Last fall, Vander Meide and his brother founded Coastal Mountain Springs, which delivers spring water from family property in Yamhill County to nearby homes and businesses. "If you go to banks right now, no one will even look at you," Vander Meide says. Because they couldn't get private financing and the real estate market had eaten up a good chunk of their collateral, the brothers scaled back their $150,000 business plan. They launched with $30,000 of their own cash and a $20,000 loan from a state entrepreneurial development fund. "We're slowly growing," Vander Meide reports. "We could go out and hire someone tomorrow if we could get our hands on a little bit more." |
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