Community Funds Upgrades through Loan to 8 Arms Community Bakery

8 arms bakery
Hamburger buns, one of the items baked by 8 Arms Community Bakery, are likely headed for Darby's Cafe in Olympia.
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Submitted by Casey Dilloway for Community Sourced Capital

community sourced lending
Alex Mondau, an Olympia native, is working with 8 Arms Community Bakery on a locally sourced loan for equipment upgrades.

Olympia-based 8 Arms Community Bakery has been making delicious and healthy baked goods for its community since 2007. Owner Jen Ownbey has been growing the business alongside her community, adding new products and employees as the business could afford it. Now, Jen is taking her community business to the next level by asking her customers, friends and family to take part in a community-sourced loan to finance new equipment for the bakery.

8 Arms Bakery is operating this loan through Seattle-based finance company Community Sourced Capital (CSC), and hopes to borrow between $4,000 and $10,000 to fund different equipment purchases.

CSC makes it easy for anyone to participate in the loan for 8 Arms Bakery by buying something called a ‘Square,’ a $50 unit of the larger loan for the bakery. “Squares themselves are simple loans and they act like this: you put $50 in and you get $50 out. It’s not an investment.  It’s not a donation.  It’s a right-sized mechanism for moving money to a business in your community while still getting paid back,” says Alex Mondau, one of CSC’s employees and an Olympia native.

“When I started my bakery, I wanted to have a relationship with the people that purchase my baked goods,” says Jen. “This is a cool opportunity to have a financial relationship with them too. As the loan is paid back, I’m excited to see if the repayments go to fund loans for other businesses in Olympia too.”

8 arms bakery
Jen Ownbey, owner of 8 Arms Community Bakery, has a roster of goods totaling more than 150 items.

Community Sourced Capital aggregates dozens of ‘Squares’ into a single loan for a business and manages repayments and monthly communication back to ‘Squareholders.’ Since lenders do not earn interest on their small loans, neither does CSC.

CSC charges small flat fees to businesses using its online lending system. Since launching its first loan last year, CSC has engaged nearly 2,000 Squareholders to fund $300,000 in loans for 17 small businesses in Washington State.

Since Jen’s Square Loan campaign launched earlier this month, 35 people have taken part in funding $3,100 of the loan. To keep with the “local finance” element of the lending system, CSC reports out on local finance statistics.

For 8 Arms Bakery, 95% of the Squareholders, so far, live in Washington State and over half live in the Olympia-Tumwater area. A recently completed loan in Kitsap found 90% of a company’s Squareholders lived within 40 miles of the business.

Jen is excited to continue expanding her business and its place in the community. You can find 8 Arms baked goods in local cafes, wholesale, and also as part of a local CSA program. Anyone can buy Squares for 8 Arms Bakery through the end of April at www.communitysourcedcapital.com/8-arms-bakery.

 

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