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Startup funding - Q & A

Linda from Oroville, Cal. calls in wondering how to find startup funding for her business, particularly funding for a female minority?

Rich Sloan: We’re going to Linda in Oroville, California.  Welcome to the show Linda.

Linda: Thank you for taking my call.

Rich Sloan: You’re probably a– a KNEW listener.

Linda: Yes I am.

Rich Sloan: Great station.  Okay, cool, how can we help?

Audience: Okay. Actually I’ve been a phlebotomist and a lab assistant for quite some time and I have a background in chemistry and microbiology.

Jeff Sloan: Hold it, can you translate?

Rich Sloan: Phlebotomist, is that blood, drawing blood?

Linda: Phlebotomist- right we draw blood.  Okay, and as far as being a lab assistant we basically run the chemistry and– and do some- a minimal microbiology.  Anyway, recently I’ve been thinking of opening up my own lab, particularly possibly a paternity lab.  And my question to you would be…

Jeff Sloan: Hold it.  Let- let’s clarify really quickly, a paternity lab would be testing for paternity?

Linda: Correct.

Jeff Sloan: Okay great.

Linda: And my question to you would be who can I be referred to for funding to start a small business for a female minority?  And if there aren’t any resources for that what other resources are there?

Jeff Sloan: Well there are special government grants that you can find- you know, if you go to startupnation.com, click on the Ten Steps to Open for Business Process, I believe step six is all about finding the funding for your business.  And in there we provide a discussion about grants.  The US government has a great web site. It’s through the SBA that articulates all of the grants available to women and minorities that have a special allocation for women and minorities.

Linda:  Okay.

Jeff Sloan: And so you can read through in that location the resource that’ll help you understand if there are special funding opportunities for you.  Linda let me ask you too, do you have experience as a businessperson?

Linda: No I do not.

Jeff Sloan: Okay.  Then grants may be a good way to find money.  Another thing might be - I don’t know if you know any angels in your community; those individuals who have money to invest in a business might be an interesting way.  Another way is to go apply for an SBA backed loan at any bank.  That’s another opportunity, especially if you have proven skill and qualifications in the area in which you intend to endeavor with your business which sounds like you do.

Linda: Yes I do.

Jeff Sloan: Yeah, it sounds like it.  So I would recommend those things.  Anytime you can get yourself into a category, a special category like minority, obviously that can put you in a better position but there’s lots of other opportunities whether you do or whether you don’t or whether you can’t find a special opportunity, those general funding opportunities out there, you should explore as well.

Rich Sloan: Linda, real quickly, why do you wanna break out and do this on your own?  What’s your motivation?

Linda: I have just basically been thinking about it for the last- probably last four or five months just basically wanting to run my own lab.  Right now I run a lab through the hospital and it’s basically just me running the entire thing.  And I got a feel for that and began to like it and I thought well this would be interesting if I can get out there and possibly be my own boss for a change.

Rich Sloan: All right, well that is very exciting and we are all about supporting you in doing that.  I’ll tell you as a special opportunity for you we’re gonna give you a copy of our Microsoft Office Small Business Management edition software which is a $399 value and it includes all of the software that you need to get your business off the ground including the small business accounting software that Microsoft provided.

Linda: Oh that’d be great, thank you so much.

Rich Sloan: So basically Linda you’ve got no excuses.

Linda: You’re right, I don’t.