Hello, my name is Emily Gasner. I'm with Working
Solutions, and I'm here to talk about how
to obtain funding for your business idea.
So, step one, is you need to develop your
business idea. I recommend that you pick something
that you have business and industry experience,
having done in the past. Because it will make
it much easier to convince an entity, whether
it's a bank, a friend, a family member, an
alternative lending source, like a non-profit
organization that makes loans, to lend you
money if you do have experience, doing the
type of business, you want to start. So, planning
is one of the most important things that you
can do, to be successful in obtaining funding
later on. So, step two, is going to be to
create a business plan. And you don't need
to be a, an MBA graduate, in order to create
a business plan. Basically, what you need
to do is put in writing, the ideas that you
have about your business. These include ideas
like, who the competition is, who your target
customers are, what type of product or service
you'll be selling, and a variety of other
things about what your business is going to
be doing. So, put it in writing is very important.
And there are a number of templates out there
on the inter-net that you can access, to easily
type in answers into, for example, a word
template of what a business plan is. So, for
example, I recommend going to score.org. They
have a template gallery with a business plan,
on the template gallery that you can use for
your business plan. Also, I recommend that
you reach out to organizations in your community
that help entrepreneurs get started and help
them with their business planning. All around
the country there are a variety of different
non-profits that serve entrepreneurs, whether
it is a non-profit that provides loans, and
so they help people develop business plans.
Or, there are organizations called small business
development centers, that are generally around
the whole country, and they have consultants,
that if you put together a draft of your plan,
for free, can meet with you and sit down with
you and go over your business plan, and how
to improve it. So, having a very good business
plan will set you up for receiving funding.
The third step is to go to, whether it's a
friend, family member, bank, there are non-profit
organizations that do make loans, of different
sizes, as well. Economic development departments
in local, your city where you are, also make
loans. And approach them and find out, what
type of businesses do they fund, what are
their loan terms, do you qualify? And, you
should definitely know how much money you
need, before you actually approach a lender
and ask them for funding. So, a lot of times,
people ask me, just give me the most amount
of money that you can give me, without actually
going back and thinking, OK, I need five thousand
dollars for my bakery. That means I need ingredients,
supplies, equipment, and really have a list
of what you would use the loan for. The financial
institution or the lender should guide you
through the loan process, and let you know
how long it will take. And the more information
that you have about your business, and you
need to have your tax returns ready for the
last three years, you need to have your resume
prepared. Most importantly, you need to run
your personal credit, before you approach
a lender. The lender always wants to make
sure that you're current on your obligations,
and that you can meet any personal obligations
that you have, in addition to adding more
debt on top of what you already have. With
a good loan package, a strong loan package,
and a good personal credit score, you'll be
much better position to get a loan from a
business.