Reading a Financial Statement

Here is yet another great resource in preparing your financial statements for pitching to investors.

Prepare to dazzle your potential investors.

Only way to win the game is to get on the field.

I thought this blog might be of use to those involved in startups and garnishing a career in the business entertainment industry.

http://goodadvice54.blogspot.com

Hope it helps and let me know how I can help you out further.

Interested in finding Investors? Some SBA Opportunities

Find Sources for the post at SBA Resource Page

What SBA Offers to Help Small Businesses Grow 

What does SBA offer to small business owners? The programs are many and varied, and the qualifications for each are specific. SBA can help facilitate a loan for you with a third party lender, guarantee a bond, or help you find venture capital. Understanding how SBA works is the first step towards receiving assistance.

What is the SBA’s Role?

“SBA provides a number of financial assistance programs for small businesses that have been specifically designed to meet key financing needs, including debt financing, surety bonds, and equity financing.”

Note that the Guaranteed Loan Program does not directly ‘loan’ money.  Instead the SBA ‘sets the guidelines for loans, which are then made by its partners (lenders, community development organizations, and microlending institutions).”  The SBA does act as a guarantor of loans made through this program.  Your ‘risk’ evaluation in turn considerably lessens.  A condition of qualification is that you have already sought out other options and your own and are rejected for whatever reason.  The qualifications on such loans are subject to changes in government policies. 

(Source:  http://www.sba.gov/content/what-sba-offers-help-small-businesses-grow) 

Guaranteed Loan Programs (Debt Financing)

Bonding Program (Surety Bonds)

SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee (SBG) Program helps small business contractors who cannot obtain surety bonds through regular commercial channels.

A surety bond is a three-party instrument between a surety (someone who agrees to be responsible for the debt or obligation of another), a contractor and a project owner. The agreement binds the contractor to comply with the terms and conditions of a contract. If the contractor is unable to successfully perform the contract, the surety assumes the contractor's responsibilities and ensures that the project is completed.

Guaranteed Loan Programs

Through the SBG Program, the SBA makes an agreement with a surety guaranteeing that SBA will assume a percentage of loss in the event the contractor should breach the terms of the contract. The SBA's guarantee gives sureties an incentive to provide bonding for eligible contractors, thereby strengthening a contractor's ability to obtain bonding and greater access to contracting opportunities for small businesses. (Source:  Same)

SBS guarantees  “bonds for contracts up to $5 million, covering bid, performance and payment bonds, and in some cases up to $10 million for certain contracts.”  We will make a closer examination by defining terms such as ‘bid’, ‘performance and payment bonds’ in a later post. 

Venture Capital Program

The SBA use the term Small  Business Investment Company or SBIC.  This group provides monies formulated by the difference between ‘growth capitol’  and ‘needs’.  Thus, it may not lend out or arrange ‘lending’ the full amount of your start-up costs but only that amount that cannot be gotten on your own.  If you have no funds for start-up costs and have been rejected from other sources it is not clear to me if they will consider the full amount.  I will look into this in another post.  They do stipulate that they act like the private sector in that they seek ‘hight returns’ on their investment.  They differ in that they “limit their investments to qualified small business concerns as defined by SBA regulations.”  (Source:  Same)

Bonding Program (Surety Bonds)

“SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee (SBG) Program helps small business contractors who cannot obtain surety bonds through regular commercial channels.”

Surety bonds are “three-party instrument between a surety (someone who agrees to be responsible for the debt or obligation of another), a contractor and a project owner.   “ comply with the terms and conditions of a contract. If the contractor is unable to successfully perform the contract and “assumes the contractor's responsibilities and ensures that the project is completed.”  SBA assumes or guarantees a “percentage of loss in the event the contractor should breach the terms of the contract. “ This guarantee significantly lowers the risk to investor  “in some cases up to $10 million for certain contracts.

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES PART I

JASON LAYNE AT THE HARDROCK

TODAY'S VISION IS TOMORROW'S REALITY

Some Opportunities For Those Looking For In-Kind And Financial Assistance.

Opportunity Finance Network (OFI).

Opportunitye Finance Network targets individuals and projects for individuals who demonstrate interest in the betterment of “their communities” with an eye on benefiting “future generations.”  They have a very interesting range of their description of themselves.  “We are CDFIs, banks, faith-based institutions, foundations, corporations, government, and everyday people who believe in aligning capital with justice.”  Obviously, this organization has focused assisting individuals with a strong sense of contribution.  They describe themselves as “faith-base” suggesting that individuals who many lender disregard as a greater risk would ignore and invite them to come back when they have ‘the juice’. 

Here are some quotes from their site:

 “The opportunity finance industry finds and finances opportunities that others miss. We see the world differently. Where others see risks, we see possibilities. To us, people are people. And every person deserves opportunities—good, family-wage jobs; decent, affordable housing; healthy foods; locally owned stores; quality schools. We invest in opportunities.

(Source:  http://ofn.org/what-opportunity-finance)

“Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) is a national network of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) investing in opportunities that benefit low-income, low-wealth, and other disadvantaged communities across America.”

(Source:  http://ofn.org/about-opportunity-finance-network).

In regard to the site itself it is not impossible to navigate but I found their use of dropdowns to reach sub-sites or pages distracting.  Their color use is fairly good.  The background color is standard white.  Their logo on the top left of site brings me back home, which is a real blessing when attempting to navigate through the dropdowns.  I imagine this resource would server the individuals seeking some sort of reform and improving of communities.  If this is something that interests you check it out more fully.

CDFI Coalition

The Community Development Financial Institutions have a somewhat similar interest in funding projects intended to improve the community.  It encourages ‘fair access’ to financial resources available in the outside market.  It also seems that they have connections to resources in the “private sector” leveraging “loans” that directly flow to investments targeted to benefit economically distressed areas within the United States.  One note of difference between the two is that this group has some contacts within the private sector that is specific to “activities in the low wealth community”.  While this is the case the individual creating a more ‘widget’ based product such as the revamped version of the pet rock my not find open arms in either of these opportunities.

Here is their mission statement:

“The CDFI Coalition is the unified national voice of community development financial institutions (CDFIs). Our mission is to encourage fair access to financial resources for America’s underserved people and communities. Nationwide, over 1000 CDFIs serve economically distressed communities by providing credit, capital and financial services that are often unavailable from mainstream financial institutions. CDFIs have loaned and invested over billions in our nation’s most distressed communities. Even better, their loans and investments have leveraged billions more dollars from the private sector for development activities in low wealth communities across the nation.”

(Source:    CDFI)

Their guaranteed bond program stipulates that this benefit be involved with projects that specifically benefit the community.  Thus, a major qualification for this and other programs requires a very specific sort of project seeking benefits and monies.

“The CDFI Bond Guarantee Program was enacted through the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-240) on September 27, 2010. The legislation directs the Treasury Department to guarantee the full amount of notes or bonds issued to support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that make investments for eligible community or economic development purposes. The bonds or notes will support CDFI lending and investment by providing a source of long-term, patient capital to CDFIs. Treasury may guarantee up to 10 bonds per year, each at a minimum of $100 million. The total of all bonds cannot exceed $1 billion per year. The CDFI Bond Guarantee Program is authorized through fiscal year 2014.”

(Source:    CDFI2)

My general statement regarding requirement and qualifications for both these opportunities is that the project will result in overall improvement to a community experiencing financial hardship.  Further, these sites encourage a sense of community that include a leadership team and staff that are actively involved in the notion of investing and interested in such civic minded opportunities.  Both organizations also focus heavily in reforming and adapting a more even investment balance as well.  Thus, these groups offer advice and assistance to the individual who would typically have challenges in gaining financial support from the “Shark Tank scenarios.”  I also sense that the monies would not necessarily come from these two groups directly bur rather from participants in the group so inclined.

I will be following up on this blog with more possible organizations that provide other monies for products and services of a more ‘capitalist’ nature.  I use that term in a respectful way.   There are all sorts of ways to be successful.

I have one small note of caution when visiting these sites.  Both contain valuable information and opportunities.  They are not however the easiest to navigate.  But its worth that small challenge.

An upcoming blog on, Kickstarter financing, and EasyShares, microbanks and partner investors in addition to leverage capital opportunities will be forthcoming in this blog series.

An upcoming blog Microbusiness Opportunities