Funding, Fortitude, and Rising from the Fall: The Fund & Grow Story with Ari Page

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Hustle Daily. Today, we'll be talking about funding, fortitude, and rising from the fall. To drop these value bombs, I am brought to Ari Page and EO Fire Studios. Ari is the founder and CEO of Fund & Grow, a company that specializes in alternative business funding. He has empowered over 30 ,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners with more than$1.5 billion in zero interest growth capital.

0:41Today, we'll talk about the 2008 financial disaster and how we can avoid something similar in the future with our businesses. We'll talk about business credit cards, traditional loans, and the top advice that Ari has for Fire Nation when it comes to succeeding as an entrepreneur, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ari and our sponsors. The Gold Digger podcast hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar is brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more.

1:20A must listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Is today your day? Visit Thrivetimeshow.com to see testimonials of how Clay Clark's business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability. It's month to month and less money than an average minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Ari, say what's up to Fire Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:58What is going on, Fire Nation? And thank you so much, John, for having me on. I really appreciate it. So one thing that I think a lot of people disagree with, and I could be wrong, is this notion of, and this has been very important in my life, for my business, for me personally, this idea of law of attraction. or of what I think and what I feel creates a vibration, which creates my reality. And the belief in that can help you take control and take responsibility in your life in a way that you never have before. But it's a very unpopular thing because it means that the things that have happened to you in your life are things that you've attracted.

2:42Fire Nation, we're talking funding. We're talking fortitude. We're talking rising from the fall. and we're doing it with Ari Page today. Ari, let's talk. Let's talk about the events that led you to become an entrepreneur. What is that origin story? For me, a lot of it was being poor, working 72 hours a week and having two beautiful children that I was raising and wanting to be able to be more impactful, more meaningful in their lives and to be able to show up in my life more, to not have to work 72 hours a week in the construction industry that I was working in, in the shipyard, building things that weren't building up my life.

3:28And so really, I kind of just saw the landscape of America and everything that's happening. And if you've ever driven through a couple of states, which I'm sure everyone on the podcast has, you've seen where you're just driving by beautiful house after mansion after mansion. You're driving by resorts and just amazing stuff. And I'm like, I want to be part of this. I want to be part of this. And so that is, you know, wanting to be able to be part of that is one of the things that led me to learning about law of attraction, which then transformed me personally and started my entrepreneurial journey.

4:06Now that entrepreneurial journey led you to fund and grow. So what is Fund & Grow and how does it help other business owners? So Fund & Grow is a funding company and we like to think that we fund people's business dreams from startups to small and medium-sized businesses and what we are is a white glove service that actually gets the funding for the client so the client's not having to do any work we're doing all the work for them and the whole point of the Fund & Grow service is not just to get the funding that clients and small businesses need, but it's to help them grow, to help their business grow, to help them grow personally.

4:47Ari, one thing we love are case studies, are examples. So I want to dive deeper into Fund & Grow. You don't have to use names, you don't have to use specifics, but break down for us a couple of your favorite examples of past clients, maybe some current clients, on how they've used Fund & grow to do just that? So we have examples of clients from all walks of life, all industries, clients that are getting out of the corporate world, clients that have been entrepreneurs their whole life. We have medium sized businesses that come to us and we have startups that come to us. And in each one of these instances, what we're providing is access to low interest or actually 0 % using introductory offers, business credit that they can take and they can use in their business any way that they see fit.

5:38And getting access to funding, especially in today's market, is a rather expensive thing. So we're able to bring a very low interest, which actually starts at 0 % product, to clients, to these small businesses, in order to help them be able to grow whatever their industry is. And we have many clients that are in real estate. We have many clients that are in e-commerce. We have many clients that are in that where they own a brick and mortar. And it's just really a whole variety of clients. We've seen clients go from doing, we have one of our testimonials, the gentleman mentions going from doing 40 ,000 a month in revenue to being able to sustain 400 ,000 a month in sales by getting access to business credit and being able to invest into inventory and into new deals.

6:31And so we've seen massive transformation with many clients in a variety of different industries. Now, 2008 was a disaster for many businesses, for many individuals. A lot of people listening right now can feel its impact still to this day. What effect did that financial crash have on your business? Well, I remember reading those news stories, watching the news when that crash occurred. And we actually had somewhat advanced warning of it in that the lending institutions that we were using at the time had already reduced what they were lending by massive, massive amounts. So we had already started retooling and working on providing a different form of funding than the funding that we were providing in 2006, 2007.

7:26So we had seen the writing on the wall and we started working on these business credit cards. And I remember when the actual crash happened and we had clients calling us like, how is this going to affect us? Are we going to be able to get access to funding still? And the wonderful effect was that with all of the crash and the secured loan market, the banks decided to ramp up their unsecured loans, their unsecured funding, which is exactly what we were doing. And so we ended up growing our business by leaps and bounds because the more traditional loans were being less favored by the banks for these unsecured loans, the loans that would have a 0 % interest rate for maybe the first nine months, 12 months, or some 24 months at 0%.

8:17And so it's a bit more of an untraditional type loan. It's a business credit card that you can use. You can get access to the cash off of it. You can spend it on whatever your business needs. But it's not under the same restrictions that all the asset-based loans are. And so when the crash happened, a lot of the banks started to loan out more through the unsecured funding models that they have, meaning through business credit cards and business loans. And so it really, really, really greatly helped funding grow to be able to serve more clients with this type of credit, which is unsecured, meaning it's safer for the client.

8:56So we would prefer our clients are using unsecured credit rather than securing it on the asset anyway. We want it to be the safest as possible for the client. Fire Nation, I hope some wheels are spinning in your mind of how could this be applied to you, to your business? Maybe you know somebody who's been talking about having some situations where this could be applicable to them. And we're going to be talking about a lot of things around this topic, how it can help entrepreneurs, small business owners, and the like when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic this year.

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10:38At Thrivetimeshow.com, see testimonials of how Clay Clark's proven business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 clients to increase profitability dramatically. Clay's proven business coaching program is month to month and less money than hiring a minimum wage employee. Sound too good to be true? Go to Thrivetimeshow.com to see over 2 ,000 documented success stories because Clay only takes on 160 clients. He personally designs your business plan for you. Then Clay's team of talented designers, videographers, web developers, workflow mappers, and accounting coaches will help you to implement that proven plan.

11:14See over 2 ,000 verified success stories and schedule your free one-on-one 13-point assessment with Mr. Clay Clark himself today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and directed through practical plans of action. Become the next success story. Schedule your free 13-point assessment today at Thrivetimeshow.com. Ari, we're back, and you've hit some pretty incredible milestones with Fund & Grow. I want to talk about an early milestone that initially seemed literally impossible that you ended up crushing. What was that? All right. So that's such a nostalgic question for me.

11:58It takes me all the way back to working out of my living room and working in my house. And I remember one of the biggest milestones that got us super excited, and I think that us at the time was me and one other person, was hitting a million dollars a month in funding. That means the amount of loans that we are generating for our clients. I think we're maybe three people at that time. And so we weren't doing a lot of funding, but it just seemed like such a huge thing to do a million dollars of these types of loans, remembering that the loan could be anywhere from a$40 ,000 to$25 ,000 or a $50 ,000.

12:39It's lots of microloans. These unsecured business credit cards, it's like you're getting lots of microloans. So to do a million of that in one month. And as we sit today, funding growth it does well over$25 million a month in this type of funding. We've generated over$1.6 billion in funding for over 30 ,000 entrepreneurs. And that's earned us 5 ,000 4.9-star reviews on places such as the Better Business Bureau, Google, Trustpilot. And it's also put us on the Inc. 5 ,000 list every year consecutively since 2016. And, you know, throughout all this, we've learned a lot. And we serve our clients with diligence.

13:23And that's given us an A-plus Better Business Bureau rating. And at this point, we have over 65 employees that work here in Funding Grow just churning out this type of funding. And it's literally our mission statement to get as much funding as possible for every single client, every single company that comes to us. It's our dream to fund the dreams of all of the small businesses of America. Now, what is the range of funding that you provide? We have different programs. And we have some clients that come to us that are looking for, let's say,$25 ,000 or$50 ,000. And we have a pay-as-you-go model.

14:04We have some clients that say, I need a quarter million dollars. And so we have a membership that helps them get to that amount quickly. And this is funding they can use over and over. It's not just a one-time use. It's not like you just get the loan, then you have to pay it off. This is loans that can be used over and over. And then we have clients that are coming to us for other types of loans. For example, they might need a million dollar loan for real estate and they have the financials to support that and so it depends exactly on what the client is looking for on what that business needs but the majority of the funding that we're doing is using the unsecured business credit cards and that could be up to a quarter million or if a client only needs twenty thousand twenty five thousand then There's a pay-as-you-go model.

14:48And then there's also other various loans that are tailor-fit for specific clients. Depending on your situation and depending on what your financials are, depending on what you're trying to purchase, depending on where you live in the country, there's a whole plethora of loans that we can apply. Business credit cards and traditional loans are two ways to fund a business. But I want to talk Talk about the number one selling point of using business credit cards over traditional loans. That is a really great question. So, and it's great because really there's multiple answers to that question. I mean, let's start with the fact that it's unsecured, meaning it's safe.

15:31They're not going to take away your assets. It's 0 % to start with. It's very low interest. And perhaps the best is that it's easy to get. How many business owners need access to funding that they're just unable to get? And so the fact that this is accessible makes it a, you know, a very lucrative option. And the fact that it's unsecured, that where they're not, God forbid something bad happens to your company. God forbid that happens. But if it does, they're not coming after your firstborn and your car and your home and your, you know, all that stuff. It's really important to position yourself in a smart way where you're not putting up any assets as collateral, but yet still able to grow your business.

16:13I want to talk about the top advice you have for Fire Nation when it comes to succeeding as an entrepreneur. I mean, you deal with a lot of clients on a month-to-month basis. You've seen individuals succeed. You've seen them fail. You've seen them fail and then learn, pivot, adjust, and then succeed. What is the top advice you have for our listeners today? So my recommendation for entrepreneurs is to not have analysis paralysis. And how do you know what to follow when it comes to business? Well, as I mentioned in the beginning, the unpopular concept was law of attraction, to incorporate law of attraction, to change your mindset, to change your life.

16:59And once you learn about the understanding of law of attraction, it actually becomes your guide to know what direction to go in, when you're thinking thoughts that are in alignment with your long-term well-being and what will grow, and when you're not. And so it's important to be able to have a guide along this path. And that guide, in many ways, is you. and you have access to universal information through being consciousness here. And you do that through the way that you think and the way that you feel. And this is definitely something that entrepreneurs are going to have to look up more and learn more about.

17:40You've probably already heard about law of attraction, but it's definitely something to look more into because it's your universal spiritual guide to guide you to what is most uplifting and what's best for you in your life and for your business and what's best for your employees and what's best for your clients, what's best for your community and your family. And when you get all those things in alignment, everything just starts growing. Fire Nation, I love the through line of law of attraction. That's how we started. This is how we're ending. The theme has been established. Ari, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more about Fund & Grow, what is your call to action for our listeners today?

18:21So a good place to start on your funding journey is Fund & Grow's website. So you can visit us at fundandgrow.com. And on the website, you'll see the different lending products that we're offering. We have a pre-qualification system that will pre-qualify you and let you know how much funding we can get you. And so the Fund & Grow website is a great way to start. If you want to start by talking to someone, then you can call us at 1-800-996-0270. And we would love to talk to any entrepreneur, whether you're a startup, whether you're a seasoned business or just a small business getting started, give us a call.

19:06And we would love to be able to help guide you on your way. Even if we can't get you funding, we can probably point you in the right direction to get you funding. Fire Nation, you are the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with AP and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Ari, A-R-I, in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And again, Fire Nation, as Ari shared, they would love to chat with you. They would love to help you. And if they can't, they will point you in the right direction.

19:41Ari, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much, John. And I really appreciate you having me on, me and the entire Fire Nation. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Ari for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about.

20:22This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger Podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more. A must-listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing.

20:59Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Is today your day? Visit Thrivetimeshow.com to see testimonials of how Clay Clark's business coaching has helped over 2 ,000 entrepreneurs to dramatically increase profitability. It's month to month and less money than an average minimum wage employee. Schedule your free consultation today at Thrivetimeshow.com.