Look Locally

Earning capital for your new business or campaign is not easy. Many banks may require you to already have capital or great credit to impress the loan officers into giving you a line of credit. So...look locally!

In NYC there are many organizations dedicated to helping new businesses (And even established ones) receive lines of credit. These are some I have found in NYC and there are thousands to be discovered. Type into your search engine, 'Small' 'Business' 'Solutions' '(Enter your city here)'...and good luck!

- New York Women's Chamber of Commerce
- UMEZ (www.umez.org)
- Project Enterprise (www.projectenterprise.org)
- Women's Venture Fund
- East Harlem Business Capital Corporation (www.ehbcc.org)
- Seedco (http://www.seedco.org/)

New Beginnings

Everyone has to start somewhere. Sometimes you have an idea and it fails. Then you create a new and better idea...and that fails too. Not every idea or strategy was meant to be successful. However, if you reinvent yourself and your ideas, eventually people will take notice and new strategies will take shape from the old ideas.

Therefore, I have found a snippet of information that you may find useful when cultivating your new strategy or business plan: (Courtesy of: http://tiny.cc/58cbe)

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The first thing to remember is to keep your idea confidential. Don’t tell anyone unless you’re prepared to risk someone else profiting from your idea and setting up in competition against you. You might have an idea for a new product or service, a better process or a smarter marketing strategy, but keep your idea confidential in the early days until you’ve sought protection. Not only will this keep your idea safe from others until you are ready to move forward, but it will ensure you don’t jeopardise your ability to patent your idea because you’ve disclosed it publicly. See the Starting a Business section for more information about premature public disclosure. If you need to disclose your idea, make sure you use a confidentiality agreement. For more information on confidentiality agreements, refer to the previous section.

You should consider keeping the following confidential until you have sought adequate protection: Inventions and innovations; Drawings of tools or equipment used in manufacturing; Designs of components; New business processes; and Unreleased trade marks for new products and services, and business names.

Similarly, the following items should be kept confidential to retain the value of your IP throughout the life of your business: Business reports; Trade secrets; Customer lists; Marketing strategies; Potential business relationships and ventures; and Business proposals.