Financing Trends for 2011

Image via CrunchBase

Hello Ladies,

2011 is almost here and I am sure a lot of you a wondering what types of financing will be available for small businesses. According to one of our favorite websites entrepreneur.com there are 5 financing trends that you should watch out for.

1. Crowdfunding (especially niche crowdfunding)
Kickstarter popularized the idea of crowdfunding, which is when a large group of people help fund a project or business through a cluster of small donations. Kickstarter began as a new way to help artists get projects off the ground. In return for funding, donors receive goods or services, or even just a well-crafted thank-you, in lieu of equity or interest payments. Now the same idea is spreading to business ventures. Diaspora, a tech company that wants to build a social network to rival Facebook got more than $200,000 in seed money from a Kickstarter campaign.

3 hot niche crowdfunding sites are:

Catwalk Genius – Members fund fledgling fashion designers and in return get a share of the revenue generated by the designer’s clothing lines.

Indiegogo – Leans toward creative and tech business ventures.

Peerbackers – A community of people specifically looking to support entrepreneurs, which are similar to Kickstarter in that they encourage preselling products as a way to raise funds.

2. Microlending
The idea of offering very small loans, even just $100, has its roots in helping women in underdeveloped countries start small business ventures. But as the recession tightened credit offerings, the popularity of microlending has extended to the U.S. — especially as aspiring entrepreneurs are starting ventures with far less than the $50,000 business loan threshold common at many banks. Not-for-profit Accion is the largest organization putting that idea into action with loans that start at $500 and average a little more than $5,000. You can also research other microlending programs around the U.S. through the Association for Enterprise Opportunity’s searchable database.

3. Credit Unions
These cooperative financial institutions are among the most active in making smaller loans to entrepreneurs and have only gotten busier in recent years, according to the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Its figures show credit unions made more than $33 billion worth of business loans in 2009, up from $12 billion in 2004. They have relatively low default rates and terms that are often better than traditional banks, according to the NCUA and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). Credit unions also can be a resource for aspiring business owners whose credit score might not pass muster with other banks. The catch? You will likely have to become a member of the credit union to borrow from it.

4. Bootstrapping
If you’ve trimmed your start-up costs down to a few hundred or a couple thousand dollars, why not skip the loan altogether and bootstrap your business? When you tap personal savings, get vendors to front start-up supplies for delayed payment terms, hit up friends and relatives, or use one money-making venture to fund another, then you’re bootstrapping. It’s a good way to test an idea and make sure it has legs before investing heavily in a new venture. Think of it as the business equivalent of going retro. It’s an idea that has been around forever, but is making a big comeback as people who have lost their jobs in the recession increasingly look to start a small business as an alternative to traditional employment.

5. The Slow Money Movement
Woody Tasch, longtime chairman of Investors’ Circle, a hugely successful angel network for socially responsible companies, is spearheading this fledgling movement. Its ambitious aim is “a million Americans investing 1% of their assets in local food systems within a decade.”

The idea is to help entrepreneurs who buy, use and sell local food or who engage in sustainable agriculture get seed funding from people they know in their communities. The terms are set on a deal-by-deal basis, which can range from a loan to equity to a credit extension. Backers are encouraged to invest in ventures that won’t just turn quick profits but will benefit their communities over the long term by creating jobs, supporting other local businesses and the fostering local food chain.

For more information visit www.entrepreneur.com

Hey Rhode Island Entrepreneurs–there’s 150k in Prizes Up for Grabs!

Image via Wikipedia

The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition is the leading community-supported business plan competition in the Northeast, supported by private businesses, colleges and universities, public entities, and nonprofit organizations.

Established in 2000, the Competition aims to further develop the entrepreneurial spirit in Rhode Island and help create growth companies that will increase local employment.

The Competition encourages plans for new businesses, as well as from early stage companies. An early stage, or seed stage, company typically is at the inventor stage where there is an idea, a concept, or even a product, but little or no income has been generated yet.

Winners and finalists will share more than $150,000 in prizes.

Applications to the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition must be submitted online and may be submitted at any time, but no later than by 5 p.m. Eastern time on April 4, 2011.

For more information please visit http://www.ri-bizplan.com

Cheap Hype for Your Business!!

Hello Ladies!

Looking for low cost ways to advertise your business?

Let us introduce you to one of our best kept secrets www.uphype.com

UpHype is a micro-payment marketplace where savvy people with unique talents and resources advertise to take your message and promote it in unique ways. Simply priced at $8, $16, or $24.

Anyone can create a hype or small service ad of what they’re willing to do to “hype” your message. Buyers can purchase hypes and are required to pay for the hype in advance. After the work is completed and accepted by the buyer, UpHype gives the task performer a whopping majority of the fee.

Hypes range from promoting your message to a user’s 300,000 Twitter followers, sending 60,000 traffic hits to your website, creating a video podcast, writing a press release or article for your blog and anything in between.

Hypes are divided into categories, including Social Marketing, Graphics, Writing, Eblasts, Flyers, SEO work, Website Back-links and whole lot more! To ensure that you get a good task performer, UpHype also post buyer feedback on people who perform tasks. Task performers will be given a positive feedback score, which can be seen by users who are considering hiring them for their hypes.

To learn more about Uphype visit their website at www.uphype.com