In the past few months I've really pushed myself to research not only how to properly grow hot & super-hot peppers, but also what it will take to take to go from growing in my home to making a Commercial Greenhouse a reality.
A few weeks ago I approached NOBL (Northern Business Opportunities Limited), a non-profit, government-backed organization that is intended to help small businesses & entrepreneurs in rural areas of my province (Nova Scotia) with investment loans. At the time I looking at a range of business ideas and had not narrowed down to the hot peppers.
Since that time, though, I certainly have and I've put together a business plan that is -nearly- complete. All that is left is the financials & financial projections (which I am hard at work factoring out).
So yesterday I emailed what I had to NOBL, since they offered to provide assistance with the business plan and other advice/direction if it was needed. Today one of their Business Analysts called and I spoke with her for around an hour. The long and short of it is that they cannot consider my plan without the projections (which I knew) and, even then, the chance of getting a "Aye" instead of a "Nay" is very slim she said, because I lack any collateral.
The land I would ideally like to have is directly across the road from where I live and it is a barren field where an open-strip coal mine once tore through our town. The difficulty there is that is still owned by the same coal company that cleared out many, many years ago -and- it is somehow zoned as "Residential" (which simply doesn't make sense to me when it is industrially owned).
This where I start hitting into the roadblocks - mostly in the form of Catch-22's.
If I simply go to this coal company as someone "off the street" with nothing to back me, aside from my business plan, I doubt I'll gain much ground. Chances are, if they're holding onto the land, then they'll likely want to bargain for it - if they'll even -consider- selling it or providing a Development Permit for it. They'll likely want to know how much I'd be looking to obtain and how much I'd be willing to pay.
Without financial backing all that is essentially "up in the air" because I really couldn't say. And for me to get the financing to be able to say, I'd first need collateral - aka the land.
So approaching either the coal company or NOBL at this point is essentially a no-go, if I wanted to be taken seriously.
The next potential option is another non-profit, government-backed organization called "Farm Credit Canada", which offers a large number of financing options, but the one in particular that has caught my eye is labeled as a "Start Now - Pay Later" loan. And though I have not contacted them, yet, they indicate they look for land as "security" as well. Although, as the Business Analyst at NOBL said, they may be more flexible where their primary focus -is- Agriculture... But then my credit comes into play. And it is shot, sadly.
So what I'm wondering is:
a) If anyone in Canada has any experience gaining funding for a start-up such as what I am attempting and what they did or if they can point me to financial resources that might actually be possible for me to obtain?
and
b) If I were to start an Indiegogo or Kickstarter crowdsourcing project (as I've seen a number of others here do) do you think there would potential in making it happen and would you have any suggestions on how to better spread the word?
I know I'm over my head in a lot of ways, but I also know I have a talent for working things out when I put myself to it. *nod*
A few weeks ago I approached NOBL (Northern Business Opportunities Limited), a non-profit, government-backed organization that is intended to help small businesses & entrepreneurs in rural areas of my province (Nova Scotia) with investment loans. At the time I looking at a range of business ideas and had not narrowed down to the hot peppers.
Since that time, though, I certainly have and I've put together a business plan that is -nearly- complete. All that is left is the financials & financial projections (which I am hard at work factoring out).
So yesterday I emailed what I had to NOBL, since they offered to provide assistance with the business plan and other advice/direction if it was needed. Today one of their Business Analysts called and I spoke with her for around an hour. The long and short of it is that they cannot consider my plan without the projections (which I knew) and, even then, the chance of getting a "Aye" instead of a "Nay" is very slim she said, because I lack any collateral.
The land I would ideally like to have is directly across the road from where I live and it is a barren field where an open-strip coal mine once tore through our town. The difficulty there is that is still owned by the same coal company that cleared out many, many years ago -and- it is somehow zoned as "Residential" (which simply doesn't make sense to me when it is industrially owned).
This where I start hitting into the roadblocks - mostly in the form of Catch-22's.
If I simply go to this coal company as someone "off the street" with nothing to back me, aside from my business plan, I doubt I'll gain much ground. Chances are, if they're holding onto the land, then they'll likely want to bargain for it - if they'll even -consider- selling it or providing a Development Permit for it. They'll likely want to know how much I'd be looking to obtain and how much I'd be willing to pay.
Without financial backing all that is essentially "up in the air" because I really couldn't say. And for me to get the financing to be able to say, I'd first need collateral - aka the land.
So approaching either the coal company or NOBL at this point is essentially a no-go, if I wanted to be taken seriously.
The next potential option is another non-profit, government-backed organization called "Farm Credit Canada", which offers a large number of financing options, but the one in particular that has caught my eye is labeled as a "Start Now - Pay Later" loan. And though I have not contacted them, yet, they indicate they look for land as "security" as well. Although, as the Business Analyst at NOBL said, they may be more flexible where their primary focus -is- Agriculture... But then my credit comes into play. And it is shot, sadly.
So what I'm wondering is:
a) If anyone in Canada has any experience gaining funding for a start-up such as what I am attempting and what they did or if they can point me to financial resources that might actually be possible for me to obtain?
and
b) If I were to start an Indiegogo or Kickstarter crowdsourcing project (as I've seen a number of others here do) do you think there would potential in making it happen and would you have any suggestions on how to better spread the word?
I know I'm over my head in a lot of ways, but I also know I have a talent for working things out when I put myself to it. *nod*
