It's fast approaching our busiest time of year again, yep, Christmas is only around the corner and it's all hands on deck right now getting ready. It's a crazy time, we double our staff for Nov and Dec and we really enjoy the buzz around the place. So what do you need me for, we hear you say? Well, our normal course of action around this time is to head to the bank, cap in hand and our first born ready to hand over for what's called a stocking loan and working capital. Basically we get a few bob from the bank each year to fund the purchase of our Christmas stock and employ seasonal staff which is then paid back in Jan after our busy time, easy peasy you might say. Well despite strong accounts and loan repayment history it's as we said a moment ago, give us your first born, do a little jig for us and we'll consider giving you the money. That's what's ahead of us, again, sure we've all been through it!!So in an effort to avoid all this we're going a different route this year and if successful possible every year. We've just signed up with Linked Finance to raise €25,000 by way of the popular crowd funding model and this is where we need you.Hairy Baby CEO lad Daragh MurphyIf you're unsure how crowd funding works you can take a look at the Linked Finance website and it's all there but in essence it's you and him and her and yerman up the road lending to SME's just like us. The loan is over 1 year and basically works by way of auction where by the lowest rates of interest offered by the lender to reach the target amount (in our case €25,000) get accepted and those outside the threshold are rejected. You can loan anything from €50 to €2500 with several different SME's. If your offer is accepted you earn the interest on the amount at the rate secured. If we raise the target amount everybody involved wins, you earn on your loan and we get the necessary finances to purchase stock, get in the staff and get everybody out great HairyBaby tees for Christmas without the banks involvement. How nice would that be? We went live on Linked Finance last Fri and we've already raised over 20%.Now don't get us wrong, we can head to the bank and apply for our stocking loan as normal, but we don't want to, we're fed up fighting with them, we're fed up with the false promises and we can't do hand stands or juggle anymore, we're too old!. We make no bones about letting people know our business went through a very tough time in 2011 and when we needed them they were out the gap, didn't want to know. But when we turned a corner again in 2013 after serious hard work and tough decisions, guess who was there arms out ready for hugs again? Yeah, you got it.Well it's time to try a different approach and look to the people who understand what our business is all about, the people who have been with us for donkeys years and get and love what we do. Our customers of course. Sure who else!So what do you think? Fancy getting on board and helping Hairy Baby and lots of other SME's? The link below will bring you to the Linked Finance website and sure we can go from there.Hairy Baby & Linked FinanceThanks a million lads. Yours in t-shirts.DaraghCEO ladHairyBaby.com
