Statistically, however, the share of small business owners reporting trouble obtaining credit has been the same since the third quarter of 2009. The survey, which is based on a nationally representative sample of 600 small business owners whose companies have up to $20 million in annual sales, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In the figure below, I have plotted the fraction of small business owners reporting that credit was difficult to obtain for each quarter since April 2007. The figure clearly shows three distinct periods in small business owners’ perceptions of credit availability: Before the recession, when only a small fraction thought credit was difficult to obtain; during the recession, when the share expressing this view was rising; and during the recovery, when a large fraction has thought that credit was tough to get.

In a nutshell, the Wells Fargo surveys indicate that we are in a period of tighter small business credit than before the Great Recession.

Source: Created from data from the Wells Fargo Small Business Survey

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Credit Remains Tough to Get

Events

Creating Content Gold, a BizSugar Q & A.  Don’t miss small business blogger Ileane Smith of Basic Blog Tips and BizSugar community manager Niall Devitt in this question and answer session sponsored by the BizSugar community on Facebook 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. today. Please join us with your questions about content marketing. BizSugar

How To

Keys to building a top business blog. Neil Patel of QuickSprout shares the tips he used to build a hugely successful blog over time. Be sure these tips are a part of your content management strategy. Creating a top small business blog may be easier than you think. ProBlogger

Increasing conversion from your content. Obviously you expect your content to drive sales in some manner, but how do you convert those who regularly visit your site into online customers? Here are some tips from Scott Gerber that make the process easier. Inc.com

Web Presence

Assessing your Web presence. One of the best arguments for content marketing on the Web is the creation of a Web presence. When examining the efforts of small businesses in developing an online presence, we might first look at how successful other fields like politics have been in doing so. You’re the Boss

More than online content required. It’s important to be an online content creator, sure. But will this alone increase your sales? Well,…no, according to business expert Kelly Roberts. Here he tells us why creating social media content just isn’t enough. GrowthUniversity

Content Creation

Why content still remains king. There’s no chicken or egg discussion to be had when trying to figure out what comes first on your Website. Content must be the first consideration around which everything else is built. That includes design. If you don’t have decent content, you will not be able to build your business online. Wood Street Web Design Development

Some tips on creating content faster. Speed can indeed be of the essence in the chaotic world of online content creation. While it’s imperative for your business, it is also a time consuming enterprise that can make it difficult to balance other tasks. Here are some simple considerations. The Work at Home Woman

Blogging Tips

Building a profitable blog. How does one truly build a profitable blog. This conclusion of a blog series looks at how to go beyond simply starting a blog to promote your business. Here we look at how to create a blog that IS your business. Follow one woman’s journey to make the dream a reality. The Guardian

How to stick with content creation. Like other aspects of your small business, sticking with content creation, specifically blogging and social media, can be the biggest challenge. Here are some tips for keeping things going and making your content consistently great. Reviews ‘n Tips

Other Thoughts

Spread out a bit when you can. Take a lesson from online marketing and remember that spreading out in your topic area can often be a way of bringing in audiences you might not have attracted otherwise. It’s a good idea to stay within your niche, but sometimes adding variety can have benefits. Righteous Marketing

From Small Business Trends

Creating Content for Small Business

The numbers don’t lie: tablets are primed to transform computing for small businesses this year, and it isn’t all about the iPad (which sold 11.2 million units in Q4).

Until recently, it was easy to excuse those who thought that tablets are to laptops as laptops are to desktops.  As Sarah Lacy points out on PandoDaily, it’s not that simple.  It’s different than the “SAAS mania of the early 2000s” that ran into IT barriers.  Tablets change the way we interact with software.  Because tablets utilize touch-based apps, Lacy predicts that workers are more included to adopt business software, partially “because it’s the new shiny toy they want more reasons to use.”  Apps follow the mantra “there’s an app for that,” which works perfectly for small business, because, no matter your workflow, there is an app to help.

Tablets are designed simple and functional, important distinctions for small businesses.  Rather than booting up a computer or laptop (or keeping one running for the entire day) that is also running a host of other programs in the background, tablet apps give you what you want when you want it.  If you want to balance your checkbook, create an invoice or scan and send documents to the cloud, jumping into an app is much easier than booting up a program on a traditional computer.  It’s also important to point out that beyond the obvious tablet choice of the iPad - the Amazon Kindle and now the Samsung Galaxy – have put competitive, appealing alternatives on the market.

The main advantage of a tablet is speed, which is enhanced because of mobility.  Why wait to input an invoice into a computer or share a business contract when you are back in the office?  Many SMBs don’t sit at a desk all day; they are on the floor, servicing customers or out on the road.  The mobile nature of tablets and apps let you take action right away, and many times from the field without lugging around a laptop. Plus, the tablet is replacing a lot of traditional equipment small businesses need at a lower cost, like a cash register, fax or scanner.

I’m certainly not the first to predict that tablets have a home inside businesses, but it is important to make the distinction that they have a home within small business.  I think that by the end of 2012, small businesses will understand and adopt tablets in their daily workflow.  This will push app developers like myself to create better software to make your lives easier… and I’m sure there will be a new version of Angry Birds out soon, too.

Tablet Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Your Small Business Needs a Tablet

If you’ve done a good job with your franchise business selections, including making sure that the opportunities you’ve looked into are easily within your budget, and you’ve done a stellar job with your research, there’s only a couple of things left for you to do.

The first thing involves energy. You’re going to have to decide which opportunity you’re going to focus all of your energy on. Once you’ve done that, you’re a lot closer to becoming an owner.  The next thing you do will probably involve travel, and with it, some out of pocket expenses. It’s the Discovery Day; it’s the day that you travel to franchise headquarters to meet the franchise team.

You Need to Get an Invite

Not just anybody can attend a Discovery Day. Only candidates that qualify financially, and have been through every stage of the franchise exploration process with their franchise development representatives can get an invite.

Most franchise development representatives don’t extend an invitation to their franchise candidates until they’ve gone through several specific steps in the process. The candidate’s credit history is checked, and there’s usually a background check done, too. In addition, the development representatives must feel confident that their candidates have a good understanding of the business itself, and what their roles would be in the operation of it.

It’s also the job of the representative to help their candidate’s get a feel for the (FDD) Franchise Disclosure Document, and to answer questions that they may have along the way. All franchise buyers must be presented with this document before they’re permitted to actually buy the franchise opportunity. The items listed, (23 of them) include thing like company financials, executive backgrounds, and the actual franchise contract.

If you’ve met the criteria identified above, and you do get invited up to headquarters, should you go?

The answer to that question depends on how serious you are about becoming an owner of the franchise in question.

For Serious Candidates Only

When my clients ask me if they should attend a Discover Day that they’ve been invited to, I tell them to only go if they’ve made the commitment to buy the franchise. That’s because by the time Discovery Day rolls around, the candidate should know just about all there is to know about the opportunity. No more research should be needed. The candidate should have a pretty good idea on how his or her franchise will be financed, and should have a franchise attorney standing by to look the franchise contract over, which may be sent home with the candidate at Discovery Day.

That’s right; a contract. That’s why only serious franchise candidates should pay a visit to franchise headquarters…..candidates that are just about ready to take the leap.

What to Expect

Your day at headquarters will allow you to see the entire operation in action. You’ll get a tour of the facility plus you’ll spend some time in all the different departments. You’ll meet the CEO. You may have an opportunity visit one or two franchise operations located in the vicinity of headquarters

When you attend the franchisors Discovery Day, you’re going to notice a difference in the way that your franchise development rep is communicating with you; eventually, things may start to feel a little more salesy than they have been during your past interactions. Your representative could be close to making a sale-and a commission.

But, two things need to happen before that sale can take place:

1. The executive team needs to feel that you’d be a good franchisee, and if so, formally approve you. If they do so, your franchise representative will call you a day or two after your Discovery Day visit, and tell you that you’ve been approved as a franchisee and that they’d love to have you as one.
2. The second decision will of course be yours; The Decision to become a franchisee.

Your Discovery Day will fly by. Absorb as much as you can. Get a feel for the company culture. Then go back home and sit on things for a couple of days. Bring the franchise contract to your (franchise) attorney.  If everything looks good, you’ll have a decision to make.  You’ll know what to do.

Discovery Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

The Franchise Discovery Day

One book that assures ease is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quickbooks by Barbara Harvie, an award winning author of small business software manuals. I received a review copy in the mail and felt the book has value beyond Quickbooks related questions.

Learn Accounting Essentials

It may be a bit disingenuous to say that this book covers the features of Quickbooks.  Hopefully, that is what you would expect from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quickbooks.  But as you look over the pages, you’ll find that the genie grants the wish. From setting up a company file in Chapter 1 to assigning sales taxes in Chapter 17, you’ll find what you need to manage the software correctly.

As I mentioned at the start, what makes this book valuable is how accounting is weaved into the explanations.  Again, disingenuous would be the word to use if this book didn’t explain accounting well.  But it does make this book useful for those business owners transitioning from other invoice Cloud services that have cropped up since Quickbooks was first introduced.  Services such as Freshbooks and Invoicera are excellent for solopreneurs and small businesses that must manage sales, but managing finances across several sales teams require a broad accounting application for quick organization and quicker results.

The accounting topics are well structured. Each topic illustrates how features have a certain value at a certain time.  Never knew what closing the books really meant?  Just turn to page 407 for an explanation.

Get Into the Habit of Nuanced Service for Customers

Harvie’s arrangement of explaining accounting terms and practices such as tracking inventory, accounts, and vendors reveals business basics that should be aware of throughout operations. You will also gain some of the nuances to help tailor to customer needs with meaningful accounting service. A segment on invoicing customers, for example, includes arranging for separate notice schedules between largest customer and smaller businesses that may need more personalized attention.  Such dynamics extend into each reporting, such as the pricing level, as Harvie explains:

“With price levels, Quickbooks lets your charge different prices for different customers. Each time you create an invoice, sales receipt, or credit memo for a particular customer, QuickBooks uses the price level associated with that customer to calculate the price for services, inventory, and noninventory items.”

Further text explains applying a discount, but you get the idea – adjusting customer service instead of one size fit all.

This is still a manual series, so it has the similar The Least You Should Know chapter endings like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress, but Harvie does provide some resources at book’s end. Most of the book addresses the Quickbooks Pro (PC edition), but you’ll read appropriate references for the Enterprise edition for segments such as inventory costing.

What Compliments The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quickbooks

There are a number of articles and book reviews in Small Business Trends that may make for great reading alongside this guide.

• 5 Easy Ways to Stay On Top of Your Accounting:  Great tips that can follow up on your understanding of Quickbooks.
• How To Get That Millionaire Mindset:  Inspiration for understanding the value of LIFO vs FIFO.
• Will You Build or Buy Your Business:  Consider the articles here as an inspiration for how asset and expenses will be tracked.
• Wealth Creation for Small Business Owners:  The tips in this book can help you in selecting how to approach your accounting and Quickbooks settings.
• Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months:  A good compliment of sage advice to the finance and accounting plans from this book.

You won’t be a CPA with this book, but you’ll improve the discussion you’d have with a CPA. The end result are better financial choices needed for your business. That can make the difference in reaching the economic playoffs – growing your earnings and your business as a result.

From Small Business Trends

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Quickbooks: Give Your Accounting A Wise Start

All blogging platforms (including WordPress) come with native support for some sort of comment mechanism which seems to suffice for most bloggers. But sometimes, users may require some dedicated or specialized comment mechanism. This is where third-party commenting systems come in handy.

In this article, we will take a look at some of the major third-party commenting mechanisms. But before going any further, let us assess the pros and cons of using or not using such third-party commenting systems.

Why Should You Use Third Party Commenting Platforms?

The advantages of using a third-party commenting system are many, and now we shall take a look at some of the major ones.

The foremost advantage of using a third-party comment system is the support for social networking sites. Almost all third-party comment systems offer excellent integration with social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, and some even go to the limits of carving their own user base along the lines of a social network. This enables users to seamlessly share their comments and the articles they read on their social networking profiles, thereby spreading the word and driving more visitors to your website.

Third party comment mechanisms also offer real-time updates and email alerts, good RSS support allowing users to keep track of their comments and take part in discussions in a more organized manner.

Furthermore, most such platforms support a single sign-in with many IDs, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or OpenID. Naturally, this helps in getting comments from different types of users, as well as wards off spam quite effectively.

And lastly, most such systems allow readers to rate the comments too – you can give a ‘Thumbs Up’ or ‘Thumbs Down’ to comments you like or dislike respectively, and you can flag comments and mark them as spam. Obviously, such ‘community recognition’ of comments goes a long way in helping users take the discussions more seriously.

Why Should You Use the Default Comment Mechanism?

At times, we simply don’t need (or don’t want) the third-party commenting facilities. For starters, the default commenting facility blends well with the design (irrespective of whether we use a free theme for our blog or a premium one, the default system for comments doesn’t really look out-of-place).

Often times, third-party commenting systems are notorious for increasing the load time. While they do not really take AGES to load, they do slow down the load time, in comparison to the native commenting mechanism. The reason for this is that third-party systems are not integrated within the blog’s design base.

Next, in order to get the maximum out of third-party systems, your users should essentially have an account. Yes, such systems do allow the users to comment anonymously, but if they are to get the optimum out of the mechanism, an account is necessary (this applies most emphatically to Livefyre). While such accounts do help in killing spam, they are often a deterrent. A native commenting system, on the other, requires at the most an email address – you can let Akismet take care of the spam comments!

Lastly, the in-built comments system is hosted, well, as part of your own website. It is not dependent on a third-party server, and you don’t have to worry about their server being slow to respond, and so on.

With the advantages and disadvantages out-of-the-way, we shall now take a look at the major third-party commenting systems.

Disqus

Disqus is a comments platform built along a community model. It is one of the most popularly used comment mechanisms and is backed by numerous addons.

Disqus

Major Features:

• Disqus supports realtime comments in a fast and intuitive interface. You can even get email notifications for follow-up comments (and reply to the responses by replying to that email).
• It is well-integrated with services such as YouTube and Flickr, and you can easily embed or attach media such as photos or videos to your comments.
• You can login, like and share stuff using social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, the USP of Disqus lies in its integration with social networks as well as its own community model, wherein users can keep track of their comments and share things they like in an easy manner.
• Disqus also comes with moderation tools and an in-house anti-spam technology that ensures that your site is safe from spammers. You can restrict certain keywords within comments and add blacklists or whitelists as and when need be!
• Finally, Disqus offers good support for mobile devices, has been internationalized well and comes with plugins/modules for WordPress, Drupal and easy integration for Blogger, Tumblr and many other platforms.

Disqus is used by the likes of CNN, Time Magazine, Fox News and Engadget.

IntenseDebate

IntenseDebate is a commenting platform from the stable of Automattic, the good folks behind WordPress. It is a wonderful commenting system, that has several good features.

IntenseDebate

Major Features:

• IntenseDebate provides a decent set of community tools, including integration with services such as Facebook Connect and OpenID.
• It supports nested comments, email notifications and reply-by-email.
• Just like Disqus, users can have their own profiles with full social networking integration.
• You can moderate comments, use blacklists or whitelists, and even assign other admins for the task. Spam protection, of course, is provided by Akismet.
• IntenseDebate is supported on services such as WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, and many others.

It is used by websites such as Infectious Creed and ScreenCrave. Obviously, the user base is not as impressive as that of Disqus, but IntenseDebate is rising at a good (though still not ‘great’) pace.

Livefyre

Livefyre is a real-time conversation platform, that aims to “turn your content into a catalyst for meaningful live conversations.” Ok, that’s good use of English, if nothing else!

Livefyre

Major Features:

• Livefyre, just like its competitors, offers good integration with social networking services. When you comment, you can tag your Facebook friends right away, and thereby bring more people into the conversation.
• Comments are published in real-time, and it also shows a live stat of both those commenting and listening.
• Livefyre comments are SEO-friendly and this helps you increase your page rank.
• Users can create their profiles on Livefyre, and gain additional features, such as the frequency of email responses, linkbacks and credit points on their comments.
• Just like Disqus and IntenseDebate, Livefyre also offers powerful moderation tools and anti-spam measures.
• The USP of Livefyre, arguably, lies in its eye-candy element. It has a beautiful interface, and new comments, for example, are shown as a bubble pop-up at the bottom.
• For general usage, Livefyre is free. But can get a Custom Solution if you need additional features such as developer support, on-page branding, guaranteed SLA Uptime, emails via custom domains and page views over 2 million per month.

Among major websites that use Livefyre, the most noteworthy ones are The Sun, The New York Times, Tennis.com, AOL, M Tv and Bloguin. Clearly, Livefyre caters to some of the biggest names.

ECHO

ECHO, formerly known as JS-KIT, is another real-time commenting system, that offers several Premium features. Strictly speaking, ECHO is a complete real-time web platform, inclusive of forums, polls, real-time sharing and comments, among other things.

ECHO

Major Features:

• Just like most other platforms, ECHO too supports real-time comments with no need to refresh the page in order to display new comments.
• ECHO comes with in-line sharing, enabling users to post their comments to social networks at the same time.
• You can sync comments from platforms such as Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter conversations and (soon to be added) Google+ – all in a side stream or even a separate tab.
• ECHO also provides wonderful moderation and analytics’ tools. Plus, it is fully customizable.

However, ECHO is more of an enterprise solution and you can’t simply ‘download’ it for free and start using it. Their website doesn’t actually talk about any pricing, but it does have a Contact Formwhere you can get in touch to learn more.

Major users of ECHO include The Washington Post and ESPN, among others.

Facebook Comment Box

If you tend to engage your blog users with Facebook in particular, you can try using Facebook Comments Box plugin for your blog. While this clearly does not beat Disqus or Livefyre in terms of features, it has certain unique benefits of its own.

Facebook Comments' Box

Major Features:

• FB Comments Box plugin sorts comments on the basis of relevance. Comments or topics that have received preference from friends (and friends of friends) are ordered first, while comments marked as spam are hidden from view.
• Users can easily share comments on Facebook by leaving the ‘Post to Facebook’ tick box checked. Naturally, since FB itself is a huge social network, this can drive new visitors to your website.
• The plugin also provides certain moderation tools, grammar filters, mobile version and support for third-party login. Currently, only Yahoo! AOL and Windows Live accounts are supported, as per the documentation.

On the downside, FB Comments Box plugin is rendered as an iframe, and many search engines do not crawl content within an iframe. So this plugin might not give you the SEO boost that you’re expecting from the user comments.

With that, we come to the end of this round-up. Which comment system do you use for your blog? How is your experience with it? Feel free to let us know!

Such themes are known by various names – bare-bones, stripped themes, blank themes, etc. Whatever it be, at the end of the day, all of them serve one purpose – help developers create awesome themes!

We shall now take a look at some of the major WordPress theme frameworks and skeleton themes. Before we proceed, it should be worth noting that certain themes mentioned below, such as TwentyTen Five, are not skeletons as such, but they make an awesome starting point for your project anyway!

*Pricing for paid/premium themes is mentioned adjacent to their respective names. Themes/frameworks with no pricing are free.

1. Elemental (Basic license $59.99)

Major Features:

• Custom control panel that lets you edit typography, navigation and other sections
• Four widgetized areas
• 12 custom page templates for sitemaps, contact forms, etc.
• Custom widgets for social networking sites
• Custom admin bar
• Localization and translation support

Elemental

Demo | Download

2. Toolbox

Major Features:

• Supports HTML5
• Ultra minimal
• Custom page templates
• One of the most well-known blank themes

Toolbox

Demo | Download

3. Bones

Major Features:

• Built around the HTML5 Boilerplate
• Organized CSS Files
• Custom page templates
• Available in two formats for WP: Classic, Responsive
• Also available in HTML version for projects

Bones

Demo | Download

4. HTML5 WP Shell

Major Features:

• Custom page templates
• Dynamic sidebars
• 404 and 503 error pages
• iPhone detection

HTML5 WP Shell

Demo | Download

5. Genesis (Standard License: $59.95)

Major Features:

• Support for multiple columns and sidebars
• Both full- and flexible-width templates
• Excellent SEO
• Unlimited support from the developers

Genesis

Demo | Download

6. WordPress Theme Framework (Pricing: $6)

Major Features:

• Built-in social media integration
• related posts
• breadcrumbs

WordPress Theme Framework

Demo | Download

7. Thematic

Major Features:

• 13 widget-ready areas
• Grid-based layout samples
• Modular CSS with pre-packaged resets and basic typography
• Support for most WP plugins
• Wiki-editable guide for customization

Thematic

Demo | Download

8. Roots

Major Features:

• Clean URLs
• Based on HTML5 boilerplate
• Additional styling for Gravity Forms plugin
• Multilingual (roughly 10 languages)

Roots

Demo | Download

9. Whiteboard

Major Features:

• Totally free and open source
• More dynamic classes and IDs than any other WP framework
• CSS3 animations
• Flexible div structure
• Fallback mechanism for older versions of WP

Whiteboard

Demo | Download

10. Starkers

Major Features:

• No non-semantic markups
• Totally blank, ideal for developing your theme based on it

Starkers

Demo | Download

11. Standard Theme (Standard License: $49)

Major Features:

• Customizable layout
• Floating Sharing buttons
• Affiliate program

Standard Theme

Demo | Download

12. HTML5 Reset

Major Features:

• Semantic HTML5 Markup
• Widget-ready sidebar
• Built-in support for jQuery, Modernizr and Analytics

HTML5 Reset

Demo | Download

13. The Buffet Framework

Major Features:

• SEO options such as breadcrumbs, headings and canonical URLs
• Action and Filter hooks
• Compatible with microformats
• Ready for translation

The Buffet Framework

Demo | Download

14. Ashford (Professional License: $49; Free version also available)

Major Features:

• Can create over 250 page variations
• Fully customizable web fonts and color styles
• Mobile friendly

Ashford

Demo | Download

15. Catalyst (Basic License: $77)

Major Features:

• 800+ design options
• Unlimited layout options
• SEO-friendly

Catalyst

Demo | Download

16. Simon WP Framework

Major Features:

• Flexible and free
• Widget-ready

Simon WP Framework

Demo | Download

17. PageLines Platform Pro (Professional License: $197)

Major Features:

• Drag and drop framework
• Extensions Marketplace (version 2.0)

PageLines Platform Pro

Demo | Download

18. ATOM Framework

Major Features:

• Context-aware layout selection
• Custom tabbed widgets
• Short codes, Ad Management, Gallery slides
• Easily extendable code base

ATOM Framework

Demo | Download

19. Thesis (Personal License: $87)

Major Features:

• Easy to use options’ panel
• Excellent Premium Support
• Flexible and SEO-friendly

Thesis

Download

20. The Constellation

Major Features:

• Responsive design
• Based on HTML5 Boilerplate
• SEO-friendly

The Constellation

Demo | Download

21. TwentyTen Five

Major Features:

• An HTML5 upgrade of the default TwentyTen theme
• Responsive design

TwentyTen Five

Demo | Download

22. Sandbox

Major Features:

• Semantic classes
• Dynamic functions and microformats

Sandbox

Demo | Download

23. Hybrid Core

Major Features:

• Modular Framework with a solid PHP code base
• Breadcrumbs and custom shortcodes
• Loop pagination
• Translation-friendly
• Post templates

Hybrid Core

Demo | Download

24. Prototype

Major Features:

• Custom Page templates and backgrounds
• Breadcrumbs and threaded comments
• Post layout and stylesheets
• Translation-ready

Prototype

Demo | Download

25. Modularity (Standard Club Membership $99 per annum)

Major Features:

• Homepage apps for slideshow and video
• Special layouts for magazine sites
• Simple Color Picker Tool for customizable colors
• Support for video on iPhone and iPad
• Fully widgetized
• Translation-ready

Modularity

Demo | Download

With that, we come to the end of this round-up. Do share your thoughts in the comments!

In December of 2011, Pinterest entered the list of top 10 social networks.  They recorded over 11 million visits in one week. In January of 2012 Pinterest drove more referral traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+.

…

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There has been a lot of talk lately about the “unbanked” or “under-banked” population. These are the folks who, for whatever reason, don’t have a relationship with a mainstream lender. This means no checking account, no savings account, no credit cards and no prospects for loans. While this might sound like Nirvana to unbanking supporters, the alternatives can be extremely expensive.

Rent to Own

Don’t have that flat panel TV to watch your favorite sporting events? Don’t have a computer to surf the web? No worries, just rent-to-own! That’s what a variety of retailers would love for you to do. Rent-to-own is like a more expensive version of layaway, except you get the item immediately. It sounds like a decent deal, until you start looking at the numbers.

The effective interest rate you’re paying on the merchandise can be several hundred percent, depending on the item. This means you’ll pay several times the true retail price of the item, if you pay in full. If you don’t pay in full, or default, then it’s even worse. Not only do you lose the item (you have to return it or it gets repossessed) but you also lose any monies you’ve paid up until that point.

As you’ve probably already figured out, these stores target consumers with poor credit and fewer options. While they don’t pull credit reports or credit scores when you “apply” to rent a television, they don’t have to. Their terms are so poor that they would never entice someone with good credit and cheaper options. Finally, paying off your piece of furniture or electronics will not be reported to the credit reporting agencies, so you get no credit-building benefit for your time and money.

Car Title Loans

A car title loan, or “title loan,” is a loan taken out against the value of your car. You must own your car outright in order to borrow money against it. That means you have to have the title in hand. In many cases you’ll give the title and an extra set of keys to the lender and they’ll give you a check. If you don’t pay the money back, they’ll lawfully take your car and liquidate it.

The rates on title loans can get as high as several hundred percent when annualized, although most of them are paid back over a few weeks or months.  The title lender will only let you borrow about 50% of your car’s value, which makes it what’s called a “50% LTV” loan. This means if you default and they have to take your car, it’s a safe bet that they’ll get back all of their money, plus the costs to repossess and liquidate the auto.

There is also no credit-building benefit, as title loans are not reported to the credit bureaus. They sure do have some catchy jingles though, which might be the only good thing I have to say about them.

Pawn Shop Loans

A pawn shop loan, or “pawn loan,” is very similar to a title loan, but instead of borrowing money against your car’s title, you’re borrowing money against some other piece of property like. jewelry, computers, instruments or other family possessions. Awareness of these loans has increased given the popularity of several television shows that are staged at Las Vegas and Detroit pawn shops.

Pawn loans are also designed to favor the lender, rather than the borrower. The goal of the pawn shop owner is to only allow you to borrow about half of what the item is worth. This is difficult, as there is no real judge of the value of something like a power saw, an antique guitar or someone’s signature. The value of these things is whatever someone will pay for it and that’s hard to nail down in advance. So, the pawn shop will likely offer you about 50% of what he thinks he’ll be able to sell it for if you default on your loan. The interest rates can run into the hundreds, if annualized, but most are paid back in a few months.

Alternatively, pawn shops will simply purchase the item rather than lend against its value. Again, the shop is going to offer you much less than the retail or wholesale value. Their argument is always, “Hey, I have to make a living, too.” Consumers will likely do better selling the item themselves.

Whatever you may think of banks and credit card issuers, you have to admit that their terms are much more competitive than those offered by any of the aforementioned alternatives. It always pays better to leverage the banking system to your favor than it is to function outside of it.

John Ulzheimer is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. The opinions expressed in his articles are his and not of Mint.com or Intuit. Follow John on Twitter.

Also, if you’ve entered and won a contest or award listed here, let us know so we can share your news.

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Office Depot’s Small Business Makeover Contest
Enter by February 27, 2012

The Small Business Makeover contest is designed to help small business owners augment or adjust their business in order to save time, grow and prosper in 2012 and beyond. The contest will award three small businesses a makeover from Office Depot, which includes a one-on-one financial coaching session with Jean Chatzky, office furniture, and supplies featuring Jean’s line of Mead financial organization products, available exclusively at Office Depot.

Small businesses can enter the contest by visiting Office Depot’s Facebook page and submitting, in 100 words or less, why their small business is in need of a makeover.

The Amazing Entrepreneur
Enter by February 29, 2012

The 2nd Annual Amazing Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition is an initiative by Gwinnett Chamber Economic Development and The University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to foster new business development in Gwinnett County, GA. The contest is open to individuals who own or manage a small business, which has been in operation less than 36 months, in Gwinnett County.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $2500 cash to be used solely for the business entering the contest, a trip to Sage Software’s Customer Conference in Nashville, TN (airfare, hotel stay, conference fees), one-year membership to Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, one-year participation in the Chamber’s Gwinnett Business Institute program ($180 value), a consultation with an attorney from Arnall Golden Gregory ($2500 value), and research assistance from Chamber’s economic development department

2012 Small Business Online Marketing Contest
Enter by February 29,2012

For the second year, Chicago-area small businesses are being recognized for their marketing success. Constant Contact kicked off the 2012 Small Business Online Marketing Contest today in partnership with the Chicago City Treasurer’s Office. The contest will award more than $12,000 in cash and prizes to businesses submitting winning entries in “Best Business Email Marketing” and “Best Overall Users of Social Media” categories, including “Rookie Awards.”

CoolCalifornia Small Business Award
Enter by February 29, 2012

The CoolCalifornia Small Business Awards recognize California small businesses that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, promote climate friendly practices and integrate the tools on CoolCalifornia.org into their business operations.

There are two award categories: CoolCalifornia Small Business of the Year Award, and CoolCalifornia Climate Leader Award.

S.T.A.R. Mom Entrepreneur Award
Enter by February 29, 2012

Are you {or someone you know} a S.T.A.R. {successful, tenacious, accomplished, remarkable} Mom Entrepreneur? If so, Market Mommy wants to honor you for your continued dedication to your business and your family!
Not only will this award garner you the respect you deserve, it also comes with an unprecedented prize package! We’ll be giving away more than $3500 in prizes. Visit our Sponsor Page for a full list of prizes and their sponsors. Once you’re nominated, you’ll be listed in our S.T.A.R. Mom Entrepreneur Award photo album on Facebook. There, your supporters can endorse you with their ‘likes’ and comments!

AnyMeeting Meet and Win Contest
Enter through February 29, 2012

Want to win a Kindle Fire? All you have to do is hold an online meeting using AnyMeeting in February and you will automatically be entered to win. The more you meet, the more chances you have to win. You will receive one entry into the drawing every time you partcipate in a web meeting in February. To be eligible, meetings must be at least 10 minutes long with 2 or more participants

Brother Small Business Grant Program
Enter by March 2, 2012

StartupNation has collaborated with Brother, a leader in small business technology, to bring you
the 2012 Brother Small Business Grant Program.

The grant program will award a total of $25,000 to five small business owners who submit the most original and creative business plan.

Verizon California Small Business Makeover Contest
Enter by March 2, 2012

Verizon wants to hear about Southern California small businesses’ technology challenges and will award a business makeover worth more than $5,000 to the company that best tells its story. Register and submit an essay, of no longer than 500 words, describing the technology challenges facing your business. Small businesses also have the opportunity to win a $500 American Express Gift Card if they view quick, informative videos about Verizon Small Business solutions on the contest website.

A panel of judges will determine the grand-prize winner and four semifinalists. The grand prize consists of $2,000 in cash; an HP Laptop; a Verizon Wireless 4G LTE LG Revolution Smart Phone; the Intuit Website Design Services Package; and Mobile Pay and Google Personal Support for Google Products. The semifinalists will each receive custom business-technology recommendations valued at $125.

2012 Best in Business Awards
Enter by March 2, 2012

The Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce has a long tradition of recognizing members of the business community. The 2012 Best in Business Awards luncheon on Thursday, April 19th celebrates four member businesses for their accomplishments in 2011.

Chamber members are invited to nominate their companies for one of the following:

Best in Business Award
Emerging Business of the Year Award
Small Business of the Year Award
Quality of Life Award

Staples Give Your Small Business the Push it Needs Contest
Enter by March 14, 2012

Staples has launched its “Give Your Small Business the Push It Needs” contest, which will offer five small businesses up to $50,000 in free television advertising in their home market.
Small businesses can enter the contest by submitting a 15-second video about their company on Facebook.com/Staples by March 14. Five winners will be chosen to receive 15 seconds of advertising in a 30-second Staples television ad to run in their local market. Winners can have $50,000 in advertising or $40,000 in advertising and $10,000 in cash.

.Biz 10th Anniversary Contest
Enter by March 31, 2012

Today, there are more than 2.2 million .biz domain registrations and Neustar is taking part in celebrating SMBs that dared to stand out in a crowd.

Businesses can visit http://www.my.biz/10year/ and share how they used .biz to increase the reach of their brand image. Once SMBs have shared their stories, visitors will cast their votes. Winners will receive awards and a Best of .Biz seal to recognize their website.

Leading Moms in Business Competition
Enter by April 16, 2012

Everybody knows one. Like a super hero, she balances running a family with the heroics of running her own business. We’re talking about moms in business, of course. And now, StartupNation is conducting its third annual ranking of these astonishing entrepreneurs and the businesses they run.

Over the next few months, it’ll be your daily votes that determine the top 200 Leading Moms in Business. In addition the judges will determine special awards and accolades for moms within the top 200 who deserve special recognition.

Inc 500/5000
Enter by April 30, 2012

There are nearly 7 million private, employee-based firms in America. Only the very best are awarded the distinction of being named to the Inc.500 | 5000, the gold standard of entrepreneurial success. You’ll be listed with other leading companies at Inc.com, and your company may be featured in the September 2012 issue.

If you are proud of your company’s growth over the past three years, you owe it to yourself — and to your employees — to apply for the Inc.500 | 5000.

Downtown Ithaca’s Race for the Space
Enter by May 1, 2012

Are you an existing or aspiring retailer or entrepreneur? The winner of Race for the Space will win free rent for one year in a prime retail or office space, a one year advertising package in the Ithaca Times, design services for storefront layout and signage and more. The package is worth over $40,000. See website for details and entry rules.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.
If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).

Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.

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