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9 alternative ideas for financing your business start up
When I started seriously thinking about my business idea and how I’d launch it, I had a rough idea in my head of what my initial start-up costs were. So one of the first things I’ve been doing is looking into what sort of funding might be available to me.
For the last 5 years the banks have been reluctant to lend money to new start-up businesses. This is well known and it has put a lot of people off even contemplating the idea of giving up a steady job and going it alone.
However, starting a business doesn’t have to mean going down the traditional route of speaking to the bank manager and asking for a loan. I’ve put together below a list of some more creative alternatives to get together the sort of funds you need to make that leap into the dream of working for yourself.
Government business grants
These are a rare sight nowadays unfortunately, but they do exist. The government tends to fund in areas they want to see growth in so some industries are more popular than others. Similarly, some are local to the area you live in and more common to find if you live in a more disadvantaged area.
A really good starting point is the gov.uk which has a easy tool to find finance you might be able to apply for:
https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support-finder
Support if you are under 30
You lucky people. Not only do you have nice wrinkle-free skin, there are great support organisations for starting a business if you are under 30.
There is a government run loan scheme for anyone 18-30 planning on starting their own business. The website is here:
http://www.startuploans.co.uk/
The Princes Trust is another long well established and long running scheme which can offer you a low interest loan if you are 18-30 and planning on starting your own business. Details can be found on their website:
http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/enterprise_programme.aspx
Do you like to make things?
There are some great independent websites now to sell handmade goods. So if you are the crafty type, why not create your own little shop online and make and sell a few items in your spare time, using the extra money towards your business? You might even find that these websites are a useful launch pad for your start up if your business idea is to make and sell handmade items. Below are some of the biggest online marketplaces in the UK at the moment:
http://www.notmassproduced.com/
http://www.shoponyourdoorstep.com/
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/
http://www.allthingsoriginal.com/
How about earning some spare cash?
Could you take on a part time job in your local community? Not only will a part time job allow you to get some extra money together for your business start-up, it may also be something you can continue for a while until your business is making enough money to provide you with a salary. If you have specialist expertise in an area, there are some useful websites where you can promote and sell your services:
http://www.peopleperhour.com/ or http://guru.com/ – Peopleperhour and Guru.com are useful sites to have a look on if you have professional skills as it advertises remote work for professionals, mainly writers, technical and business bods, and creatives.
Get people to buy in to your idea (literally)
Crowd funding is the hottest way for start-ups to source funding for their business ideas. They are essentially websites to allow you to pitch your business idea to a group of investors and one or many can choose to invest in your business. Here are some websites to start you off:
Peer to peer lending
If you are keen on a loan and have a good credit rating, peer to peer lending can offer you more competitive rates than many banks at the moment. Here are some of the top peer to peer sites:
https://www.fundingcircle.com/
Lending from friends and family
Perhaps you have immediate or extended family that are looking to invest somewhere. Well, they won’t get much from putting their savings in ISAs, where the best rates on the market are 2% or 3%. Perhaps you can offer an alternative; either a higher rate for a loan, or allow them to invest money in exchange for shares in the business.
Working with another business
Is your business complimentary to another business? Perhaps you have common customers and can exploit cross-promotion. It’s worth having a think about whether you can pitch your idea to another company and use their resources, offices, or premises. Perhaps you can sell the idea enough for them to invest in your company. There is a lot of support that an established business can offer to a start-up.
Enter a business competition
There a plenty of business competitions out there for best new business idea, best female entrepreneur, best entrepreneur under 30. They may have cash prizes. Even if you don’t win, they are worth entering just for the exposure they give you, especially if you get shortlisted. Here are some places to start you off:
http://www.shell-livewire.org/ – they have a number of awards for entrepreneurs aged 18-30 with cash prizes of between £1000 and £10000
http://www.enterprisingu.com/ – Arranged by RBS, and is open to students and recent graduates
http://www.mykindacrowd.com/ – another scheme aimed at the younger crowd (16-25) this has a number of smaller ‘challenges’ you can enter and various types of prizes
http://www.joinourcore.com/ – sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s and offering cash prizes for social entrepreneurs across Europe
https://www.thebigawards.co.uk/Page/Home – run by Cisco, with big cash prizes of up to $250000
http://www.nectar.com/dynamic/smallbusiness – each category winner receives a £2000 cash prize
About the author:
Lauren is author of http://www.theglitteringeyesbrigade.com and entrepreneur currently in the process of starting her own business in the UK
Video interview from Lady Val from “Lady Val’s Professional Women’s Network”
If you want to know more about Lady Val’s fabulous network go to www.LVPWN.com
Drive traffic to your website by blogging on “The Business Woman”
How would you like a blog post written by you syndicated to our
thousands of followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and many
other social networks?
Come on, take advantage of this fantastic, FREE, marketing opportunity!
Sign up on the left and start blogging.
If you are new to blog writing, here are a few tips on writing a basic yet
effective blog post.
1. If it is a “how to” post then formulate it into a list, like this one,
it keeps it neat and easy to read.
2. Put a lot of thought into the title of your blog post,
it needs to catch the readers attention.
3. Keep the introduction and conclusion short.
4. Don’t try to include too much info, keep the tips clear,
clean and concise and to the point.
5. Keep one post focused on one topic. If you have
several things you want to talk about then try writing
separate posts for each topic.
6. Write with a sincere desire to help your reader.
7. Don’t write an article that is basically just a
sales letter for your company. You can promote yourself,
un-ashamedly, in the signature at the end of the post.
8. When writing a good signature make sure it is good enough
to entice your reader to go to your site or request more
information from you.
9. Don’t forget to mention the subjects of any future posts
to encourage them to click through to your website where they may
even subscribe to your blog.
10. If possible, on your website, offer a free gift such as an eBook, newsletter or email course.
This will enable you to capture their email addresses but make it clear to them that
they will be added to your mailing list in return for the gift.
In your post, tell them about the free gift, it is a strong motivator to entice them to follow the
links to your website.
Make sure you have many clear links back to your website in your signature.
Finding Hope and Faith When Disaster Strikes
It was 1997 when I was told that I had a brain tumor that had grown into my brainstem. I opted for conventional surgery (knowing nothing about natural healing at the time) and that’s when my life changed dramatically. I awoke to an Angel in the recovery room. Many refer to me as an NDE’er (near death experiencer) when I describe this encounter.
Soon after however, my World seemed to fall apart all around me, yet I found hope and optimism like I had never before known. My faith and trust in a higher power always at work in my life only grew stronger as I became witness to many “unexplainable” or “paranormal” events, now a regular part of my life.
I was thrust from corporate America (having been a stockbroker) into a World full of “paranormal” happenings as I learned to relax, let go, let God, and follow my heart. Ultimately I went from being a stockbroker to becoming an energy healer, pet psychic.
I was deeply drawn to writing about my experiences and began keeping a journal. It was as if I was being guided as to what to write. The words just flowed onto the pages easily. I would have never considered myself a writer before this. I know I was receiving Angelic help. It ultimately turned into an Amazon best seller.
In my book I give an account of what one might experience after having had an angelic visitation and how my life was impacted afterwards. Complete bliss does not even come close to the feeling this Being/Angel left with me. At a time that most would likely call catastrophic, I found complete and utter peace. It’s a feeling that I will never forget. I know that I was given a taste of Heaven that day.
I know that it’s because of this feeling that I was given a taste of that I was able to let go of all fear. I know that regardless of how bad things may seem at times in life, we all return after our “passing” back to that state of being. Back to that feeling of bliss and love.
One of the greatest lessons I have learned through it all is that we are never alone. I became acutely aware of our human potential and our deeply Divine connection. I discovered we never really die and that after death communication is possible. I also discover my ability for interspecies communication, as well as Spiritual, or energy healing. I have come to believe that we all have senses beyond the five physical senses; we just need to form the neural pathways to access them.
I came to many revelations including that without the destruction of the old, a newer, more incredible life, filled with more joy, beauty and passion could not have emerged. So, if it weren’t for that catastrophic event (brain tumor) there is so much more to life that I would have missed. So sometimes it truly does take doors closing or Worlds crumbling to get us to wake up to our full potential and start anew. Blessings surely do sometimes come in disguise, so keep the faith.
Suzanne OBrien, guided by an angel after a life saving brain surgery, is now a Reiki Master, Energy Healer, Medium/Animal Intuitive, Artist and Author. She teaches Energy Healing as well as offers distant sessions. She also offers Pet Readings through photos. She aims to help others with their own healing issues and to foster closer relationships and understanding between the human and pet bond. She now runs green, Earth-friendly sites (reikichicktraining.com and bellydancingchick.com) hosted on a wind powered server in alignment with the philosophy of being conscious of our impact on the environment.
Find out more at http://www.reikichicktraining.com/a-heavenly-presence
10 ways to supercharge your website.
1. First give something for free – you could add an interactive game to your web site. There are thousands of clever people out there who could build a game around your product.
2. Promote yourself as the face of your business. Be approachable, no “info@” emails. Let them contact you directly, if you are very busy you can still have a “gatekeeper” fielding the good ones from the crazy ones!
3. Be seen as an expert, write articles, ebooks, reports, etc.
If people see you are credible they will believe you when you talk about your products.
4. Make people feel at home on your website. Encourage them to come back even if they are not buying this time. You do this by keeping everything current and up to date. Link to articles that may be of interest to your customer, fashion, film or even business news today, not static articles from last year or last month but what’s happening now.
5. Train your employees to deal with customers in a consistent, polite manner, we all love email but the phone is the only way to really close a sale if your customer is reluctant.
6. Testimonials by real people are worth their weight in gold. Don’t just attribute them to “Jane from Manchester”, ask your satisfied customers if they wouldn’t mind having their business contact details published. Most people would love to have their business name on a busy website.
7. Don’t forget to up-sell. Maybe there is a deluxe version of your product that may work better for them.
8. Even if they don’t buy from you, try to, at least, get their email address by offering a free ebook or some other gift if they join your mailing list.
9. Once you have their email address you can keep them informed of special offers and events, many online businesses survive purely on selling to their email list, don’t miss this chance.
10. Create a sense of urgency on your website or in your email marketing. Tell them of a limited time offer or a free bonus.
7 WAYS TO TUNE UP YOUR LIFE – By Kathy Gates
1. Finish what you started — that pile that needs tossing,
your income tax, painting the bedroom. Pick one, finish it;
pick another, finish it.
2. Set goals for each day. Have a plan. What time you get
up, where you go, what you do. You’ve got 24 hours. Schedule
it. Protect it. Commit to some particular goals for that day
and say No to all other distractions.
3. Organize your day. Watch for distractions. I love to
write, but I love to do so many other interesting things too
- read a good book, work in the garden, talk to my friends,
play with the kids. But it’s important to stay focused on
what’s most important at any particular time.
4. Take charge of your time. Time is the great equalizer. No
matter how smart, how young, how pretty, how rich, every
person has only 24 hours a day to use to his advantage.
Consciously choose what time you get up, how far you drive
to work. Choose what time you go to bed, how you spend your
mornings, how you spend your evenings.
5. Practice maintenance on your life. Regularly check for
problems and see what needs to be tended to BEFORE it
becomes a big problem.
6. Be consistent. Break the goal down into 15 minute tasks.
For example, if your closet has clothes from 1987 in it,
just spend 15 minutes a day (schedule it!) going through it
until it’s organized. At the end of the month, you’ll have
created 7-1/2 hours of work -one whole *free* Saturday!
7. Stop Worrying, Start Doing. Choose to make better
choices. You are currently choosing to worry for days
(months?) about a job that would take you only a few hours.
You are capable of choosing better. Choose to take action,
or delegate the action to someone else.
Professional Life Coach Kathy Gates is the author of several e-books and e-courses designed to help people live happier, healthier, easier lives. Sign up for her ezine, "Make It Happen" at www.reallifecoach.com.
We can all be successful!
Leveraging Resources Creatively
Leveraging Resources Creatively
Improving your cash flow in a tight economy
Many of my fellow business owner colleagues faced the challenges of the post-financial crisis in the fall of 2008. For some industries, it meant an immediate sharp drop in revenue. For others, it was delayed a bit. Nevertheless, many businesses are still facing tight cash flows or the shock of the downturn, and continue to monitor their cash flow closely.
Truthfully, many businesses have actually benefited from this new found vigilance, and through it, have found ways to boost their bottom line, especially by cutting out areas of waste.
My business is one of those that did not experience an impact from the economic downturn until mid-2009. One thing I did during that time was to give up my office lease in a prime, high-rent location. When I thought about it, I could no longer justify having physical space for a virtual team. It sounded a lot like waste to me. And with that realization, I decided to spend some time looking for ways to be “creative” with my business space resources.
In August 2009, the Charlotte area office vacancy rate was 18.4%. Today, August 2010, the office vacancy rate is 18.8%. (Data is according to the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF RICHMOND, A MONTHLY UPDATE OF THE FIFTH DISTRICT ECONOMY SNAPSHOT; Aug. 2010 of North Carolina.)
With that knowledge in hand, I spent many months researching and seeking how to best leverage my office space resources. The first thing I did was to ask myself, “What do I need the office space for?” This might be an easy question for many business owners, but it is not for me. I had to consider every activity that actually took place in the office. It turned out the only real need I had was for a conference room to meet with clients or prospects. As a result, I shifted my focus to space that met that criteria.
With all the vacant office space available, I found myself with many options:
- A one-year or multi-year lease of a dedicated office space/suite. Some of the buildings had a common conference room but in general, occupants were limited to four to eight hours per month usage of the shared space.
- A month-to-month lease of a dedicated office space/suite, typically much more expensive than a one-year lease term. There was a shared conference room, but usage was still limited to a certain number of hours per month.
- A one-year or multi-year lease of a virtual office space/suite in which you paid for fourteen to twenty-four hours a week or month for use of the office space. There was no dedicated office suite especially for you, and was subject to availability.
All of the above were nice, but each came with amenities I didn’t need or want, such as a receptionist for answering calls, free coffee, mail pickup service, fitness center in the building, etc. Once again, if I just looked at my “need,” it was still simply sharing a conference room. And after looking at some two dozen buildings, I still had not seen exactly what I was looking for.
One day, I went to see a prospect (who later became my client), named Cathy. Cathy shared with me that she had a co-habitat office space agreement with her landlord. She is there fifty percent of the time, and her landlord (Louis) occupies the same office fifty percent of the time. They share desks, living room, kitchen and conference room.
After touring the space many times, I went to her landlord and inquired for myself about the space. Today, I am the third co-habitat tenant in the same space with Louis and Cathy. I am hardly ever in the office, because I just need the space for meetings. We signed a one-year lease (with the first month free) in early August 2010.
The co-habitat concept has been around for a while in many entrepreneur-friendly cities and was designed with start-ups in mind. Many incubator programs use the same concept. But for Cathy, Louis and me, with well-established businesses in operation for many years, our needs were different than most new businesses.
Ultimately, each of us saved our resources by sharing office space and by getting creative in how we put the space and our rent resources to use. You can do that as well. Think about what you need, take your time, and get creative. Don’t settle for what you don’t need or spend money on what you don’t want.
And many thanks to Cathy, who laid the groundwork for this idea, proving once again, you don’t get anything if you don’t ask.
Chia-Li Chien, CFP®, CRPC, PMP; helps women entrepreneurs to convert their business into meaningful personal wealth. She is the author of Show Me The Money and columnist for WomenEntrepreneur.com & Fox Business online. She is available for consulting, speaking engagements and workshops. She can be reached at http://www.chialichien.com or jolly@chialichien.com.
How Soccer Relates to Business–Author Linda J Lord “The Pitch”–Virtual Book Tour Starting May 3, 2010
During the month of May, Linda will be interviewed on May 19th at The Business Women – Official Blog.
Linda will be discussing her recently published novel that reaches out to business owners, entrepreneurs, and working women who are looking for practical business strategies.
Her book “The Pitch” explains how soccer has very similar strategies that can be used to be successful in business.
This book provides sound business concepts in a fable format. This engaging story traces the journey of a single mother, whose business is floundering, from the brink of personal and professional disaster through the tumultuous learning curve of self-awareness to a place of success and self-acceptance.
One dollar from the sale of each book goes to the Hemophilia Society of Ontario, South Western Ontario Region.
Leave a comment, Linda will be available to answer questions.
Go to http://virtualbooktour-theyppublishing.blogspot.com/ website to follow Linda’s full tour schedule or visit her website http://www.lindajlord.com/.
There will be an Amazon contest at many of her virtual book tour stops. Visit participating sites to find out more about contests and giveaways!
Blogging as a Marketing Tool
Blogging, writing, speaking are all ways for entrepreneurs to develop a following, increase their email marketing lists, and eventually acquire 
new clients. The two burning questions that I hear from clients in this regard are:
When do I have time to blog?
What do I blog about?
Let’s take the first question, having time. Blogging has to be seen as a marketing tool, not just a nice thing to do or a creative outlet. Yes, it might be the only time you get to spout your words of wisdom uncensored, but more importantly are you providing something that is meaningful to your clients? If so, the time you spend writing a blog entry is a great use of your time. However, if you still feel like you are short on time, consider these five options:
- Speak your blog into a digital recorder or an online recorder such as audacity.com. Driving or maybe even taking your daily walk might provide great ideas. Record these ideas and buy a translator program such as Dragon Naturally Speaking and turn your voice into a blog. Editing once it is transcribed is fast and easy to do.
- If you work with a team, ask them to contribute to the blog. No one said you have to do all the writing or provide all the ideas. Enlist your team to help you.
- Include your customers, associates, and partners in blogging with you. Invite key people to contribute to the blog. Possibly ask them questions in which they respond or link your blog to something insightful they have written.
- Set a schedule for your blogging. Decide if you will blog once a week, once a day, or every two weeks. Your readers will want to know what to expect from you. Allow yourself to write drafts of different blogs as ideas pop up and once a week pull one out, edit it, and voila you have a blog post completed in 15 minutes.
- Subscribe to a photo service such as dreamstime.com and you will have easy access to inexpensive photos to support your blogs. Pictures tell a thousand words. If you are an amateur photographer, feel free to include your own photos as well. This is a great way to show the human side of yourself to your customers.
Now, what you say and what you blog about needs to be considered in the following ways.
- What type of blog you are presenting to the world. Strategically, you have to decide if you are sticking only to business issues, mixing business and family, or business and personal anecdotes, or just personal. Who is your target and what is of most interest to your target reader. Answering this question will provide you with parameters for yourself and others on your team.
- Make a file on your desktop that is entitled “Blog Ideas.” Every time you read a blog, an article, an rss feed and it spurs some new ideas for you, copy it to your folder. This becomes a reservoir for future blogs. Once you use the idea, file it to another folder entitled “Blog Ideas Used.” You may want to recycle them at another time, but for now, it keeps your blogs fresh and makes sure you don’t repeat yourself too often.
- Once a month or once a quarter make a list of topics you will blog about in the next 4-8 weeks. You may choose to focus on a theme a month or vacillate between business and pleasure for example.
- Something hits you. From time to time a new idea, something you heard on the radio, or something you read will spur your creativity. Jot down the idea and allow yourself to write free flowing. If you don’t have time to reread, research and edit the article, put it in a file to revise later. These fresh ideas can be some of your best blogs and the most fun to write.
Continue to Learn
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)
American Industrialist
In some respect or another we are all lifelong learners. Sometimes the teachers are found in traditional institutions of learning or praying, in books, films, on the web and in conversations with colleagues, friends, support groups, professionals, and family. Sometimes, however, we learn in the most obscure ways from people we would have least thought have anything to teach us.
One of the easiest ways to live a full and healthy life is to keep on learning. It is that easy.
Start by making a list of all the things you want to learn or do before you die. Some of the items on your list may cost more money or take more time to learn, but many can be done right in your home or community. If there is only one thing you do to make your life more joyful and fulfilling, try learning something new and if you like, bring along a friend to make it doubly fulfilling.
To get you started consider these ideas:
- Travel, travel anywhere, but especially to a foreign country where everything is different.
- If you don’t like to travel or can’t afford it right now, read travel stories, watch travel films, take day trips, and go hear lectures at your local bookstore on travel books.
- Learn to cook, to knit, to paint, to sculpture. Learn something new that involves your hands.
- Take classes in your profession and develop your career further. Go back to school and learn what you have always wanted to learn.
- Find out what your kids, your friends, or competitors are all talking about and learn how they are using new technology to help them reach their goals.
- Stretch your mind. Go to free lectures in your community or take a class at the community college. Ask the librarian for their favorite book and read it. Ask the video store for their favorite movie and watch it.
- Take up a musical instrument, take a singing class, or learn how to ballroom dance.
- Challenge yourself to learn a new sport; skiing, skating, and even bowling or notch it up and sign up for a marathon or a 2 day walk to benefit a worthy cause.
- Challenge your mind and learn how to play bridge or canasta or how to write your memoirs.
Make it a goal to learn something new each day, each week, each year. As a result, life will be more joyful
How Soccer Relates to Business–Author Linda J Lord “The Pitch”–Virtual Book Tour May 2010
Join Author/Coach, Linda J. Lord on her Virtual Book Tour, Starting May 3, 2010
During the month of May, Linda will be traveling the hemisphere.
India * England * United Kingdom * Canada * New Zealand * USA
Linda will be discussing her recently published novel that reaches out to business owners, entrepreneurs, and working women who are looking for practical business strategies.
Her book “The Pitch” explains how soccer has very similar strategies that can be used to be successful in business.
This book provides sound business concepts in a fable format. This engaging story traces the journey of a single mother, whose business is floundering, from the brink of personal and professional disaster through the tumultuous learning curve of self-awareness to a place of success and self-acceptance.
One dollar from the sale of each book goes to the Hemophilia Society of Ontario, South Western Ontario Region.
Go to http://virtualbooktour-theyppublishing.blogspot.com/ website to follow Linda’s full tour schedule or visit her website http://www.lindajlord.com/.
There will be an Amazon contest at many of her virtual book tour stops. Visit participating sites to find out more about contests and giveaways!
Come and JOIN US on The Bridge for WOMEN!
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, site of over 5 million deaths and hundreds of thousands of rapes in a conflict spanning more than a decade, women are imagining peace. They say peace means being able to live and work freely. They see peace as walking to the fields without fear of rape. They envision a more prosperous future, harvesting from the fields the fruits of their own labor. Yet war wages on.
To honor the resilience of these and the millions of other women survivors of war around the world, we at Women for Women International are hosting a global campaign called Join me on the Bridge. On March 8, International Women’s Day, we’ll unite women and men on bridges all over the world – from San Francisco to Congo – calling for peace and development in an unprecedented show of global solidarity.
We want YOU to join us! Here’s how:
1) Attend an event! We’re hosting special festivities on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and on the Millennium Bridge in London. If you don’t live in these areas, check out our list of bridge events being organized around the world by partner organizations and supporters like you.
2) Don’t see a bridge event near you? Bring the campaign to your community by organizing your own bridge event, large or small.
3) Sign our supporter pledge to demonstrate your commitment to an investment in women and your desire for peace and development worldwide.
4) Share this blog with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!
This is an unprecedented call to action and we truly hope you’ll join us as we stand alongside the women in Congo, echoing their voices so that the world may hear our collective call for peace.
Go to our website for more information http://www.womenforwomen.org/bridge/
The Social Credit Crisis Solution – Microfinancing
February 5, 2010
2010 Canadian Wide Winner Small Business Credit Challenge – Solution – Microfinancing
Lana Larder of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is inspired by the success of micro financing success stories around the world. Larder has developed a microfinancing plan for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Larder is dedicated to microfinancing to meet Halifax, Nova Scotia’s business needs and the current gaps improving business opportunities for marginalized individuals and/or businesses in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Microfinancing is an alternative solution for entrepreneurs. It is usually targeted towards women because they typically have a harder time to access credit. Microfinancing can provide financing, credit building and business training and usually supports disadvantaged groups or individuals that seek capital for business start-ups and/or working capital for growth.
Microfinancing is predicted on the belief that access to affordable capital can play a critical role in unleashing the entrepreneurial capacity of individuals and/or business owners that can not access capital. Thereby raising each borrower’s standard of living and bettering the community.
There is a tremendous need for microfinancing services. In fact, two thirds of the world’s population are not serviced by big financial institutions.
Microfinancing is typically for individuals and/or businesses that have no credit score and/or suffer from poor credit, effectively shutting them out of the mainstream financial system. As a result, the disadvantaged rely on fringe and predatory financial services.
In Halifax, a poverty rate of approximately 18.1 % (concentrated among women, children and minorities) and 30,000 children living in poverty force families to seek additional streams of revenue by opening a businesses.
Microfinancing services will enable disadvantaged groups or individuals to 1) start and/or expand businesses through affordable loans, 2) access services such as business and financial literacy training, 3) build credit history through successful loan repayments. Currently there are few places for entrepreneurs to turn to for financing and even less now with the recent worldwide credit crisis.
Microfinancing services typically partner with government, non-profits and community partners so when clients apply to access microfinancing there is a good sense of the borrower’s character before a loan application is even filled out. Finally, the partners offer services that clients require to succeed.
Microfinancing offers affordable, flexible loans. Through research, focus groups and conversations with individuals and businesses there is a strong demand for these type of loans.
The recent economic downturn and financial crisis have underscored the need for access to affordable capital. Microfinancing serves a critical need for communities,and creates a paradigm shift in thinking about the importance of access to equitable financial services.
Microfinancing provides opportunities for economically marginalized individuals and companies creating pathways out of poverty to economic self-reliance. Microfinancing is an economic and social change agent. The benefits of these investments lead to long term and community wide benefits creating a healthier and progressive city, province or Country..
Short term investment for large, long-term savings….
Don’t sack the receptionist – give her more work instead!
Isn’t it frustrating when you arrive at an office reception only to find that there’s no receptionist! There you stand, waiting for someone to notice you.
And some how the staff manage to beaver away while at the same time giving you glances but, infuriatingly, not making any effort to come to your rescue?
You think to yourself, should I wait, should I talk, should I….
I have worked in many busy offices in my time and the one person who seems to have the most fun and the cushiest job always seems to be the receptionist.
The problem is that when a company has a belt tightening period, then the receptionist is usually the one that bites the dust leaving a void in the reception area and some poor employee out of work and me, the poor visitor, left to her own devises.
I can understand the reasoning for her demise – maybe she spent a lot of time filing her nails or chatting on her mobile – but who’s fault is that? She could have been kept busy with a crucial occupation that most small companies tend to ignore usually to their peril.
She could have been the companies “Social Media Whizz Kid”!
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you would encourage her to chat on Facebook all day, I am talking about structured marketing using Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, LinkedIn and all the other important social networks.
She would be given targets to meet and results to report on, in fact she would be kept extremely busy.
There’s four things you would need to have in place in order to ensure you really do benefit from her activities, in other words to make sure she is actually marketing your business not chatting and making dates with her new found friends.
1) Big Brother is watching!
What a lot of companies don’t know is that if an employee is using a company e-mail then you have every right, as their employer, to monitor their e-mails. This is the first thing you should make clear to your new “Online Marketing Manager”, (it is amazing how a good title can incentivize).
2) A weekly feedback report.
This would be to ascertain, (sorry for the posh word), things like, how many followers you have gained on Twitter and how many Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Plaxo friends you have on your business pages etc.
3) Somone to write good copy.
Find your cleverest writer, (you could hold a competition!), and get them to write a couple of blog posts a week. The posts should contain all the right key words for the search engines and, ideally, should come out of your website but if you don’t have a blog on your website then you can start a blog easily using blogger, or blog spot, there are many others! (A little bit of training for your blogger wouldn’t go amiss either!)
4) A good trainer.
It doesn’t matter how much she thinks she knows about Facebook etc. she will not know about the right way to leverage this new media to market the business.
The beauty of teaching a member of staff Internet Marketing is that you will be in complete control; your staff member will be gaining some great skills and you will save a lot of money down the line – money that you would have had to pay to a marketing company to do it for you.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day teach him to fish…………
Pat Sutton – Professional Blogger and Marketing Director at Niche Media Marketing
One to one training, workshops and seminars on Social Media Marketing.
Pat Sutton – Forbes Listed as the 30 women entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter!
The, supposedly, un-employable cooked my lunch beautifully!
There is a restaurant in London called Hoxton Apprentice.
It is set in a fabulous old Victorian school house on Hoxton Square.
I was invited by the proprietor, Val Corbett, to attend a ladies lunch in aid of raising money to help their training program.
You see Hoxton Apprentice is no ordinary restaurant, they train and employ the young, long term un-employed.
You can read their full story on their website: http://www.hoxtonapprentice.com/
What a fantastic lady; it was a great lunch too!
A story about one lucky protege:
Suleyman was a refugee from Turkey who could not speak English when he came to the Hoxton Apprentice. Today he is a qualified chef – with good (sometimes spicy) English – who was head hunted by Raymond Blanc and worked in his restaurant. But as they spoke French he decided that was one step too far! So he came back and now works as one our two main chefs. From being a long-term unemployed on benefit he earns a good salary, has married and is a fully functioning member of society.
D5 Creation