Small Business!!!  If you’re a small biz owner like me or you work with small biz owners then you’ll probably agree with me that they are the best people in the world.  Wearing lots of hats, multi-tasking, managing cash-flow, dealing with surprises, head of HR, dealing with challenges, looking to grow, dealing with more surprises…the list goes on.  It can be a hectic life but, if you’re like me, you wouldn’t change it for the world.

So we decided that we wanted to kick the 2012 year off with a bang and what better way to do so than with an awards contest! We are doing a play off the Oscars, which are on February 26^th, by holding our own Hawkeye Management Small Business Excellence Awards. These awards are going to measure six different categories within the small business space. Vote for your favorite nominee in the following categories:

Most Influential Female

Most Influential Male

Best Small Business Blog

Best Original Tweeted Content

Best Small Business Resource Website

Favorite Shark in the Tank (from the popular ABC show Shark Tank)

Each video below announces the nominees in their particular category.  Thank you for participating and let the voting begin!

Hawkeye Management 2012 Small Business Excellence Award Categories and Nominees:

Most Influential Female:

-Anita Campbell |@SmallBizTrends Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Small Business Trends

-Amy Cosper |@EntMagazineAmy Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at Entrepreneur Media Inc

-Melinda Emerson |@SmallBizLady Small Biz Coach & Author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months

-Rieva Lesonsky |@Rieva Founder and CEO of GrowBiz Media
Watch Video Here!

Most Influential Male:

-Brock Blake |@BrockBlake CEO of Lendio.com

-Dan Schawbel | @DanSchawbel Founder at Millennial Branding & Author of Me 2.0

-Joel Libava | @FranchiseKing Franchise Guru & Author of Become a Franchise Owner

-David Garland | @TheRiseToTheTop Creator and Host of The Rise To The Top

Watch Video Here!

Best Small Business Blog:

-Brian Clark | @copyblogger CEO of Copyblogger Media

-Smallbizbee | @SmallBizBee Matthew Ringer, Entrepreneur from smallbizbee.com

-Lisa Barone | @LisaBarone Co-Founder of Outspokenmedia.com

-Liz Strauss | @lizstrauss Founder of SOBCon
Watch Video Here!

Best Original Tweeted Content:

-Pete Cashmore |@mashable Founder/CEO at mashable.com

-John Jantsch | @ducttape Small Biz Marketing Guru & Author of Duct Tape Marketing

-Carrie Wilkerson | @barefoot_exec Author and Host of The Barefoot Executive

-Chris Brogan | @chrisbrogan President of Human Business Works

Watch Video Here!

Best Small Business Resource Website:

-Inc Magazine | @Inc

-Entrepreneur Mag | @EntMagazine

-USA Today Money | @USATODAYmoney

-HubSpot | @HubSpot

-Small Business Trends | @smallbiztrends
Watch Video Here!

Favorite Shark in the Tank:

-Daymond John | @TheSharkDaymond

-Barbara Corcoran | @BarbaraCorcoran

-Mark Cuban | @mcuban

-Kevin O’Leary | @kevinolearytv

-Robert Herjavec | @RobertHerjavec

Watch Video Here!

Voting is going to begin today and be held through midnight on February 23th, 2012. The winners will be announced on Friday, February 24^th right here on your favorite blog (in the whole world right). So be sure to get your votes in!

Winners will receive prizes! These prizes will consist of a special gift assortment from Hawkeye Management. Each winner for the male and female categories will also win a Social Media Sales Growth Package offered by Outbound Excellence, Inc.

Management, cash-flow, and marketing.  We’re definitely talking about some of the central keys to your business.  Jamillah Warner did a good job recently describing these recently in her SmallBizTrends.com article.  Peter Drucker said that business all boils down to innovation and marketing.  All other aspects of a business support these two key areas.

Let’s think about this in context of Drucker and Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.  Collins and Porras contend through rigorous research that great, enduring companies have great leadership/management.  They also have a strong belief that the products and services of great companies can (and will) change over time.  They use examples such as Sony Corp that began with a product that was a flop (rice cookers) that had nothing to do with their eventual product offerings.  But they did have great leadership.  That allowed them to become a great, enduring company.

All that being said, if you have no cash-flow then you have no business so Cash Flow IS King.  Period.  It’s definitely wise to save cash.  It goes beyond saving for a “rainy day”.  One thing I’ve noticed about small business owners is that they often make short term decisions and are prone to the “shiny object” syndrome – every week they get distracted by a new shiny object and there’s no consistent focus or commitment.  Here’s my question, do you think that wealthy people use their own money or OPM (other peoples money)?  Most of the time they do not use their own funds.  Using your own money has an opportunity cost.  You reduce your own liquidity and you also give up the rate of return you would earn if those funds were still “at work” for you in the market.  So if cash-flow is king then it’s wise to store it up as the business grows but as you have opportunities for further growth then it’s usually wise to consider borrowing the funds you need for the growth opportunities you want to take advantage of.  That may be done with an unsecured business line of credit, a small business loan, or sometimes with a properly selected unsecured business credit card.

Of course, you’ll need the new revenue that’s derived from the growth opportunity to at least cover the new monthly payment you incur with the loan or line of credit.  Small business loans and business lines of credit are great ways to put your growth plan in action.  This is a larger conversation that also should involve a discussion about RGA (revenue generating activities) but you can read more about that here.

Lastly, even if you have the coolest widgets in the universe, without marketing then nobody will know about your cool widgets.  If you’re a small business owner then don’t do marketing on a whim.  Instead, make a plan, have a marketing “plan”, and build out some line-items on your monthly and annual budget so you’re committed to letting the rest of the world know about your cool widgets.

When it’s all said and done your unsecured business credit can come in handy and your businesses growth can be facilitated by your commitment to good leadership, proper cash-flow management, and a consistent commitment to good marketing.

I know that we normally focus on topics related to things like small business, small business loans, unsecured business credit, business credit lines, how to apply for business credit, etc. etc.  However, this story from CNN Money caught my attention and I think it’s worthy of a discussion.

None of these companies are small businesses.  But is it just me or is this amazing that, in this economy, these companies are all looking to hire between 700 and 5000 (that’s right, Microsoft has over 5000 job openings) new people!

Here’s another thing that’s interesting.  Look through these and notice the category “job title with the largest number of openings.”  Engineers and Sales positions are in VERY HIGH demand.  I don’t know about you but I have a sales background and I think that sales is great training ground for being an entrepreneur and running your own business.  There’s probably nothing more important in any company than sales because, after all, without sales then all any of us ever have is a hobby or a cool idea.

But this might be my biggest takeaway.  I think partnerships are tough and I do believe that in any partnership there’s got to be a lead guy/gal or someone who makes the final decision.  I don’t believe in 50/50 leadership but I believe 100% in team leadership.  I think that the combination of a sales pro and an engineering genius are a great partnership for a new company especially in our technologically demanding and advancing world.

I don’t know about you but if I know any college students or anyone about to be a college student then I’m showing them this and seeing if they have any takeaways.  Does this impact what you want to study and how you want to prepare for the world after college?  I hope so.

Vantage Scores.  TransRisk Scores.  Plus Scores.  There are many online credit scores but in the world of credit scoring the ten thousand pound gorilla is the FICO Score.  FICO’s are what most lenders use as a key ingredient of their underwriting process.  Today, Bloomberg ran a story on one of the latest companies to enter the credit scoring race.  It’s called ZestCash.  It made me think of companies like On Deck Capital and IOU Central.  These companies all have proprietary algorithms that are designed to evaluate risk.

One of the companies ZestCash is partnering with is Lending Club.  I want to be clear that I have nothing against Lending Club.  Lending Club offers unsecured personal loans through their peer to peer lending network.  I actually like what they are doing and think they are a great company…but I’m very suspect of this quote from the Bloomberg article that says Lending Club “offers interest rates that are less than half the average credit-card rate.”  I guess words can be deceiving but I would love someone to tell me more about Lending Club’s “average” interest rates rather than some low-end rate that only one-tenth of 1% of the applicants qualify for.  According to creditcards.com the “national average” credit card rate is 14.95% as of Jan, 2012.  So does this mean that Lending Club offers rates that are less than 7.5%?  As I said, I’m probably a lot more interested in what their “average” rates are and not some bogus rate that doesn’t really exist.

There have been a lot of startup companies looking for small business loans or some form of business credit who have turned to Lending Club.  They don’t issue business loans although they do allow personal loans that may be obtained for business purposes.  I would love to know your experience but I’m guessing the majority of the loans they issue are in the 12-25% range.  That’s a long ways from 7.5%.

It’s possible that I would be categorized as a skeptic on these two – I wish the best to the great folks at ZestCash but they are 75 people against a Minneapolis company who does over $500 million a year in Revenue.  Honestly, it’s got the making of a heck of a story and I would gladly write another blog about not being a believer if ZestCash manages to take a bite out of FICO’s market dominance.  As for Lending Club, they may not issue unsecured business lines of credit but they do offer a 3rd cousin to that – unsecured personal loans.  That’s great…but if you do an application there then – despite what Bloomberg proclaims – just don’t expect an interest rate in the single digits.

If you haven’t seen this yet and you’re a small business owner then you need to know about these funding cuts that Carol Tice talked about yesterday on the Entrepreneur magazine site.

No matter what type of funding you’re seeking there’s no denying the fact that the SBA is a key ingredient in the small business lending machine.  They back lines of credit, real estate loans, and many a small business loan has been approved because of the SBA.  The SBDC’s are important resource centers and the thought of losing them or having less of them means less training and fewer resources and that’s never a good thing.

Think about that and then consider the recent announcement by President Obama that he is proposing to combine the SBA with 4 other agencies into one large agency.  As Anita Campbell points out here that is potentially problematic for a variety of reasons.

Even with all these concerns I would agree with many of the recent reports that there are slight increases in consumer and small business confidence.  I don’t know anyone who has expected a quick and speedy recovery from this tough economy but the increase in consumer confidence is a good thing.  Banks are still conservative lenders but they are lending and non-bank lenders are filling the gap to the tune of billions of dollars.  It’s still tough going to the the bank if you’re seeking an unsecured business line of credit or an SBA small business loan but the equipment leasing, factoring, and other non-bank solutions are available.  If you’re not working with a qualified small business broker then it’s something you should consider.  They are usually well versed on everything from unsecured business credit to more expensive asset-based lending solutions.  A couple good resources are Commercial Capital Training Group and Compound Profit.  They can both help you locate and work with a small business lending expert.

Keep your eyes on some of these recent developments with the SBA and their SBDC’s and let’s hope the cuts don’t happen or are minimal.  In the meantime, keep livin’ the dream and all the best with your business goals!

If you’re looking to build or grow your business in 2012 then let’s assume you have a website.  If you don’t have a website and you’re still running your business with a phone number, a fax number, and a Hotmail email address then it might be time for a Small Business Makeover.  So for those of you who have a website and want to build your business then you should be working on a “plan” to increase your website traffic.  Once you have the plan then you just implement and execute.  Plans are constantly evolving so don’t let that plan be static.  A big part of any website and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plan will involve targeting certain “keywords.”  Keywords are the words and phrases that you know are being used in search to find companies like yours offering products and services like yours.  For example, we recently targeted “unsecured business credit” as a keyword phrase.  Go ahead a check out that search on Google and tell us how we’re doing.

AJ Kumar posted this article on the Entrepreneur.com site today and it’s an excellent update on what’s new with Google.  We’re working on this and going to continue to learn from guru’s like AJ.  So whether you’re trying to attract people looking for small business loans, unsecured business lines of credit, baby supplies, or the latest and trendiest “jeans for men” it’s time to realize that search has grown up.  Google is smart.  They know what’s old and what’s new.  They can determine what’s “fresh” and relevant.  Update your website and blog regularly so you are viewed as both relevant and “fresh.”

Thanks @AJKumar – you should follow him on twitter too.  2012 will be a great year so keep livin’ the dream!

Yes, it’s true!  The credit bureaus are making dividends everyday from the mistakes on your credit report!  It’s a well know fact that over 90% of credit reports contain inaccuracies.  You would think with today’s technology that these millions of errors could be fixed, right?  Ok, so how do they make money from these errors?  To begin with, everyone has heard of “online credit monitoring” in today’s era.  The Big 3 (Equifax, Transunion, Experian) own the most popular online credit monitoring services which consist of www.equifax.com, www.truecredit.com and of course you have Experian with their ever so goofy commercials to www.freecreditreport.com.

If you know that your bills have always been paid on time, you have no credit card debt and you’ve never heard the answer no after a loan application, how would the Big 3 capture your business?  Let’s think outside the box now.  If your credit report could get mixed with someone else’s (this means that someone else’s bad credit ends up on your report) credit report from simply having a similar name, being a junior/senior or having only 5 of the same digits in your social security number while living on a similar street, that leaves you vulnerable to having a bad and dubious credit report!

Now with the fear in mind that you could get turned down when applying for an unsecured business loan, asked for a high down payment, pay an extraordinary rate or even pay a higher premium for insurance policies, $9.99 – $29.99 per month to monitor your credit reports and catch errors doesn’t sound that bad!  It is my opinion as an experienced credit specialist in credit repair, that The Big 3 want to keep these errors at an ever higher rate and plant fear in everyone’s mind so that they can obtain as many monthly online credit monitoring subscriptions as possible!

According to a U.S. Census report from July 2009, the U.S. population is estimated at 307,006,550.  Another statistic by Transunion states that only 35% of Americans have a good FICO score above 700.  With that said, over 100,000,000 American citizens would never need online credit monitoring services without the fear of mistakes on their reports!  That means The Big 3 have gone after an estimated 1.5 Billion Dollars that would have never been touched!

I truly believe that profit is not a dirty word!  If we didn’t have businesses and profit didn’t exist, nobody would have a paycheck to deposit in the bank!  At this point though, I truly believe the credit bureaus have gone too far!

It would take an entire book to share all the dirty secrets I have learned over the years! I may not be an expert on business credit lines or small business loans, but I can help get your credit to the right place to be able to obtain an unsecured line of credit. Please check back or subscribe to my blog at www.teamusacreditrepair.us.

With Alan’s wealth of insight this could have become a longer series but we wanted to keep it short.  One of the dirty secrets about small business loans, unsecured business lines of credit, and most other forms of business credit is that the money is not always spent wisely by business owners.  I’m not here to get into all those details but I can tell you one thing.  In working with hundreds of clients every month and after focusing our efforts on small business owners exclusively the last 4 years I’ve yet to see anyone who is working with a small business coach who then spent their capital poorly.  I don’t want you to take that the wrong way…it does not mean you’re guaranteed to make all the right decisions when working with a small business coach but hopefully you get the idea.  A coach makes us all better at what we do and part of that is in the planning and an “objective-focused” approach to running your business.  So, without further ado, let’s hear from Alan on a few other questions I wanted to ask him.

Tom: Who should consider hiring a business coach?

Alan: Business coaching works very well for most business owners. Back to the sports analogy, if a player is coachable, they will see great results. A business owner must be willing to learn and to improve in order to benefit from coaching. We have experienced the greatest results with business owners who have the following concerns:

• Those that want to grow their business. We are experts in growing businesses without spending a lot of money on marketing. We teach owners to grow fast and smart.
• Many are working too many hours and are missing important family events.  For example some are missing dates with their spouse, their son’s ball games, and their daughter’s recitals.
• Those that are burned out make excellent coaching candidates.  It really is lonely at the top, and since we all own our own businesses, we provide a special kinship.
• Business owners that are experiencing cash flow problems.  We help business owners deploy strategies to improve cash flow and owner income.
•  Those who want to grow their profits get great results from coaching. Since we have owned our own successful companies and we see hundreds of other businesses that are profitable (and many that are not) we know what works in growing profitability.
• Business owners with employee problems. Our award-winning process helps to attract and retain high-caliber employees.  We help business owners to make tough decisions, and we become “the heavy” for clients so that it is easier to replace problem employees.
• Those with customer service issues or customer loss are seeing great benefits.  Customer relationship issues are a major concern with many small businesses. We help owners to get more customers and to keep them.

For business owners who do not have pressing issues that need to be dealt with, we have seen great results helping them get to the next level.

Tom: Tell us what is unique about your company. 

Alan: We at Small Business Coach & Associates have several unique offerings:

• Affordable packages for small businesses. Most coaches charge a lot of money, but we have developed packages that help small business owners get more “bang for their buck.”
• Our coaches who are successful small business owners themselves.  Many business coaches have never run their own business. All of our coaches have owned successful companies.
• A double your money-back guarantee. We remove all the risks from small business owners by “putting our money where our mouth is.” We guarantee that for every dollar you spend with us, you will get two dollars back as you implement our coaching recommendations.  Most clients are getting many more times than double their money-back.
• Collaboration among our home team coaches. We have a home team of eight coaches (and are growing our team to twelve) who are skilled in leadership development, business growth, sales, profit enhancement, business startup, franchising, marketing, business acquisitions, business valuation, social media, web marketing, web design, accounting, data management, operations, process improvement, training, strategic planning, human resources, information systems, mobile technology, customer relationship management, and exit planning. The four home team coaches that we will add this year will include legal, procurement, outsourcing, and funding. Since we collaborate on business needs we bring the greatest resources to bear on local small business owner needs.
• Time-honored principles of success.  Although the world has changed dramatically over the last 2000 years, time honored principles have endured and will continue. While tools and technology have changed, principles of success will never change. We embrace and employ biblical principles, because the Creator will never change and His truths are timeless.

Tom: What advice can you give to small business owners?

Alan: Do what you love because doing so will help you to persevere and persistence will lead to success. Hire and learn from a great business coach and you will experience tremendous, tangible and non-tangible benefits.

Tom: I want to thank you for your time and for sharing from your years of experience as a coach with us.  Thanks Alan.

Alan: You’re very welcome.

You can read more about Alan and his business coaching at http://www.smallbusinesscoach.org/

If you are a small business owner or if you’re about to start a small business then your personal credit is important and it should matter to you – and if you have partners who own 10% or more of the company with you then you should know and care about their credit too.  I realize there are a few of you out there who may not plan on borrowing money to start, build, or grow your business but here’s my two thoughts on that.  One, if you didn’t want or need some funds for your business then you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog.  Two, if you have a vision and some plans for your business then it’s unlikely that you would say no to a low-cost loan or line of credit if we handed it to you.  So I think if we’re honest, we can proceed with the obvious understanding that it is wise to either protect and preserve our excellent credit profile or work to get to the point where we have an excellent credit profile.

Your credit profile is going to fall into one of three categories.

1 – You have excellent credit with no derogatory items and you’ve maintained a very low utilization on your personal credit cards.  This is a small percentage of people – definitely less than 20% and probably less than 10%.

2 - You’ve got a pretty good credit profile but you’ve got one or two minor derogatory items or you’ve overly-utilized your credit cards.  This is probably as good a place as any to tell those of you who have maxed out your credit cards that – even though you make your payments on time – you do not have excellent credit.

3 – You have multiple derogatory items and need long term credit repair.

Let’s talk about each of these.  If you’re in the first category with excellent credit then congratulations…but beware.  It’s actually quite rare for small business owners to preserve their excellent credit as they build their businesses.  With the busy-ness of their lives and the improper usage of credit cards along with not being fully committed to credit preservation it’s common for credit profiles to get worse as the business is built.  Stay committed to preserving your credit and borrow money the right way and you’re half way there.

If you’re one of the army of people who has just one or two (or maybe a few) derogatory items then you need what we call credit enhancement.  You’re probably thinking that your credit isn’t “bad” and it’s not like you need credit repair.  Well, you’re right.  But you’re missing anywhere from 20 to 100 points on your FICO scores.  This means you will probably need to spend $100-200 just to “fine-tune” your credit.  It’s almost like an oil change for your car only a little more expensive.

The last category is for people who have multiple derogatory items on your credit.  We have a saying that there’s nothing worse than doing nothing about your credit – and it’s never more true than when your credit could use some fixin’ (as my friends in our Arkansas office like to say).  You need to talk to someone who you can trust who can help you repair and improve your credit profile.  Good, quality, dependable credit repair agencies are very difficult to find.  Here’s a few that I recommend:

Epic Credit Solutions – Thomas Abelsen is a friend of mine and has been in the credit repair space for a long time.  He not only understands credit but also has a unique understanding of the credit needs of small business owners.  So if you ultimately want to get an unsecured business line of credit or some type of small business loan then he is a great resource to help you get your credit where it needs to be.

SBFC Law Group – Caton Hanson is a friend, a true student of his craft, and brings one other interesting and unique characteristic to his credit repair agency.  He’s an attorney.  Some people prefer to not work with attorneys and others love the idea of their credit being worked on by an attorney.  You make the call but this is another trusted resource for you.

Team USA Credit Repair – Jason Moore is another friend and student of his craft.  He’s committed to keeping his finger on the pulse of what’s happening with credit repair and you’ll often see him at industry related events making sure he’s up to date and sharp in all aspects of credit repair.

4 Corners Consulting – Of course there’s room for a shameless plug on my own blog…I must disclose that I own 4 Corners.  We are committed to helping people fix their credit and put credit concerns behind them.  Drew Griffin is a great resource and his offices are right inside of Hawkeye Management so many of our clients who originally came to us looking for an unsecured line of credit or some form of business credit ended up working with Drew so they could qualify for the small business loans they need to grow their businesses.  We probably specialize in the smaller, credit enhancement services so if you’re one of those people who don’t have real messy credit but you know there’s a couple things that need cleared up then we can help you with that.

I hope you understand the difference between needing some slight credit enhancement vs. full credit repair.  If you’re one of the 80% or more who need one of those two in order to have the best credit possible then now is the time to act.  Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  One of the top qualities that successful business owners possess is decisiveness.  They make decisions.  It all starts with checking your credit profile.  “Credit profile” goes beyond just checking the score…and most online credit scores are what we call FAKO scores – they are not real FICO scores so don’t be deceived by that.  Let the credit experts guide you.

Let’s make 2012 a great year and taking action is what can change your tomorrow!

I know this is a little bittersweet but the longest series we’ve ever done comes to an end today.  I’ve got two final options to cover with you today in the never ending quest to answer those burning questions small business owners have.  Where can I get the best small business loans?  What are my options?  Can I really get an unsecured business line of credit?  Is debt or equity best for me?  We obviously specialize in unsecured business credit and helping you borrow money the RIGHT way but it’s also important to know what your options are.  So here we go with our final blog in this eight part series…

16.  Import/export loan. For the capital you need to expand your business into foreign markets, there are specialized import/export loans. Most of these are backed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

If you are exporting, be sure to use the resources available through the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, which arranges introductions with possible buyers and organizes trade missions abroad. The recently passed National Export Initiative earmarks new funding for helping startups and small companies not yet selling overseas.

Think of this as P.O. financing but across borders. Import/Export financing through non-bank lenders is essentially a P.O. loan that involves a product that crosses into another country.

BONUS IDEA:

Gift-funding sites. Crowd-funding sites such as Peer-backers and Kick-starter work on a similar crowd-sourcing model to the peer-loan sites, but with a twist: The money you raise is a gift, not a loan. Most companies end up rewarding donors with discounted merchandise, so this method is not without cost…but still. The bottom line here is you end up with no loan payments to make.

There are some limitations to this plan. For instance, on Kick-starter you cannot raise money for general working capital needs, only for a specific project. Artsy businesses such as graphic design, film making, and apparel tend to be the most successful on gift sites. While Peer-backers is a crowd-funding site dedicated to entrepreneurs and start-ups, it still focuses on total funding amounts less than $35,000 and the average raise is less than $10,000.

If you’ve got questions about the best way to borrow money for your business, Hawkeye Management, is here to help. Feel free to use us as a resource to help you obtain the capital you need.  You can call us anytime for a free, no-obligation consultation at 1-888-783-1503 or just visit our website at http://www.hawkeyemgmt.com. Follow me on Twitter @tomgazaway

–Contributors to this report include James Penny, CEO and founder of Compound Profit and Bill Attinger, CEO and founder of ActSeed.com.

Compound Profit is a national organization which provides a large array of alternative financing to companies, taking a holistic approach to helping small businesses grow and succeed. Compound Profit is dedicated to invoking seismic expansion in the wealth and success of small businesses. For more information, visit http://www.cprofit.com or send an email to forms@cprofit.com.

ActSeed connects well-prepared entrepreneurs and small business owners with well-informed investors. Regardless of what type of financing you pursue, you must be ready to answer the questions that investors will ask and demonstrate you have a solid foundation on which to grow your business. ActSeed.com helps you build your “investor-readiness” through an affordable online incubation process. ActSeed is proud to partner with organizations like Hawkeye Management to prepare entrepreneurs for funding. For more information, please email info@actseed.com. Follow them on Twitter @ActSeed.