Business 101: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Your Parents 101: Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Reality Check 101: Due to the current sub-prime crisis, banks are losing massive amounts of money, bankers are getting laid off, and small business owners are taking it in the asphalt of their parking lots as they pack up and vacate the premises.
Life 101: there’s always a cool trick to dodge bullets Bond, James Bond-style during current crises when you’re in the know.
Up until recently, it was the Golden Age for small businesses, back when a guy could go into the bank, declare mediocre credit scores, exaggerate (or even completely fabricate) current income numbers without providing documentation, and walk out with a large business loan with a low interest rate. Well, those days are over and many are arriving to a sad realization: free money is out and the economy’s recession is in—-however, some such individuals as Ben Bernanke would beg to differ. Either way, small businesses rock; start-ups are cool; and frankly, we still need funding. So, what’s the dues ex machina?
As I sat rummaging through some business magazines for answers in a crowded Barnes & Noble just down the street from whining Wall Street bankers, I stumbled across an eyebrow-raising article about something called 7(a) loans. Later, when I arrived at my computer at home, I visited the Small Business Administration’s website and sifted through about three pages when I found information about this loan program that practically gives out up to $25,000 without the necessity of any borrower collateral. As part of SBA 7(a) program, the Community Express Loan is a loan program which was developed in coordination with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the basic idea is: it gives out free money to small businesses… kinda. Sure, money doesn’t grow on trees, maybe not even on Lendingtree.com. However, with programs like this, entrepreneurs are being granted greater access to cash to get balls rolling and little lines on PowerPoint presentations pointing up. Technically, it’s not free free, and payback can be a bit—challenging. But with an initial cost of nothing to start-up, it’s free money to start-up your business. What’s done from there is dependant upon whether you know anything about free lunches.
If you are crazy enough, that is. One of the leading reasons that new
businesses fail in the first few years of their start-up is due to undercapitalization. Undercapitalization spawns from entrepreneurs often not
knowing what in the fiery furnace of paperclips sales they are doing or simply having cheap investors. This
often places the entrepreneur in the real fiery furnace of displeased creditors, expecting employees, and sometimes angry family members/business partners.
However, often it's overlooked what genius the proper utilization of
undercapitalization can be. Crazy talk? What if the marketing strategy is
"We're going to go into this mess without enough money to start."
Seems kind of... stupid... but think about it. The main reason for
undercapitalizing is the restriction of a low budget or stinginess among
owners' with their personal financing funds. But having little money happens.
And so does the tendency to penny-pinch for some individuals.
We've all heard of entrepreneurs who can make a dollar stretch a long way,
and the truth is, many companies waste a lot of money on unnecessary things.
For example, when two businessmen go on a trip to Alaska to meet with an important client,
they will stay in separate rooms. If you have the capital... awesome. But, if
you are being frugal, this is wasting funds. "But that's madness!!"
some people would proclaim. Hey, rumor has it, Wal-mart does it. Okay, bad
example.
Sometimes companies will rent office space in the finest part of town
instead of in a moderately priced area. In addition to wasting funds on travel
expenses, companies will over spend on supplies, business cards, promotional
posters, advertising stickers when they could order online from a company like Vistaprint.com and get thousands of cards under $15 in addition to other great
promotional products at a price that really puts a bang to the buck. When
entrepreneurs aren't in the know, these things can add up to thousands and can
be the tipping point in the first few years of business. Some companies even
still waste thousands in ad advertising and overlook the all-powerful Google
SEO marketing. Not to say print-ads are a dead-end, but to overlook Google (and
it's scary to say this) is almost suicide.
All this is to say, for the weather-eyed entrepreneur with careful spending
(but not too careful to a point of just being annoying), being cheap and
undercapitalizing can make or break a company and in the second or third year
of business, executives won't have to sleep in the same double-bed suite and
can get the Hilton in Manhattan rather than the Ramada in Jersey City.
Introducing Street Flips: a web, entertainment, and athletic training start-up. A rock startup. Booming onto the web, TV screens and 3D theaters near you, Street Flips is an innovative company offering up a new sport in addition to a new way of training for sports in general- digitally.
Currently, most football teams sit around a big blackboard and draw chalk lines. Basketball players sit around a coach with a dry-erase board. Street flipping "tricksters" sit around a computer and watch digital images of themselves perform breakdance moves, gymnastic-type flips, and extreme martial arts kicks to improve their "tricking" techniques.
Streetflips is pioneering a brand new industry of sports entertainment and the way people train, using advanced motion capture technology while educating young non-tricksters on how to manipulate and add special effect to the movements from a computer screen and produce the next-gen of digital art. We feel the next generation should be prepared for what they will innovate. I don't know: Maybe we're crazy... but that's the beauty.
This is Street Flips. Welcome to the Street-flipping, tricking, breakdancing, roof-to-roof jumping blog about this flipping start-up and our mission to revolutionize sports entertainment and develop a brand new back-flipping rock star industry. You can visit www.streetflips.com and view our latest developments, blog, and webisodes.
