Financing For Your Business

Okay Business owners this one’s for you.  What’s one of the most important things when it comes to building your business?  This is an easy one.  Like the saying goes “you need money to make money.” Fair enough right?  Well, where do you get money if you don’t have any?  Luckily I’ve been looking at a few sites for loans and other types of financing.  Two sites I’d like to point out are ofn.org and eda.gov. OFN (Opportunity Finance Network) works with banks, foundations, and mission driven faith based organization to provide funding to people in need.  Mostly through bonding. “OFN provides underwriting and monitoring services for third-party investments in CDFIs, leveraging our decades of CDFI expertise to make it easier for institutional investors to invest in CDFIs.” As a business owner this may be a company you’ll want to check out.  Using their services can help you obtaining the financing you’re looking for.  Signing up with OFN offers many benefits including annual peer analysis of your CDFI’s performance, discounts on OFN Regional meetings, discounts on OFN consulting services, as well as many other services. 

EDA (The U.S. Economic Development Administration) is a government agency focused on economic development.  By investing in businesses EDA is working to increase regional development.  “EDA works directly with local economic development officials to make grant investments that are well-defined, timely, and linked to a long-term, sustainable economic development strategy.” EDA serves six regions, see below.

This site also provides a resource directory for each state and annual reports.  Programs such as the Revolving Loan Fund supply smalls business and entrepreneurs with gap financing.  Some requirements to obtaining this type of funding for a project are “the ability of the proposed project to realistically achieve the desired results and catalyze additional resources, the ability of a project to start quickly and create jobs faster, the extent to which the project will enable the community/region to become more diversified and more economically prosperous, and the relative economic distress of the region, as well as a few more.” The requirements are pretty reasonable and the benefit is worth the process.  I definitely recommend for any new business owner to check EDA out.  Below are some suggestions. Take a look.

•  http://www.opportunityfinance.net/
•  http://www.microenterpriseworks.org/
•  http://www.cdfi.org/
•  http://cfed.org/
•  http://www.cdvca.org/
•  http://www.ncif.org/
•  http://www.eda.gov/
•  http://www.firstnations.org 
•  http://www.oweesta.org/
•  http://nvca.org
•  http://www.inc.com
•  https://www.sba.gov

Business Plan Experts

Let’s take a look at creating a business plan.  Sounds fun, right?  Okay probably not fun, but helpful.  In order to get an understanding of what investors are looking for in a business plan I took some time to research a couple investors.  Two in particular Jeff Davison a general partner of Inflection Point Ventures, and David J Freschman a Managing Principal of Innovation Ventures.  Jeff has been an early-stage investor since 1984, and also earned a Master’s degree in architecture and planning.  David on the other hand has been a CEO of Delaware Innovation Fund since it was established in 1995, and achieve an MBA degree through the Loyola College of Maryland graduating with honors.  So why does this matter?  Well, the point is not so much who they are but what they do and what it takes to achieve that career.  Investing is a risky business, which is why you have to be smart to be an investor.  Clearly both of these investors are book smart and have experience in the industry, which is good for any of you who want to start a business but need to find a quality investor.  More importantly though what do investors want?

After a bit more research I was able to come across an interesting article from the New York Times.  This article titled “Five Things Prospective Investors Are Looking for in Your Business Plan.” According to this article an investor wants to see that you have experience in the industry, they want to know that your product is unique and needed, it’s important that your product reaches your target audience and stays constant, they also want to see that you did your research, and they need to know they are getting a realistic return on investment.  These are all key because it would be bad business not to have these things understood before investing money into it.  To go blindly into a project thinking something is a great idea without thoroughly looking at it can cause you to lose not only money but respect.  Investing isn’t about being the nice guy it’s about being financially responsible and making profit. 

Personally I’ll take all these suggestions and incorporate them into my business plan.  I want to create a business that can last, because of that I will take what advice I can get and work with it.  There will always be questions and most of the time answers won’t come easily, but in order to be successful you have to be willing to make needed changes even when it’s a change you don’t want to make. Below is a link to a Youtube video you may also find helpful.

https://youtu.be/O_L0BqPWBLo

Digital Marketing: Your Ticket to Successful Marketing

Okay, so you may or may not of heard of digital marketing.  If you haven't, get with the times.  Unless of course you're planning to live off the grid, which considering that you're reading this I doubt that's what you want to do.  We live in a world now where everything is becoming internet based.  You want to succeed, and for those who have a business you want your business to succeed.  Well, digital marketing is the new trend and there is a good reason why.  As you can read at SAS.com, digital marketing allows consumers to have access to information at any time and any place.  This means if you use digital marketing correctly consumers will have a greater chance identifying your business.  When you're using digital marketing whether its an ad on Facebook, or an ad on a YouTube video people are being shown your business so often it will stick in their memory even if they don't realize it.
To better make the point lets go over a comparison between traditional marketing and digital marketing. Take a look at the chart below, which was found at https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fe/42/ed/fe42ed60c6edb8bd156d3664426545f3.jpg

This chart should give you a better idea of how much more profitable it is now to use digital marketing as opposed to traditional marketing.    In an article about "Digital marketing Strategies" it's is point out that "traditional marketing has dropped 160%."  This is because more businesses are finding it more profitable to use digital marketing.  Clearly digital marketing has many advantages that eliminate the flaws of traditional marketing.  Although,  to be fair traditional marketing still has purpose movie posters, TV ads, radio ads, and billboards still catch the attention of possible consumers.  So let's not just kill traditional marketing off just yet, but as more and more people are becoming more tied to the internet and social networking there is a clear advantage for marketing digitally.

http://digital-marketing-strategy.weebly.com/digital-marketing.html

http://www.sas.com/en_sg/insights/marketing/digital-marketing.html

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fe/42/ed/fe42ed60c6edb8bd156d3664426545f3.jpg

The New Publishing Trend

Are you an artist?  Do you want to publish your work?  Fear not the world is in your favor.  I recently read an article by Johanna Vondeling about "The Top 10 Trends shaping the future of Publishing".    This article was very well put and informative.  Although, this article gives 10 trends I want to focus on self publishing and publishing through crowd funding.  First let me say this it is possible to self publish and I realize it seems easy enough, but if you're not educated in publishing you could make some big errors costing yourself more money then you'll end up making.  Now I'm not trying to say self publishing is a no go, actually I think it's a credible idea but I advise you to read up on it to make sure you're going to profit.  The problem is everyone believes they have a great idea, and maybe you do, that doesn't mean everyone else is going to appreciate it like you do.  You could spend thousands on publishing and promotion, yet still not have anyone buy your product.  DO YOUR RESEARCH!  Okay, now let's focus on the positive.  Publishing through crowd funding.  Crowd funding is a beautiful thing, at least I believe so.  It not only helps an artist raise money for a project but it also gives you some insight on how many people would actually be interested in your product.  Publishers using crowd funding as a tool to find good project have a pretty good advantage, and guess what, you do too.  If you want to self publish I definitely suggest crowd funding your project and getting feedback.  If you find that no one is interested then you know you either need to change something or find a new idea.  There are a few crowd funding sites out there such as kick starter and Indiegogo.  Possibilities are endless.  Just make sure you are prepared for the best and the worst. Believe in yourself and don't let the critics get you down.  When you listen, learn, and create you will achieve greatness.  

Interview with make up artist Lauren Katz

Q: How long have you been in the industry?

A: “I have been a special fx artist for 8 years now.”

Q: Do you find it tough negotiated to get a fair price for your services?

A: “Yes, I feel I am always being tricked into doing more work for a less price. It’s very frustrating when people don't understand how much work you put into your passion and how hard you worked to get your title.”

Q: So you’re from Delaware? Are there many opportunities in that general area for make up artists?

A: “Yes, I am from New Castle DE originally. Actually I’m very surprised I get as much jobs as I do considering where I live, and how small this state is.”

Q: Have you ever had someone try to use dirty tricks while negotiating with you?

A: “Yes! When I was younger just starting out in the business I lost out in a lot of money because I didn't realize how to charge back then as I do now.”

Q: How do you make sure both sides get a mutual benefit during your negotiations?

A: “I make sure that I am fully available and flexible for their specific needs. I also make sure I help in any way and provide even costumes and props to add on set.”

Q: Have you ever used positional bargaining? If so, why did you feel it was necessary to stick to your idea?

A: “Yes, there are times when I have to stick with my idea.  It’s just that people believe they know what they want, but don't understand what’s really needed.”

Q: What were some of your favorite projects to work on?

A: “I loved working on the last movie I did. I was in a beautiful forest for 14 days straight working on a lot of fx I have never done before with free range. It was awesome and I met a lot of good people. It also got me a position for the sequel!”

Q: Do you find it easy to work with actors?

A: “Yes, and no. Some are very easy going and easy to get along with, but others can be pretty cocky and stuck up.”

Q: What are some of your favorite make up effects to do?

A: “Anything gory and bloody, just something that terrifies people.  That reaction is priceless, I love it.”

Q: Do you have any upcoming projects?

A: “Yes, I do. I have two actually.  One in February and one in March for two different movies.  They are both horror films.”