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Should You Use a Personal Loan to Fund Your Business? U.S News & World Report Money "Sometimes it's hard for startups to qualify for business loans without ... Generally, a personal loan is made to a person, not a business, but for ... is quicker," says Paola Garcia, vice president at Excelsior Growth Fund, ... a small business loan may offer much more leeway for funding larger-scale projects. Win Big with a Small Business Loan NuWire Investor Eyeing to put up another branch of your existing and growing business? ... Whether you're in need of funding to start your business or to move an existing ... It allows you to get your hands on quick cash and at generally, reasonable ...

"Living Paycheck To Paycheck" How Do We Survive?

The Catch 22 of Living Paycheck to Paycheck

By Venchele Saint Dic

Jim is an air traffic controller living in New York. He and his wife have four children. His wife is a stay at home mom raising their four children.  Jim earns $60,000 dollars annually. The extent of his education is a high school equivalency test. He has worked for his agency for 30 years. They own a home and depend on one income to pay the expenses incurred monthly for the household. 

Carla is a single mother of two children. She works as a contractor for a trucking company based in California. Due to the lack of support afforded to her, she rarely dedicates time for self-care because she is working two jobs to pay the mortgage and child care expenses. She has been working with her company for five years. Carla earns an annual salary of $50,000 dollars. 

The assumption here is that both cases rely on one income. Therefore, it is safe to say that without an income stream coming every month, it would be increasingly hard for Jim and Carla to maintain their respective lifestyles in the states they live in. At first glance, they are in two different tax brackets and salary ranges. They live in different states with their own unique topography, economic and social capital. As it is common knowledge, this is a very typical situation wherein the net income you earn determines whether you can afford the commodities and lifestyle in a particular state.

See Why Dr. Randal Pinkett Endorses Small Biz Plan Competition

DR. RANDAL PINKETT ENDORSES THE NEXT LEVEL SMALL BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION

Dr. Randal Pinkett has endorsed the Next Level Small Business Competition

New York, NY -- Gibson Consulting & Solutions, LLC continues to build momentum for the Next Level Small Business Competition. Today it announced the endorsement of Dr. Randal Pinkett. Dr. Pinkett, Chairman and CEO of the multi-million dollar management consulting and IT solutions firm, BCT Partners, and winner of the fourth season of NBC-TV's The Apprentice released this statement: "As an entrepreneur and investor, I look for people who believe that we can all win together. Because of its like-minded approach to working with people who are willing to invest in themselves, I am endorsing the 2019 Next Level Small Business Competition."

This nationwide competition is designed to economically empower small businesses that have been in operation for less than 5 years. Small business owners can compete for cash, prizes and year-long pro bono business development services valued at up to $25,000!

These services will be offered by the Next Level partners and sponsors who are successful entrepreneurs, community professionals, and investors. They will dedicate their time, energy and insight to provide real-time guidance, consulting, and service opportunities for ONE winning applicant. Hence the competition's tagline: It takes a village to grow a business.

Checkout How The Urban Progress Community Fund Is Looking To Funding Black-Owned Businesses

MEET THE MEN BEHIND THE ORGANIZATION THAT HAS ALREADY GIVEN MORE THAN $6 MILLION IN FUNDING TO BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

Nationwide -- Invest in an entrepreneur of color and the rest of the dominoes will fall. Charlotte's Urban Advisors, an impact investment consulting firm, recently announced the launch of a fund that replicates this idea.

The Urban Progress Community Fund backs minority-owned businesses that are "high-impact," which, by the fund's standards, means it creates jobs, hires a diverse workforce, and offers services or products beneficial for low to moderate-income people and communities.

The hope is a single investment -- in some way, shape or form -- can help boost the economy, bring about upward mobility and achieve social justice.

$1,000 in Funding Available to Baltimore Changemakers

BALTIMORE ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCES $1,000 "BLACK FUTURES MICRO-GRANT" AWARD TO GREATER BALTIMORE "CHANGEMAKERS"

Baltimore, MD --  Building Black Futures Together is their motto. CLLCTIVLY.org, a community-based organization in Baltimore, Maryland is spearheading an effort to show the tremendous impact Black lives are having throughout the Baltimore community. Each month, CLLCTIVLY.org will award a local individual or organization with a BLACK FUTURES MICRO-GRANT - a no-strings-attached $1,000 grant for changemakers serving Greater Baltimore. The deadline for the first submission period is January 31st, followed by a two-week, community-wide voting period. The Award and $1,000 check will be presented on February 22, 2019. For more details, visit BlackFuturesGrant.org.

"CLLCTIVLY.org is very excited to offer the Black Futures Micro-Grant. Baltimore has amazing, dedicated individuals and organizations in our community who are making a difference without a spotlight, and often under resourced. We want to show our appreciation and motivate others to also use their time, talent and resources to strengthen our communities," states Jamye Wooten, the founder of CLLCTIVLY.org.

Wooten hopes that CLLCTIVLY will help bring unity and foster collaboration among the many community organizations doing great work, but often working in silos. "Community-based organizations often work in silos. Silos lead to fragmentation and fragmentation leads to duplication and wasted resources - such as time, talent and treasure," says Wooten.

Checkout This Funding Insight For Black-owned Firms

NEW INITIATIVE HELPING BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES GET ACCESS TO FUNDING AND TREASURY SERVICES

Los Angeles, CA --  Historically, Black-owned businesses have had difficulty gaining access to adequate levels of working capital and other banking services. While there are several reasons for this disparity, a significant contributor has been limited knowledge of the client selection and onboarding processes banks practice to ensure they comply with all laws and regulations that govern client relationships. As banking regulations and disclosure requirements evolve, banks have increased their due diligence standards to stay ahead of regulatory changes, and to more clearly define their risk appetite.

One of the most important and major due diligence evolutions is Know Your Customer (KYC), which is the due diligence process that enables banks to fulfill their regulatory and legal obligations with respect to anti-money laundering and related financial crimes. Because of the serious threat to the US financial system and the impact money laundering and related crimes has on the US economy, banks are now required to gather much more information about their clients and how their products and services will be used before extending commercial credit, treasury management, merchant, and commercial credit card services.

It is critically important that Black-owned businesses are knowledgeable of the KYC process, and what documentation and information is expected of them when seeking banking services. In addition, understanding how information regarding ownership, operations, customers, vendors, and expected account transaction activity may impact the businesses risk profile is invaluable. This is particularly true for businesses considered to be high risk or that operate within high risk industries or geographies.

Woman Raising $900K to Launch Smart Vending Machines Selling Medical Marijuana

MEET THE BLACK WOMAN WHO IS RAISING $900K TO LAUNCH MEDICAL MARIJUANA VENDING MACHINES

Facial Recognition and Biometric Blockchain Will Allow Regulatory Compliance

Columbus, OH -- PopCom, a leading Black-owned automated retail technology company specializing in smart vending and kiosk solutions, has announced its plans to develop a new blockchain-powered product ecosystem that enables cannabis, pharmaceutical and alcohol retailers to automate the sale of government-regulated products. The company is inviting forward-thinking investors to join them in bringing transformative technology to retail via their Security Token Offering (STO) - a public fundraising round that allows to anyone invest in the future of retail. The minimum investment is $252 and the team is looking to raise $945,000 in a 90 day period.

"It was important to me to be able to raise money from my friends and family, and my community of supporters, many who are not accredited investors," said PopCom Founder & CEO Dawn Dickson, a serial entrepreneur who graced the cover of the June issue of Black Enterprise and was named as INC Magazine’s top 100 Female Founders for 2018. "By raising money through Title II Reg CF I can now take money from anyone, now people can invest in tech company and get in early. Too often I watched under represented communities left out of deals, now anyone can support." The campaign launched right before Christmas and passed $10,000 in the first week.

PopCom will leverage advancements in biometrics, blockchain, and smart contracts to augment its current automated retail platform into a "2.0" version for regulated retail, powering machine-driven transactions in a secure, compliant way. While the company intends to release the technology first as a turnkey vending solution, the software will be built with the intent to integrate with 18 million vending machines and kiosks worldwide, bringing blockchain to the helm of new retail technology.