Getting an MBA in India has been a popular trend not only for Indian business students but also for business students globally over the last several years. There are companies which cater to the needs of students looking to achieve an MBA from a program in India, helping them prepare for exams, and more. One such company is Peak Seekers.

Unlike an MBA from universities in the United States and other countries, admission into most Indian MBA programs is done in a two step process:

1. Students take an aptitude test, consisting of verbal, quantitative, and logical thinking questions.

2. Students who pass the admissions test phase go through an interview process.

There are a variety of different exams that can be taken prior to being accepted into an MBA program in India, with the most common being the CAT. Organizations such as Peak Seekers work to help potential MBA students in India prepare for their CAT 2007 exams either individually or in groups.

The company offers a variety of resources to help business students prepare for their MBA from an Indian program, such as a breakdown of the question types for the 2007 CAT, a discussion forum where students and pending students can talk about exam prep for the CAT, other exams, or additional information on MBA programs, and courses to help students prepare for their admissions exams.

Despite the fact that NationsFinance.co.uk is predominantly a personal finance site dedicated to UK-based consumers, the site offers several business finance articles and resources that are worth a look, including:

• The Pros and Cons of a Business Credit Card – This article explains to small business owners the positive and negative aspects of using business credit cards for their small business financing needs.
• Information on Business Loans - The business loan information from NationsFinance.co.uk teaches entrepreneurs about a variety of issues, such as some of the reasons you may decide to apply for a business loan, what types of business loans might be appropriate for certain types of businesses, and the application process for attaining a business loan.
• Information on Buy to Let Mortgages - If your business is in real estate investments, the buy to let mortgages section of Nations Finance is for you. You can find out about UK rental market trends, and how a buy to let mortgage can help you buy your own rental properties in the UK for long-term income.

The site offers even more business finance resources, such as information on commercial banking options (business bank accounts), and news on business finance topics like statistics on the small business loan market. If you’re considering using personal credit cards or personal bank loans to finance your small business startup or growth, you’ll find additional information on personal finance topics throughout the site.

UKPersonalLoanStore.co.uk is a personal and business finance resource for UK residents, offering a nice collection of resources on the UK loan market, including articles, news, tips, and UK loan comparisons. Here are a few of my thoughts on the site, from its content to its function:

Highlights of UK Personal Loan Store

Overall, the site has a wealth of information, which is relatively easy to navigate. I see a lot of personal finance and business finance sites for both the US and the UK, yet very few offer any solid news. Most of these finance sites focus on more evergreen content (which UK Personal Loan Store isn’t lacking), without doing much to help consumers stay abreast of more current issues. It’s refreshing to see topics like debt rates in the UK covered, as opposed to just the traditional “apply for loans here” and “fix your credit now” types of content.

The information found in the article section is well-written and detailed, unlike many finance-related sites reusing the same poorly-written content. It certainly has merit as an educational resource. The loan comparison section of the site is laid out the best in the sense of Web writing standards to make things easier on the eyes… broken down nicely with subheadings and lists, helping readers to find exactly what they’re looking for, whether that’s personal secured loans, student loans, car loans, or homeowner loans.

Suggestions for the Site:

I have two suggestions for improvement on the UK Personal Loan Store site:

1. Moving forward, try to carry the easy Web readability from your loan comparison section through to your articles.

2. The only real “complaint” I’d have as a visitor is the font. It’s extremely small, and a shade or two too light, making it difficult to read through several blocks of text. A darker gray and a font size larger might do a lot to convince even more people to stay and read through some of the more text-heavy content, even if the article formatting isn’t made more Web-friendly.

Overall, if you’re a UK resident interested in personal loans, the UK Personal Loan Store appears to be an excellent resource, whether you’re ready to compare loans right away or just wanting to brush up on the basics while deciding if a personal loan is right for you.

CreditLoan.com is a finance resource website offering a variety of articles and tools such as:

• A finance and credit learning center
• A wide range of personal loans that you can apply for now
• A bad credit help desk
• Home financing information
• and more…

At first glance, CreditLoan.com might appear to be a strictly personal finance website with its information on personal loans, personal credit cards, auto loans, and home loans.

However, if you venture into the sites collection of finance and credit articles, you’ll find several resources of interest to entrepreneurs – most notably information on how you can use your personal credit cards to start and grow a small business or attract institutional investors.

The site also works to educate consumers about a variety of important finance-related issues, from identity theft to repairing bad credit (both of which can affect your small business financing options if they happen to you).

While it won’t apply to all entrepreneurs, the auto loans section is a valuable educational resource for any small business owner needing to invest in a single company car to a full fleet of vehicles. If you plan to further your education within your industry (a smart move for any business owner, whether they do so through an official program of independently), the site also offers a collection of resources on dealing with the student loan process to help you meet your needs.

Many Web directories can look, to the average visitor, like nothing more than a huge collection of links, and with little user value. The BizFive Business Directory isn’t like that. The directory goes beyond being a collection of business links to offer a variety of articles and resources relevant to entrepreneurs or those interested in starting a small business. If you’re interested in starting a new corporation, the business directory offers several resources just for you.

No matter what legal form you plan to pursue for your new business, it’s vital to draft a thorough business plan, whether that’s to gain financing or simply best manage your resources to meet your goals. So if you’ve decided that you want to launch a new corporation or simply incorporate an existing business and change your plan to reflect that, BizFive.com offers a set of tips on how to write a solid business plan.

If you have decided to incorporate, but don’t know where to start, the BizFive Business Directory offers a handful of articles that can point you in the right direction to incorporate your business. The site will teach you about the different methods of incorporation, benefits of incorporating a business, steps to incorporate a business, corporate compliance, and even what you’ll have to do if you choose to later close your corporation.

The well-organized collection of information from BizFive.com on incorporating a business would be a great starting place for anyone considering forming their own corporation.

There aren’t a lot of blogs that do a really good job of teaching the business side of freelancing (in my opinion). I try to offer a good amount of information about freelancing here in BizAmmo’s Freelance Jobs section, but here are a few of my favorite blogs for freelancers, where you can find additional information.

• Freelance Switch
• AllFreelance Freelancing Blog
• Freelancers Union Blog
• Freelance Folder

If you have another favorite blog that covers the business side of freelancing well, without focusing too much on only one kind of freelance career (ex. freelance writing), leave a comment, and I’ll add it to the list if I think it’s a good fit.

Below is a sample media advisory template that you can use to announce an event to the media, especially if your aim is to have journalists attend the event itself:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Name
Address 1
Address 2
Phone number
Email address

Date

The Heading or Title of Your Media Advisory Should Go Here
You Can Include a Subheading if You Need to Include More Information

The lead paragraph of your media advisory body should very basically answer the questions of who, what, when, where, and why, similar to that of an opening paragraph of a press release. You’ll expand upon each of those points after the opening. While you don’t need to include every person involved here, if there’s someone of particular local interest to your area media, include their name in addition to the company / organization holding or sponsoring the event.

WHO: Here you can expand upon the “who” aspect of the event. Who’s hosting it? If there are speakers or other important individuals, include their names (and titles if applicable) here.

WHAT: Describe the event itself, providing details if necessary, or just the event title if it’s self-explanatory.

WHEN: Provide the day of the week, date, and start and end time of the event. If there are smaller events (such as different presentations), you can include the start times of each segment as well.

WHERE: Give as much information as possible about the location (city, state, specific address, building name, room name – such as a certain conference room), etc. Also include information about where people will be able to park, especially if there will be an area reserved for the media, and any internal location information specific to where journalists may or may not set up.

WHY: Explain the significance of the event. Why is it being held? (To raise money? To raise awareness for a cause? To educate members of the public or a selective group of individuals?)

ADDITIONAL DETAILS: This section is optional, and can be used for a variety of reasons, such as listing event sponsors, describing the audience the event is expected to reach (ideal if you’re targeting niche media based on who attendees will be), or anything else that may be of interest to the media.For additional information please visit WEBSITE (if event details are there), or contact NAME at PHONE NUMBER or via email at EMAIL ADDRESS.

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If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to invest in your future. In some cases, that means a financial investment, and in other cases it means an investment of time or other resources. While not every entrepreneur has a degree, they rarely hurt. Even studying general business can be a worthwhile investment in your own business, as you’ll understand more about the administrative, marketing, and financial side of entrepreneurship (meaning you can do more independently or better choose professionals for your needs, all while saving yourself some money and the hassles of making uneducated hiring decisions).

Whether you’re thinking about going to school full-time before launching your small business or you’re considering a part-time college education while you operate your existing business, personal student loans (whether issued by the government or private lenders) can help make it happen. In many cases, financing your education independently just isn’t an option when you factor in your living expenses as well as your business expenses.

Government or Private Student Loans

When you opt to apply for student loans to further your education to improve your small business, you’ll need to decide between government and private student loans (or some combination of the two). There are two big differences to consider:

1. Non-private student loans are guaranteed by a state or federal government.
2. Private student loans may have fewer restrictions in the application process (often ideal for adult learners).
3. Private lenders can offer fast student loans, and generally issue a check directly to the student, so the funds can be used for a wider array of educational expenses.

There are several types of credit lines available, and it’s important to choose the best small business credit line type for your business if you need financing. Some options are only available to businesses with well-established business credit, but others are also useful in helping you to build business credit early on. Here are a few examples of types of small business credit lines, to help you choose the right options for your needs.

Business Credit Cards – Business credit cards can offer your small business a revolving business credit line in small to large amounts. You can use a business credit card for just about any type of business expense, from startup expenses to day-to-day purchases like office supplies.

Working Capital Line of Credit – This is a usually shorter-term business bank loan to help you cover traditional operating expenses for a set period of time.

Business Loans – You can also secure longer-term business bank loans, which can be used for anything from startup capital to financing for business growth or major purchases.

Supplier / Vendor Credit – Many suppliers and vendors will extend small business credit lines to regular customers. Some do this through store credit cards for business owners, and others simply allow purchases to be made on credit and be billed later through various payment terms.

In order to secure most types of small business credit lines, your small business will need to have good business credit. Just as it’s important to monitor your personal credit report, it’s vital that you fix credit report mistakes for your business as quickly as possible to avoid being denied financing over potential errors. It’s important that you monitor your business credit report and business credit score (which in most cases are different than the business owner’s personal credit score and report), and report any inaccuracies immediately to the credit bureaus and credit scoring companies like Myfico so errors don’t impede on your ability to later get business credit.

InfiniteCredit.com is a free credit repair forum where users can discuss a variety of personal and business credit issues, from credit cards to case law to business credit. The site also offers numerous articles on credit repair, such as how to fix fico scores.

The following topics are available for credit and credit repair discussions in the forum:

• Case Law
• Essential Credit Repair Info
• Credit Repair Forum
• Credit Card Discussions
• Mortgage Forum
• Business & Business Credit
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act

Additional areas exist for news, socializing, and general discussions. Overall, the site is a quality resource if you’re interested in personal credit repair information, with the credit repair forum and case law sections seeming to be the more popular topics.

Researching case law isn’t always an easy thing for average consumers to do, so I’m impressed with how well that section in particular is organized. The cases are listed by name (great for those who already know what they’re looking for), but right in the title is also generally a brief description of the issue the case addresses (making it ideal for those searching for answers to specific questions, but without any prior knowledge of existing credit case law.

As for the business credit section of the forum, it’s currently a bit sparse. However, even though there isn’t much information in the section yet, the information that is there is pretty diverse (which I’d consider a good thing), from business debt collection and how to establish business credit to business credit cards and some business structure discussion (applicable to business credit on the liability front).

I’d have to say one of the best aspects (and possibly best resource) of InfiniteCredit.com is the collection of credit-related articles.