BUSINESS STRATEGY
Synchrony | November 08, 2023
Synchrony introduces the Small Business Learning Center, aiding small businesses with credit and financing knowledge.
The Learning Center offers flexible courses, expert content, and user-friendly features for effective learning.
Synchrony is committed to helping small businesses and has already benefited hundreds of thousands of businesses.
Synchrony, a prominent consumer financing company, has recently introduced the Synchrony Small Business Learning Center—a new digital learning platform designed to empower Synchrony's small business partners in optimizing their operations and fostering more efficient and effective growth. This platform will assist Synchrony's small merchants, dealers, and wellness providers in comprehending the intricacies of credit and financing, integrating these concepts into their business models, harnessing their potential to elevate customer experiences, and ultimately driving increased sales.
The Small Business Learning Center features an array of offerings:
A diverse range of industry-specific courses encompassing videos, games, interactive experiences, and various contemporary learning modalities, facilitating small business owners and their teams to acquire knowledge at their preferred pace and in their preferred style.
Topics encompassing sales techniques, compliance, employee motivation, cash flow management, vendor management, and customer service.
The content is thoughtfully crafted by Synchrony's learning experts, drawing upon the insights of Synchrony's professionals and leaders. The platform consistently introduces fresh content, courses, and tools to keep the learning experience engaging and captivating. Synchrony regularly collaborates with leading learning technology companies to ensure that Synchrony's small businesses have access to the latest learning resources.
The user-friendly dashboard highlights essential content and provides curated content recommendations.
A new countdown clock feature has been integrated, designed specifically for merchants and dealers, to serve as a visual reminder of impending deadlines for priority or mandatory courses.
Simple links to a comprehensive content library, enabling learners to explore all available courses and select their preferred topics and pace for completion.
Furthermore, small merchants and dealers can conveniently access the Learning Center through Business Center, Synchrony's robust online business platform. By consolidating all Synchrony partner financing activities, from application processing to sales transactions, into a single location, this enhancement streamlines operations and saves merchants valuable time. Synchrony's health and wellness partners will continue to access the Learning Center via the Provider Center.
Synchrony's Learning Center represents an expansion of the company's extensive portfolio of innovative, turnkey business tools, which have already empowered hundreds of thousands of small businesses in managing, marketing, and expanding their operations, including:
Synchrony Business Solutions
Synchrony's Pillars Project
Synchrony Connect
Business Schooled
Roadmap to Diversity Toolkit
Financing programs
Digital tools
Advertising Center
Across the United States, small businesses are already experiencing the benefits of Synchrony's offerings. For instance, Day's Jewelers, an employee-owned company with locations in Maine and New Hampshire, has successfully leveraged the Learning Center.
Synchrony has been a trusted provider of financing options to retailers for over 90 years. With a network of more than 460,000 merchant and provider locations and 70 million active accounts, Synchrony's innovative shopping and payment solutions enable businesses to boost sales, foster customer loyalty and offer secure, convenient, and personalized shopping experiences.
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TECHNOLOGY
PR Newswire | October 31, 2023
Extu announced GoTu Rewards, a fast to launch, flexible and affordable new incentive platform designed for companies of all sizes that want to initiate a basic loyalty program on a modest budget. GoTu Rewards is notable for its ease of use and exciting reward catalog featuring millions of options.
"Midmarket and SMB companies are frequently looking for programs to incentivize their sales teams, employees, resellers and consumers—yet many programs are too expensive and difficult to manage," said Extu's CEO Steve Prebble. "Recognizing this need, we've created the ideal solution with GoTu Rewards, a platform that takes the worry and work out of incentive programs."
With no monthly fees, GoTu Rewards' pay-as-you-go structure allows companies to purchase points or physical gift cards in bulk to deliver to their participants as needed. It reduces the administrative burden while offering a vast array of appealing rewards that keep participants engaged and earning. GoTu Rewards also provides companies with peace of mind by meeting Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 compliance requirements to ensure that sensitive corporate and participant data is safe.
William Lupo, Extu's Chief Revenue Officer, explained, "GoTu Rewards offers a back-to-basics program for companies or teams that want to be able to award people quickly and easily for a job well done. It's a high reward but low cost option with great perks for participants that are sure to spark motivation and drive revenue."
Prebble concluded, "Safety, speed and rewards that resonate are the hallmarks of GoTu Rewards—making it a perfect fit for companies that are looking to launch quickly and drive loyalty across their employee or sales networks."
About Extu
Extu, formerly known as Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti, is on a mission to inspire growth. Extu provides through-channel marketing automation, an innovative online rewards platform, with millions of exciting online rewards, prepaid and gift card incentives, as well as group travel incentives. Our solutions are built to help manufacturers and dealers increase sales, capture mindshare, build customer loyalty and improve data collection throughout their channels. Founded in 1994, Extu incorporates powerful technology with real-time data, helping clients get a full view of reseller performance, and empowering channel marketers and driving growth.
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SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS
Business Wire | November 02, 2023
Funding Circle, the leading online platform for small business loans, announced today that we have received a formal notice from the US Small Business Administration (SBA) that our application has resulted in a tentative award for an SBA Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) license to participate in its flagship 7(a) small business loan program1.
The SBA’s decision to grant Funding Circle one of the first SBLC licenses since 1982 is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to modernize the agency and address persistent gaps in access to capital impacting small business owners and to grow the economy. The announcement follows recent research published by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve and Bank for International Settlements that found Funding Circle is “increasing access to capital at a lower cost for borrowers who are less likely to receive credit from traditional banks” and “predicting future loan performance more accurately than the conventional method to credit scoring, leading to better loan performance.”
“We are excited to help more small businesses in the U.S. get the funding they need to win,” said Steve Allocca, Managing Director at Funding Circle U.S. “By leveraging our advanced data and technology platform and providing a superior customer experience, Funding Circle is well positioned to become the #1 SBA lender in the country for 7(a) Small Loans under $500,000 by providing creditworthy small businesses in low-moderate income neighborhoods and rural areas access to affordable capital to start, run and grow their businesses.”
More than 50% of banks have imposed stricter lending criteria on small businesses with half of entrepreneurs seeking credit encountering funding shortfalls or receiving the full amount sought. This credit crunch disproportionately affects minority-owned enterprises, with 51% of Black-owned, 40% of Hispanic-owned, 36% of Asian-owned, and 30% of White-owned businesses experiencing financial hurdles due to limited credit availability.
The SBA 7(a) program, which guarantees up to $36 billion a year in small business loans up to $5 million, currently sees participation from relatively few of the 11,000 banks and credit unions in the United States. 25 lenders are responsible for 50% of all 7(a) loans, averaging around half a million dollars—neglecting the crucial need for smaller loans to small and underserved businesses. 77% of Funding Circle loans are for less than $150,000, 33% go to businesses in low-moderate income neighborhoods and 40% to businesses in rural areas.
By expanding lender participation and streamlining the program requirements under $500,000 to leverage technology and more closely mirror the private sector’s policies and procedures, the SBA is making it more efficient to get more small loans in the hands of small and underserved small businesses.
Funding Circle will begin offering SBA 7(a) Small Loans in 2024. Small businesses seeking financing up to $500,000 can visit www.fundingcircle.com to apply online in a matter of minutes.
About Funding Circle US
Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) is a leading online lending platform for small business borrowers. Since 2010, Funding Circle has originated $4.5 billion to 45,000 small businesses in the U.S. and $21.1 billion to 143,300 small businesses globally.
1 Funding Circle will be permitted to begin originating 7(a) loans once all lender oversight requirements are met to the satisfaction of SBA and upon receipt of an executed Form 750, a Small Business Administration Loan Guaranty Agreement.
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