Seek Funding For Your Small Business: The Start-Up Stage

Seek Funding For Your Small Business: The Start-Up Stage

Article by Lynne Saarte

Small businesses often fail from lack of adequate capital. That is why you should have a sound estimate of how much money you will need and where it will come from early on in the game.

The first stage that you must take into consideration is the start-up stage. It the period when you need seed money for operating such as your rent, supplies, inventory, equipment, wages, advertising, licenses and fees, and other expenses associated with starting the business.

Here are some smart ways and means on how you can get adequate seed money to take your business off the ground.

Personal – You and your partner. You and your business partners, if you have them, will be the major source of cash during the start-up stage. Besides putting up the savings you have accumulated, other personal resources might include borrowings backed by secured collateral, such as stocks and bond, loans against the cash value of existing life insurance policies, or borrowing against the equity you have built up in your home. Most small business like greeting cards printing shops, custom greeting card printing, shops, boutiques, manufacturers and other types of businesses, start this way: funds come from personal resources and borrowings of the entrepreneur.

Knowledgeable investors will not put money into a new business unless they have concrete evidence that the entrepreneur has