We are proud to announce that Bankable has received a $25,000 grant from the Fifth Third Foundation’s Strengthening Our Communities Fund to support the growth of loan program capacity.

Bankable partners with Fifth Third and other organizations to offer Indiana small businesses who are not able to receive traditional financing, access to affordable business loans as well as quality business assistance programs in an effort to help them become “bankable”. The grant from the Fifth Third Foundation will enable the Bankable team to expand capacity and offer higher quality technical assistance to small businesses throughout Indiana.  In addition to providing this grant, Fifth Third serves as a strong referral partner by connecting businesses to Bankable for loan funding.

“We are honored and grateful to have been selected by the Fifth Third Foundation to be a recipient of this grant,” says Bankable Executive Director, Adam Hoeksema, “Fifth Third is committed to strengthening the Indiana community through partnership and this grant will enable us to further carry out our mission in doing that by supporting more small businesses.”

What are POS systems?

For many businesses, a POS (point-of-sale) system is an essential part of the operation. While POS systems can serve multiple purposes, their primary purpose is for managing payment transactions. The system is a mix of hardware as well as software: the hardware being in the form of a cash register or credit card scanner, while the software is in the form of an interface that can track sales data, manage customer information, and more. These systems have been around for years, but they have seen a tremendous amount of change as technology continues to advance. One of the trends in technology that made a massive impact on the POS industry is the shift towards cloud storage. Because of cloud-based technology, POS systems can run on a wide range of devices, even including an app on a user’s phone.

[Read more…] about A Look At 5 POS Systems (Point-of-Sale)

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a form of social media that is used to convey short messages and updates. These updates are called “Tweets.” Twitter found its unique edge in the social media market by introducing a 140 character limit for any Tweet. This forces the user to be concise and mindful when wording their Tweets. This character limit classifies Twitter as a “microblogging tool.”

[Read more…] about Twitter 101 for Small Business

Becoming “bankable.”

Becoming bankable is a major milestone for every business, let alone young businesses, and unfortunately there’s not a one size fits all solution for how to get there. To be bankable means that a business is able to receive some form of traditional financing package from a bank. Whether that be a $10,000 operating line of credit or a $200,000 term loan for equipment, to grow and develop your business to the point where it no longer needs debt financing or is able to qualify for some level of bank financing is a huge achievement. And the best part… it’s not impossible to get there. Contrary to popular belief, banks are lending at an all-time high to small businesses, they have more small business focused products than ever, and they want to keep finding small businesses to help scale.

[Read more…] about What Does It Mean To Be “Bankable”?

Why is Facebook Advertising Necessary?

Let’s say that you run a page on Facebook with 5,000 likes. When you post something on Facebook, that post gets sent to all 5,000 people who like the page, right? Unfortunately, wrong. In the recent years, Facebook has begun to reduce organic reach of posts. Standard posts are typically only are seen by 5-20% of the people who “like” the page in question, and hardly anybody who does not “like” the page in question. Therefore, a knowledge of Facebook advertising is needed in order to use Facebook as a significant online presence tool. However, you don’t need to have a huge advertising budget to see success: with the information given here, you can get positive results with a minimal budget. This document includes a list of relevant terms to Facebook advertising, as well as some links to very detailed guides on Facebook advertising.

[Read more…] about Facebook Advertising Resources

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a social media platform that focuses specifically on visual media. Each post has to be either a picture or a video with a 60 second limit. A text caption can accompany these posts, but no text can be posted without posting a picture or video. This separates Instagram from other forms of social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, and have developed some similarities in each platform (such as live video capabilities).

[Read more…] about Instagram 101 for Small Business