We’ve written about the importance of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on this blog before and even offered a free NDA template (see the download button to the right). While it might seem strange for an online small business loan broker to offer a template like this, it makes perfect sense to us. In fact, the free NDA template is just one of the free resources we provide to help small business owners. We even created a resource center where business owners can download marketing and sales guides for free.
In order to maintain your businesses competitive edge, it might be crucial for you to create a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Securing the confidentiality of what sets you apart from the rest will help you to keep your proprietary information safe – and out of the wrong hands.
We know that most of our clients are just interested in financing their businesses, but many have thanked us for offering these useful guides. Our interest goes well beyond the loan application process because we see our role as more consultative than transactional. Offering a free, downloadable non-disclosure template is the perfect example of our approach.
Many of our clients come to us because they’re thinking about expanding their business. Expansion can come in the form of an acquisition, launching a new product, adding a division, or simply through hiring talent. In many cases, these discussions are at the highest level and company information is being shared in the process. That’s why we advise our clients and borrowers to protect themselves with a simple, straightforward NDA. Whatever makes your company special or unique is worth protecting.
It’s important to note, however, that the template is only a sample guide. For serious negotiations, you might want to utilize the template to incorporate the high points of your discussions, but you should always have a contract or a document reviewed by an attorney. The same holds true for the sample confidentiality agreement in the Resource Center.
In case you didn’t check out the other blog post, here is a quick overview of what an NDA should include:
As a general rule of thumb, a basic NDA will have the following content:
In addition to the non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, we have also created a few key marketing and sales guides for business owners to consider. Believe it or not, online lenders are beginning to review the strength (or weakness) of applicants based upon how well they market their companies! That’s right. Yelp reviews, Google ratings, Social Media statistics. They have all become important metrics in the automated decision engines that are the front line of defense for online lenders. We’re going to be discussing this more in our next blog post.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, here are some of the marketing guides available in the Resource Center:
If there’s a topic you’re interested in learning more about, let us know because our marketing partner helps us craft these white papers based upon our clients' requests.