Episode 116: How to Get the Funding You Need to Grow Your Business with Corey L. Barbour

Acquania Escarne 0:00

What's up y'all? Welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast. This is your girl Acquania Escarne and today we're going to talk about how to get the funding you need for your biz with Corey Barbour

Acquania Escarne 0:18

Barbour is a preacher's kid and college student-athlete who grew up surrounded by a strong sense of community and service. These values shaped his character and instilled in him a deep commitment to serving others. On his journey, he discovered a passion for business finance, and he was led to pursue a career in the banking industry. With over two decades of banking experience. Corey primarily serves small businesses and commercial clients. He's also the founder of Barbara companies, a business consulting firm focused on helping businesses thrive. At Barbara companies. They are dedicated to educating, empowering and equipping businesses with the tools and knowledge they need to access access that capital necessary for success. All right, thank you so much for being on the show. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.

Corey Barbour 1:12

Thank you for having me so much. Thank you so much.

Acquania Escarne 1:14

Oh, of course, this is an exciting conversation, because I have to acknowledge that where we met how we met. So I have been a member of the Melanin Millionaire's club for quite some time. It's a club founded by George action Pong, and now has added town, also Carter Cofield. And in this community, melanin, millionaires can network engage, and also learn very valuable information on how to run their businesses build wealth for their families, and so much more. So you are a fairly new member to the club. And I just want to give you a shout out for reaching out and networking from day one. So I just want to know what made you contact me on the app and get you involved in wanting to join the community?

Corey Barbour 2:04

Yeah, so Acquania. First of all, I'm so proud of you. Thank you for accepting, because you didn't have to, and to have connected with you. And here, the wonderful wife, mother, and shrewd businesswoman who knows a lot to me said, Hey, Corey, you're doing the right thing. I don't have a lot of pride. And so as a result of not having a lot of pride, I'm able to say, Hey, who are you? What do you do, we both have children, and our children make friends very easy. But as we get older, sometimes we have this no new friends type of attitude. And I can accomplish what I need to accomplish without having new relationships, and relationships are so critical. And so when I made an investment to be a part of this community, and I always need to recoup that, to there people in that community that are doing what I want to do, and doing things that are far greater than I can that I even don't want to do. And so partnerships and relationships are critical. So I shoot my

Acquania Escarne 3:03

bow. Absolutely. And I love that. And at no point have I ever felt networking is not necessary. I think we need to do it now later and 99 if God so let us live that long, right? Yeah. So before we hop into the interview, and what Barbara companies does, I really want to go back a bit and learn a little bit more about your money story. What was money like for you when you were growing up?

Corey Barbour 3:29

So at a young age, money wasn't an issue. And I'll tell you what I mean. So at a young age, I saw my mother and father do very well. And life was good. In addition to that, looking back on it, I saw a struggle. We had to move to North Carolina, and make some sacrifices. But the beauty of what my parents did was I never knew, I think 14 times we impute things aren't our kids that robs them of their childhood. And so I was able to be a child and not understand that serve sandwiches weren't normal. They were delicious to me, beans and wings, I mean, all that you know. And so my parents did a great job of loving on us creating an environment where we didn't have the pressure. And so at a young age, I saw that and it also instilled in the faith. This beautiful story that my mom and dad loved the tale is I wanted to dirt bike as a child. And so my dad and mom didn't, didn't tell me they didn't have the money, never talked about not having they said, Hey, we believe in faith and prayer and works, go pray about it.

Corey Barbour 4:36

And so I prayed about it, and a guy pulled up to our house and gave me a brand new red dirt bike. And so that faith Acquania has helped me to go from dirt bikes, to real estate, to all other things. And so then I saw the progression of my mother. So my father, of course is a pastor, a business person. My mother is educated, retired, educated, so I saw the process of building and stuff Earning a ministry and that ministry growing. So I saw us go from search sandwiches to steak and different things. And so I was able to also see the process. So money was something that was a beautiful tool that showed me that we have options. And it was great. And my dad showed me a lot through his entrepreneurial journey journey, my mom who educated me. So that was money. For me growing up.

Acquania Escarne 5:26

I love that I love that your parents created that environment for you and taught you a valuable lesson about faith. I love it. Because I feel like sometimes it's hard to teach concepts like that to kids, but to actually put it into something you can relate to something you really wanted. And then they were able to deliver, like, praise God for that. You were able to see the fruits of faith. But I also love that you were able to be a child and I agree with you some families struggle and the kids know it 100%. And they feel this obligation to make money or to work or to like, you know, take their birthday money and give it back to their parents, and all kinds of scenarios we've seen play out in our communities. But I love the fact that that was not your story. So at what point did you realise it wasn't as an adult that hey, my parents actually weren't rich, rich, like in finances as a child?

Corey Barbour 6:23

That's a great question. So I I'd say I saw the progression, because we started moving to different houses. And so I'm looking around like, Okay, this, this got a lot more space than what we had. This is really nice, but we got to pool now. Okay, we got it. We got two beds, okay. And God is good. And I see the fruits of my father and mother's labour, I see where they had to sacrifice and go live with their mother and father where me and my sister slept in the same bed. But we still were loving it. And so I think that started probably around high school, because the conversations got more more preparatory towards real life, right? Mama's saying, Hey, here's how you hug a woman. Here's, here's how you take care of yourself. Dad saying, Hey, here's how things were. Here's how you prepare yourself. Here's how you utilise money. My first bank account when we walked into the bank, my dad said, Hey, listen. So a bank is designed to always give you more money than you give them. If you do this, right. They're gonna give you more money than you put in this bank. And so those lessons probably started around, you know, my teenage years.

Acquania Escarne 7:39

Alright ahead and pass pasture and this, you what you need to know. So we can fast forward to okay, you decide to pursue a career in the banking industry? Why did you make that decision? And what were some of the first things you learned?

Corey Barbour 7:55

So before that, I was playing around a real estate, I was playing around in the stock market. And I had somebody come to me and say, Hey, I see you doing real estate and you you've got houses and you sell them, can you find it? And I said, No, but but give me about 3045 days. And so I started there. And I was engaged to this beautiful woman who are now married to have 17 years, she just renewed my contract for another 17 years, I tried to get like view, but we're gonna work on that. And so we were engaged. And around that time, we had hit a crisis. And so a lot of my houses were sitting vacant. And it took a little longer to make some money. And so my fiance at the time was like, hey, the way our marriage is gonna be set up, we need some consistency. Here's the position that I saw with the bank, you should apply. And probably like your husband, I said, what I continue to say, Yes, dear. And so that was my first introduction into banking. I started as a licenced financial specialist, and quickly migrated to the to the small business side, and ended my career as vice president of commercial bank.

Acquania Escarne 9:11

Okay, VP, but shout out to your wife for being a visionary. very casually introduced an idea to you and then it became your own. I think women do that all the time. But shout out to her for literally changing your life

Corey Barbour 9:27

changing. Yeah. changing our lives.

Acquania Escarne 9:32

Exactly, exactly. So I love that story. I love like, I love it. I love it. All right. So tell me in your position with the bank, in the making industry and even now with your own company. What are some of the most common mistakes you see small businesses make when applying for funding for their business?

Corey Barbour 9:52

In essence, it's it's three things and I kind of put it like this. It is competency. It is credit and it's Cash Flow. And so competency. Typically, when we apply for business loans, in a lot of cases, we don't know what to expect, we may not be as aware of what the factors are that banks are looking for. And so just taking the time to be competent to educate ourselves. And that's tricky today too, because there's so much information that is just not true, not that information. And so competency. The second piece is Credit, and a lot of cases when you go before lenders and financial institutions credit is an indicator of future actions, right. And so if there's been some life that's happened in the past, and we haven't done things to correct that, it can make it very difficult to access the next necessary capital. Cashflow, in a lot of cases, when we're looking at taking on debt, we may or may not have the cashflow necessary to handle that new debt, if we're in a situation where our business is somewhat profitable, but not profitable, or doesn't have enough cash flow to handle the new debt, and it makes it very difficult. So to answer that question, competency, cash, credit and cashflow

Acquania Escarne 11:13

Three C's, I like it, I like it. So well, definitely, that's really good. And I think small business owners need to own that right and understand the steps that they need to take. So at what point in a business? Should you be looking for outside funding if you need the three C's to really qualify?

Corey Barbour 11:33

That's a great question. One, I want to encourage our businesses and entrepreneurs to set your business up from the very beginning to be lendable, whether you need it or not. Because if you run your business, right, and things blow up as they should, as they will, you're going to hit that crossover capital very quickly. And what I mean by that is far too often some of our businesses self fund their business. And while it is a way to do it, it is a much slower way to get to a destination, right capital and other people's money is a fuel to put in your car, it'll make it go a whole lot faster. And you get to keep your capital. And so I would say from the very beginning, you need to think about how can I set up my company properly, with business plans with incorporation with all the proper foundation to be fundable. In addition to that, I think it's something that you need to start with. Now you don't have to go out and get $250,000. But it wouldn't be a good practice to say, to maybe get a small business credit card, and utilise that properly. Because now you have a track record. And again, like we've talked about with credit, credit is a previous pass report card that will indicate kind of future activities. And so I don't think it's too early ever to start to acquire the right foundation and the right principles can also access to capital at a small scale. Again, please don't go out and start buying facilities, please don't go out and start wrapping cars and buying homes, get a gas car, get a get a get a small car, right and utilise that properly. It's something that we'd like to say stewardship steward that properly, that way, things will work out a lot better in the law.

Acquania Escarne 13:20

I do like that. And I think that some people, it's hard to know what they should do. And at what stages because of the social media, or buying the cars, they're getting the business funding, they're scaling their business, right. And you have a lot of social media girls who will tell you get the car in your business name, and then use it in your ads and then write it all off, which is all legal, right? If you have the cash flow to pay for the car, right? So if you're not in that position to pay for the Lamborghini, don't try to get the Lamborghini. But that's but that's like There's levels. So I appreciate like You're like There's levels to this, a start with a small business credit card, and then you can progress from there. Okay, so another thing

Corey Barbour 14:07

Well, can I can I say something about that real quick, if you don't mind. So Acquania There are the principles that I love to teach, because the principles are the boundaries by which you operate. And yes, in 90 days, you can get access to $50,000. But if you don't have the principles, if you don't have the capacity to handle that, all you got to do is go be loaded up, get the new G Wagen. Which I don't think you will get a G Wagen 50s It null and voids the purpose of the business loan when you don't have the right principles in place. And like you said, yes, go get the Lamborghini, but you've got cash flow to support you've got margin you got the capacity. That's if you don't then don't because $50,000 will ruin businesses in certain cases because not only do You have access $50,000, the cost of that money is probably going to bump up the cost of your product. So the cookies you were selling for $5. In order to pay back that loan, you got to bump that price up, which cuts your margin. And so, like you said, There's levels to this, this principles, and I'm just a firm believer of putting principles in place, that guy helped guide people's decisions that way. If it's 90 days, and you get 50,000 hours, you know exactly what to do with it. Instead of say, oh, here we go, you know, Tom Ford, all that kind of stuff. And I'm gonna stop saying these brands, because it's unnecessary, excuse me, and edit that cut that.

Acquania Escarne 15:39

Right. And and, you know, at the end of the day, I think what you're saying is you need a plan for all of the funding that you pursue, you don't just pursue funding to pursue funding. I think another important factor that you're mentioning is keeping your business in a ready, set go type of system. So one of the things that I learned was a bookkeeper. Like I have a bookkeeper who now helps me keep organised all of my expenses, categorising what I do use my money for in the business, so that I have a profit and loss statement that I can show if I needed to. I think that what I didn't realise when I first started entrepreneurship was how critical these systems are. Because I was doing my own bookkeeping for years. And I would get frustrated every year, when it was time to do taxes and my CPAs looking for all my expenses. And I had apps to take pictures of receipts, but the categories and and you know, beyond an Excel spreadsheet clueless, I literally use an Excel sheet spreadsheet for years. And then somebody was like, why aren't you using QuickBooks? And so then I was like, I don't know, I guess I shouldn't be right. I had one of my most successful years in 2020. And it's 2020. And but I didn't get QuickBooks until like 2022. And somebody was like, why aren't you using QuickBooks? Why are you doing this by hand? Why don't you have a bookkeeper? And I was just like, oh, I don't know. But now I've come to learn there are certain expenses you should pay for. Software is one of them. And a bookkeeper. If you're not a bookkeeper is the second one. What other things? What other things could a business owner do to be prepared?

Corey Barbour 17:26

So we'll talk a little bit about and this is in the same vein. So that's Lauren, thank you. So one of the things people need to realise is the value of relationships equals speed. What you just gave us was speed. People talk about all the time experience is the greatest teacher, it is not is the slowest, and the hardest one. And so based on that 20 seconds you just gave us, it gives people speed. And it was free. And so thank you for that. So to answer your question, I'll talk a little bit about like the five C's, right? So you got character, you got capacity, which is cash flow, you've got capital, collateral and conditions. This is the lens by which most financial institutions look at lending money, right? And so character is just what it is. It is who you are, what decisions you've made. It's your credit. It's what's presented to society, its business plans, it's the essence of who you are capital capacity. Capacity is how much can you handle cash flow, right? For example, if I'm going in, and I want a loan for $100,000, but when I look at my tax returns, my net is $1,200. For the year, that $1,200 does not cover a payment for I mean, it might cover one payment. And so think about it, somebody's gonna loan you six figures. And last year, the margin, the leftover you had was $1,200. No. And if they do, the rate is gonna be so high, it's gonna kill your profit margin. I love you too much not to tell you. Right?

Corey Barbour 19:02

So all this stuff you're talking about that you that they're talking about get to under 50,000. You can get it but it's gonna kill your business, because the interest rate is absolutely more any profit margin is too much stay focus. Capital, what capital do you have to put into the opportunity to deal? Again, capital is what you have. So if you're looking at buying a building, do you have downpayment money? Do you have reserves to be able to handle the additional debt that you're taking on? collateral? What is the collateral? Is it a situation where it's a collateralized loan? Were you looking at property? Were you looking at a piece of equipment, things of that nature, and then conditions now Acquania, you blew up in 2020. Praise God for that. But in 2020, it was very difficult for certain industries to get access to capital. Why? Because the conditions were so bad, right health department was setting things down. People had to pivot when it came to the restaurant industry. So those are things that If you if you're thinking like a lender, these are the lenses that lenders are looking through. So I hope I hope that answered your question.

Acquania Escarne 20:07

It definitely does. And it leads me to my next one, because there's a lot of misinformation out there about how personal finances impact your business finances, and vice versa. How important is it for you to have strong personal credit if you want to qualify for business credit.

Corey Barbour 20:25

So again, I am, I've got to say this, I'm speaking from a place, please hear my heart, and I don't want it to be sound arrogant at all. I'm speaking from a place where I approved and declined millions of loans. I'm not talking about something where I went out and got a little business, but I'm talking about I click the button on on loans, you came to me to get a loan to buy that $1.6 million. And so it has been my experience, that personal credit is absolutely critical. It is just like saying, Well, how important is it as a person, for me to be as whole and healthy as I can be? Before I get married? Before I get into a relationship, so businesses are ran by people, and people run business. And so when the bank looks at a business, it is looking at partnering with a person who runs a business. And so a piece of that is the person and their personal credit. Now, almost successful businesses, which you all are going to be successful, you will probably get to the level one day where you don't have to personally guarantee things. As of right now, brah. As of right now, CES, personal guarantee is where you got to go. In addition to that, I love you too much not to tell you, if you do know that, if you do no personal guarantee, the rate is going to be so high, it's gonna kill you. Because you got to understand that when lenders are looking at deals, they look at risk. And the riskier it is, the higher the interest rate, the higher your money costs, the lower your profit margins are going to be in your business. So personal credit is critical. And that's why I encourage you to clean it up as much as you can before you start taking on debt. Because if you take on $100,000, and the interest rate is 21%, compared to the interest rate being 8%, that is 10s of 1000s of dollars on a monthly basis, that's hundreds of dollars that could go back into your business. And so over the long run, you are paying so much more for something you could just take a little time and slow down to clean up. And so I know that was lengthy, but I hope that answered your question.

Acquania Escarne 22:39

No, that answered the question. And I think it's true in the beginning, everyone tells you also on social media, get it in your business, getting your business, but there are I my first credit card was a business credit card with a personal guarantee, I didn't know any better, I hadn't even learned differently, that that's what it was supposed to do. But I still have that card, it does well for me, it serves this purpose. Now my second one didn't have to do that. So you there are levels you can improve. But I definitely love that you're being transparent because you get so much information on social that tells you otherwise. So this has been really great especially.

Corey Barbour 23:18

And look, you could if I don't tell you this when it is time for you to buy that 16 unit apartment building, when it's time to take your business into its own commercial property. It's going to meet you. And so again, back to those financial principles. I know it's not sexy, I know it's not popular. But it is it is the surest foundation you can be and I'm sorry to interrupt

Acquania Escarne 23:41

You fine. So what are some other tips? One that comes to mind, pay it pay your credit cards on time, and, you know, make sure you stay on top of your purchases. You talked about this a little bit. You know, making sure you Don't overextend yourself borrowing more than you can afford to pay back or, you know, leveraging your business's cash flow to cover more than you can afford to pay. I think those are critical, critical like business 101 But some people don't know how to manage cash flow in the beginning of entrepreneurship because you are so excited to have cashflow. Right. But understanding that in some businesses cashflow is very cyclical. It goes up it goes down, like you said depending on the conditions, and I'm pretty sure a lot of businesses had to pivot in 2020 Like you said restaurant industry, especially when they realise people aren't coming into the restaurant to eat, how do we still stay open? So I love that I love that. Now the name of the podcast is called the Purpose of Money podcast. So I asked all my guests this question, what is your purpose for money?

Corey Barbour 24:49

So my purpose for money is to create options. Freedom, legacy, and the Purpose of Money for me is also To take care of things that we don't have to worry about. We don't have to worry about that. Acquania knockin stroke a check insolvent. Yeah, that's it's not praying, I got this, you got that, let's go. And so that's that's the Purpose of Money for me, I'm a giver, and I get disappointed when I see needs that I can't fulfill. And so, and I love our community. And for for for far too long, we have not focused on this, you know, we can look back in time and look at movements where we were making changes, but really, if you look at the base of that movement, we boycotted industries that hit their pockets. And that's why they changed. And so if we don't have these conversations about money and properly using it, then they will fall back into some of the same things. And so that's what money is for me.

Acquania Escarne 25:56

I love it. That part. I love what you said. I've never heard anyone say praying, you know, having money and using it as a tool to cover the things that people would normally have to pray for. That's so beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the Purpose of Money podcast and dropping these gyms today. Before I let you go, please tell my listeners, how can they find you? Do you have a website? Are you on social media? Tell me all the handles and the links so we can include them in the show notes?

Corey Barbour 26:23

Yes. So I'm on YouTube is Corey Barbour C O R EY, the B A R B O U R, you are on Instagram. It's Clbarb, CL B A R B. Somebody told me to stop doing this. But my phone number is 9102976326 - 9102976326. My web address is Barbour Companies. And that's barbourcompanies.com. And so with those get at me, the biggest thing that I want to do is just have a conversation. Everything for me starts with a conversation, not not compensation, a conversation. And so those are multiple ways. I'm on Facebook also, that's Corey Barbour. But I'd love to continue to have conversations and build the right relationships, and more importantly, serve our community because I know when our businesses get funded, it's over. Our businesses already outperformed most, on an honour on a third of the quarter overtake a gas. When we get this funding, it accelerates that wealth gap

Acquania Escarne 27:36

and so true. So

Corey Barbour 27:40

That look that we can buy cars, we can buy houses, I've got an issue with some of the appraisal the industry or how they do us with our houses when they appraise our houses. But when we get business funding, the game is over.

Acquania Escarne 27:57

Alright, let's go let's get this. Let's go and use it right take the tips that were shared in this episode, and share them with other entrepreneur, business owner, dynamic person who needs to hear them. You guys I appreciate you supporting the podcast until next time, keep building generational wealth. Bye bye

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