 And for our communities, we do all have four different core products. We offer a hub-inside adults. We offer for youth. We also work within the workplace, and we are a hub-inside disaster. In this case, we are the only organizations that focus on disaster preparedness in terms of financial recovery and financial education before the disaster or financial recovery. So the program that we are talking about today, the startup tips for entrepreneurs, it goes inside the hub-inside adults. As you can see, we offer credit and money management, home buyer preparedness, and the small business development program. And we do offer entrepreneurship for the youth. This one is in collaboration with high schools and elementary schools in the communities where we serve. And inside the workplace, we offer mainly what it is, disaster preparedness and credit and money management. As you can see, we have a broad amount of partners that we collaborate with, including the SDA, FEMA, the IRS, and several different institutions. So the core focus of the small business program is that we offer an entrepreneurship training, which is currently an eight-week training where entrepreneurs will meet with a coach for eight sessions once a week. And the main purpose of this training is to provide tools to complete a business plan or to create a business plan before actually starting a business. And a few different numbers that I can share with you throughout the 28 years that we have been serving our communities. We have helped 75,000 entrepreneurs, and we have created over 700 new businesses. So we have helped create over 700 new businesses. Next slide, please. So you're in this workshop because either you're interested in opening a business, you have an idea, or maybe you're just trying to figure out what is out there to get an extra income or to leverage your income. So this is from the Secretary of State. It's kind of like a steps or a checklist before getting started with a business, mainly in legal terms, legality or formality of the business. So what the Secretary of State recommends before starting a business is to prepare and plan. Do your market research, create the outline or your business plan before getting started with the legal formalities of the business. So why do you think this is important? Do the market research or have a business plan? I want you to answer me. Why do you think it's important to be prepared before starting a business? Either you can unmute yourself, share any thoughts about it, or you can either put it into chat. Don't be shy. Looks like our audience is a little shy. Oh, here we go. So here, can you see the chat, Danita? Yes. Yes, OK. Why do you think there is no need for a business plan? No, what I meant, actually, I don't know if you can see me. Yes, I can see you. OK. First of all, thank you for offering this. What I meant was maybe there is no need for that type of business. So if you really don't know, you might be investing in the wrong place. Yes, yes. So now I understand what you were trying to say. Exactly, doing your market research will help you understand the need of the community. As Joanne was saying, if maybe there is no need for the service or the product that you're trying to provide. So doing that market research research can help you see if there is an existing need up there to be able to start your business. So if there is no need, there's no point on starting a business. You will lose time and resources on it. It may be not successful. And actually, you're saying, Samantha is saying, that doing research helps you pitch your business to others. Exactly. Most of the time entrepreneurs, if they don't have their financial resources to start a business, they may need either a loan or any type of investor from an angel investor or any other person. And they will want to know, OK, what have you done regarding this business? So they want to know what you have in place for the business. OK. And I don't know if I pronounced correctly, Carmela, she's saying that to show or to know where do you want to go with the business. Exactly. The business plan prepares you to the current stage of the business, to start the business and how will you grow your business? To make sure, yes, that the business makes sense to make money. Exactly. That's one of the main purposes, so having a business plan. Does it really am I going to really be profitable with the business? So all of those answers or all of those comments that you're sharing with me or with us, those are responded by establishing the business plan and doing your market research. And to ensure the business has the right competitive edge, yes, that's correct, Serene. And of course, provide getting your business plan or setting your business plan. It will help you set your goals in terms of what you want to accomplish with your business. OK. So that's the first step, we'll say, to get a business. Do your research. And if you can't outline your business or have a business plan. Second, secure financing, if necessary. This step may be goal. This second may be goal in a different place. It all depends on the business and it all depends on how financially prepared are you. Sometimes some entrepreneurs will use their own money before starting a business. So today they don't start a business in debt. Then the legal formalities, you will have to choose. We're going to talk a little bit about each one of them later on. So you will have to choose a entity, either a limited liability corporation or a corporation or partnerships or either you can choose to be a sole proprietor. And of course, you have to have a business name. And you can do this with the Secretary of State in regards to the business entity. And in regards to the business name, if necessary, you will have to go to the county where you're going to be located. Now, another important thing about a business is location. Especially if you are offering an in-person service, the location is important to check the zoning regulations and all the requirements for the local or the building that you're trying to get for your business. You need to make sure, for example, if you're up in a restaurant that it complies with all the regulations of the county and the state. And that leads to having or getting your business licenses and permits when necessary. Some of the businesses that requires license and maybe an accountant, a lawyer, definitely a restaurant and especially if they're going to sell alcoholic beverages and those type of spas, they need a license and permits. And usually most of the businesses, they need a sellers permit if you're going to be selling any type of product. You'll have to get your EIN number, that one you get it with the IRS for tax purposes and comply with all the tax information required by the IRS or the franchise tax board. Again, you can also go to the Secretary of State and look for the filing requirements of the business that you're trying to open or that you're trying to start. Next slide, please. So let's just talk a little bit about starting the business plan. So what we're going to cover in this small presentation is around the business plan. We already know what the legal formalities are for the business. Now we're going to see in terms of the business plan, what do we want? What do we need? And the first thing Joanne was saying, is there a need for my business? How do we know if there is a need for that business? And that one we have to do in the market research but also doing a SWOT analysis. And in that SWOT analysis, we are going to put us in the spot. Let's say we're going to evaluate ourselves in terms of the strengths and weaknesses before starting the business. And we also are going to evaluate the opportunities and threats that are in the market. So maybe one person in the previous session was mentioning about they even asked me, so is it OK to start a business right now with this pandemic? I was saying it depends on the business. Some business are thriving right now because what they saw an opportunity through this process or the past year, and even though some of the business failing, there are opportunities in the market. So that's why we need to do this SWOT analysis to evaluate what are opportunities, current opportunities, and what are the threats that we're going to may face starting the business. And that once we have that SWOT analysis, we can try to establish actions and directions where to utilize those opportunities to our advantage and transform the threats to our strengths. Using our strengths. And of course, we want to work on our weaknesses to solidify and to convert them into strengths also. Let me see. Sorry, I'm trying to catch up with the chat. OK. Once we have this SWOT analysis, we want to understand our market and what is going to make you different? What is that you're offering different from the rest? And that is your competitive advantage on the business. And of course, you have to determine who is your target market and who is your niche. And it depends on, again, depends on the type of business that you're going to start. If you're a citizen, maybe a specific community, or maybe just specific area, geographic area within your community, that's something that you need to know. And in this case, we will want to have numbers determined in your business plan. An amount of maybe families or the regular income for those families, things like that. And the most important thing, if your strengths are related to your experience in background, what are you bringing to your business? If you maybe want to start a restaurant, but you don't know how to manage a kitchen, it may not be suitable for you to get it into that business. So you need to take a look at your strength. Also, it's related with your passion. What are you passionate about? What is that you love to do and how you can convert that to a profitable business? So that helps you get your background and your experience, compared to your strengths, and then get that to your business. OK, I have a question here. The EDD isn't the Employment Department. And the other one is the Board of Equalization. So those are different entities that regulate the business. Do you have any comments or any question about the feasibility of the business? Actually, I have a question about one slide back. Thank you for your time and for posting this. I appreciate it very much. What is a fictitious business name and why or why would I want one of those? The fictitious business name is your business name. OK, you were just there with the county. And mainly, you will want to have a business name because you want your clients to identify you as your business. I mean, it's going to be different. Your clients will go with, for example, I don't know, maybe any business, McDonald's, instead of providing. OK, I'm going to do I'm going to overphrase their business to get a. I see. I see. OK. So you want you want a name that is going to be that the people is going to know that is going to relate to your business, to what you do. Got it. And it will also help you to set up a business credit or business financial accounts. Oh, good. Thank you. So yes, you will want to start if you want to start a business, you want to start a business separate from your personal finances in that in that case. Thank you. OK. So if there's no question about the feasibility, we can move to the next slide, please. Now, how to choose a the number you get it with the IRS is optional. It's optional. Usually when you register with the Secretary of State as an LLC or as a corporation, they may not be in need of having a business name, but some financial institutions will require you to have a business name. OK, so talking about different formalities or legal formalities, limited liability company, we have a broad range of. Entities are starting with the sole proprietorship for the sole proprietorship. You want to need a business name. You don't need to register with the Secretary of State. You just go, you know, go outside or your front door and your start selling or you may start selling online, but you're doing on your under your name, under your personal name. That's the list regulated formality entity that that are up there. And you will the only thing that you will have to do is file your taxes with the IRS every year. Then the the other side of the spectrum would be the corporation or professional corporations. So the corporations are the we're going to call it the bigger companies. But in terms of formality, you know, they are the most regulated is the most we're going to say expensive to set up. You need a. You need a board of directors, board of members and. The statements of incorporation and in different formalities that are required by the by the state. And by the government. So we have the two to opposite the sole proprietorship, which is the least regulated and we have the corporation, which is the most regulated. So all the other partnerships and limited liability partnerships, all those gets kind of in the middle of the two. And the limited liability company actually is kind of like a mix between the sole proprietorship and the corporation. So when you are a sole proprietor, you are doing business under your name, under your personal under your personal entity, right? But when you are registered with the state as a limited liability company or any other partnership or a corporation, you have a separate entity from yourself. That is protecting you in case of any lawsuit. For it for you, for your for your business. I don't know if I make sense with this. It makes sense. I was just wondering if you could give a good example of why someone would have a sole proprietorship, if that's the one where they could get sued. Is that my question? Yeah, it depends. Again, depends on the business, for example, a a gardener may not need to file for a limited liability company if they if he don't want to grow. So you will want to establish an entity if you want to grow your business. But if you're just trying to have it as a side hustle, there's no need to to file for a limited liability company or a corporation. And one time that you can maybe get sued as a sole proprietor, if it's the product you're selling, it may be harmful for for the person that is buying it. So you want to or you want also to protect yourself. Let's say if you get a business loan and then do your business cannot repay that loan. So what if you're not a no limit limited liability company? The bank, who is going to who is going to go after the bank? The bank will ask you for a collateral. Most of the time you may use your home or a car or whatever. So what the bank is going to do is going to go after your personal assets. So being as an entity, a limited liability company or a corporation can protect your personal assets in those cases. OK, thank you. But again, what we recommend is try to consult a CPA or a business attorney in this regard in terms of taxes, what are better for you and in terms of liability. Next slide, please. You have a couple of questions in the chat. And did you want to catch those before you? Yes. Yes, let me see. OK, we cover the number and the business name for an online business. If you're going to do it as a side hustle, you can just do it as a sole proprietorship. You don't need to establish a legal entity unless the website where you're trying to sell a request to you to. Yes, exactly. What Bridgette is saying is that you can start your business as a sole proprietor at the beginning and then you can move to an LLC or a corporation when the business goes. Yes, Bridgette, that is correct. I understand that LLC is not a license to borrow money. But at least it may sometimes protect you once the business is established and once you establish your business credit, you can separate yourself from your business. And most of the time, the collateral that the banks are going to ask you to from from the business, they may be your sales, you know, contract sales or your inventory. So those are some type of collateral that you can use with a bank in terms of business collateral. That's a good comment. You will also want to get an insurance, a liability insurance once you start in a business. Any type of entity that you're going to establish, either even sole proprietorship or corporation, there is always that good idea, good move to buy an insurance. You may want to register your business if you want to grow it and if you want to make it your principal source of income. There are some classes that you can help you build your business credit, but we do not offer those classes. So there are a lot of people, a lot of coaches out there that are offering those type of classes or courses to build your business credit. I think that was the last one. Now, you are talking about a business name. What do you want to have a business name? We will talk about this. We want you want to your clients to think about your business and what your business does. So what? How to select a business name? Well, first of all, you have to kind of like a do a. Survey, you know, have a few in mind, few business naming mind and then try to. Understand or have colleagues or friends. To take a look at your business and you can do it two different ways. You can show them the business and you can ask them, what do you think this business does? And then they will they will tell you, I think this business may be do whatever product or whatever service they they think. And then that can help you understand, OK, it's my business feeling the right idea that I want to sell my business name or the other the other question that you can ask them. OK, this is a let's say a fab business. Does this name fits into this category? What do you think? And then you will get a feedback of that business. You know, so to get to to your actual business name and then. Google it and if it's already exist or maybe in the county, you will do a business name search and you will know if the name that you're thinking of or the name that that you choose is available or not. And again, if you get feedback from the business name that you have, you know, be open to to that feedback. OK, next slide, please. Well, it's starting to write a business plan. Maybe you can start with a lean business plan or a one to page business plan. Just try to focus on your mission statement or the purpose of your business. What is the outlook that you want to accomplish? That will be your vision statement. And again, you already mentioned, why do you need a business plan? You know, to understand where where you want to go to keep everyone online and, of course, to to pitch your business for possible lenders or investors. OK, next slide, please. Link to the business plan. You will want to develop a marketing and advertising strategy. So how will you engage with your target marketing? Are you going to use social media or are you going to use traditional marketing or traditional advertising strategy? The only thing that you will want to know if, you know, that their strategy that you use and may help you track sales. OK, and that that's awesome. I see that people are sharing information in the chat so you can you can take advantage of those. Next slide, please. OK, so once you have the idea your business idea, what you want to do in your marketing strategies, you will want to know how much money do you need to start a business. OK, first of all, make a list. Make a list of every detail of every single item that is going to be needed in your business. And then on that list, you're going to see, OK, what do I really want to run the business and what do I really need to run this business? Sometimes needs and wants overlaps, but sometimes we can wait a few months or once the business is established to get the full amount of items that we we want for the business. Let's say, for example, a an online business. What do you need? You need a computer. You need a website. You need to your legal formalities, right? And what do you want? Maybe you will want a desk. You will want a printer or paper or all those types of things. So you really need to know what are the what is that you really need and want for your business and eliminated or just waiting a little bit on the ones can help you reduce your initial startup expenses by around 25 percent. So once you have the amount of money that you need to start your business, I will suggest, you know, we always suggest to start a business. You will need a certain amount of money, but then you will need a certain amount of money for the first six months of operation. So you will combine those amounts and that is the total money that you will need to start your business. Just because in the first month, you don't know how the business is going to move. So you will need to have some capital to move to move around during the first month of their business. And I think we're going to cover now an exercise, please, about where to get funding. There are different sources of funding. The traditional lending, community lenders of through the SBA or that works with the SBA. You can use fundings. You can ask to family and friends who invest in your business. You can use your own resources and and do a research. Let's research what is out there, what you can what type of money you can get to your business. So we want to start a business with either low or no debt. Because, you know, starting a business in debt is going to be a long road or it's going to be. It will take you longer time to recover from from the negative numbers to be a profitable business. But, you know, at least you will have an idea where to get funding. And if you go with the traditional lending or if you go with a loan for a business, just keep in mind that they're going to take a look at your capacity, which means if you if your business or you are going to be able to repay the loan, the collateral, what are you going to put as a collateral for the business? What are the conditions of the loan? It may be interest rate or the term of the loan. How many years you will have to be repaying that loan and character that is regarding your personal credit history. So bank will before creating your business credit. Banks or any financial institution will take a look at your personal credit. If you manage your finances, your personal finances, well, for good, they may think about accepting your proposal for a business. Sorry to interrupt. There is a question sent to me directly. I'd like to read it out. How much socially does a startup cost that is to get started and maintain for three months? Again, it depends on the type of business that you're trying to operate. It may go, I don't know, I cannot tell you a number per se, because we need to know specifically what type of business is that you want to open and what are your operating expenses? What is that you're going to need for operate the first few months? But usually you will need maybe electricity, internet, maybe a computer, a rent. If you're renting a space, you may need to buy inventory. You may need to spend in marketing. And all all those details adds up to operating expenses. I hope that answered your questions. Thank you. I'm asking the participants to tell what type of business they want to start. So I'll ask again when they respond. Thank you. The communal lenders are basically what we call credit unions or lenders, not traditional lending, not the big banks. So usually they are in the community, closer to the community. They're not they're not around the country, let's say, or they have limited amount of locations. Next slide, please. So last year, Operation Hope established a partnership with Shopify. So for those of you who identify as African American, you all of you qualify to apply to this initiative. And, you know, it provides you with a one on one business coaching and you can get to our entrepreneurship program to get your business planned. And you will have some benefits with Shopify specifically through this e-commerce platform, through this initiative. So I think I'm going to send I share with with the library resources where you can get the get the link with the with this initiative. So the purpose is that by 2030, we want to help one million entrepreneurs to establish their business or to grow their business. So if you identify as an African American, you definitely qualify for this initiative. Maybe if you're interested in show and learning more. I do have I think in the next life, we have the link to to the one MVB initiative. OK, so part of the one MVB, you get a the training, this training that I mentioned, this one already started on March 20th. It's an eight week course that focus on, you know, helping you establish your business plan. OK, doing help will help you to do your sort analysis, learn a little bit about marketing and what are your marketing strategies or advertising strategies, understanding your business financials and what it will cost you to run your business for the first years and how to gain access to credit capital. And that includes all the programs that are offered by the SBA. And of course, it will allow you to network and develop your speaking and skills. If you're interested in participating in one of these training, you can just let me know and I can get you in contact with the next sorry, I can tell you when the next cohort will start. Next slide, please. So if you want to access all of resources, you have the links here. You have we have a our website. And you have the link for the one million black business. If you want to go through that initiative, we also have an app that is called Hope in Hand. If you want to access our resources, you can also feel free to download that app and register through the app. We do offer, again, I mentioned at the beginning, we offer disaster preparedness and disaster recovery. So we do have a COVID-19 guidance and assistance resource to so you will have your you will have the presentation. So you will be able to just click on those links whenever you get the presentation and you will it will direct you to the websites. And next slide, please. OK, so if you have any question regarding the presentation, that's I will answer some questions and I would like to ask you also for a feedback if this presentation was what you were expecting or what can we add more to the presentation? Yes, there is a question. It was a follow up to the previous question that I read out about how much it will cost to start a business to run a business for the first three months. And the person actually wanted to start a brokerage firm services on financial planning and education drive along. So, yeah, I personally how how much would it cost and they want to start a business with the least amount of debt. So I would like to know more about the type of business. Are you trying to educate people on financially or are you trying to do? Looks like it's financial planning and education. Yeah, I think, yeah, it is part of it. Yeah, yeah. Well, if you say if it is education, you will want to treat it as a service, right? And if it's a service or you can think about if you want to do it remotely on a virtual basis, there's not much needed for the business other than a computer internet speed and the space in your home, right? And most of us, we already have a computer. We already have internet at the home, right? So that type of thing lowered the cost of running the business. OK, good question, Dave. What is the reason for incorporating in Delaware? Ah, you got me there. That may be a question for a business attorney. I am the yearly fees for the NLC are around three hundred, five hundred and four corporations going to be like nine hundred or a thousand. I'm not quite sure about that. Any other question or maybe comment about the presentation or feedback? Those are welcome. OK, so NLC, Samantha is saying is a hundred dollars in California. I'm sorry, did you already address Art's question about getting EIN? Art is saying that he got it for free from a government site, but now he only sees sites that want to charge money pretending to be a government site. What is the actual government site that you can get EIN? The IRS. Yeah, I just posted it. Oh, you did. Oh, OK. In the chat, it's irs-ein-number-gov.com. OK, got it. Yes, yes, the IRS. That's the I mean, you before paying someone to set up your entity, I will just go ahead and research what are the requirements and how much does it cost for the government to the government, how much the government is charging for that. So you you figure out most of the time for NLC, you can do it yourself. You don't need a business attorney. You don't need to pay anyone to set up your business. Yes, I was not talking about anything about Delaware. I don't know where they got that question. That's why I was not able to respond to him. But again, if you have any type of legal question, I will advise you to contact a business attorney. They will maybe they will be able to help you better through the government to the Secretary of State. You will have to I mean, with the Secretary of State, you will, you know, really know what are all the requirements for NLC and usually the government will tell you where to pay. Now, the SBA, now that Beck is talking about the SBA, the SBA is a go to start a business. It provides you with a lot of resources that you can connect to for starting the business, including I think you already mentioned SCORE. They offer mentorship and they also have online training regarding the business plan. And the SBA also have a platform, a learning platform where you can get more information about either marketing and how to to get your business started. OK, I think we can stop Shane. And I would like to hear some other feedback. I have a little feedback. This is Lori from the library. Yes, it will be great next time when we do this. You can actually read out the question from the chat because I think sometimes people were focusing, you know, on your presentation and they didn't actually read the question from other it will be helpful. You know, one person's question might be helpful to, you know, other people will want to know the answer to that question. OK, yes, thank you, Lori. Thank you. I have a question. You mentioned that there is an upcoming course regarding the business planning. And because I'm interested, is that actually free or is that do I have to pay a fee? Yes, actually, I forgot. I'm sorry, guys. I forgot to mention all the services that we provide are free to you. Oh, great. Yes. So if you're interested, should be an email, I will get you in contact with the coach that is delivering the next course. Great. Thank you. Yes. Yes, that is something that I forgot. I should have said that at the beginning. Yes, all of services are free. Any other comment? Rob says that he tuned in late but got some good info in a short amount of time. So that's it. Thank you. Do you have any more information leading to those angel investors that you spoke of? I do not have information about angel investors. But again, through the SBA, there's two options. You can either get in contact with the lender. And I do believe that the SBA they also have a contact or a link for investors. Thanks. And I will, you know, just outside of the presentation, outside of that, it's just a little bit of, let's say, free advertising for this platform. There is a new platform that is out there. I don't know if you have heard of is Clubhouse. So in this platform, if you use it well, you can get in contact with investors. And you repeat what that name was? I didn't catch it. It's Clubhouse. I'm going to put it in the chat, I think. Wait, I have to select everyone. So in that platform, it's kind of like audio chat type of thing. So you will meet with different people, talk about a specific topic. But you really, since you're entrepreneurs that want to start a business, you will really want to connect to those speakers or rooms. They call it rooms who are talking about specifically about business. And there's a specific room that is for pitching your business and then can probably get some feedback on your business and that sort of thing. And that is, you know, it gets you in contact with professionals or with people that it has a business that have been successful in business. And also, yes. The library is saying that they also have resources on angel investors. OK. Sorry, guys, I need to. To finish sooner. I have a baby and she's crying for me. Thank you very much. Yes, and I will send these slides and the chat transcripts and recording to all of you. Thank you. Not today, then tomorrow. OK. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. Thank you very much. Bye. Thank you, Danita. OK, bye. Thank you, Laurie.