A background in electrical engineering. A father and uncle who were entrepreneurs. Christopher Rivera has entrepreneurship in his genes and the hunger it takes to succeed. All he needed was to feel ready, plus an assist from Life Asset.
I always had this seed in the back of my head seeing my dad and his brother being involved in business. So I always wanted to give it a shot and see where it would go.
But he wasn’t ready. So he joined the Army and then got an engineering degree from Howard University. That brain seed continued to grow.
But he still wasn’t ready. He joined the corporate world and, down the road, was offered a chance to either relocate or take a financial package. He chose the package, and with that money, Christopher finally felt ready.
Seven years ago, he started a company providing value-added IT services, feeling bolstered by both his government and corporate experience. But money was a problem.
The buyout was enough to sustain myself and my family for a little bit while I try to make the business work. But I didn’t have angel investors. I didn’t have a loan. I was stumbling through the financial aspects.
And then he met Life Asset
The problem with any new business is establishing credit. This takes financial savvy that Christopher just didn’t have.
So that’s where Life Asset came into play. I got the financial boost I needed, plus the technical assistance in generating financial statements so I could be bankable – to get loans from the SBA and other entities to grow my business.
Christopher found Life Assets through the SBA (Small Business Administration) website. “The SBA has a mentoring program with guest speakers from the SBA, banks, lawyers, and accountants. So you get some free exposure to different parts of business you need to know to be successful.”
But the pandemic threw a wrench into the works:meetings became webinars, which were missing a lot of the information Christopher needed. So he searched the SBA website looking for information about loans and technical assistance.
He found a list of partners, and one of the partners the SBA listed was Life Asset:
That’s how I got the ball rolling. At the same time, I met another small business owner who mentioned Life Asset. Once I found their link on the SBA website, I signed up to get more information, and Martha Leuro reached out. She was really great. She explained the program, the philosophy, and the rest is history.
Life Asset didn’t offer a lot of money, but it was enough that Christopher could hire people and bid and work on government contracts.
This was three years ago.
And since then, year after year, his company, HyLoSo, doubled in size.
I’m still small, but my revenue has doubled and tripled after meeting up with Life Assets and getting technical assistance and financial resources without having to go through a conventional bank. Banks like to lend money to people who have money, and I didn’t have money, so I got denied, denied, denied.
Meeting the challenges with the help of Life Asset
Life Asset, Christopher says, “Removes barriers. If you don’t know something, they assist you in filling in the holes so you are able to grow or restore your business.”
He knew he had work experience and was networking with other business people, but Christopher realized a lot of what he needed to know was missing.
I had a business plan but no idea how to put together my financial statements. I had no idea how to make myself bankable to lenders, including the SBA. Life Asset was a phenomenal help with that.
While his father had his own business, Christopher felt he didn’t really know what it took to be a successful entrepreneur. He knew the technical part, but the challenge was marketing: how to market himself and how to market his business. “Because obviously, no one is going to buy our services if you don’t have a track record, references, or past performance.”
Once he was able to overcome that and started winning contracts, a larger obstacle loomed: finances. Christopher had a cash flow problem. “Most contracts pay after you’ve completed the work,” he explains. “It’s usually net 30. But that net 30 can turn into two to three months. So how was I going to survive in business? I have to pay people; I have to buy supplies, but I’m not getting paid.”
So he took advantage of the loans offered by Life Asset. “They don’t have big loans like the big banks, but what they do provide helps in establishing credit as a business and growing your business. It’s been a really positive experience, very informative.”
Christopher also likes Life Asset’s personalized approach. When he changed banks, he forgot to inform Life Asset, and his loan payment didn’t go through. Instead of dinging his credit rating, “They called me and said my payment didn’t go through and asked if I wanted to use a credit card or another way to pay. It was really refreshing,” he exclaims. ”Because when you deal with commercial banks, they don’t call you. They just report you late and charge you a fee and ruin your credit.”
Mentorship, education, and shared experiences
Life Asset offers classes, webinars, and technical assistance on all sorts of topics.
I remember participating in a couple of marketing classes that were very informative and helpful.
But the real game-changer, he says, is that when you become a member of Life Asset, you’re matched with other like-minded businesses or aspiring entrepreneurs.
You become a circle of business owners for business owners that support and help each other. This was beneficial because I was able to create a network of other business owners I can get services from or they can get services from me.
Most importantly, we can share ideas and experiences to help us be better business people, better CEOs of our businesses.
Entrepreneurship can be quite lonely, he says. “Having like-minded individuals around you really helps. So that was really cool of Life Asset. They also teamed me up with another company that is trying to grow.”
He still has a relationship with that business, and they’ve been working together for a year, teaming up on bigger projects or sharing resources so both companies can gain more clients, grow, and scale up. “I would say that’s probably one of the two things that substantially benefited my company. The other was getting a loan to establish business credit.”
Paying it forward
I grew up with a philosophy of leaving things better than how you find them, helping your community. For government contracts, I usually need a subcontractor. I reach out to Life Asset, and they recommend a company in my community, and when I need to onboard an employee, I reach out to the community.
He works with nonprofits and community agencies to find those who are qualified and need a job.
Christopher’s advice? Bring in Life Asset at the beginning.
If he had to do it all over again, he would look for a company like Life Asset “before starting the business. To make sure I had all my ducks in a row. It’s not just selling – there are a lot of aspects of business like certifications, licenses, and finances,” advises Christopher.
One huge recommendation is identifying and connecting with a community partner or nonprofit like Life Asset, he says. “They make sure you go down a checklist of the things you need to do and have to be successful. This isn’t meant to slow you down but to mitigate failure. You can learn as you go, but if you can anticipate certain things about business, you can grow much faster and have fewer growing pains.
“So the first thing is teaming up with organizations like Life Asset,” he continues. “The second point is networking and being patient. Sometimes I’ve met with clients who say they aren’t ready for me. Initially, you think they are never going to call. But I have had potential clients call me and say, ‘Hey, remember me? Can you help me out?’”
The future with Christopher, HyLoSo, and Life Asset
Right now, Christopher says his company is on a trajectory of scaling up and growing.
I’m looking at what I’m doing, and what I would like to see down the road is to diversify and grow into other related areas of my business. So, not to put all my eggs in one area of the business.
Diversification, he says, will make his business more resilient and provide more economic opportunities in his community.
How does he see himself working with Life Asset?
I plan to continue to learn and grow – you can never stop learning, and they have great programs. I just want to be part of that world and continue teaming up with other business owners. I hope to hire or bring in partners that can help me grow with the help of Life Asset.