Identifying Your Advantage

A competitive advantage is something you are better at than anyone else. The smarter you can be about developing and promoting your competitive advantage, the better positioned your business will be to succeed. Think about a few ways you could differentiate yourself:

Whether you’re running a retail or a service-based business, your customers expect to be able to use a range of payment options. So when you’re setting up your bank accounts, take some time to become familiar with all the payment solutions your bank has to offer.

The only way to truly find out if your business idea will work is to actually start your business, but there are a number of things you can do to research your start-up idea before you take the leap.

Although the housing market in our country has a relatively steady rhythm throughout the year, Spring is typically the time referred to as Home Buying Season. Winter months, the holidays and inclement winter weather make homeowners reticent to open their homes to prospective buyers. Better weather signals opportunities for home improvements, home inspections and home repairs. School age children are wrapping up the school year leaving the summer months an ideal time to move in and out of housing.

Social Media platforms have revolutionized the ways in which people, organizations and businesses are connected. Keeping a personal or business social media presence is the equivalent of having an electronic front porch and inviting others to visit. In general, we look forward to friends and customers stopping by and sharing interactions with us. There is a sense of connectedness even when we are miles apart.

Shelter Share is an annual drive through Bank Independent’s Helping Hands initiatives. The aim of Shelter Share is to provide much needed assistance to local animal shelters in donations of supplies and funds, as well as, volunteer support. For three weeks during February, Bank Independent will be accepting donations at all locations.

Whether you are an early bird or a last-minute filer, there is no denying we are firmly into Tax Season. As we reconcile another year of earnings and income, the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service would like to draw attention to an ever-present concern – Tax Identity Theft.

If you want big results, sometimes you need to focus on the small details. The new year is an excellent time to begin and refine new goals. The best way to achieve goals is to get organized.

On May 11, 2018, a new rule went into effect that requires financial institutions to gather additional information from legal entity (business) customers. The Certification Regarding Beneficial Owners of Legal Entity Customers requirement, or "Beneficial Ownership" for short, was created to help government and law enforcement fight money laundering and terrorism by identifying exactly who benefits from a company's revenue and who actually controls the goings-on within the business.