Financing

Some of you are probably thinking of starting your own label to carry your band. That’s all good and fine but make sure you seek the right resources before doing it. When you start your own label you should be treating it as a separate business. You need to keep an entrepreneurs mindset. Ask yourself, would anybody pay for this and if so who and how do I reach them?

With any new business comes cost. This is something most peole need assistance with. Check out the following resources.

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.natfed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1

http://www.eda.gov/

http://www.firstnations.org/default2.asp?id=69

http://www.oweesta.org/

My favorite of the group is opportunityfinance.net. This site provides a lot of resources for entrepreneur training as well as finance resources. Most of these sites though offer great financing options if you fall under the right type of business categories.  For example, firstnations.org and oweesta.org provide assistance to business on native american reservations and owned by native Americans. There are very specific guidelines that have to be met in order to receive assistance.

Microenterprisenetworks.org is another great site for entrepreneurial resources even outside of finance.

A lot of these sites such as cdvca.org and cfed.org provide assistance to businesses that help develop low income communities. Again, these types of assistance require that very specific guidelines to be met. However, if your business just so happens to meet the guidelines laid out, then these can be invaluable resources for you.

The important thing is that you do your research. Business financing isn’t all that different from seeking a college grant. They offer incentives and special assistance for some of the weirdest things that you’d never expect so get out there and see if anything about your particular situation qualifies you for any help.

Then you have to pitch pitch pitch. Make sure you’ve got your presentation rehearsed and polished. You don’t want all that research to be for nothing.