Business: Following The Money Maze

On July 30th Brandman University hosted a financial education event focused on giving people the knowledge on to how better manage and finance their futures. The event was hosted by the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center, a program of the Inland Empire Center for entrepreneurship at Cal State University San Bernardino and was funded in part by the U.S Small Business Administration. The Center was launched in 2003 and was created to meet the unique needs of the Inland Empire’s women business owners. The organization's goal is to provide aspiring women business owners with the necessary resources, financial information, and expert experienced advice to start and grow their own successful businesses. The program also makes an extra effort and focuses on latina women in business by providing the services in both spanish and English. “I think money is probably one of the biggest challenges and obstacles to manage that everyone has. So, the more information these funding resources have, and the more financial information they are able to get, the better prepared they [aspiring business owners] will be,” said Deeann Chandler, event coordinator for the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center. The event focused on three main points: how to kick-start your business, how to design a business plan to qualify for a loan, and how to market and get the correct licenses and go through the proper channels to open the business. “It is a great opportunity for small business owners to see how they can access financial information that will be imperative to the success of their business,” said banker, Marcia Foster McBean. “I tell a lot of small business owners about these types of resources and how it can make all the difference,” said Brandon Sellers, a business loan specialist with AMPAC Tri-State CDC. Diane Weklar, the best-selling author of "Mastering the Money Maze" and founder of the Weklar Business Institute was the guest speaker for the event. She presented three key facts that every business owner should keep in mind: marketing their business effectively, securing the equity of their business, and building networking relationships. Welkar also went over the 10 secrets to winning business financing which include: showing strong management with proven execution, having a clear and concise purpose when requesting loans, knowing industry trends and seizing business opportunities, diversifying revenue streams by analyzing your market and pinpointing your strategy, having an effective dashboard for financial reporting, reducing barriers to entry and setting up barriers of protection, and keep a collateral evaluation for your business. Diane Weklar has been working as a consultant in the corporate and private arenas and has been a sequential entrepreneur for 25 years. She has been involved in many organizations that work to help communities, small business owners, and ignite business growth and profits which in turns bring jobs back to communities and stimulate the economy. Weklar has been involved in the American Cancer Society, The National Legal Aid and Defender, and was the director for community design organization as well as many other organizations. “It’s important to give back community by supporting the small businesses- there’s so many landmines that you can side step by getting the right information and the resources you need from the very beginning,” said Weklar. “Small business owners are the backbone of society and our economy. They create more jobs than any other corporate business. And because of that, it’s imperative that we support them to better support our communities,” concluded Weklar. The Inland Empire Woman’s Business Center holds financial and networking events twice a month and makes it their goal to be available for counseling, mentoring and getting resources out to small business owners. “It’s about people, it’s about connecting, it’s about networking, and growing a successful business,” said Gene Rosecrans, Vice Chairman, Board Member and Chairman of the Loan Committee, Inland Empire Small Business FDC. “We wanted to bring resources to our women-owned businesses because they are the least represented in loans and they are the least likely to gain financing. Our goal as an organization is to provide training, counseling, and mentoring to people in order for them to start growing,” said Director Nicole Kinney, of the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center. “This is a great event, I’m glad that people are going out, learning about and using the resources available to them,” said Sylvia Gutierrez, Economic Development Specialist, U.S. Small Business Administration. “We tend to do this on a volunteer basis; we really enjoy educating the public,” said guest speaker, Carla Ulloa, Associate Community Loan Officer with CDC Small Business Finance. Many associate bank tellers also come out to observe and brush up on new information in the financial industry. “It’s non-crossing, it’s easier to send our customers here than, to say, to another competing bank,” added Stephanie Ruiz, associate banker. “We just wanted to find how they were educating [the aspiring business owners] -- we send all of our customers here to use this class as a resource,” said Monique Lambert, associate banker.