“As owner of Quinebaug Kennels, John has been a tremendous support system, mentor, and business leader to us throughout the large growth of our kennel. We are so thankful for this dedication, knowledge, sense of humor and friendship.” – Jennifer Broome
Month: March 2016
Entrepreneur Case Study
Does Upfront Analysis understand the challenges that face entrepreneurs? Yes we do. John Ireland of Upfront Analysis has worked with various entrepreneurs.
A young lady who hoped to open a kennel in Connecticut contacted Upfront 10-12 years ago, and asked John to advise the business strategy to build a kennel that offers high-end dog training and boarding.
They had a certain size business, and they wanted to grow the business. The problem was, businesses don’t grow on a steady path; it usually grows more in a step function. So what happens is you grow and plateau. To get to the next step, there’s an action that has to be taken, such as: investing, changing how you’re running your business, or going after a bigger market.
The entrepreneur came to Upfront and discussed what it was going to take to get a loan. “You can walk into a bank and ask someone for a loan; the problem is, they’re going to ask multiple questions,” noted John Ireland. “The idea is – can you be prepared so you can go in and answer all of their questions? This is where Upfront comes in; we did a lot of work upfront before we went to get the loan.” The client walked into the bank and had the loan within a week – a very quick turnover.
Since then, the business has grown from $100,000 to about $800,000 in revenue. They wanted to expand again and take the business to the next step. At this point, the kennel had to build another facility. Upfront and the entrepreneur worked together to recreate the process. “You can imagine, now we’re not looking for a couple of hundred grand to build something; we’re looking for three-quarters of a million dollars. A much different process when you actually talk to the banks about that.”
Upfront used a couple of different tools: State Sponsored 504 Loan Program, the SBA, and worked with local banks in order to come up with the best deal. Upfront went through the entire 1-year construction process with them.
Now that the new kennel facility has been open about one year, they moved up to $1.2 million in revenue, and are targeting somewhere around $1.8-2 million by the end of 2016.
Are you an entrepreneur looking to take advantage of Upfront Analysis capabilities?