What are your creative solutions for getting business funds?

[jwhaley]

Hey, everyone! Hope you're having a nice day.

When it comes to financing and funding your business, we've seen stats showing that LGBTQ+ business owners on average dip into their own personal funds more than non-LGBTQ+ business owners. We’re working on a story for our newsletter about how business owners in the community work around this.

Do you have a story about getting funding when you otherwise might have been denied, or tips on how you got creative to get the capital your business needs? Share your experience, advice, and words of encouragement in this thread!

P.S. We may have a writer from our team reach out to have your story featured in our newsletter. If your response is chosen to be featured, someone from the Square Community team will contact you directly.

[HC_Charlie]

This is a great question and it started me thinking about missed opportunities. I just started doing some research on LGBTQ business support and I hope those resources I may find, as well as the conversation in this group may provide some info and inspiration for my business this year.

I'm part of those that have self-financed almost everything for my business. I don't have any success stories for creative funding; the only grant I've been successful in receiving was from some local Covid recovery county grant several years ago. I did apply at least three times for a Verizon grant, and over four times for a grant from Hello Alice (which I think caters to female owned businesses, although they do seem committed to other entrepreneurs and LGBTQ business owners). I guess my grant writing skills are lacking, and after some major rejections decided to stop trying all together. The best advice I could offer is to take some grant writing courses, which may be available at a local college, nonprofit, or small business partnership in your local community. I think there must be a lot of competition which makes securing grants or funding a challenge. 

[MudFire_Dex]

Dang I think I answered this in another thread or group and missed it here. I self-financed (and boy what a hole I dug in my first business - $40K on credit cards because we didn't qualify for loans - this was pre-legal gay marriage and Daphne and I rented our house and owned different cards so we had no assets and couldn't qualify - grants are possible but not probable in this era). A few years in when my business was experiencing cash flow issues but had high monthly receipts - we took out capital lending from a popular company OnDeck....................and it was a nightmare. It cost me $178 a day to pay that loan off, and it didn't save the biz. 

Fortunately, I was able to parlay the failure of one business into success at another. Through contacts and a group of interested folks I took over a pottery studio instead of our retail store and I took a commission making art - hundreds of plates a month for IHG hotel group for wall installations and made $300K to start the new business off right and pay off the old loan. Did I sleep on an air mattress at my biz and nearly collapse from exhaustion, yes, but we made it out the other side. 

During Covid I was able to qualify for PPP and EIDL and I am one of the folks who paid the EIDL off completely. I am debt free as a business and still working on that personal debt incurred years ago because it grew over time. SInce that time I have found other lenders like Live Oak which work with LGBTQ+ businesses and I even got to chat with the VP when we considered an expansion load. Things are different now - but I can still see a lot of circumstances where LGBTQ+ business owners may have a harder time starting something up even for just simple reasons like not having the same kind of family support or resources to begin with. LGBTQ+ people often still are underpaid, underemployed, lack secure housing and financial support, and are under resourced in many areas prior to an idea to start a business.

There are a lot of microgrants and incubator programs now and especially in areas where investment groups are trying to put money into communities that have been historically overlooked. I would recommend looking into those - Atlanta has InvestAtlanta for example.