Investing in Main Street

As any small, startup business owner knows, getting access to capital is one of the most difficult parts of starting your own business. Working hours on a business plan, nervously presenting your plan to a loan officer as they begin to nit-pic your business apart, making changes to the plan and re-presenting the plan, only to anxiously wait a week to hear back to see if you got the loan or not. This is a tedious process and can take a lot of time and sometime you don’t walk away with as much capital as you think you might need.

This is where additional resources can step in. Crowdfunding has become very popular for helping people consolidate debt, helping someone purchase a new home, and even helping people pay for vacations. This is a tool that can also be utilized to help many of our small businesses get started!

The State of Michigan recently allowed municipalities and economic development organizations to create crowdfunding capital streams as a part of their Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. Through this process entrepreneurs work with organizations to learn the basics about running a businesses and, in-turn, have access to specific crowdfunding platforms. These platforms allow community members and anyone in the world to invest in a small business without have to go through traditional investment licensing. This brings capital investing to a hyper local level unlike anything else before. Businesses can borrow anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 for capital purposes.

Instead of investing in big business through the stock market or other investment brokerages, individual citizens have the opportunity to invest in local small businesses right in their home town. It could be your favorite restaurant needing to expand; your local salon wanting to hiring more stylists; a new, hip clothing store trying to startup that you want to see in your community -- all of these are ways that you can help your community.

Launch Chattanooga, a program targeted at helping startups in Chattanooga, has a similar type crowdfunding platform that is used to help startup businesses. This is a great way to help our small, local businesses expand, add more jobs, and help improve Elizabethton’s economy. Start the conversation about other ways we can help our small businesses when they are ready to take their business to the next level. You never know what that business could turn into some day. Let’s talk about it!