BrianAPaone
Knoxville,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, March 03, 2011
Exactly what kind of business were you trying to get into with no business plan, and how on EARTH did you think you could manage a $500k to $1 million loan without even so much as two nickels of your own to rub together at the start?
Going into business for oneself is no joke. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of saving, and about five metric tons of luck. It's highly unlikely anyone with any measure of sanity in them is going to invest in a person with bad credit and no business plan on a real estate venture - especially considering the fact that said industry just had the bottom fall out of it.
I mean, a LOT of credible, reputable, long-established corporations and individuals were wiped out. If talent like that couldn't weather the storm, it's unlikely anyone's going to put $500k to $1 million worth of faith in someone with a poor credit score and no real battle plan.
I don't mean to offend you in any way, but it is what it is.
Some tips for those wanting to get into business for themselves:
* WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN. $1500 is way too much to pay for something one can do for themselves with the right software, and one's business plan isn't something that should be left to the devices of an investment mill. All they want to do is get paid; it's highly unlikely they're going to care about a person's continued success unless they can profit from it somehow.
Besides, if a person's unable to write a business plan, it's highly unlikely they're going to have the motivation, drive and know-how to succeed.
* SAVE SOME MONEY. Easier said than done in this economy, I know, but starting many kinds of legitimate businesses nowadays can be done quite cheaply thanks to the Internet. My online store setup costs $37 a year, for example, and since my products are custom-ordered I simply wait until payment is made to order the components - thus avoiding inventory and storage charges.
But you're still going to need SOME kind of seed capital, and 99.9999999999% of the time, it comes from the startup owner in some form or fashion. Live cheap, save wisely, and plan extensively.
* CONTACT YOUR LOCAL SCORE CHAPTER FOR ADVICE. SCORE (used to mean the Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a non-profit comprised of retired and current business leaders from across the country and industry spectrum. They offer a wealth of advice on how to get started and stay successful, and have services like business plan review that carry real weight when it comes time to get financed. (Lenders like to see a SCORE review and endorsement, by and large.)
In your particular case, however, I'd look into maybe something similar to what I use for large orders, called purchase-order financing. No clue if it works for real estate, but the gist of it is that a venture capital firm or other financial institution loans you the money at a certain interest rate to buy a certain property once you've got it sold.
Comfortably certain there isn't much in the way of legal options for that, though, so if I were you I'd knuckle down and start planning hard... or start applying for jobs. Best of luck!