Monday August 17, 2015

Show Me The Money: Financing

Your Business Options (3 of 6)

Overview:

Understand the various ways you might finance your business and how to approach friends and family, angel investors, banks and venture capitalists. Learn to prepare the documents you will need to submit for each. A guest banker will present criteria banks use to determine credit worthiness and a representative from the SBA will discuss the SBA loan guarantee program.

Description:

1. Borrower’s qualifications  2. How do you communicate? Know how to talk to financiers. 3. Funding Sources: Where do you go to get financing? 4. SBA Guaranteed loans: All about the SBA loan guarantee program. 5. Banker’s point of view: What is a banker's take on your qualifications? 6. Follow Up and set backs: What do you do if the banks reject your application?

 

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Speakers:

Mike Nikolich is an entrepreneur and public relations professional who represented both Fortune 1000 and more than 150 technology start-up companies in his award-winning career. In 1993, Nikolich founded Tech Image Ltd. and grew it into one of the country’s leading independent technology public relations firms.  Currently, Nikolich is working on his MBA at Northern Illinois University and will graduate in 2016.

Mark Ferguson he joined the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in 1991 as a Loan Officer.  Over the last 24 years, Mr. Ferguson has held a variety of supervisory and special technical assistance positions in addition to those duties as a Senior Loan Officer.  

In 2001 Mark was named the Public Information Officer, a position he holds today.  In this position, Mr. Ferguson is responsible for carrying out agency communication strategies to ensure that SBA’s mission, programs, services, and initiatives are articulated clearly and consistently to the American Public and the small business community for the State of Illinois. 

Nicolas Baria is a loan officer at Accion Chicago, a non-profit company that provides loans and access to resources to small business owners and entrepreneurs in Chicago and IL.