In 2015, Annie took another leap of faith: she enrolled in CIE’s First Step Workshop at Edmonds Community College. Annie knows her industry so well – she grew up in the industry. However, navigating the financing industry is another thing. Armed with experience but with no collateral, she was not able to find a loan from a commercial lender – especially for the small amount she needed. CIE connected Annie with different alternative lenders and she went with Mercy Corps Northwest. Understanding the document requirement is confusing even for a small loan, and CIE helped her understand the “what and the whys” of small business financing. In the end, she decided to try crowdfunding through gofundme.com, hoping that friends and other people will follow her cause – a cancer survivor following her dream of opening a business against all odds!
After less than a year of operation, Neverending Book Shop is a thriving business, despite financial setbacks and many lessons learned – including a recent fire that almost hit her bookstore.
