Ah, the question on every entrepreneur's mind. Well, there are options even in these times where it's harder to qualify and money is drying up.

These are just a few options that you may not have heard of:

• Opportunity Fund: Offers business loans for businesses that have been in business for at least more than a year. They provide an alternative to borrowing from banks or credit cards.  In addition, Opportunity Fund offers IDA's (Individual Development Accounts). IDA's are a special savings account to help you buld an asset such as owning your own business, home, or college education. If you are eligible for an IDA, Opportunity Fund will also match funds.
• SAFE-BIDCO:  stands for State Assistance Fund for Enterprise, Business and Industrial Development Corporation. They offer state and federal loans for small businesses at almost every stage including start-up. A good alternative to traditional financing through banks.
• Prosper: A unique alternative to traditional loans. In brief, borrowers create a listing online with their purpose for requesting funding and potential investors review listings and can invest money directly to fund your borrowing request. It's basically peer-to-peer lending.

Meriwest Credit Union has partnered with us to provide 2 seminars on Access to Capital for Small Business.  These seminars will explain what financial institutions are looking for when underwriting small business loans and what entrepreneurs can do to improve their chances of approval of their loan request.  If you are starting up a business and need funding these seminars should be very informative. The Tully Community Branch Library and the Rosegarden Branch Library will be hosting the seminars on Wednesday, June 22 and June 29 respectively from 6:30 pm- 7:30 pm.