Last week we were pleasantly surprised to see ourselves featured on the CBS Early Show in a piece by Carmen Wong Ulrich discussing the “Best Alternative Loans for Small Businesses.”
As startups and small businesses prepare to ring in the new year, it’s usually also a time to plan for the coming fiscal year. You need to figure out a sales strategy, product development roadmap, and amidst all that, you need to make sure you have enough working capital to stay in business. So it was a really timely piece showcasing 3 unique ways businesses can raise capital when the banks aren’t lending.
Among the more notable topics discussed by Ulrich:
Business loans in 2011 fell to a 12 year low
B/w 1993-2009 65% of jobs were created by businesses w/ less than 500 employees
Since 2008, lending to small businesses has contracted by 54%
And I was pleased to see that Ulrich caught on to some of the same ideas we at Lighter Capital focus on:
There are small businesses doing well but need a boost, but the banks aren’t lending, so what are you supposed to do?
A lot of small businesses are up and running, the owner is watching profits grow but can’t access capital to build bigger and bigger profit
As the anchor says, “this seems much more appealing to a small business.” We couldn’t agree more.