Financial matters are undeniably at the top of any business priorities, most especially when you are just starting. It is often a struggle to find the right financing to get the business going. Tiffany C. Wright of The Resourceful CEO shows us all the ropes of getting the right funding for your business. She lays down some advice on finding funding if one bank turns you down as well as some of the possible reasons. Tiffany gives some ideas on how to be creative with looking for alternative financing. And not forgetting the basic questions, she confronts by getting down to the roots, asking: “What do you need it for?”

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Tiffany C. Wright on Finding Funding For Your Business

I have on a special guest and her name is Tiffany Wright. She has helped numerous small and medium businesses find funding for a variety of purposes for many sources. I've asked her to come here to talk about how you too can generate the business financing that you need to grow and achieve your business goals. Tiffany is the author of the book, The Funding Is Out There!: Access the Cash You Need to Impact your Business. Whether you've got a $300,000 transportation business, a $20 million business services company, or maybe you're an aspiring entrepreneur and you're looking at options, Tiffany Wright has the information and the strategies for getting your business needs financed. Tiffany, welcome to Heartrepreneur Radio.

Terri, thank you for having me.

One of the questions that I do get asked a lot is, “What do I do? I need to get some money. I want to spend money on marketing or business growth. I want to hire somebody, and I don't have the funds. Do you have any ideas?” It's not my area of expertise and that is yours. How did you get into this?

I served as a business advisor to a number of companies and some approached me and asked me how do I get funding. Many said, “I can't get funding.” I said, “First of all, didn't your parents teach you don't say, I can't? Second of all, there is funding out there. You just have to think differently about your funding.” If you get turned down by one bank, then maybe your business isn't ready for banking or maybe it's the wrong bank that you went to. This is what I always said, “First, step back and determine what you need it for and then how much you need.” In that order. That will help determine what types of funding is out there for you. I got frustrated. For everyone else, it was new but for me, I started to sound like a broken record. I speak at events and I would have clients come in and it was the same thing. After about 40 or 50 people, I had some advisors and my dad who said, “You should write a book,” so that's what I did.

I always wonder what has people drive to write the book and how they get it done and why did they get it done. What is the need? What do you need the money for and how much? They’re simple questions, but I know from talking to people that sometimes they don't know what they need it for. They don't even know the amount. I love that you're helping people start out with that clarity.

If you say, “I need $20,000,” what do you need it for? I want to do a little bit of marketing. I want to do a little business development and I need money to pay the rent. How much do you need in each case? If you're a growing company, you need $1.5 million to hire a number of people, develop software, and so on. It may be that you can get $1.5 million from an angel round of funding or it could be that if you have enough cashflow, you can get part of that from a bank. Part of that is from investors and part of that dep...