Where to Find Money for Starting a Business

It's a common challenge for every start up company... where do you find the money to start a business? The amount of funding resources for entrepreneurs has dramatically grown in the past decade with government funding, bank lending, venture capital and angel investors, all providing the much need capital for business growth. It was a great time for funding a small business. Now the rules and resources have dramatically changed.

Banks have essentially restricted all business lending, investors have pulled out of backing risky start up ventures and the government SBA loan program has done no better. In fact, the final 3 months of 2008 saw a 40% decrease in total loans processed. So if you are looking for money for starting a business, the old rules of start up financing have been thrown out to a new reality.

The new rule of start up financing is simply: “do without”.

Forget about what your business wants and concentrate on want it needs to survive. Forgo the slick brochures, high end computers and the fancy office space. Businesses starting today must embrace frugality including buying a used computer, printing your own brochures and working from home. Applying frugality means lowering your expectations. If you think you need $50,000 to start your business cut those projections in half. Once your done, cut them again in half. The start ups who use bare bones funding will have a greater chance of finding small amounts of capital from friends, family and self financing resources.