Fabien W. Edjou ⋅ Saint Paul, MN U.S. Army, First Lieutenant ⋅ 14 years served

Hi John,

Thanks for the suggestion. I am familiar with upwork and have used it it since it was glance. I do have a couple of projects being done on upwork as we speak.

Once I am able raise the funds needed (hopefully from friends and family) , I will follow your advise.

Regards,

Fabien.

Fabien W. Edjou ⋅ Saint Paul, MN U.S. Army, First Lieutenant ⋅ 14 years served

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for your feedback. Generally speaking, I agree with what you said. We are working with a local bank and have a Business account & Business Credit Cards. We had to submit our Business Plan, Statement and Scope of Work with our current customer, and more... The customer has already successfully made a test deposit into our account.

I am looking at raising funds the least expensive way first by reaching out to friends and Family. If you know how to do that or know where I can find the right information such as sample letter, that would greatly be appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Fabien

John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

You might find upwork.com a good resource to keep your costs down. You can piece-meal out units of work to several developers. I would suggest you do fixed-price per unit of work; not hourly.

Bruce Cohen ⋅ Fort Lauderdale, FL Leland Capital Advisors LLC ⋅ 25 years experience

Mr. Edjou: As a lender myself I will tell you that John Green's comments are very much to the point. There are two very bad mistakes a lender can make that will make sure that a good loan turns bad. The first is lending to much and the second is lending to little.
The vast majority of lenders do not understand your business and a well written business plan that assumes they know little or nothing about your services will go a long way to getting a good decision. Realistic cash flow projections with adequate hard evidence that the top line is reasonable will also be a big help.
Your product is not "hard" as it seems to be a service combined with proprietary soft wear that is unproven. There is no floor here for a lender as there are no "hard" assets to get the loan back should your plan not work or if the soft wear is poorly developed or inadequate for the purposes written. No lender will be able to asses the value of your in house soft wear product and will grant little or no recovery value on it in there determination.
I know this all sounds negative and in truth it is. That is why it is super important that your business funding plan is written properly and backed up with solid numbers. The good news is you have a client and that means you have top line income. They will look at the financial strength of your client and the strength of the underlying service contract you have with them. It would be wise to include a real list of other potential clients that you are in conversations or negotiations with along with their D&B rating in your business plan. You should certainly, early stage, stay the friends and family route. Please do remember that giving out equity can be the most expensive long term way to borrow money if you are successful.
Let me know if I can help in any way in the future once you have your plan written and in place.
Good Luck and much success.

Vicki Lightcap ⋅ Bally, PA Paradigm Project LLc ⋅ 16 years experience

Fabien,

You will be required to have a business plan tailored to the funding you are needing. SCORE is a good place to start. They should have locations that serve your area plus online business plan templates.

Also for funding check the Small Business Administration (SBA) they have funding programs for veterans. They also should have location in your area.

Fabien W. Edjou ⋅ Saint Paul, MN U.S. Army, First Lieutenant ⋅ 14 years served

Hi John,

Yes, we have a business plan that was reviewed by a SCORE Adviser. Before we landed our first customer, we needed $350K for a full launch of our business.

Now that we have a customer with a service agreement of $30K/month for the Consulting Service, we want to quickly build our website and one app that will be sold to the same customer. That's the reason why we are looking for $50K as opposed to the full $350. We've received several quotes for developers.

I hope this makes sense, otherwise I will be happy to provide you with more information.

Regards,

Fabien

John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

Crowdfunding is a popular way to fund a business these days. Much of it depends on how well your business plan is written . Do you have a well written business plan ? Did you retain a SCORE adviser to help you with business planning ?

https://www.score.org/business-plan-resources

In your business plan, what total amount of funds do you need and what is the cash-flow break-even point to recover the initial investment ? $50k doesn't seem like a realistic amount.