Innovative financing for small businesses and how to get yours during the credit crunch will be discussed in Atlanta

Workshop: “Crisis or Opportunity --- Financing Your Small Business”

September 1, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
SCORE Atlanta, 233 Peachtree Street, Ste. 1900
Details: Online at tinyurl.com/cydufq or call, 404 331 0121

Learn how to obtain funds for your small-business, loan and venture capital are available if you qualify

By: Jerry Chautin, SCORE volunteer, business columnist
SCOREing small-business success

“The purchaser had many years of experience and knowledge in the business and had prepared a detailed and well thought out business plan and had an excellent credit score,” writes Steve Bloom on SCORE’s “Ask the Expert” blog.

Bloom was profiling a businessperson who sought purchase money financing to buy an existing business. While everything seemed in place there was one ingredient missing: The purchaser was putting very little, if any, of his own cash investment into the acquisition.

“When a borrower has no personal funds at risk, there is no compelling reason to work out problems that will surface and even with personal guarantees in place, recovering a 100 percent of a defaulted loan is very difficult,” Bloom says. “Simply put, the purchaser had ‘no skin in the game’.”

This is the kind of candor that Bloom brings to his workshop called, “Crisis or Opportunity --- Financing Your Small Business.” He is a SCORE volunteer, a former commercial and multifamily mortgage banker, business lender, entrepreneur and currently provides angel, venture-capital equity for select business opportunities. |

Beth Remmes attended the workshop. But first, she received free mentoring from SCORE, “Counselors to America's Small Business.” During the mentoring she was advised to test out the concepts detailed in her business plan. “I realized that the overall message to take action and to test it out, (that) was what I needed to hear,” she says. “It allowed me to set my business in motion.”

Small-business owners often feel unsure if they are doing things the best way. Free business counseling through organizations like SCORE, small-business development centers and women's business centers, provides the sounding board that entrepreneurs need. Additionally, these SBA resource partners offer workshops that add an additional dimension to what small-business owners receive from one-on-one counseling.

“I attended Steve Bloom’s seminar,” Remmes says. “I left the seminar feeling like I was on the right track.”

Bloom ticks off a checklist of what every small-business owner needs to know in order to be successful. Equally as important, he discusses how to get financing now and prepare yourself for the right kinds of funding as your business expands.

Remmes says, “I was able to check off many – if not all of the keys (Bloom) had listed for being a successful entrepreneur; so it was a very validating experience.” She is the owner of Zola --- The Art of Green Living. Learn about her business and see her personal video online at, zolagoods.com.

You will not leave the workshop with assurances of getting a loan or venture capital for your business. But you will become wiser, learn to think like a lender and be better prepared to make an application for funding.

“Truth be known, finding private capital isn’t as difficult as it would seem,” Bloom says. However, “the investment opportunity must be of a scale where the business can grow significantly, the business plan supports an unmet need in the marketplace, has a significant rate of return, is concentrated in the information technology world, bioscience, or is so unique that an early exit strategy can be obtained.”

By comparison, lenders are not in business of taking entrepreneurial risks. If the business succeeds, all they get is return of capital with interest. By contrast, the successful entrepreneur takes a bigger risk to earn significant returns on investment, peer recognition and fulfillment of his or her dreams.

To learn the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, do not miss this workshop.

OTHER INFORMATION:

About SCORE:
Since 1964, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” has helped more than 8 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. It is a nonprofit resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. More than 11,200 volunteer business counselors in 370 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. The Atlanta chapter has 100 volunteers in conveniently located branch offices.

Note to media: Photos of the SCORE counselors quoted and interviews are available upon request. For interviews with SCORE business counselors or SCORE small-business clients, contact SCORE’s chairman, Jeff Mesquita: e-mail, scoremarketing@joimail.com, cell: (770) 713-1702. You may use this article in part or in its entirety and distribute copies with credit to SCORE Atlanta www.scoreatlanta.org. The columnist’s CV is online at: tenonline.org/sref/jc1bio.html

SCORE Atlanta | Publish Date: 08.25.09 | Back to home |