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How to Finance Your Business with No Money

Starting a business requires that you have access to some form of funding. This funding needed to start your business can come from different sources. In this article, we shall be looking at different funding opportunities that you can access to help you start and grow your business.

Staring up a business can be quite challenging in that it requires some capital to plunge in. it can be stressful when you have a great idea but you are not sure where to find finances to implement it. In this case, a lot of business ideas have just been lost due to financial constraints. Any business owner or aspiring business person should bear in mind that there are some options that can help them achieve their dreams.

However, your business idea should promise a positive cash flow. This means it should generate more income than the expenses, unlike a situation where expenses are higher than the revenue generated in the process. When your business has a positive cash flow, it tends to attract money lenders in that they trust your business can meet its debt obligations. At the end of it all, these lenders want their money to be paid back without any problem.

If you missed a startup grant for your business, then you will need to look for a loan to help you start from the ground. You may consider going for a startup business loan or a business loan as an option. This will help you not to dip in your savings to get your business started. However, you need to borrow the amount you are sure of paying back without any issue.

The following are the financial options for businesses without no money:

Business loans

In this case, many business lenders require that as a prospective borrower your business should be able to demonstrate that it is capable of generating a positive cash flow annually. For the business that is starting up, it may qualify for small business loans from traditional loan lenders.

To prove yourself that you are capable of generating a positive cash flow, you will need some supportive documents like a detailed business plan illustrating the ability of the business to pay back the debt.

Credit cards

How to Finance Your Business with No Money

These are business credit cards that allow you to borrow money up to a predetermined credit limit. In this case, your lender can use your personal credit and personal credit score to determine your eligibility. When you qualify, you are expected to pay your balance at the end of the month. This means if you missed paying, the balance will begin to accrue interests until it is paid in full. You can play the trick of avoiding these interests by paying them in full in a given month.

If you are considering using business credit cards for startups, then you should find the best options when it comes to interests and other costs that go into getting business credit cards for startups. It is important to take the opportunities that you have to use them for your business startup.

Unlike in business loans, here you do not need to provide any further documents to prove yourself. However, you should know that with a business credit card you are required to have a minimum personal credit score of 670. So having a higher score than this increases your chances of yielding the best terms.

Finance of equipment

This is a situation where your lender finances you the equipment needed for the business. To be eligible you need to provide supplemental documents for example a detailed business plan. This is because your lender needs to evaluate if your business will meet its debt obligations.

The equipment may include everything that is needed for the business starting from small items like electronics to large manufacturing machines.

The business expected to pay back not the equipment provided but the sum or the value of the machine in cash.

The crowdfunding

This is a popular source of money that is growing day by day. It is a situation where you have been provided with a platform to run fundraising for your business. In this situation, you can consider choosing a platform like Kickstarter or Wefunder where you are entitled to create a post. This post should describe your product or service where you have to choose a target amount and create tiered rewards for any contributor by considering the size of each donation.

When setting the target amount of your business, you should note that if you miss achieving the target then the already raised amount will be refunded back to the donors and you may not get anything.

Money raised from crowdfunding is not paid back because they do come from donors. So when you meet the target, you should be able to withdraw and plunge into your business.

This type of financing your business is cheaper in that you do not have to pay back the money with interest. However, a certain percentage ranging from 3% to 5% will be deducted from the amount raised upon reaching the target. This means if you fail to meet the target no amount is deducted since you are getting nothing

The challenge here is that the eligibility may depend on the type of project you are working on. Research indicates that only 23.3% of all crowdfunding projects are successful where most of the projects come from technology, games, and designed projects. So if your business does not fall into any of these categories, then it means your chances of raising funds for your business using crowdfunding are less.

Conclusion

Having learned the above sources of funding your business with no money, you should be aware of all repayment obligations. This means before finalizing everything, make sure to be realistic in all your projections. Ensure that you evaluate your current cash flow and the future one to determine the ability of your business to meet its debt obligations.

If a business loan is an option to start up your business then evaluate other ways you can pay back the loan if the business fails. Let’s say your personal funds like checking or retirement account.

Finally, take your time. Do not rush into making decisions that may hurt you in the future. This is because every loan has its consequences. Loan lenders have several ways of getting their money back in case you miss to meet your obligations where these ways are wanting.

So if it happens that you acquire any amount of loan then be disciplined by paying back the agreed amount on time. This way you will be able to maintain the good status of your credit.