Chris has been writing about small business topics since 2003. In 2015, he joined Merchant Maverick, where he writes about business financing, payment processing, and demographic trends in entrepreneurship. Chris has been featured in Fox Business, ABC News, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates, Newsweek, BizJournals, and other publications. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Writing Arts from SUNY Oswego, and a Masters of Science in Interactive Media from the University of Central Florida. He currently resides in the Hudson Valley region of New York.
Despite tightening interest rates, companies founded or co-founded by women netted over $36.3 billion for the year ending in October, down from 2021’s $42.6 billion.
In Merchant Maverick’s inaugural data report on The Best States In Which To Survive Recession, our analysis found that the states in the best condition to mitigate the effects of a recession aren’t where you might expect. Most of them, as it turns out, are in the Heartland.
Stripe Payments is a powerful tool for some businesses that want to sell online, but it can easily be overkill for others. See whether the customizable checkout, extensive integrations, advanced invoicing, and recurring billing features are right for you.
Can you use Venmo for business purposes? The short answer is that businesses can take Venmo payments in three ways: online, in-app, or in-person. For most businesses, whether you should take payments through Venmo depends on your customer base.
GOBankingRates talks to banking expert Chris Motola about the benefits of credit unions.
Financial expert Chris Motola tackles why credit card rates dipped in 2020 in this article with GoBankingRates.
Business expert Chris Motola talks with Yahoo Finance at the height of the pandemic about the impact of government shutdowns on small businesses.
Loans expert Chris Motola discusses the paradox of obtaining credit cards with a high credit limit when building credit in this article from Medium.
National Funding is a lender that provides funding to small businesses that cannot yet get a bank loan. It provides reasonable rates for an alternative lender as long as you fall on the lower range of its factor rates and origination fees.
To repay your loan in a timely manner, it’s important to know whether or not your payments are fixed or variable, how often you have to repay, and how repayments are made. In this post, we’ll break down all the elements involved in paying back a business loan.
Adyen is an international merchant account provider known for its big-name users, including Microsoft, Pinterest, eBay, Uber, and Spotify. Impressed yet? It’s hard not to get a little starstruck, but we didn’t want to let that sway our non-biased approach. You’ll find that as a small business owner, you may have some things to be cautious about, and we’ll tell you why in this review.
Headway Capital offers business lines of credit to qualified merchants. Headway Capital might be convenient for merchants who need a small credit line to capitalize on business opportunities or other working capital needs. Be cautious about the high APR and additional fees.
Equipment financing is the use of a loan or lease to purchase or borrow hard assets for your business. This type of financing might be used to purchase or borrow any physical asset, such as a restaurant oven or a company car. How does it work? What types of equipment financing are available? Get the answers to your questions in our equipment financing guide.
Fundbox is a business lender that specializes in offering lines of credit to small businesses. Merchants access this line by connecting either their business checking account or accounting software to Fundbox’s platform, and a credit decision is returned in three minutes or less. Fundbox requires a credit score of at least 500 and three months’ time in business.
BlueVine is an online lending service that’s suited for small businesses. It offers SBA/PPP loans, term loans, lines of credit, and invoice factoring. BlueVine is one of the most accessible invoice factors available and a good choice for B2B businesses.
Funding Circle is an online lender that offers medium-term installment loans to established businesses. It has a relatively long application process and strict borrower requirements but competitive terms and fees. Businesses that qualify for Funding Circle will most likely be able to get a better rate from an actual bank.
Accion is a nonprofit company that offers small business loans for a variety of different purposes. It is a good option for startup and small businesses with relatively low credit scores that may not qualify for other loan options. But do note that Accion’s APR can potentially be high.
Fora Financial is an alternative small business lender offering merchant cash advances and short-term loans. Despite the potentially high origination fee, Fora Financial’s offerings are competitive with other funders that offer short-term financing.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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