Interview with A Toronto-based micro lender

CanadaOne caught up with Alex Kjorven of AccessCCF.com, a micro-lender that provides funding of up to $5000 loans to small businesses in the Greater Toronto area in Ontario, Canada.

Interview with A Toronto-based micro lender Transcript

My name is Alex Kjorven and I am the development manager for Access Community Capital Fund. We are a micro loan organization based in Toronto here in the GTA and we provide loans up to $5,000 for entrepreneurs. Our target market are ideally individuals who have had difficulty accessing capital in the past so our mandate is really to help these entrepreneurs access the financing they need to build financial independence through entrepreneurship.

We have a range of entrepreneurs – there is a good spectrum from service based businesses to manufacturers. Examples of some of the client stories we have are available on our website would be an individual who wanted to take a hairdressing business from a home studio and a $5,000 loan would help her pay first and last month’s rent on a lease on a salon as well as some used equipment to get her started. Also, $5,000 may help an individual who is running a small import business with their first shipment of inventory as well as a fee to enter a local trade show. So these are kind of the examples of the level of businesses that we support. They are very small scale. Not to say they don’t have the potential to be large but they start small and $5,000 actually goes a long way.

Our website is www.accessccf.com and on there, there is an applicant section where someone can download an application form. We require an application form, a full business plan as well as a 12 month cash flow forecast. As for the business plan and cash flow, we have tools and templates on our website as well that can help entrepreneurs will that out as well.