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Blog Business Managing Your Business

Seasonal Workers – How & Who to Hire

From an original article by Dona DeZube, Monster.com

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By “focusing on the mindset of today’s Millennial workers” you can boost your business ahead in the competition for summer workers. Monster.com (the global online employment solution for people seeking jobs and the employers who need them) shares 5 cost-effective strategies to attract the best candidates for seasonal help:

1. Research competitors’ pay
2. Look for ways to make the job fun
3. Offer a flexible schedule and make it easy to come back 4. Tell applicants what’s in it for them
5. Differentiate your organization from the competition

Read the full article to get the detailed strategies for hiring seasonal workers.

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Blog Business Managing Your Business

Top Productivity Tips from Small Business Owners

From an original article by Erin Myers, Outbound EngineToDo

 

 

 

 

 

As a business owner, you know that quality trumps quantity when it comes to your products and your people. But it can be easy to forget that the statement applies to you and your time, as well. Once you’re up and running it’s crucial to reign in your workweek. Below, small business owners share their top tips for time management and productivity:

  1. Recognize and schedule around your “Personal Productivity Fluctuations”
  2. Find creative ways to limit distractions
  3. Limit your priorities
  4. Learn the art of delegation by automation
  5. Stop the judgment

Read the full article to learn how to make these business owner productivity tips work for you.

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Blog Business Growth & Capital

Grow Your Small Business with These Tech Tips

From an original article by Steven Scheck, Small Business Trends

Just when we’d gotten the hang of all the wires and plugs and switches, it changed again. If wireless technology has left your business at loose ends, now is the time to zero in. Understanding these four technologies can help you plan better, reach more customers, and reduce your daily to-dos.

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Here are 4 tech tips to help your business grow:

  • Utilize the Power of the Cloud
    “ … the cloud not only eases the workload but also increases productivity and coordination, facilitates mobility and reduces expenditure … [and can] reduce the chances of loss of important data significantly.”
  • Harness the Potential of Social Media
    “The number of active social media users has been found to be a whopping 2.307 billion. … On social media you can promote your services and products, enable buying options directly from social media platforms [and] gather customer feedback.”
  • Leverage the Scope of WiFi
    “Providing free WiFi to your customers opens up the opportunity to build quality networks and accumulate valuable data regarding your clients’ online behavior.”
  • Track of Your Progress
    “Numerous technology tools can help boost the performance by identifying what doesn’t work and providing the right reinforcement to keep things up and running.”

Want more? Read the full article and learn how to take advantage of the four technologies that help grow small businesses.

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Blog Business Fraud & Security

Security Tips To Keep Your Business Safe While It Grows

Small businesses are at an increased threat of having valuable information or property stolen as criminals are getting more sophisticated at breaking down larger and more complicated security systems. Here are four steps you can take to protect your small business. 

1. Update and Upgrade Your Physical Security Measures. 

  • Change the locks and bolts on your physical location.
  • Invest in a fully monitored alarm system with a team who responds immediately.
  • Install security cameras that can be monitored remotely. The same technology that allows you to check in on your dogs while you’re away can also catch and record a perpetrator breaking into your business. 

Sometimes, installing these kinds of systems is enough to discourage break-ins. 

2. Perform proper security checks on vendors. 

How well do you know your vendors, especially the ones who need to enter your building? You may be diligent about running security checks on your own employees, but how do you know your vendors do the same? To be safe, you should run the following checks:

  • Security checks on any vendor personnel with access to your business
  • Vendor credit history 
  • Vendor BBB rating 
  • To get an idea of what it is like to work with the vendor, look at their online reviews. 

3. Protect Your Data 

Protecting your data doesn’t have to be a hassle. All you need to secure your information is a cybersecurity system that makes it a hassle for a hacker to gain access. There are plenty of small businesses out there who do nothing to protect their data. A hacker is much more interested in breaking into their nonexistent security system than yours, which will take up too much of their time.

If your business transfers sensitive information from the company’s server to a remote server, then you also need to look into using a VPN to secure data transmitted online. This ensures a secure connection between you, the sender, and the recipient. 

4. Shred it! 

It’s important to shred (and recycle) relevant physical documents, but did you know that you now can ‘shred’ digital data? You can! Software now exists that allows you to shred digital information, ensuring that the ‘shredded’ data is erased and irrecoverable. 

As criminals get savvier, businesses must stay one step ahead. Update your security measures by following the above steps and sleep easier at night knowing your businesses information is safe. 

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Blog Business General News

Discover the Benefits of Our CashFlow LEASE® Program

In a continuing effort to help drive the success of our business customers, we are pleased to offer an in- house equipment leasing option. Adding CashFlow LEASE® to our catalog of commercial loan products means you get the benefits of traditional financing plus the ability to customize terms to the needs of your business.

CashFlow LEASE® helps reduce the risk of acquiring equipment. With this program you can lease as they grow to upgrade equipment as needed and cut back on up-front costs.

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Choosing CashFlow LEASE® provides several benefits to you and your business:

Maintain liquidity
Possible tax and accounting benefits (consult your CPA)
Protection against equipment obsolescence
Upgrade capabilities

At Pinnacle Bank, we want to be part of the solution for all your business financing needs. Download the brochure to learn more about our CashFlow LEASE® Program or call 877.759.7939 if you need help with immediate equipment financing.logo

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General News

Understanding SBA Loans & Rates

The U.S. Small Business Administration, (SBA) provides two specific types of loan funds and guarantees. The purpose of these loan funds is simply to generate economic activity through offering loan funding that might not generally be available in the traditional banking model.

There are three concerns that typically cause businesses to explore SBA loans:

• A perceived risk due to some inherent risk of the industry (obsolescence)
• The nature of the business itself (start-up, undercapitalized)
• The security available to support the loan (insufficient equity)

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Two Types of Loans: Plan 7a or 504

These specific loan programs are offered under Plan 7a or 504. Plan 7a is a traditional loan under which the borrowers pay fees on each individual loan, which are used to guarantee some portion of the loan, usually 75%. Usually this type of loan is characterized by a lack of sufficient up front equity on the part of the business owners, or a collateral type which is insufficient to support the required loan. Additionally, under the 7a program the loan might approach a higher level than a bank would typically have comfort with.

The second plan, 504, is one in which the loan is secured in some primary portion by business premises, although some equipment lending is being seen under this format as well. In the 504 program, the borrower pays an equity component, (usually 10-20% depending) the bank provides a 50% first loan and the SBA takes a second interest of 30-40%. The benefit of 504 lending is that the borrower can see up to a 20-25 year fixed interest rate as the SBA loan. These rates are competitive with today’s 5 year fixed rates by traditional banking sources.

Get an SBA Loan at Reduced Rates

The U.S. Small Business Administration recently announced two fee reductions to the SBA-504 program starting October 1, 2015.

First, the SBA is reducing the upfront fees financed into an SBA-504 loan by 1⁄2 of 1% as of October 1st. On a $1,000,000 project where a bank funds 50%, SBA funds 40%, and a borrower injects 10%, it will significantly reduce the fees financed into the borrower’s 40% portion by $2,000.

Secondly, the ongoing fees added to the borrower’s payment will be reduced slightly by 2.35 basis points on all approvals after October 1.

Conclusion

These rate reductions are great news for business owners considering an expansion or start-up. Please contact us if there are questions regarding these fees and the process of getting loans of any type.

At Pinnacle Bank, we are developing the resources to offer many varied solutions to your business borrowing needs, allowing us the capacity to say yes where others say no!

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General News

SBDC Advice: 6 Spring Cleaning Tips for Small Businesses

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Now that Spring is in full swing, checking off some of those easily forgotten to-dos can give you a jumpstart for Q2. The University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center — designated as one of Georgia’s top providers of small business assistance — names the six quick ways to refresh your business for the rest of the year.

From sprucing up your social presence and staffing assignments to reassessing your goals, these SBDC tips are a must-read. Put on your cleaning gloves then tackle these quick and easy tips for spring cleaning your business.

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General News

Meet Holli Gailey, One of Our Pinnacle Bank Mortgage Lenders

HolliHolli Gailey got her start in banking 2005 and gained experience in the front lines of banking as a Personal Banker. In 2010, Holli became a Mortgage Lender and has enjoyed her job ever since.

Holli enjoys servicing areas including Royston, Elberton, Lexington, Hartwell and Lavonia. From VA and USDA loans to new construction, she’s enjoyed helping many customers navigate the mortgage process and get into their new homes as smoothly as possible. To Holli, each customer’s situation is a like a puzzle and she finds it fun to put the right pieces together to make their mortgage work. She particularly enjoys the excitement of new homeowners after the process, or those that have been able to refinance to lower rates.

With Pinnacle Bank’s goal of being the best community bank in Georgia, Holli has a sincere appreciation for the small town atmosphere, where team members feel more like friends and family.

Holli is a member of the Young Professionals Hospital Board at Elbert Memorial, a member of the Delta Zeta local sorority and a member of her Church Board.

Originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and a graduate of the University of Alabama, Holli moved to Georgia 12 years ago and loves this area. Outside of the bank, Holli enjoys spending time at the lake with her husband and young son and daughter. They also enjoy traveling abroad when possible, including trips to Venice, Switzerland and Austria.

familyIf you are interested in meeting Holli Gailey to discuss your mortgage needs, she can be reached at 706.213.3329 or via email.

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Blog Business

3 SBA Tips on Growing Your Small Business Staff

With Q2 just around the corner, you may be thinking of all the Spring cleaning needed around your office — closets, windows, and junk drawers, of course — but what about your hiring process? As many small businesses are ramping up for the busiest part of the year, owners everywhere are wondering “Do I hire?” When the answer is yes, there’s always the inevitable follow-up: “Well, how?”

If you’re wondering how to grow your small business staff, and how to manage it effectively, the U.S. Small Business Administration has those answers. From streamlining your hiring with a task list, to defining roles and setting new boundaries as The Boss, these tips will help you staff successfully. Take a coffee break and read these top tips for hiring your small business staff.

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Blog Business

FDIC News: Cybersecurity for Your Small Business

By now we’re all fairly savvy shoppers when it comes to making personal purchases online. You know to look for the secured URL address before entering any payment information. You’ve also created an easy-to-remember but hard-to-hack password; but what about when it comes to protecting your small business online?

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A recent FDIC Consumer News update included eight ways to better manage the cybersecurity of your business — ranging from your software to the soft skills of your employees. Ready to learn how to reduce risk, increase data defenses, and stay vigilant in the digital age? Read these top tips for small business cybersecurity.