans

Most of the high street loans available are un-secured. You would think that this option is a bad thing but it isnt. The other alternative is secured loan the kind youll see all over the TV. For the following reasons Id steer well clear unless you really have to

Your home could be taken away if you fall behind on payments.

A secured loan means you are securing the debt on your home (or something else you may own), and if you cant repay, the lender can repossess your home. With unsecured loans this is a lot less likely to happen.

Most personal loan rates are fixed, and secured loans are usually on a variable rate.

Majority of the un-secured loans available are on a fixed rate; from the start you know exactly what you will pay, and this will not change if the UKs interest rates change or the lenders rates change. For the latest rates on secured loans visit www.peekoo.co.uk.

With secured loans the rates are variable, meaning the lender can change the rates when it likes, especially in a credit crunch when you really dont need added pressure on your finances. Many secured loans have seen rates doubling, hitting peoples pockets hard which is resulting in the falling behind on payment and in some cases having the homes repossessed.

Secured loan payments are usually stretched over many years.

Secured loan lenders often tell you that there is one easy low monthly repayment, this may sound good but this illusion is made by stretching the debt over many years, so you will end up paying more and more interest, costing you a fortune.

This is very important information and something you should take seriously if considering a secured loan. Remember secured loans give your lender the security, not you. A much better option is to take a normal unsecured personal loan than one secured on your house.

Secured loans are rarely the best possible option and should be considered as the last resort of lending. If you have a reasonable credit score then you should consider a personal loan first. There are other options like cheap credit card deals or even extending your mortgage.

Choosing the right loan

Some of the lowest interest rate loans can turn out to be the most costly due to hidden costs from the lender. Before you pick the type of loan you want to apply for decide the most important factors. How much, for how long?

The maths behind it is very simple; borrow as little as possible and repay as quickly as possible. When looking for a loan always base borrowing on what you can comfortably afford to repay as over borrowing can cause debts to build up. Also before borrowing question everything; can you avoid any debt? The PeeKoo loan calculator will let you calculate how much you can borrow and at what cost.

The Cheapest Personal Loans

Have a look at the best buy tables in the PeeKoo loan section to find the best rates available. The cheapest loans with out insurance, all you need to do is find the loan with the lowest APR (Annual Percentage Rate) of interest for the amount you are borrowing.

Please be aware that all the top loans compared in our tables are typical rates, which means only 66% of those accepted actually need to be given these rates; depending on your own personal credit score you may end up paying a lot more.

Visit www.peekoo.co.uk

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