Author: Reginald Chan

The hilarious thing I have heard about life is don’t plan it all. Instead, let life surprise you a little. Amazement is the spice of life, without a doubt. But it ceases to become interesting when one of the little surprises you have to deal with is bankruptcy.

Being bankrupt is equivalent to opening a can of worms in your life. There is never a moment of peace when you are swimming in debts. And the mother tragedy is that creditors are not going easy on you. So your only choice is to file a claim for bankruptcy and rebuild your life from scratch.

What Is Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy is a process through a legal framework giving relief to individuals or businesses unable to service their debts. The process undertaken in a court of law forfeits debts that an entity cannot pay to creditors. However, repayment is partly made from the assets the bankrupt person has. They waive the rest, marking the beginning of a new chapter.

Why Do People File For Bankruptcy?

There are five main reasons why people file for bankruptcy, the most common being unemployment. Secondly, overspending and unprecedented occurrences such as sickness are common, as well as divorce and addiction. Here are more details.

1.   Unemployment

So, less income resulting from unemployment has led to many people filing for bankruptcy. Several surveys conducted indicate that at least 40 percent of filers are out of jobs. As a result, they can no longer pay their bills or service their debts with little or no income at all.

2.   Overspending

It is estimated that 25 percent of filers have a history of squandering everything and seeking relief after that. Before seeking protection, credit cards undergo thorough financial abuse as a result of bad spending habits. As soon as life gets more complicated, they turn to bankruptcy in a bid to pay off their debts.

3.   Sickness

When health insurance covers are drained, and you have to dig deep in your pocket, disaster sets in. I have seen people who have sold everything to foot medical bills, plunging them into a crisis financially. However, only 19 percent of such cases are filed.

4.   Divorce

Surprisingly, divorce accounts for 9% of bankruptcy filers, with the theory behind it being increased financial struggle on individuals. When child support and housing are involved, the financial muscle quickly dwindles because of additional responsibilities with no increased income. Before you know it, you are also servicing debts incurred while in marriage, such as mortgage payment, car loan, or credit card. Thus, filing for relief remains the only viable option to start afresh.

5.   Addiction

On extreme levels, gambling and drug abuse drive you to an abyss of a financial crisis. Addicts have a history of draining their savings and selling property to satisfy their gambling or drug habits. But, at the end of it all, the script ends no differently than being hard up.

Can You Make Money Through Bankruptcy?

Many lenders are oblivious of a goldmine that is the thriving claims trading market. Creditors have a legally approved window where they can engage in selling a bankruptcy claim. By law, you can transact the sale of a claim once it is filed with the court for bankruptcy. Therefore, you look out for a claim with less risk to make your purchase or sale.

How To File A Claim For Bankruptcy

After assessing your situation, you can make the bold move and file for bankruptcy voluntarily. Nevertheless, if you owe a creditor and you make no payment, they can go to court and order you to be declared bankrupt.

The first step you take to be allowed to file a claim is undergoing credit counseling to which certification of attendance is issued. An assessment is made on your financial discipline, debt management, and budgeting during the counseling session. An alternative to a bankruptcy claim is also explored before a certificate is issued in filing the claim.

An actual petition for bankruptcy requires one to submit financial statements highlighting debts, assets, and current income and file under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Fill a means test form showing how much income is streaming in. It determines if the petition goes through or not.

Once it goes through, Chapter 7 bankruptcy invokes powers that sell your assets and pay up creditors from the amount raised. Four months after the petition, they send a notice of discharge, and it is time to start a new life. However, a record of your creditworthiness remains active for ten years. Also, sell all your property off in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

On the other hand, you can file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy if you do not want some of your property sold off. Again, a good bankruptcy lawyer comes in handy. You fill in the necessary forms and file the petition to arrange a meeting between you and lenders. Here, they ask more about your financial status and if there are plans to pay them.

The case then goes to a judge for determination while taking a debtor education course to be discharged. This course covers financial management and budgeting, to which a certificate is issued and presented in court as proof of cooperation.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to repay your debts in three to five years if there is a steady flow of income. However, by the lapse of five years and you have not cleared your debts, sell your assets to repay the remaining debts.

How Bad Is Filing For Bankruptcy?

A bankruptcy claim dents your creditworthiness in the eyes of financial institutions. They will see you as untrustworthy, and the chances are that they will not credit you. For firms who credit you, chances are the interest rates can be higher and on strict terms.

It is hard to accept that you are in a precarious position financially and cannot pay your debts. But the existence of bankruptcy laws offers reprieve at this time when the debt burden weighs you down.

When it comes to starting your own business, coming up with a lucrative idea and pinpointing your target market is only half the battle. Next, you will need to determine how you will fund your endeavor to actually get started.

However, this is where many promising entrepreneurs often fall short, because unless you know someone you can directly ask for the money, it can be a challenge knowing where else to look for help.

Fortunately, there are various start-up grants available to inspiring business owners, including both private company and government grants, but in the meantime, here are some things to consider before completing your grant application that can help increase your chances of getting approved.

5 Ways to Get Approved for Startup Grants

Get a Professional Mentor

Having professional insight enables you to provide impressive details on your application that help make it more credible over other applications, so you stand out.

Therefore, seek as much advice as you can from professionals in your field before applying for a grant to help increase your chances of approval.

Present a Business Plan That Demonstrates You Are More Worthy of the Grant

To increase your chance of approval, you will also need to develop a business plan that demonstrates how your goals and values match those of the grants, which helps show you are more worthy of the contribution than other startups.

Pre-Sale Your Product

Another effective way to help secure a start-up grant is to pre-sale your product to help create a demand for it. It can then help serve as proof to the grant officer that a need exists for your offerings, which will make them more likely to want to support it.

Seek Other Investors

Seeking a partner or perhaps even utilizing bootstrapping, crowdfunding, or other fundraising methods to help raise some of the proceeds can also help increase your chances of being rewarded a start-up grant.

In fact, According to the experts at Lantern Credit, “grants have high competition among businesses,” so applying for a smaller grant over other startups also helps make it more likely they will approve you.

It also helps demonstrate to the grant officer that others also believe in your business and are willing to put up their funds behind you, which also helps you appear more worthy.

Check in With the Loan Officer Periodically

Once you have applied for the grant, it is also a good idea to check in with the loan officer periodically to help clear up any follow-up questions they may have while processing the application.

It also enables you to keep tabs on your application and how close you are to getting approved.

In the end, whether you utilize Lantern’s options of grants to start a small business or other grant options, begin by getting to know the time limitations and information restrictions set by the loan officer and then be sure to stay within those guidelines when submitting your application to help make the approval process easier.

Today’s retail landscape is virtually unrecognizable to that of even twenty years ago. As shoppers around the world continue their seemingly insatiable and unstoppable love affair with e-commerce stores and web/app-based retailers, so the trend of shopping online grows exponentially – to the point many industry experts predict we could soon see the demise of the traditional high street and brick and mortar shops.

However, while e-commerce systems and software have brought previously unimaginable benefits to firms operating online, they still suffer one major drawback – namely, a lack of consumer/retailer interaction to help guide consumers through the shopping process and onto eventual purchase.

The growing problem of Shopping Cart Abandonment

The term Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) refers to a problem that is the scourge of all online retailers. In a typical SCA scenario, a prospective client will be browsing products and adding them to their virtual cart only to become distracted by something else and discarding their goods. In the real world, it would be the equivalent of dropping your basket in the supermarket because you had seen something more interesting outside.

SCA is a real and growing problem for online retailers – so much so, recent research found as much as 81% of potential transactions are abandoned before reaching the checkout stage in web transactions. Other sobering statistics include:

• Mobile sales completions rank lowest at around 8.5% while on the laptop and desktop the stats are not much better at approximately 13% – all caused by SCA
• Typical SCA rates vary from day to day with the figures as high as 90% in some sectors over the weekends
• Travel sites are most at risk of SCA with as much as 85% of all potential purchases failing to reach payment stage

Clearly, SCA is a major issue and one that your firm needs to address if you operate an e-commerce operation.

Ways to identify, isolate and reduce potential causes of SCA

The first step in addressing potential SCA issues is to perform a full audit on your current website and its transaction systems. You must try to see your brand and its products/services through the eyes of a potential customer. Unfortunately, it is all too common for e-commerce retailers to simply assume clients understand their products to the same depth they do, instead you should have someone with zero previous experience evaluate your site.

The shopping journey needs to be as simple and clear as possible for your site visitors so you should address potential causes of concern like confusing navigation structures, improper classification or naming of products, insufficient product information (including images), or confusing (and, in most cases, unnecessary) registration forms, and so on. Anything that can realistically be viewed as a barrier between your customer and them reaching the payment phase should be removed or, at the very least, streamlined.

Partnering with a professional web design and development firm is by far the best way to identify potential problems with your site and improving the purchasing process on your site.

Hand-hold customers and guide them where needed

It is estimated around that most consumer journeys start with an online search, however, just like in the real world, customers will typically do considerable research before finally committing to a sale. It is worth remembering, that the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) a potential client found your site on is just a click away and filled with 1000’s of links to other firms all competing for the same sale – so you must find ways to engage with your users quickly.

The rather impersonal nature of the internet makes interaction with clients considerably trickier than in the real world. However, one tactic that has been growing in popularity in recent years for online retailers has been to add a live chat system to their site. With live chat, you can effectively guide the user to products they possibly did not even realize were of interest when they first visited your site – plus guide them through every step of the path to a final sale. 

Live chat is the online equivalent of a real-world salesperson approaching a customer, advising them and helping them choose the product that is right for them then guiding them to the checkout to complete their purchase. The systems also offer many other considerable benefits as explained in this article.

Reduce form-filling whenever and wherever possible

As any online shopper will attest, there is nothing more off-putting than filling a basket with items only to then be faced with a massive registration or purchasing form. If you find your online sales are below what you might expect, you should check your page stats to see where shoppers are abandoning their carts. It is very common to find customers leave at precisely the point they see the form they are expected to fill in to complete their purchase.

Combatting SCA in these final stages is very easy by simply reducing the information you request from shoppers to the absolute minimum or adding a ‘buy as guest’ button if you still prefer to allow users to register.

Indicate the percentage complete in checkout pages

Giving your users a visual representation of where they are in the checkout process helps them to realize how far through they are in your purchasing system. In fact, it may also give you clues that you are asking too much of customers and allow you to identify parts you should remove as noted above.

Remove barriers between store and checkout

You should make it as easy as possible for your online shoppers to move between the store and final checkout pages. Just like in the real world, consumers do not typically make an immediate decision on a purchase and will often continue browsing even with items in their basket. You should make it as easy as possible to navigate to your purchasing system by always including a basket icon or similar on pages.

Remember the importance of product images on checkout pages

In real-world shopping, we are always aware of what we are about to purchase – just a cursory look down to our basket or trolley shows us what we are going to buy. Online, things can be very different so it is worth giving customers a visual reminder of the products they have added at the checkout phase rather than just hitting them with the final bill. Including small thumbnails of products next to your checkout forms is a great way to keep users engaged in the buying process.