Polished business plan lands loans.

• Author: Penland, Dolly
• Position: FROM BEGINNERS TO BIGSHOTS - Carol Jenkins Neil - Occupation overview

Carol Jenkins Neil never intended to be an entrepreneur. She also never intended to be a nurse--until her father fell ill.

Neil, who worked for 10 years at TV stations around Jacksonville, Fla., decided to pursue nursing after seeing doctors struggle to find what was wrong with her father.

"My dad was very sick, but they couldn't figure it out, and I was frustrated because I didn't have that background," she said.

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Her father joked with her, she said, "'I paid for that broadcasting degree. I'm not paying for a nursing degree.' I said, 'Fine.'"

Neil's father was eventually diagnosed with bone-marrow cancer. Learning he was terminal, Neil thought, "Talk about pressure. I couldn't fail a class. I wanted him to see me graduate."

He did see her graduate magna cum laude. He even saw her in action. "I had to go home to Darien, Ga., and give him injections to stimulate the white blood cells," she said. It was then she thought of her business idea.

"I called it 'The Daddy Idea,'" Neil said. "There were days when my dad need-ed a place to go while my mom worked, but there was nowhere."

While pursuing a master's degree in 2000, Neff had to write a five-year, health-care-related business plan. "I immediately thought of 'The Daddy Idea.'" She got an A.

After receiving her master's while also working full time, Neil sought the advice of adult day care center owners in the area to test the waters for "The Daddy Idea."

"One owner told me about SCORE," she said. "So, I took it to (SCORE counselor) Tony Gabrielle. He looked at the idea and said, 'This is great." Then he made me rewrite my whole business plan. He didn't think my figures were real; he was correct."

SCORE, a resource partner of the Small Business Administration, often free and confidential business advice to entrepreneurs through a network of more than 10,000 volunteers and a Web site, www.score.org.

Armed with realistic financial data, Neff secured two traditional commercial loans to start her business and retrofit an existing doctor's office she leased.

But it was a $5,000 SBA-backed Community Express Loan approved by Innovative Bank in 2005 that she credits with bringing her company, Hope Adult Day Care Inc., into the black. "At the lime, I just wanted to make sure I had enough" working capital, said Neil. "The SBA was able to come through for me and because of that, we're profitable."

Hope opened July 28, 2005, and now has two full-time and four part-time employees...