Grow business & community capital

Submitted by Nathan Hilbert on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 9:08pm
1
Explore your business idea.
2
Place your idea on the map.
3
Join forces & collaborate.
4
Grow business & community capital.

Tools for this section are under development

In this section we are developing a way for a group of entrepreneurs working together with members of their community to find the capital they need from within their community. The resulting portfolio of investments in community businesses is a community investment portfolio.

See an example of a community investment portfolio that is under development here.

As you’ll see, tools under development for this step will include a means of tracking membership, investments, returns and governance of the portfolio.

We want your help though. What do you need, especially as a group of entrepreneurs, to approach community investors who have time, land, buildings, equipment, and yes, money? Think about capital broadly, what does it really take to get started and how can you organize to find it within your community (so the ownership stays in your community)? There are no crazy ideas here. This is an opportunity to talk directly with the development team, and help us help you.

Comments

Local Foods

Submitted by Henry clay on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 5:14pm.

Hi there. Do you know if local (organic) farms can qualify for grants or get tax breaks? This will be our third year here in Indiana, and we're excited about growing, but to do so, we'll need some help. We're thinking about purchasing many equipment upgrades, teejets, pumps, etc. Some of the larger farms are going to toss in some borrowed equipment as well. (I'm sure there are some tax breaks there, too!) :)

Any help is helpful. Thanks.

Slow Money

Submitted by Steve Bosserman on Sat, 12/10/2011 - 3:42pm.

Thanks for your question, Jan.  LocalFoodSystems.org is not affiliated with Slow Money.   However, when entrepreneurs reach the point in the development of their businesses where access to financial capital is their next step, investment via Slow Money is certainly worthy of consideration.  Your profile notes experience with Slow Money.  How do you suggest we present the steps entrepreneurs may take to access Slow Money funds as their business cases warrant?

Slow Money

Submitted by Jan Litterst on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 2:15pm.

Is this effort associated with Slow Money or another group?  If another group, which one?