Financing....what?

While there are many financing opportunities available in for small business, you need to be able to choice the correct one that would best benefit your business.

The OFN or Opportunity Finance Network- Specializes in helping low wealth and low-income people join the economic mainstream. They help all the rural and native markets get financing for there businesses. They believe that everyone should have access to the opportunities that others do. They want to help the local communities that are struggling and the future generations after that.

I think the OFN is an awesome concept. A lot of people struggle to find the right funding for their business. It’s great when companies like this that have the good values really believe in the upcoming of a community and will support other peoples ideas.

Another companies that is all for helping out is the AEO. Association for Enterprise Opportunity. They want to help those “underserved entrepreneurs” start their businesses. So far they have helped over 2 million entrepreneurs succeed in bringing there ideas to life.


There are many more along the same kind of lines that do the same work that these other two do. They all seem to have many of the same restrictions. Like being in the “hot zones” of rural areas that have high poverty and unemployment rates. Another thing while viewing these websites that seemed to be popular for being about to get help from these guys is “a new markets tax credit”, “bank enterprise awards”, “Native American” or “technical assistance”.

I think it is great that associations like this exist but then again what about all the other people out there that cant get finding for a business that can potentially help the community just because they are not of Native American decent or they dont live in a rural area? They also seem to take a good percentage, before they even decide to help out. It sucks, but those people that have nowhere else to go, what are they suppose to do? What about all the rest of the population? Shouldn’t there be “Small grants for students” or “People who just got fired after working at the same place for 15 yrs” I feel that the associations should broaden to whom they are willing to help out.

Of course there should still be some restrictions. It should be a legitimate idea, and have everything they need to prove it would work. But I don’t think that they should deny anyone just because they don’t match the “rural area” or what ever other restrictions these companies may have. In my opinion, we are all supposed to be helping each other better the communities and make more jobs. Lets start on that, and make the economy better again.