Rudderham: Family Loan and Business Owners

rudderham: Neither was in a position where they would qualify for the funding needed to get their neighbourhood bakery business rolling. "Banks wouldn't come near us, according to Hamilton Spectator. There was no way," says Rudderham, now 34. "Any financial institution we went to said, 'OK, where are your co-signers '" But the two wanted to maintain their independence and not involve anyone else in the company. Rudderham was on maternity leave and Miller had been working at another bakery for about a decade making a modest wage. A private family loan allowed the partners to do that by providing enough funding to finance the bulk of their business. The nonprofit provides support to aspiring business owners between the ages of 18 and 39. "We jumped at it," Rudderham recalls. "Finally we were in a lucky position where it just made things easier." The whole process — from applying for the loan to receiving feedback directly from small business people — was a supportive one, she adds. A $15,000 microloan through the Canadian Youth Business Foundation — now called Futurpreneur Canada — was the icing on the cake. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.