0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network with great shows like being boss today, we'll be focusing on how to launch your venture with 0% funding and profit by helping others with their funding to drop these volleyballs. I brought to Leo Kanell on the mic. He and his team have secured funding for thousands of entrepreneurs for hundreds of millions of dollars. He's the founder of 7figures funding and authored the business funding formula. And today financial talk about how difficult it is to get funding for your new business. What to talk about being fundable. We're gonna talk about a formula that's Leo created for successful entrepreneurs to get funding, how to qualify for funding at 0% in so much more.

0 (50s):
When we get back from thanking our sponsors,

1 (53s):
Looking for a business

0 (54s):
Coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase our profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than it would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former small business administration entrepreneur of the year at Thrivetimeshow.com/fire Thrivetimeshow.com/fire from tools that help with automating your emails, increasing sales, gamification, and more. It's never been easier to create an online course than with the Thinkific app store. Learn more and sign up for a free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/firefree. That's THINKIFIC.com/firefree.

0 (1m 38s):
Leo say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's

2 (1m 48s):
Going on. JLD super excited to connect with Fire Nation today. You know, I think a common theme and a thought that a lot of people think is that debt is wrong, that you need to avoid debt at all costs. And especially if you've ever gone on YouTube. And you've seen mark Cuban has a video where he says anybody who starts a business with alone is a moron is what mark Cuban says. And yet under Armour's Kevin plank launched under Armour with $40,000 in credit cards. Now he had a little bit of savings, but without that 40,000 in credit cards, multi-billion dollar company under Armour does not exist. Starbucks was also launched with a loan and Nike's Phil Knight before Nike went public, almost went bankrupt a number of times, if it weren't for the ingenuity and what I call the funding formula, that great entrepreneurs follow.

2 (2m 41s):
And he got those loans over and over again, to keep Nike afloat, even Google needed some creative financing belong before they got venture capital financing in order to launch. And frankly, all three of my, you know, successful businesses each launched with some debt. So I think a misperception that certainly debt for personal reasons doesn't ever make you money going and, you know, maxing out that credit card to go on vacation or to buy clothes or furnishings that doesn't make you money, but business and debt is completely different. And I think that's a big misconception. That's what we'll be talking

0 (3m 17s):
About here today. Fire Nation is business in debts. Again, not going into debts with your vacation or with a wedding or with one of those other life purchases and are going to potentially have a big return for you down that line. And as I mentioned in the introduction, we're talking all about how to launch your venture Fire Nation with 0% funding and profits by helping others with funding. I mean, this is going to be a whole conversation around this, and let's just start with the obvious question, Leo, which is the difficulty in obtaining funding for a new business. How difficult is it? It is extremely

2 (3m 58s):
Difficult to, to obtain funding for a new business and really ever since the recession of oh eight and oh nine, it's just unfortunately gotten that much more difficult. And one of the other misperceptions out there is, well, I think I can just go get some venture capital, right? Or maybe I can just, you know, list something on crowdfunding, like what you did successfully and get some funding and financing to get started that way. And that certainly can work. But unfortunately the statistics show, it only works for about 5% of new businesses, venture capital crowd funding. Make-up 5% or less of the funding new businesses get. And so then the next thought is, well, Hey, you know what? I've banked at my local bank for a number of years, I've got my money there.

2 (4m 39s):
They're going to help me, right. Somebody to go to my local bank and lots of what I did when I was trying to start my first business and went to the local bank. And they're like, no, do you have, you know, business financials? Do you have assets and you know, free and clear property that we can take as collateral. And for most new entrepreneurs, that's just not doable. And so SBA and business loans at your bank make up another 5% of. So we're talking about 90% of new business owners. How do they get the financing and the funding to be able to launch the products and services that change and improve our lives. And reality is it's very difficult. It's very challenging for them to do that. And so that's where I felt this mission, this call to how can I figure out how to get my own business funding?

2 (5m 25s):
And then once I was able to figure that out, then I started to help friends and family, and one thing led to another and, and it's been, you know, just so satisfying to build, help entrepreneurs, get the products and services. But if you, you don't know until you try. And then all of a sudden you're like, dang reality is tough. It's much more difficult than I thought, well, let's talk

0 (5m 44s):
Fun to bowl. I like that word fundable. So how can we make our businesses fundable? How can we make our businesses look appealing for other people to actually help us fund our own businesses? You know, that's a great

2 (5m 58s):
Question. And it breaks down into a few factors. One factor is they want to see that your business, you know, looks legitimate. It's much more than having that business plan. It's, it's having that business website. It's having the business in good standing and active with your state commerce department. It's having everything, a matchup, a separate business phone number, a business email, not a Gmail email, but an actual, you know, your business.com type email. So once you have that, those foundational pieces, that's part of the puzzle. But then the other part, especially for a new business, is until you get your business up to 50, a hundred million dollars a year, which takes a, it takes a lot of work.

2 (6m 40s):
You know, it goes off of personal credit because it's kinda like, you know, when you're 18 and you go out to, to get a car loan and they're like, well, you don't have any credit history. We're going to need mom and dad to co-sign. And so in order for your business, your brand new business, that doesn't have financials to get some financing. We need to take a look at your history of personal credit. And if we can see some good things on your personal credit, then we could be comfortable extending some financing and funding that way. So personal credit is very important. And if you are starting a new business, it's actually really important to keep that day job, that W2 job, because that proven verifiable income of W2 job is going to help you qualify for additional financing and funding options.

2 (7m 24s):
So that's super important. And then the other thing you want to think about is what lazy assets do I have sitting around? Sometimes we do have a car that's paid off free and clear that we can use as collateral to get some financing and, and be fundable. So that's kind of the startup. Then we start looking, okay, now I got some initial funding. I'm seeing success, proof of concept generating some sales. Okay, good. Now how well do you take care of your business bank statements? Right? Do you keep a decent balance in there? Do you keep that business bank account from going no negative? Don't put it in the negative don't bounce checks, right? If you can do those things to build a strong business bank, account history, that's going to help.

2 (8m 5s):
And then the next step is down the road. If you are trying to qualify for that big SBA loan, then that's where you have to strategically get with your account to say, all right, we, we maybe can't be quite as aggressive with all of our write offs this year. We're going to need to show more profits on the tax return. And once you understand and get with your CPA or accountant on that, then you can qualify for even bigger loans into the, a lot of things

0 (8m 28s):
I want to go back over right here, Fire Nation. Number one, does your business look legit? Do you have a website? Are you working with an actual email address that isn't again, john@gmail.com, but john@entrepreneursonfire.com, do you have a job that's actually bringing in money? That's a good thing. They'll look very highly upon that. Cause you have money coming in. What potential lazy assets do you have laying around like maybe a paid off car, maybe some real estate, some other things that could be collateral. And then, Hey, it's great to minimize taxes. But sometimes there are ways to be strategic where you're not going to minimize everything down to the bone. You're going to show some actual profits.

0 (9m 9s):
So people are like, whoa, this company is actually generating significant revenue. They are making a significant profit. We can loan against that. And then SBA loans become more possible, et cetera. Now you've created Leo, a funding formula that so many successful entrepreneurs have followed thousands. In fact, break down that formula for us. Absolutely JLD.

2 (9m 32s):
So this funding formula was something that I was studying and researching and really trying to grow our, our funding options and marketplace. I wondered, you know, in history with some of the great entrepreneurs, is there kind of been a formula that they followed. And one of the guys I started with actually in my research was Sam Walton and Walmart in a, you know, his book made an American amazing book. If you ever read it, I definitely recommend it. But Sam Walton established these unique relationships. He built his business credit and as he was doing that, he was able to get financing, you know, over and over through the years, again, for a long time, for decades, way before he went public.

2 (10m 13s):
And then once he went, public had plenty of financing options. So this funding formula is it starts with the foundation. It starts with that personal credit, right, building that good personal credit score. And it's more than just making those payments on time. It's having a mixture of loans, lines of credit, car loans and mortgages. So you start with that personal credit foundation. And then the next thing you want to do is you want to build relationships with lenders and funding sources because relationships are what matter. And so when Phil Knight was growing Nike, that was part of the funding formula. He had to have these relationships and he would literally like fly several states away because he had gone through all of the local banks and the banks there in Oregon.

2 (10m 59s):
And it found as many options as he could. They go to California, he'd go to Missouri of all places and build these relationships with additional lenders. And once you build that relationship and that trust, did you have good payment history and you use that line of credit, pay it down, then they'll extend more credit. And then the funny thing about it, it's kind of like in the NFL where they say it's a copycat league and people copy plays well, the same thing happens. If I'm a lender I'm competing against another lender. And I see, oh, okay. You know, American express gave you 25,000. Well, I can trust you with 25,000 as well. And then it starts to become, you know, part of this formula is building these relationships and then going after you build it with one, building that relationship with additional lenders and then understanding all the options on the funding marketplace, right?

2 (11m 49s):
Everybody wants to know that the grass isn't greener, that if they go to a funding company, am I really getting what what's the best funding for me and that I qualify for. And so as an entrepreneur, you can try and keep your finger on the pulse of that funding environment, but you're probably pretty busy running your business. And so that's where if you can have a funding advocate who does that hard work, who has their fingers on the pulse, who's always helping thousands of entrepreneurs to get the financing they need to create their dream business. Then that's very helpful to have a funding advocate on your side to kind of manage that. So Fire Nation,

0 (12m 23s):
There's just a lot of gems within what Leo just shared. Number one, you brought up Phil Knight for a second time. I mean the book shoe, dog, Fire Nation, it's such an enjoyable read. I'm literally actually going to download it from my audible today now because I just haven't listened to it probably in five years. And just going through that book, man, it is just so inspiring. And it is going through a lot of things that Leo is talking about here. So I highly, highly recommend that. And something else that Leo shared that I had to write down was momentum begets momentum. And it's so true in everything in life. You know, like when I got Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferriss to say yes, to be on my podcast, who was going to say no, at that point I got, I had momentum on my side.

0 (13m 5s):
Just like when American express gives you alone, Hey, there's other people that be like, oh, well, if they're qualifying this person, they've probably done all the hard work. Let's make that happen. Just like I used to always think about how I'd be like, wow, there's home Depot right here. Why does Lowe's always open up a sh a shop or right next to home Depot is because Lowe's knew that home Depot did all the hard work that like this was a busy enough intersection. There's enough people now Lowe's is like, we're just going to come in and be better. It's going to come in and be a better store. And so momentum begets momentum, Fire Nation, and then remember understand all your options. There are a lot of options. You need to understand all of them because every situation is different.

0 (13m 46s):
Every opportunity might be the right one for you or different opportunities might be the right opportunity for you because you're unique. You're different. You have a unique, special situation. Now we're going to talk about qualifying for funding at 0%. When you talk about how to get a free pre-approval to actually see what your options are before you even take a step Fire Nation. And so much more. When we get back from thanking our

1 (14m 13s):
Sponsors as entrepreneurs,

0 (14m 15s):
We have unique expertise and goals. But one thing that we share in common is a desire to shape our business the way we want. And if you've ever thought about online courses, let me tell you from experience, they need to work for your business. Introducing the Thinkific app store, the first app store, for course, creators, that lets you build your courses your way. If you're looking for an easy to set up platform, that's built for entrepreneurs that gives you the ability to create an online course that will look and feel like part of your brand. And that gives you an experience where you can pick and choose the right apps for you and your business. As you scale, then look no further than the Thinkific app store. The course creation options are nearly limitless. Create certificates, coupons, live lessons, private courses, and more in Fire Nation.

0 (14m 59s):
You're invited to try it out for free for 30 days right now, visit Thinkific.com/firefree to sign up and get started on your online course today. That's THINKIFIC.com/firefree looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase their profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than it would cost to hire a full-time at minimum wage employee, I, our nation meets Clay clark clay has been coaching businesses just like yours since 2006. Yep. Even through the great recession. And he does it for less money than would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee at a time when Inc magazine reports that by default at 96% of businesses will fail.

0 (15m 41s):
Within 10 years, Clay is helping businesses like yours to grow on average by 104% annually. How's this even possible Clay only takes on 160 clients. So he personally designed your business plan. Plus CLIs team helps you execute that plan with access to graphic designers, Google certified search engine, optimizers, web developers, online ad managers, videographers workflow, mappers and accounting coaches visit Thrivetimeshow.com/fire, to see thousands of video testimonials from real people, just like you, who clay has helped over the years. That's right. Do your research and view thousands, not hundreds of proven documented in archived video testimonials from real people, just like you at Thrivetimeshow.com/fire, Thrivetimeshow.com/fire.

0 (16m 22s):
Then schedule your free consultation with Clay himself to see how he and his team can help you

1 (16m 27s):
Thrive. Leah we're back. And

0 (16m 29s):
Before the break, I was teasing the opportunity, the possibility of qualifying for funding at 0%, is that even possible? Well, you know what JLD, we

2 (16m 40s):
Are so fortunate to live in the country that we do in the U S where that is an option, because there are all these different funding sources that to build that relationship with you will offer a 0% interest rate, you know, for some initial financing and funding and it actually is possible. And so for your business to qualify for some 0% credit lines to get launched, to get off the ground, which how great is that, you know, you've got 0% interest for up to 15, even in some cases up to 20 months before you even have to worry about interest. And in order to qualify for that, again, we start with the foundation that business needs to be in compliance. And what that means is everything needs to match up.

2 (17m 20s):
Right? If I go look up your business on the online listings with Google and with some of the online listing services, does that address match up with your business entity with the state website and does it match up with the business license? Does it match up with the phone number that's listed? And again, do I see an actual website? Do I see an email address on the listings that goes back to your business website? And so once we had that foundation, we confirm the businesses in compliance. Well, again, now want to start to look at the personal credit history, right? Especially if you're a new business, then that personal credit is very important. And so you want to have strong, personal credit payments are made on time and then a big secret, a big tip that a lot of people don't know is your credit cards, right?

2 (18m 7s):
If your credit cards are all maxed out and then you're going and looking for additional financing, then it's kind of like, wow, you're one missed paycheck from defaulting on everything that makes you high risk. You're going to get declined. So if you can have your credit card balances paid down below half of the limits, then that's going to increase your odds and success of getting financing and funding. And sometimes we don't have that money just sitting around to pay those data. We already use the credit cards to kind of launch the business. And that's where we'll help you out by getting you, you know, a three five-year loan that you can use to pay down some of those balances raise your credit score by 40 or 50 points, and then actually be able to qualify for that 0% money.

2 (18m 49s):
And the other factor that they'll look at is if you could have a mixture of credit, right? You, yes, you've got credit card history, the student loans don't really help or hurt, but they also wanna see some mortgage history, some auto loan history. So if we can see a mixture of different financing types on your personal credit, then that's going to be really pivotal in qualifying for that 0% Fire Nation.

0 (19m 12s):
There's a lot of things I really want you to understand where it comes to your actual opportunities here. When you want to actually potentially start with funding at 0% for an extended period of time to give you that runaway, to give you that breathing room to actually make things happen. But as I kind of mentioned also before the break, Leo, I'm all about getting all the Intel before committing. So talk to us about how somebody can get a free pre-approval to see what all of our options are before we actually sign anything or take any like serious irrevocable steps, Lulu

2 (19m 47s):
JLD. And you know what? One of the biggest concerns that we all have is, okay, I'm getting pre-approved, I'm getting qualified for funding. Is this going to hurt my credit? AKA, is there going to be a hard credit, pull it hard, ding to my credit, just to find out what my options are. And if you go to your local bank, unfortunately, the answer is yes, there is going to be a hard inquiry. It is going to have a negative impact on your credit. So what we've done is we established a relationship with Experian, the largest of the three credit bureaus, and you can actually get a no impact pre-approval from our funding company. That's not going to have any impact on your credit. It's what's called a soft credit poll.

2 (20m 28s):
And that allows us to, you know, run your information and compare it at our automated underwriting system. With the thousands of people we've helped and generate a preapproval based on your credit. If you have verifiable income with that job that you still may have, hopefully then we're going to look at options with that. If you've got the sales going through business bank account, we'll look at those options. And if you're one of the few that has those business tax returns showing some profits, then we'll definitely look at those options as well. And so it's, it's very simple. It's very easy with our relationship with Experian. Now you actually don't even need to put your social security number on the form, which is nice. They've got the database so accurate. Now that based off of your contact information, a residential address, we can actually get that free pre-approval.

2 (21m 14s):
And what we did was we wanted to make it as easy as possible so that you can remember the website you were able to, we created a website, you were out just for Fire Nation. It's 7figures.com. That's the digit 7figures.com/fire. And at that site there, you build a click on that link, get a free pre-approval schedule, an appointment with a funding team member and just find out are what are all my options on the funding marketplace? Our job is to present all of the options and then you're in the driver's seat to decide what's going to work best for you. So there's

0 (21m 49s):
A lot of things here at Fire Nation. Number one, that soft credit pull, the no impact on your credit is basically a risk-free way to just be like, okay, where do I stand? What are my actual options? And of course, 7figures.com/fire. The number seven, 7figures.com/fire. That's where you can head over to learn a lot more about what Leo is talking about here, but before we do let you go, I do have another question because there's a lot of business coaches, Leo within Fire Nation here. So how can the addition of funding increase a business, coaches, sales? You know what that's

2 (22m 24s):
Such a powerful question. And our entire business model really is predicated on helping business coaches and business Colt consultants to kind of remove that big obstacle of, oh, you know what I'd really like to invest in your business coaching, but I'm low on funds, right? Well, guess what, when you can provide financing and funding options at a 0% interest rates so that you can help more people actually be able to invest in coaching and consulting. We know mentoring and coaching helps a business owner so much to have that success. And then not only, you know, pay for that coaching, but have additional money in lines of credit available to implement the growth. I might have the money to pay for your coaching, but if I don't actually have the additional money to implement the growth strategies, to do that Facebook marketing campaign, to hire that additional sales person, to buy that inventory, then your coaching may not help quite as much.

2 (23m 16s):
And so that's where, when you can offer funding and financing and do it in a way that doesn't take much of your time, we've created a software that creates a custom funding link for you to be able to put on your website, email, text out, and basically just connect them right up to our sales team. You don't have to do any of the work. And yet you get tracking with our software where, you know, okay, the client just received funding, and we're going to act as a second sales team for you to help the client understand all the, of the funding and financing and how it can work together, working with you and your coaching as an example of how powerful it can be. I know you had to pay two a day on your podcast recently, and he's an amazing guy, and we've been fortunate to provide funding for a lot of his clients, but also one of his top students, Steven, we started working with a little over a year ago and ever since he started working with us, he went from having six figure challenge launches to seven figure challenge launches because we've been fortunate to provide funding for hundreds of his clients who now have the money and the confidence to launch that business and learn from the coaching and the training and the mentoring.

2 (24m 25s):
And so that's how powerful it can be. It can literally take your business from six to seven figures overnight. This is

0 (24m 32s):
Really powerful stuff, Fire Nation, because now you are literally adding to your team as a business coach and entire additional team. That's going to be able to help you, help your clients, get the funding that they need so they can afford your services. They can invest in your services so that you can then invest in them and to create amazing results for them. So Leo, you shared a ton of great value all day today. What is the one thing you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything that we've talked about here today? Give us some more details again about the 7figures.com/fire, and then we'll say goodbye. Absolutely.

2 (25m 8s):
So 7figures.com/fire. Not only can you get pre-approved for funding and financing on the entire marketplace, including options at 0% interest, we're also going to be giving away two free gifts. We're giving away a digital copy of my book, the business funding formula. We're also going to be giving you credit college. You know, I don't know about you, but in high school and college, I didn't learn anything about credit and I sure wish I had. And so that's why we built the credit college platform to give you access to all the information and the tricks and secrets to keep your credit score high, save thousands of dollars on credit for the rest of your life. And hopefully even be able to teach your, your family and your children about that.

2 (25m 49s):
So we're giving away those two free gifts. And again, for business coaches and consultants who are looking to, well, I need to look at this. How can I get more information on joining your funding partner program on that same link, 7figures.com/fire. You can actually sign up for free as a funding partner and get right into our funding portal, get your custom funding link and start helping your clients secure financing so they can build their dream business and invest in your coaching and consulting varnish.

0 (26m 19s):
And I'm proud of you because you're listening to this stuff right now. And let's be honest. The education system has failed everybody for an incredibly long period of time. I mean, the fact that we can graduate high school and then even college, supposedly quote unquote higher education without knowing anything about credit, about money, about finances, about debt, it's absolute insanity. And it is crushing people before they have a chance to start in this world. And it's so sad. That's why I love when I talk to people like Leo, who are just putting out great content, great value on this topic because you got to start with this knowledge. You have to start with this knowledge. I'm proud of you for listening to this type of content Fire Nation so that you have this arsenal the year armed the year dangerous finish near the average of the five people you spend the most time with in hello.

0 (27m 7s):
You've been hanging out with LK in JLD today. So keep up the heat head over to EOFire.com, just type LEO Leo in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything we talked about here today. Best show notes in the biz. And of course seven, the number seven 7figures.com/fire is your call to action. Leo, thank you brother, for sharing your truth, knowledge, value bombs with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation today's value bomb content was brought to you by Leo and successful entrepreneurs. They accomplish big goals, Fire Nation, which is why I created the freedom journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days. And we're talking step by step.

0 (27m 48s):
Visit TheFreedomJournal.com use promo code podcast, free $15 discounts as a thank you for listening to my podcast and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side, looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you to increase your profitability by an average of 104% per year, all for less money than would cost to hire a full-time minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former small business administration entrepreneur of the year at Thrivetimeshow.com/fire Thrivetimeshow.com/fire from tools that help with automating your emails, increasing sales gamification in more. It's never been easier to create an online course than with the Thinkific app store.

0 (28m 33s):
Learn more and sign up for a free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/firefree. That's THINKIFIC.com/firefree.