Women and Minority Owned Small Businesses See Increased Funding

COSTA MESA, Calif. – Home based businesses are climbing in America, with most businesses being started by people and families that use their own money to fund the new venture, according to the U. S. Census Bureau’s 2002 Survey of Business Owners. With 28% of entrepreneurs starting their business with no capital at all, small business owners need the help from financial institutions such as iBank.com. In October 2006, iBank.com had over 500 registrations from women owned small businesses.

“We care deeply about the small, minority owned business,” said Tom Markel, CEO of Credentrust Software/iBank.com. “Small business owners are the future of America, and using the online financial network at iBank.com, businesses can fill out just one application and have many banks, brokers, insurance agents and investors contact them for assistance.”

Small businesses are vital to policymakers. This avenue to advancement opportunities, especially for ethnic minorities and women, is very important for small businesses. With 49% of the nations businesses being run from the home, the availability of financing, capital, venture and angel investors is critical. Women and minority small business owners have a difficult time finding access to credit, according to the Small Business Research Summary report put out by the SBA Office of Advocacy. As the cards stack up against this particular group of people, companies such as iBank.com can help business owners find all the necessary help and resources available to help make their businesses successful and profitable.

“Just wanted you to know that I did accept an offer from one of the iBank’s network lenders,” said Susan L., owner of the Flower Garden. “I was granted a
$6,000.00 working capital loan. Everyone I dealt with at iBank.com was helpful, friendly and they explained things in layman's terms. I was very pleased. Thank you.”

Unlike other major search engines, iBank.com’s commercial lending search engine is about connecting the small business person with real lenders, with real money, in real time. The search engine functions using 4 loan keywords instead of just one, and then display only lenders that offer the loan that’s perfect for the business. Furthermore, the only results displayed are actual lenders, not directories, informational articles or web logs. iBank.com has revolutionized the commercial lending marketplace and has consistently provided small businesses with a simplified, streamlined and seamless ways to do business with lenders online. With iBank.com’s proprietary online secure vault, a business can create, upload and store their entire business file cabinet of information online. The business then chooses the application type within the vault, data from the vault will pre-fill all the necessary information needed to build a professional Digital Investment Package (DIP), then click submit, and hundreds of prequalified investors, bankers, brokers and insurance agents nationwide are notified instantly. The interested parties can then log on to the applicants vault and review the materials. The vault is easy to use, and is self guided which gives the business a step by step guide to build a DIP and eliminates paper, fax, and postage. The business can access their DIP anytime, anywhere from the comfort of their own home or laptop.

Helping the small businesses of today, whether its women or minority owned is very beneficial to the American economic society. Women businesses employ 7.1 million persons and generate $939.5 billion in business revenues according to the Census Bureau. These businesses account for 28.2 percent of all non farm businesses in the U.S. Business owners today are highly educated, 3-in-10 are over 55 and 14 % are veterans.

"I am impressed with the quality of lenders who responded to our proposals,” said Adrienne S. from Maryland. “Every business person should know about the Finance Center.”

About iBank.com
Based in Costa Mesa, Calif., iBank.com, formed in 1999, uses the Finance Center solution to provide an online commercial finance marketplace for business loans, commercial mortgages loans and equipment lease financing and business, venture and angel investors. iBank.com offers the small business a Simple, Streamlined and Smart way to create a professional Digital Loan Package (DLP) on the Web then connects this Digital Loan Package to over 250 lenders. Through a single application the Finance Center stores the: business plan, management overview, financials, pictures and other documents which pre-populate numerous lender loan applications. Each business is issued a secure VAULT to organize, store and access at anytime, anywhere all their business or project information. They can easily invite their own lenders into their secure, private Vault in addition to our 250 lenders nationwide. This process reduces paper, faxing and postage charges, speeds up the process and eliminates the hassles of looking for financing.