CM – Getting Financing
Small businesses have a problem usually with getting financing
I have gone to a few seminars on putting up small businesses
and have read some books and magazines about them
and the bottomline is to always either borrow from a friend or relative
or pull out some money from savings
Interesting enough, if you wanted to put up capital
you would always hear the words “loan”
which is great if you are sure you are going to get
enough money in return to pay for it
otherwise, you’ll just be swallowed up by the interest
it would earn on top of the capital you borrowed
and you would suddenly find yourself so deep in debt
you would have to literally sell more than you invested
and those that you sell might just be your own personal things
One day I walked around a municipal hall and saw
this laminated book of services offered in every municipal building
it’s called the “Livelihood Capital Assistance – SEA”
and something caught my eye
From what I understand from it
it was a ruling that allowed small businesses to make a loan
from them on the basis that it was a small business
nice thought
unfortunately I saw something that was a turn off
Among the requirements of getting “Capital Assistance”
are the following:
- Personal Letter to an Authoritative Figure
- Baranggay Certificate of Indigency
- Certificate of Attendance to SEA Orient
- Sketch of Location
and the turn off
- A feasibility study or Project Plan
It was written that this was designed for groups of women, solo parents,
heads of families, families of minor victims, and calamity victims.
Okay, let’s pretend that here I am, a sidewalk vendor
with nary an elementary diploma
looking for a way to get capital assistance from them
so I could turn my sidewalk vending
into something better and more stable
because after all it was for people like me
and the budget was already there allocated for the program
How the heck am I going to make a feasbility study?
Oh great! I have to hire someone to make me a feasibility study!
There goes my monthly budget for the rice, viands
and my kids’ school allowances
Would I dare make my family hungry for a month
and have them absent from school just to set aside money
to pay for a feasibility study?
Ooops! I have no idea how much a feasibility study actually costs
I honestly thought it was as much as a sack of rice
Sometimes we have the best of intentions
in authoring methods to help others to get better lives
but we sometimes are not aware that
paperwork does get in the way
and to justify the release of such budgets
they must be together with the necessary paperwork
then we do not take into consideration that
these people may not have the intellectual, monetary capacity
to have paperwork done to apply for such requests for assistance
which then beats the purpose of the assistance program
for those who need the assistance won’t be able to apply for them
for the simple reason that
they cannot fulfill the paperwork
Which brings me to sometimes wonder
if rulings like these are just made to
make the authors look good
or to fulfill a certain requirement
from those countries we borrow money from
but with really no intention of being implemented
in the real sense of the word
If the budget for this assistance program is in the millions
and the people who should be availing these cannot do the paperwork
then where do the millions go?
where are they spent?
or are they just figures we put on paper
to make other countries think
that we are really giving others this economic upliftment opportunity
Here are some more questions I would like to ask.
Where does the budget come from?
Is the budget inexhaustible?
What are the types of livelihoods allowed to apply?
What are the maximum/minimum capital allowed to be requested or be approved?
Does the applicant have to repay it?
If repayment is required, how much is the interest, if there is any?
How is monitoring of the spending of the funds by the applicant implemented?
Can a business “adopt a livelihood capital assistance program applicant” in exchange of paying taxes or tax exemption similar to the “adopt a school program”?
Can an applicant have multiple applications for its multiple businesses?
What are the criteria to enable applicants to get a Certificate of Indigency?
Can they write correspondence for the application in the native language or are they required to write in English?
What, I think, would have been a better approach would be
to make available as a resource
people who would do pro bono feasibility studies and project plans
for people like these
they may be graduating college or post-graduate students
doing the paperwork as a course requirement
or have entry-level staff help with the paperwork
then make it a part of the program
Simply include a roster of people they could approach
and their contact information
to encourage the people to avail of the program
That is a suggestion for a coordinated move
give the people a program to avail of
and the resources to allow them
to fulfill the requirements of the program
Then maybe, just maybe, the people would believe
that the program was made with the intention
of really helping those who need it
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