check out... Getting an SBA Loan: 5 Things You Need to Know

Getting an SBA Loan: 5 Things You Need to Know

Getting a business loan is tough -- especially these days. But the Small Business Administration can still be a great lending partner. How to cut through the red tape and secure an SBA loan.

Chasing a Small Business Administration loan these days is a little like going to a carnival and expecting to win one of those giant stuffed animals. It might happen, but the odds are probably against you. As Christine Reilly, the president of small business lending for CIT, points out, about a year ago, the federal government tinkered with the formula for getting an SBA loan, and for a brief shining time, even during the Great Recession, SBA loans were semi-easy to come by.

Of course, it's still possible to get an SBA loan -- Reilly is the first to admit it -- and it can be a great way to infuse your company with cash. But how can you navigate the red tape and make sure all the effort pays off? Here are five things you need to know.

• Know the lingo.
• Document everything.
• Got collateral?
• Do your homework. Seriously.
• You are not a risk taker

to read the full article … click here.

Check out... Specialized brewery finds home in Fountain Square

Specialized brewery finds home in Fountain Square
By Sarah Richcreek / Star correspondent
IndyStar.com

As consumers look for more hand-crafted goods and a back-to-basics approach, one very specialized brewery has found a home in Fountain Square.

New Day Meadery is the only meadery in Indiana, and one of only 60 in the nation. Husband-and-wife team Brett Canaday and Tia Agnew began production in Elwood in 2001. In June, they opened a Fountain Square shop with a tasting room at 1102 Prospect St.

Mead, in essence, is honey wine. Because mead contains no grapes, which are naturally high in sugar, the fruit in mead needs the added sugar of the honey to increase the alcohol content.

Canaday and Agnew offer eight varieties, from dry to sweet. (Bottles range from $12 to $25.) Their tasting room is open to walk-ins, who can experience a single taste up to a full flight for a fee.

Canaday and Agnew plan to collaborate with local restaurants to provide food for larger tastings and parties, and they hope to host private cooking demonstrations.

Check out... The Art (and Journey) of Raising Funds

The Art (and Journey) of Raising Funds
By ROSALIND RESNICK

For an entrepreneurial start-up, landing that first check from an investor is a milestone.

What many start-ups don't realize is that the seed capital they raise – often from friends and family – is just the first step in a fundraising journey that can drag on for months or even years.
My client, John White, is more than two years into the process of securing $14 million in funding for his company, Joy Berry Enterprises Inc., which plans to republish the works of popular children's author Joy Berry across multiple media platforms. In June 2008, he and partner John Bellaud won their first $600,000 from angels to jumpstart the company—and expected smooth sailing from that point on...

to read the full article... click here.

Check out Loans to Small Businesses Plummet...

Business Sherpa: "Not so good news on the small business loan front."

Loans to Small Businesses Plummet

Loans backed by the Small Business Administration dropped significantly after stimulus incentives dried up.
By Rachel Leven
AOL Small Business online, 7/14/10

After a noticeable increase thanks to stimulus perks, loans backed by the Small Business Administration tumbled in June after funding for the incentives dried up. The total value of SBA loans made dropped almost two-thirds, from $1.9 billion in May to $647 million in June.

The drop in small-business loans comes amid the ongoing financial reform debate in Congress.

The economic stimulus upped the guarantee on the SBA's flagship 7(a) loans 90 percent instead of 75 percent and reduced or waived fees on the 7(a) and 504 loans. These incentives were added to bolster lending practices after the recession began in 2008.

The Senate is currently considering a small-business reform bill, which would extend support for SBA lending by decreasing fees and increasing guarantees. If it passes the Senate vote, which could occur next week, the bill will then move to the House.

Check out Dallara plans $7M facility in Speedway… new jobs!

Dallara plans $7M facility in Speedway for IndyCar

IBJ.com & Associated Press
July 14, 2010

Italian-based racing company Dallara has won the competition to create the new chassis for the IndyCar Series and plans to open operations in Speedway to build it.

The company's first expansion outside Italy could create more than 80 new jobs in Speedway. Dallara will move into a new, state-of-the-art technology center located on Main Street, investing $7 million into the facility.

Cars will feature a rolling chassis with an enhanced safety cell, and manufacturers will be able to dress the cars in multiple ways.

IndyCar made the announcement Wednesday. IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said the cars will be ready to go in 18 months.

To read the full article… click here.

Check out And Now, the Tricky Part: Naming Your Small Business - WSJ.com

Business Sherpa: "Hey guys, check out this interesting article..."

And Now, the Tricky Part: Naming Your Business
By EMILY MALTBY
WSJ.com, Small Business

Jake Schwarz, an attorney, spent months trying to settle on a name for his law firm.
He considered using the founders' names, as many law firms do, but "Iida, Schwarz and Prenton" was awkward to spell and pronounce. He contemplated "Lighthouse Law Group" and "Summit Legal Partners" but thought they sounded like motivational posters. Some of the more promising names he mulled were "Consilium" and "Acuity Law Group," but he realized that half his clients, based in Japan, would struggle with the phonetics.

"Literally, I was banging my head against the wall," Mr. Schwarz recalls.

As many entrepreneurs can attest, deciding on a name for a new business is no easy task. One with pizzazz can set a new company apart; one that misses the mark can make a burgeoning start-up fall flat.

The problem, marketing and branding experts agree, is that there is no magic bullet to picking the best name.

To read the full article... click here.

Check out Thirst rises for liquor licenses in Marion County

Thirst rises for liquor licenses in Marion County
IBJ.com

Finding the golden ticket of a liquor license in Indianapolis can be tricky—and costly. All 321 permits allowed in Marion County under a state quota have been allotted. Unless a restaurant is opening in an “off-quota” district, the owner has to find someone willing to transfer an existing license.

Contact me to find out more about existing bars/restaurants for sale in Indianapolis!
Inbizsales@aol.com

Check out... Get ready for the tanning tax

By Natasha Altamirano, Special to CNN
June 30, 2010 2:02 p.m. EDT

Editor's note: Natasha Altamirano is manager of media relations for the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational organization that monitors fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels.

Washington (CNN) -- Put away those plastic mini-goggles and grab your favorite tube of self-tanner. The first new tax to fund health care reform goes into effect Thursday -- a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services.

The tanning industry is just the latest victim of government paternalism, putting it in the same category as cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, sodas, trans fats, junk food and other targets of so-called "sin taxes."

Desperate for revenue and lacking the guts to curtail big special-interest tax breaks such as the employer-provided health insurance exclusion or the mortgage interest deduction, congressional leaders and the president have singled out a politically vulnerable target. Kind of like a pride of lions singling out the weakest wildebeest.

To read full article… click here.

Check out Steven Levitt: The man who made economics freaky

The man who made economics freaky
By David Futrelle, Money Magazine
June 14, 2010

Had Steven Levitt taught your college Econ 101 lecture, you'd surely remember more of it. The University of Chicago professor takes the basic tools of economics -- reams and reams of data, and the understanding that human beings respond to incentives for gain -- and applies them to surprising new subjects.

In "Freakonomics" and "SuperFreakonomics," his bestselling books written with journalist Stephen Dubner, he's argued that sumo wrestlers probably cheat, explained why many drug dealers earn less than minimum wage, and shown that the introduction of television correlated with a spike in crime.

In one of his few studies about everyday money matters, he made the case that you probably can't rely on your real estate agent's advice to get the best possible price for your house. By turning economics into a good story, Levitt has become his field's greatest popularizer -- the Carl Sagan of number crunchers.

No wonder he was the hands-down readers' choice for this month's Visionaries interview. We asked Levitt to answer your burning economic questions; Money contributing writer David Futrelle chimed in with a few of his own. Edited excerpts follow.

To read the full article... click here.