Regardless of industry, size or location, all businesses need capital to grow.  Many small business owners hesitate to approach banks directly, in part, because applying for a loan is time consuming, costly, and intimidating — with no guarantee of getting approved.  Thus, entrepreneurs often resort to using personal credit cards, home equity lines, or their own savings to fund businesses.  Biz2Credit helps connect entrepreneurs with small business loans, lines of credit, and other services they need to grow.
Biz2Credit matches small businesses with credit solutions based on online profiles that can be completed in less than five minutes in a safe, efficient, price-transparent environment.  Its network consists of 1.6 million users, 450+ lenders, credit rating agencies such as D&B and Equifax, brokers including BizBuySell and small business service providers such as American Express, Paychex, and HP.
Funders include large banks, regional and community banks, credit unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), micro lenders and asset-based financers.  Types of funding include startup financing, SBA loans, 504 Loans (for fixed-assets such as land and buildings), micro loans, business lines of credit, and equipment financing.
Using their own savings, co-founders Rohit Arora and his brother, Ramit Arora, established the company in 2007,just before the “Credit Crunch” hit.  The Indian natives originally focused their efforts on helping fellow members of the South Asian community and later realized that immigrant entrepreneurs of all backgrounds found the loan application process intimidating.
“Biz2Credit was able to secure a loan for me in 2009 when no one wanted to lend to small businesses,” said Nisha Khanna, owner of a Sweet & Sassy franchise in Old Bridge, NJ, who was rejected by several banks before turning to Biz2Credit for help.  “Even though I already owned a successful company and had a solid business plan, it was very difficult to get a loan.  They were able to secure $300,000 in financing and helped me get the business up and running.
“Small business owners, particularly those who were not born in the United States, have a difficult time overcoming language and cultural barriers.  It can be intimidating to ask for money – especially if English is not your first language or if you come from a background in which borrowing money is frowned upon,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora.  “Many small business owners are too busy running their companies and may not have the time, knowledge or skill set to handle their finances.  We simplify the process for them and demystify the loan application process and in many ways work as a quasi-CFO for entrepreneurs who might not otherwise be able to complete the loan application processes effectively on their own.
Ironically, as lenders tightened access to credit following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Biz2Credit experienced growth and expanded beyond immigrant communities.  Companies that previously would have encountered little difficulty in securing capital were finding that banks were no longer as willing to lend to them.  Because of the credit crunch, small business owners were willing to take a chance by registering with Biz2Credit’s site to try to secure financing.  The online platform has exposed entrepreneurs to the benefits of using technology to shop for business loans in the same way that Amazon introduced consumers to online shopping.
Since its founding nearly five years ago, Biz2Credit now has arranged more than $500 million in funding to small business owners and now processes more than 6,000 new loan applications each month.  The company is widely recognized as the #1 online credit resource for small businesses. and publishes a monthly Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index that tracks the success rates of companies that apply for funding at big banks, small banks, credit unions and other so-called alternative lenders.
Biz2Credit is a member of the Startup America Partnership, created by the White House in early 2011 to spur small business growth.  Additionally, Rohit Arora has consulted with members of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors to report on trends in small business financing and suggest policies to ease credit for budding entrepreneurs.  Rohit and Ramit Arora were named “Top Entrepreneurs of 2011″ by Crain’s New York Business magazine and are frequently quoted by Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall St. Journal, Entrepreneur, American Banker, TheStreet.com, Credit Union Times and other media that cover small business financing.
Registration on Biz2Credit is free.  However, the company also offers varying levels of subscription services that include phone support and case management to assist borrowers through the entire lending process starting with the initial application form and ending on the day the loan closes.
“It is not just mom-and-pop shops that come to us for financing,” says Ramit Arora.  “Increasingly, we are getting funding requests from professionals such as CPAs, architects, attorneys and doctors who are looking to expand their practices and sometimes need millions of dollars worth of financing.”
Biz2Credit recently introduced its BizAnalyzer™ tool.  Using information from credit ratings agencies D&B and Equifax, BizAnalyzer provides a free financial check-up for small business owners.  It enables small business borrowers to download and review their credit scores and benchmarks the company’s risk against industry peers, as well as the lending criteria of the financial institutions in the Biz2Credit lending network.  Factoring in the credit ratings that ultimately impact credit decisions by lenders, Biz2Credit then suggests the best loan options available.
“When asked if I would recommend Biz2Credit to other small businesses, my answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’,” said Dr. Michael Jackson, a Brooklyn-based dermatologist, who needed to expand his office to accommodate an increasing number of patient visits and cosmetic procedures.  “In Biz2Credit, I found an advocate who did more than just their due diligence.  They helped me get through the financial maze, streamlined everything and enabled me to get back to running my business, which is taking care of people.”

Revestor, makes the impossible possible through innovation, resourcefulness, sweat and a big vision for the future

What is the name of your business and URL?

Revestor LLC www.revestor.com

We also have a blog at blog.revestor.com

A brief synopsis of the website / application ?

Revestor is a real estate search engine that searches homes for sale by the things that matter the most. Rather than just searching by location, price and bedroom like most real estate websites Revestor empowers users to search by key real estate indicators. Today’s apprehensive home buyers want to be empowered with better information to help reduce their risk and increase their potential gains.

Why did you start this company?

Real estate technology is stuck in the 1980’s and much of the information is fragmented among a number of different data sources, websites and archaic manual methods. We wanted to pull all of the relevant information together in one place to help home buyers, real estate investors and real estate professionals. The market is in desperate need of the Revestor product to help restore confidence among buyers and help real estate agents be more efficient.

Was your company started on a shoestring budget or funded?

We are seeking funding but to get the site developed, the patent filed and site live we self funded the business on a shoestring mostly by being creative and resourceful – and of course blood and sweat.

Who is your competition, and what do you do better?

Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia. We believe we have more relevant data and search capabilities behind a superior user interface. We provide our premium users and advertisers more value for their investment. By providing value to our users we in turn are creating a revenue model like no other.

Why would a small business, entrepreneur, freelancer, etc use your product?

Real estate agents spend hours sifting and sorting through listings to find deals to present to their investor clients . Revestor is a tool to help real estate agents save time by instantly finding the homes that meet the investor’s guidelines. If I were a Realtor the first thing I would do in the morning is perform a search for that days properties in my clients filters and get them in their hands ASAP. (We will we be releasing a ‘saved alerts’ feature in the future that will email you as new properties become available in your search filters)

How could you effectively use these tools?

Real estate agents can use the Revestor product do save time and focus in on the action items that make them the most money.

Home buyers can use Revestor to empower themselves with better information for better decisions. They can find out if the home that they are going to buy will rent for the payment incase they need to turn it into a rental due to a job loss or relocation. They can find out if it is potentially a good overall investment for their future

Real estate investors can instantly search homes for sale by the highest returns. Investors can search by cap rate and cash flow and even drill down further to cash on cash return, debt service ratio and ROI based on their exit strategy (rehab & resell, or buy & hold). Some residential real estate investors like to use gross rent multiplier (GRM) we will be adding that as a key real estate indicator in the future.

A short bio of your company:

Revestor is a residential real estate search engine for home buyers, investors and real estate professionals to find homes for sale by the highest potential returns. Revestor’s patent-pending algorithm generates and searches key real estate indicators to help users quickly and easily find the best homes in their area in a map and list view format.

Do you offer free online or offline tools?

We have an online site walkthrough/tutorial video that helps educate our users about the site and how it works. It was homemade (shoestring) so we hope to get it redone once we have the capital to do so.

We also have a blog and facebook page that we are pretty active on with our users

As we build out our directory and user profiles we aim to provide a community on the site that users can learn from and share.

Are there different pricing levels?

The site is free for all to use.

Real estate investors who are looking for more data, more search filters and a stock like investing dashboard to keep track of their real estate portfolio and its total monthly cash flow (TMC) can subscribe to a premium account for $49/mo (coming soon)

Real estate professionals can advertise/integrate into our integrated services program which is  a step by step process a buyer goes through to select service providers to assist them with the transaction.

Do you have a blog that keeps users updated?

Blog: http://blog.revestor.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/revestor

Twitter www.twitter.com/revestor

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/revestor-llc

YouTube –

How long have you been in business?

We officially formed in May of 2011 but have been working on the algorithm, concept and development since November 2010.

Number of current users?

We are just in San Diego and Phoenix and plan on being nationwide by the end of Q1 2012.

We have 350 users in San Diego and Phoenix and over 2,000 who have reserved their user name for when we release more cities. The site receives anywhere between 300-1000 unique visits per day so we anticipate that when we add another 300 cities we will see daily visits go to 90,000 – 300,000  per day or 2.7 to 9 million per month.

Estimated yearly growth?

We are hard at work to be one of the top ten real estate websites by the end of 2012 and within the top three by 2015. Our focus is to drive revenues to $100MM/yr with a $1 billion market cap. We are focused on growing profitably and quickly.

How do you see your company in the next 2-5 years (more products or services?)

Residential real estate is a just a start. There are many asset classes that are under served by technology. Commercial, International real estate, stocks, business opportunities, life insurance could be a play to add in…we will see. Still no one has automated the mortgage financing process and that is probably the most archaic part of the real estate industry. That would be a fun project to take on but most likely would distract from our core business.

Our philosophy is to “do what we do best and let other do what they do best and not be all things to all people” unless of course we believe we can do it better – then we will!

How many employees do you currently have working with you and/or freelance contractors?

Bill Lyons

Five total employees including myself. Two engineers/database admins, Two designers/choppers.

Are you looking to hire more people or contractors? If so, what positions and skills are you looking for?

Yes we will be hiring more programmers in 2012 as well as business development/sales positions.

What other web based products would you recommend to entrepreneurs, business owners, or freelancers?

http://icopywriter.com/

www.launchrock.com

www.appsumo.com

www.rentasmile.com

Any Patents Pending?

Yes, our algorithm for generating and searching key real estate indicators among several other claims has been submitted to the USPTO.

After working for a non-profit organization researching and writing on the subject of personal privacy, a young journalist named Robert Ellis Smith found himself out of work when the organization’s funding dried up.  Smith decided to launch a monthly newsletter on the subject, similar to the one he had started for the non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. Smith wanted to tide himself over until he found another position in the Washington world of public affairs, advocacy, and politics. That was in 1974.

Robert Ellis Smith

In November 2011, his newsletter, Privacy Journal, celebrated its 37 anniversary. It is among the longest continuously published newsletters in North America.

Smith used his severance pay from the organization to finance the first issue, dated November 1974, and the second issue and to support his wife and two toddlers.  He worked from a 15 foot by 40 foot bedroom in his home on Capitol Hill, 10 blocks east of the U.S. Capitol.  That meant he was nine blocks from the Library of Congress.  He relied heavily on it in the pre-Google age, mainly for names, addresses and phone numbers of prospects for his newsletter.  He mailed them sample copies of the first issue with a solicitation letter and a return envelope.

An eager young secretary at the non-profit association agreed to work as the assistant to the publisher for a modest weekly amount plus deferred salary.

Three times a week, he nearly trotted to the post office box he had established. He has kept a post office box ever since to separate and keep safe the business mail that a home-based business receives. To have it delivered to his home would have been chaotic.  In the years since, neither he nor his assistants have misplaced a single piece of business mail.

Soon the subscriptions started to come in. The publisher, now 36 years old, began to realize that periodicals get their income up front for the entire year.  This would finance the growing publication.  (Tax on the income covering the next tax year may also be deferred.) In addition, because they get paid before they provide the product, publishers need not worry about bounced checks and credit checks. If his printing company sends a bill for each issue with 30 days to pay – and is often generous with extensions – he is all set. Postage is his major up-front expenditure.

New subscribers kept asking about laws covering personal privacy.  Soon he put together what he called “Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws.”  It began as an eight-page variation of the newsletter, with about 80 laws described and cited.  After several supplements and reissues, he still publishes the valuable reference book today, with more than 1000 state and federal laws listed.  It’s a perennial best seller.  It accounts for 30 percent of his revenue.

Smith made it a point to get involved with a small trade association of newsletter publishers.  The advice was free, it was accurate and helpful, and the camaraderie was great.  Many of the colleagues dispensing free advice worked for the company that dumped the largest amount of materials into the mails in the District of Columbia. He learned how to compose effective sales letters, to judge results of mailings, and to always include the essential components of a direct-mail package.  Never mail without a “response mechanism” (a return envelope), and use the P.S. in a sales letter to full advantage.  The debate over whether or not it is necessary to put a stamp on the response mechanism has never been resolved by professionals in the field.

His main source of advancement was not space advertising or mass mailing but TV and radio appearances and participation in trade conferences. What he liked about newsletter journalism was that he and his colleagues worked both the writing side (“editorial”) and the business side.  Whenever he approached a news source or attended a news event, he made a pitch for subscribers. The news sources knew this was a publication about their niche and they wanted it. Often he asked a question at a news conference only to publicize the new publication.  Wherever he went, he grabbed a list of attendees because they were the most likely prospects for direct-mail advertising.

Within six months of his first issue, one of his sources provided a valuable news tip.  Publishing this “scoop” gave the publication enhanced credibility.

In about a year, he applied for a $5000 loan for mailings, secured by his home, and he got it.  Within three years he was able to pay the deferred salary to his assistant. He got $5000 loans three subsequent times.

All along, he kept telling himself that his focus was longevity not expansion. In the 1980s and 1990s he reached $150,000 gross sales and had one full-time and one part-time employee. When his family decided to move from Washington to Rhode Island in 1986, he found that the business was perfectly portable.  He packed it up and moved in to larger space in his new home without missing a beat. At about that time there was an attempt to make sales through retail outlets. Distributors were hard to find, and the effect was discontinued even though it was realizing a small profit.

Since then, the business has faced competition from corporate publications and free blogs on the Internet.  Circulation has not expanded. He had held on though, supplementing his income with more books, speaking engagements, teaching, and gigs as an expert witness.  There is a strong core of repeat business among law libraries and individuals concerned about their privacy. Sales lag among the newcomers to the “privacy space.” Smith is now ready to sell the business because he has reached retirement age.

He uses email a lot to prospect for subscriptions and book sales; he keeps his Web site, www.privacyjournal.net, fresh and useful to visitors; he has an electronic edition, orders@privacyjournal.net, along with the hard-copy edition.  He has made good use of hard-copy book sales through Amazon.com and has digitized all of his books for sale on Kindle, other eReaders, and apps for handheld devices.  He has sat through more workshops on using social media than he can remember but has not yet made the plunge (mainly because he distrusts the privacy policies of the social media companies).  He’s persuaded that social media can help, but he is not sure how much.

What did he not know when he started?  That a lot of customers want to be billed and a new business needed back then to be prepared for that.  Since Privacy Journal began accepting credit cards and Paypal, hardly anyone asks for an invoice now.

The biggest threat?  Cutbacks to funding for libraries.  Also, abusive practices by book distributors and chain bookstores. But they are gone now and Privacy Journal keeps going, positioned to be acquired by a larger publishing house.

Rachana suri

Madison Avenue Executive to  Socially Responsible Business Owner

Rachana Suri, Accessuri.com

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A Little About Me

After being laid off from the corporate Ad world of Manhattan I went on a life changing journey that led me to find my passion, my voice, and the strength to start my own business.  I had already planned a trip to London for my cousins wedding and since the job market was dismal, I decided to sublet my apartment and travel through Europe for a little while, maybe a month or so.  One month slowly turned into five months as I traveled around Europe, living in different cultures, eating wonderful local foods, and meeting many interesting people.  I meditated, I wrote, and I came to peace with who I am and where I am in my life.  Removed from an overly stimulated and marketed culture I was able to find my voice, not the voice of what others thought I should be and where I should be.  Through this journey I learned to live life from the inside out and not from the outside in.  I observed the world around me, and I felt Awakened.

Hearing my Voice

One thing that accelerated my awakening process was learning to live within one suitcase and on very limited funds, this was in complete opposition to the years I mindlessly spent money feeding my walk in closet to instantly gratify myself.  With my walk-in closet full of lovely name brands that even Carrie Bradshaw would be jealous of,  I was able to spend mindless hours deciding what to wear.  One thing I never thought about was how these clothes were made, who made them and what the profits of these products were supporting.

Being on this journey, I learned to be mindful about money, space, food.  Everything I did was in conflict to the consumer driven coma I was used to living and working in, I was finally awake.  It made me realize how much we hide behind consumption and buying, without too much thought to where our money goes after it leaves our hands.  In my journey with myself I have learned that mindlessly spending money on items that are mass produced by corporations who may or may not have the same values I have, was not consistent with being aware and mindful.  My money has power and I can choose to spend it in ways that I value and what I see as beneficial to us, the world, and the economy.  A large part of corporate goods come from countries where people are subjected to poor working conditions  and have few rights so that corporations can cut their expenses, increase their profits, so they can ultimately disburse their wealth internally.  Value is not placed on people, environments, or their manufacturing process, instead money is spent on huge ad budgets to sway consumers to buy their products in the illusion that it will fill a void that they originally created by producing the ad in the first place.

My favorite example of this is Burberry.  They are branded as an “Iconic London Brand”, but in reality in 2007 they shut down most operations in England and moved their manufacturing to China.  Here they license out their products to be produced so that they do not have to take responsibility for their production process.  Yet since 2007, their dividend earnings and profit after taxes has steadily increased, while prices of the products remained the same.  By moving operations, they were able to see unprecedented growth during one of the biggest global economic meltdowns in history.  Don’t get me wrong I love fashion, I always have.  I love to feel like a diva and glamorously walk down the street, but just like what I eat, organically grown food from local farmer markets that support local growth, I want to purchase fashion from places that are more in line with my values of supporting human development over profit.

My Aha Moment

Throughout this trip I was also finding small designers along the way who created unique accessories that help me update my well worn outfits.  Upon my return to New York City I began creating my own accessories and began selling them at shows.   This is when I realized that although there are so many wonderful designers in the world, there is not a high quality outlet where, like a consignment shop, designers can sell their goods, by pooling together to maximize their marketing and overhead costs.  I hope at Accessuri.com to be a place where mindful consumers can purchase luxury goods from passionate designers.  Here we support designers that preserve their integrity, their style, and their production process.  I hope with this business that we can hopefully start to think a little more about how much power our money wields.  At Accesuri.com consumers can begin to utilize the power their money has by buying from local designers versus corporate giants.

Where I am Now

Accessuri.com is currently in its infancy, but even now we are working on creating our own job creation program.  We have now hired several seamstresses to help make the handmade scarves, a social marketing expert, a SEO expert, photographers, video editor, and graphic designer.  Accessuri.com went live on December 15^th, and we are shooting to begin a strategic marketing campaign to begin growing the business.   Soon we will be adding other designers as we finish legalities.

The way I have been growing the company has been on the consistent input of revenue received.  I started with about $50,that made me $400.  I then took $1100 and made it into about $10,000.  This is when I invested into a site, now that my site is live and my inventory is much larger I am hoping to take that revenue to grow the business for my spring collection.  I am hoping to reach a goal of $100,000 by the end of this year and have sales projections at $500k, $1M, $2M, $4M over the next several years.

Obstacles and Lessons

Starting a business is not an easy task, I was a VP at one of the largest advertising companies in Manhattan, and decided to leave that all behind to begin my own business.  It has been a huge life changing experience and every day I learn something new about myself.  Having faith in yourself, courage and strength everyday is not an easy task.  To keep the final vision in mind while the daily ups and downs occur is not for the faint of heart.

I always keep this quote in mind from the Buddha, “a bucket gets filled one drop at a time”.  That’s how I view the business, just doing things one drop at a time.  It will eventually get there.  I have weekly meetings with myself to set targets.  Daily task lists that I work on diligently all day.  I utilize the lists to set daily appointments for myself to work on specific projects for set time periods as to not just focus on one task at a time. This is the best advice I can give anyone starting a business, time management is crucial, and I set up my days like I used to set up meetings in the corporate world.

Working alone at home is not easy either, there are several ways I have been able to manage this.  I usually have the TV or radio on in the background.  I frequent coffee shops, many of them have other home based business owners and you begin to create a great office space, where people truly help each other with ideas, what worked for them and what did not.  Lastly, business groups.  I am part of this Entrepreneurs Social Group and it has been amazing for feedback, friendships, and moral support as we are all in the same boat.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned is what you think will take one day will usually take three.  Managing my expectations about how long I believe a task should take and what it truly takes maybe because of issues out of your control, is always important to keep in the back of your mind.  To all other businesses starting out, remember there a lot of people that talk the talk, but few walk the walk.

Rachana Suri  Accessuri.com

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