Sandy Westfall, who was reluctantly closing her business of 30 years, found herself at the Employment Development Department. She was there with the sole concern of taking care of her now former employees. Sandy was unsure of her future and where she might be headed. While at the center, she found that she too could use their assistance. She saw that they had a professional organizer certification and decided to go for it. However, once she received her certification, she didn’t know where to go from there. The Employment Development Department then referred Sandy to the North Coast Small Business Development Center.
Ted Sheets has been making signs since 1984. In 2006 he began to look at the possibility of moving out of his garage, which was full to the rafters. Ted wanted to expand his sign business and started looking at sign franchise opportunities. But he didn’t know how to tell if it was a good deal or not. How much cash would he need, and what was the monthly break even?
When the opportunity first came up in 2006 to buy The Forks Lounge in Willow Creek, in Northern California, Kim Walker and Steve Martinez were very excited. When they started to look for financing, however, they were less confident in their abilities to complete a business plan that lenders would find acceptable. Even though they had both worked in business for a number of years, the commercial loan process was something entirely new.
