What To Do About Funding Your Start-Up Business

Whether you have worked in the corporate world or small business environment you probably have entertained the thought of being your own boss, unless you literally do not crave the ultimate responsibility of business ownership. Most of us do not follow through on such thoughts, but what if you did…how would you fund it?

If you go the bank route, then your loan will depend on your personal credit worthiness. Simply stated do you have 10% to 30% (lender specifies requirement) of the total loan amount in your personal bank account keeping in mind that this required stash of cash must originate from you? Have you acquired a major business or personal asset(s) free and clear or have a personal asset such as a home with equity that can be refinanced? Are you planning to buy business assets upon receipt of the loan? Do you have an acceptable debt ratio and if acceptable is there any indication that you will make late payments or no payment at all? Do you have a credit score of 680 or higher? If you passed the majority of these questions, then the next consideration is do you have a steady stream of income? If not you will either need to keep your current job until your situation becomes favorable or secure a part-time job work with adequate income to work in tandem with your business while building it up. The end result of your efforts is that over time it is possible to have established enough credit worthiness to be considered for a loan. There are other factors such as the risk associated with the type of business, its set up (Sole Proprietor, Partnership or Corporation) and whether or not you are qualified (experienced) to manage it. Start-ups tend not to get funded through bank loans.

There are non-competing alternative bank sources that can be considered if you need funding to get your business off and running and were declined by a bank. Micro-lenders or economic development organizations specialize in helping existing small businesses and start-ups. Micro loans can be anywhere from $500 to $100,000 dependent upon the lender, however start-ups are typically funded from $500 to $12,000. A micro lender generally will want the same information as banks, however not as strict and do accept different types of collateral. For specific requirements and loan products you will need to seek out the micro lenders. In Texas the micro lenders are ACCION Texas http://www.acciontexas.org/ and BigAustin http://www.bigaustin.org/. All other areas look for the small business development center in your area they should be able to refer you to the micro lender organizations.

In regards to the traditional bank and micro-lenders some of them are participants in the SBA lending program. Here is the link for government resources http://www.usa.gov/Business/Business_Gateway.shtml click on Financial Assistance to go to the SBA site to learn more information on loan products. Http://search.business.gov/startLoans.html is another link that asks you to check off criteria pertaining to you and searches for all possible loan, grant or other products that fits your circumstance.

Another type of a non-competing alternative bank source is organizations that specialize in lending to minorities such as Strategies for Small Businesses, http://strategiesforsmallbusiness.com/. Their sole purpose is to help existing minority owned small businesses and start-ups get funded. It is a government guaranteed SBA unsecured small business loan started in 1995. It is different from the traditional business loan program because no collateral is needed, no current financials or income taxes are needed; but it is also limited up to $25k for non-veterans. The use of funds is not as restricted (depending upon lender) like most traditional bank loans as long as it is used for business purposes. It may not be funded timely due to government quotas so if you are in the extreme need of funds this may not be the product for you. Veterans you may want to call the lending organization to get a clear understanding of the loan details because loans to veterans generally are more favorable. The final concern is this particular loan can only be funded once every ninety days regardless of who the lender is so beware because it is called different names (depending upon the lender) such as SBA Express Loan, SBA Loan for Woman, Unsecured Business Loan, Minorities Small Business Loan, etc.

Other methods of funding a start-up include credit card or line of credit. It is best to get it in the business name, however if you have to use a personal card then decide which card is for business purchases only. Always keep personal and business transactions separate that includes bank accounts.

There are people lending to people networks that you can join, however the networks stated purpose is personal lending. So you would have to enter in your personal information, the purpose of the loan which can be for business, the amount that you wish for limited to $25k, plus term and interest rate desired. What generally happens next is that people who lend on the website can then decide whether or not they want to lend you money and if they do will contact you. You then decide if you are in agreement or if you have multiple offers then choose the best one for you. The websites that I have found are http://www.prosper.com/ and http://www.lendingclub.com/.

You could attract investors or venture capitalists, but you must set-up your business in the right entity, complete a detailed business plan that includes a 5 year forecast if not longer, valuation of your business, investment analysis, payback period in years and exit strategy explained. The last step is to find and convince investors to partake in your business, then legally bind the agreement. This takes the longest amount of time to do. If you go the investor route you may be given up ownership of your business if issuing of stock is involved, so keep this in mind if you want to keep ownership of your company do not give away more than 51%. To keep 100% ownership you need to convince potential investors to agree to receiving a return on their investment which could be more favorable to them if they do not want to incur any liabilities.

Asking a family member to fund your start-up is another source, but not advisable. The last sources would be winning on reality TV and of course the lottery all of which of course is nothing but luck. Then there are the websites that promise grant money which is practically non-existing if you are a for profit start-up; here is the link to find out for yourself, http://www.grants.gov/. My advice to start-ups is to start small, think big, be creative, put in the effort, stay focused, don’t be afraid of change, steadily grow, and only use another source for funding as a last resort.