Category: Reviews

Three Merchant Platforms that Offer Great Financing Programs for Businesses

April 23, 2015 Yun-Fang

Did you know that Amazon, Square and Paypal offer compelling financing programs for merchants on their platform? These are great financing programs for traditionally non-bankable e-commerce sellers and small retailers. If you are on these platforms for a while and have consistent sales, you probably have gotten an invitation. If you are not on any one of these platforms, it's yet another reason to use them. 1. Amazon Lending: Amazon's invitation only working capital is a godsend for Amazon sellers.… Read More

Website Builder vs. Ecommerce Platform: Which is Right for My Business?

April 22, 2015 Lydia Roth

Over the past few weeks we have spent time reviewing a number of different website builders to help you determine which one is right for your business. Each of these website building platforms offer ecommerce through their platform. There is also a host of different platforms dedicated specifically to ecommerce and helping businesses build an online store, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento. Most of these systems, however, have a much higher price tag than website builders. This is because of… Read More

Squarespace Review: Beautiful Designs for Business Websites

March 26, 2015 Lydia Roth

Last week we kicked-off our website builder review series with a review of Weebly. Weebly was simple to use, and we had a nice-looking website published in under 30 minutes. Next we will be giving Squarespace a try — see how Squarespace stacks up to Weebly, and stay tuned for a third website builder review next week! Squarespace is a website building platform that prides themselves on the beauty of their websites — and rightfully so, their websites do in… Read More

Mailchimp vs. Constant Contact vs. AWeber: which email service is the best?

February 26, 2015 Lydia Roth

This review was last updated in February 2015 and prices were updated December 2015. Check with the email service provider to verify feature changes. Over the past three weeks, we have compared 3 different email marketing services in our Email Marketing Review Series: (1) MailChimp (2) Constant Contact and (3) AWeber. All 3 services are pretty friendly to beginners, but they do have their differences. Here is a side-by-side comparison of these 3 popular services — hopefully this will help… Read More

Amazon Lending — Decoding an Amazon Loan Offer

June 25, 2014 Yun-Fang

We will be talking about Amazon Lending. It's an invitation-only loan product offered exclusively to Amazon Sellers. Amazon loans offer a very competitive 10.9 - 12.9% interest rates and no pre-payment penalty. It's a great financing product for Amazon Sellers. If you have been selling on Amazon with solid sales, chances are Amazon Lending will invite you to get a loan to grow your business on Amazon. The following is what you will see after clicking on the invitation to… Read More

Decoding a Business Loan Offer from LendingClub

June 18, 2014 Lydia Roth

This is the fourth article in the Nav Decoding Series, following Decoding a Loan Offer from OnDeck Capital If your business is well established and you don't want to wait for months to get a bank loan, it's worth considering LendingClub's Business Loans. On the low end, their APRs are competitive with banks, and the application process is a lot more pleasant. The range of loan sizes is also smaller: $15K - $100K, which banks typically don't like to issue.… Read More