Category: Business Products & Services

Starting or expanding a business requires a lot of hard work and money to get off the ground. Finding ways to finance your venture can include everything from applying for loans to getting investors to using your own savings.

For minority groups, another option is to get minority grants to start a business.

What are minority-owned business grants?

Unlike loans, grants are funds to use for specific purposes that you don’t need to repay. In most cases, minority small businesses are funded by corporations or special interest groups that have created goals to facilitate business growth among minority groups.[1]

Minority groups can be based on race, gender, personal status or even location. To qualify as a minority business, at least 51 percent of the business must be owned or controlled by a minority.[2]

How to apply for minority small business grants

Follow these steps to make sure you … Read more

Nowadays, your car is probably staying parked in your garage for longer periods of time. While this can be nice for saving money on gas and other maintenance, it’s not an ideal situation for your car’s battery.

This leads to an important question: Can a car battery go dead from sitting? Yes, it can. Even while your car is collecting leaves on its hood, your car battery is always being used in some fashion, which means it will continue to drain. That’s mainly because it’s still powering your car’s alarm system, climate control, computer systems, and any other electrical features it has on board. Plus, if you live in an extremely hot climate, you need to be aware that heat can cause your battery to lose its charge faster.[1]

If you don’t plan on driving for a while, it’s probably worth your time to learn the answers to these … Read more

During a global pandemic, everything can feel exponentially more stressful and difficult. With millions of Americans filing for unemployment since the beginning of March, many of us are forced to deal with the anxiety of finances on top of everything else we have to worry about.

Here are 4 simple things you can do to help relieve some of the stress and burden of your finances during the coronavirus pandemic:

1. Pay your critical expenses

Ditch the guilt. Life happens. If you have to put your debt payment plan on hold, do it. The most important thing right now is to pay your critical expenses, like putting a roof over your head and food on the table for your family.

2. Use the extra money saved to pay down debt

If you’re able to meet all of your and your family’s necessities, then you can start to look at your … Read more

You’ve been saving for a house by paying down your debt, working on improving your credit score, and cutting back on spending to find extra cash for savings. For many of us, buying a home will be the single biggest financial milestone we hit. Owning a home can drastically improve your quality of life, and it can seem especially appealing now that many of us are working from home and expanding our families.

But now, the world as we know it has come to a halt. Does that mean all your hard work was for nothing? And how long will you have to put your dreams on hold? The Coronavirus pandemic is making a lot of dreams feel out of reach, but if you’re wondering if you should put your dream of buying a home on hold, here are some things to consider:

Low interest rates encourage home buying

The … Read more

We have all dealt with the hassle of lugging a set of clothes to and from the dry cleaner. Which is why you may be pleased to find out that many of your dry-clean-only clothes can easily be freshened up without leaving the house. Washing those special garments by yourself is easier than you think — so start saving some time and money by learning how to dry-clean clothes at home.

Which garments can be dry-cleaned at home?

DIY dry-cleaning isn’t recommended for every garment. Items whose colors might bleed, are made of delicate fabrics — such as suede, leather, rayon, taffeta or fur — or anything with oil-based stains should be taken care of by a professional dry cleaner.

Instead, focus your home dry-cleaning efforts on clothing made of wool, silk, cotton, linen and durable polyester. When in doubt, always read the tag. The tag will provide valuable … Read more