OnDeck Launches BusinessLoans.com

In a press release earlier this week, OnDeck, a small business lender, announced the launch of “their Small Business Credit Education Initiative to educate and engage business owners on business financing and credit.” Wisely, they are using the exact match keyword  BusinessLoans.com domain name for the website.

I am unsure of when OnDeck acquired this domain name, but my guess is that the acquisition was fairly recent because the Archive.org history shows an unrelated website last year. Interestingly, the singular BusinessLoan.com domain name sold for $70,000 via GoDaddy Auctions, as reported on OnlineDomain.com.

I checked my Gmail history, and in February of 2013, BusinessLoan.com and BusinessLoans.com were listed for sale in Toby Clements’ domain brokerage newsletter. I don’t know if they sold then (or at any  point), although the singular BusinessLoan.com domain name is not currently resolving. Both domain names are privately registered.

Here’s the press release in its entirety with additional information about the domain name and branding initiative:

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — On Deck Capital, Inc. (NYSE: ONDK), a leading platform for small business loans, today announced their Small Business Credit Education Initiative to educate and engage business owners on business financing and credit. The company’s first two commitments to credit education include www.BusinessLoans.com, a first-of-its-kind resource solely dedicated to explaining business financing, and a national partnership with SCORE, a non-profit organization comprised of 11,000+ volunteer mentors who provide free and confidential small business mentoring and advice.

The Initiative launches in response to OnDeck’s latest Main Street Pulse Report, a quarterly study of small business trends, which found that business owners lack a comprehensive resource to learn about their financing options. Key findings from the study included:

• 80 percent of business owners don’t think banks do a good job at explaining how to qualify for different business financing products
• 87 percent of business owners have not found an online resource to answer their business financing questions
• 75 percent of business owners are unaware of their financing options
• 66 percent of business owners don’t have a strong understanding of how business credit is calculated or how it is used by lenders

“OnDeck has worked with tens of thousands of business owners and we repeatedly hear that small businesses need a go-to resource for general financing education,” said Noah Breslow, chief executive officer, OnDeck. “Our company is 100% focused on small businesses and their success, so we see BusinessLoans.com and our SCORE partnership as extensions of our commitment to ensuring all small business owners get the critical tools they need to grow.”

While it’s necessary for small business owners to find the right funding for their particular business needs, navigating this path is often a challenge. According to a recent study by the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia, small businesses seeking financing spend 24 hours researching and applying for credit. BusinessLoans.com simplifies the process with straightforward, practical guidance as well as up-to-date content to help business owners more easily navigate the world of financing. The site contains information on different types and providers of credit, financing option assessment tools and guides on how to successfully apply for a loan.

Part of credit education is understanding how to run a healthy, successful business. As the sponsor of SCORE’s Financing Center for Excellence on www.SCORE.org, OnDeck will provide any small business owner that applies to OnDeck with special access to mentoring and advice from SCORE via a dedicated online experience, and will equip SCORE’s 320 chapters nationwide with custom-built educational tools focused on the rapidly evolving small business lending industry.

“Small business owners face a vast and frequently changing landscape for financing, and both OnDeck and SCORE are committed to providing small business owners with the information they need to make informed decisions,” said David R. Bobbitt, president of the SCORE Foundation. “Through this partnership with OnDeck, SCORE will enhance our offerings to small business owners, allowing them to better understand available financing options and ultimately achieve success.”

For more information, please visit www.BusinessLoans.com, or ondeck.com/business-financing.