Workshop to Explore Alternative Financing

Joseph Huggins has advice for entrepreneurs looking for loans to help them start new businesses: Consider other funding options, just in case.

Huggins, head of the Gold Coast Small Business Development Center in Ventura, will discuss those options Wednesday at a workshop called “How to Finance Your Small Business.”

Huggins and guest speakers will also discuss Small Business Administration loan programs and the criteria banks use for granting loans.

The SBDC is funded by the state Trade and Commerce Agency and by the federal Small Business Administration to provide free or low-cost counseling for start-up businesses. Wednesday’s program is part of a series of workshops sponsored by the local SBDC office.

Huggins said he will stress the importance of considering traditional and nontraditional sources of start-up money.

“Banks aren’t going to help you unless you’re about 3 years old. We don’t want to present a completely bleak picture, but this is a reality check,” he said. “We try to convince start-up businesses to self-finance. There are also family, friends, investors. We have people coming into the office all the time who have money to invest and they want leads. There’s money out there.”

Huggins said the local SBDC also is planning a series of brainstorming sessions, to begin in April, that would assist entrepreneurs in setting up business strategies. The forums, he said, would be targeted particularly to people who have been laid off through downsizing and have good ideas for businesses of their own but don’t know what to do with those ideas.

“They have incredible management experience and money from a severance package, but they don’t know how to get started,” Huggins said. “At least once a month, we’d get together and talk about licensing, business planning. We’d be linking people up to start businesses.”

Wednesday’s program will run from 1 to 4 p.m. at 5700 Ralston St., Suite 310. Admission is $10. Call 658-2688 for reservations.