Selling Property To Raise Up New Business Capital

The drive toward entrepreneurship is so strong that some people sell property to raise capital. In 1977, Alice Cunningham worked for the Department of Labor. Nei­ther she nor anyone in her family had any experience owning or running a business. Then she met her future husband, Blair Osborn, a professor at the University of Washington, and they decided to start a business so they could work together.

Wooden hot tubs were a relatively unknown product that the pair believed had great growth potential. So they started Olympic Hot Tub Co. in Seattle, Washington, to construct and install these tubs. To finance the start-up, Alice sold a triplex she owned in Berkeley, California, which was a source of ongoing income. But real estate investment wasn’t the type of business Alice and Blair had in mind.

“We wanted to do something together, and we believed in the future of the product,” Alice explains. “But it was a huge transition from being a specialist to being the one who sells the product and empties the trash and everything else. In a small business, you’re it.” (more…)

| Estate |

Financing Your Business With Regular SBA Loans

Many banks won’t loan money to small businesses without the federal government guarantee under a variety of SBA programs.

Charles Keller was an industrial designer who started making cus­tom furniture in his North Andover, Massachusetts, garage in the early 1970s. Driven by the demand of family and friends, the business grew until Charlie incorporated C.W. Keller & Associates in 1976. The company, which specializes in distinctive wood and custom wood-veneer products for retail, commercial, and residential customers, moved to Plaistow, New Hampshire, in 1989.

The company grew with the help of three different loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Charlie witnessed first­hand the evolution of the loan program that Congress initiated as capital of last resort for small businesses who could not borrow any other way. The program has grown into the source of 30 percent of long-term loans to small businesses today. The SBA’s largest loan program is called 7(a), which encompasses several special-interest loans with various require­ments, such as microloans, employee stock ownership plans, pollution control, and export working capital loans. (more…)

| Finance Management |