Getting A Loan or Grant How to write a business plan, approach lenders and get the much-needed cash you deserve

Think loans and grants for teen entrepreneurs are harder to come by than snow boots in Miami? Not according to Jeffrey Rodriguez and John Serrano, both 20, owners of Latin Artist in Brooklyn, New York. These two talented artists painted a detailed business plan so they could apply for a grant to get their custom airbrush studio and community art center up and running.

It was fate that first brought these two artists, who had known each other since childhood, together. Neither knew the other was artistically inclined until Rodriguez saw Serrano drawing at a local barber shop. Impressed, Rodriguez invited Serrano to come to his shop, a storefront in his parents' building where he had been creating airbrush designs for his friends at no charge using equipment lent to him by one of his Boy Scout leaders.

"I taught him the basics, and then he disappeared for two weeks," Rodriguez says of his future business partner. "He was practicing, and he caught up with me. He came back with really nice work."