There are various ways for a start up business to raise capital for their company. Here are a list of solid ways to access the capital you need to grow your business.
- Peer to peer websites such as http://www.prosper.com or www.lendingclub.com. The nice thing about these companies is that when you pay off the loan you only pay the remaining principal.
- Local credit unions give competitive rates on personal loans.
- Equipment financing and equipment leasing. Depending on the nature of your business and collateral type there are several lenders that will approve your start up equipment needs.
- Cash advance lenders. Once you have 4 months of business bank statements and can show a solid volume of deposits it's possible to get an approval. They will take your deposits and multiply it by 4 to come up with your revenues. Then lend you a percentage of what your revenues are on a term typically up to 15 months. They will deduct a business daily payment out of your bank account. You can come back to these lenders after 6 months for another infusion of capital.
- Merchant Credit Cash Advance lenders. Once your business have a flow of credit card reveivables lenders will approve you for a working capital loan and repay themselves by deducting a percentage of your future credit card revenues.
- Accounts receivable financing. Basically, accounts receivables are given to the finance company, and the finance company spits it back out as cash in your pocket. How much they are worth depends on their age. More current invoices pay more. Any over 90 days are typically not financed.There’s usually a service fee and interest. Those can vary. But there can also be hidden charges, including penalty fees, renewal fees, insurance costs and re-factoring charges for debts over 90 days old.
- Purchase order financing (or PO Financing) is a loan or advance, secured by a purchase order or contract, to pay for inputs, raw materials, packaging, goods for resale, etc., needed to produce and ship a product or deliver a service.When the customer pays the invoice, the lender is repaid the principle, interest and any fees and remits the balance to the company. This will allow a business to take on big jobs and not have perfect credit to be approved.
- SBA loans.The long and short of it is, if you need small-business loan capital, there's probably an SBA program out there for you. They will base there decision on your repayment plan and your character. It's not a quick process. You can log onto the SBA's website to learn more http://www.sba.gov/
- Home equity loans. These require good to excellent credit. They put your home at risk if your business fails.
- Hard money lending. Equity based lenders that will take your hard assetts as collateral. They will take private real estate and commercial real estate as collateral. Rates and terms can be very competitive.
Hope this list gives you some perspective on how to raise money for your start up or even existing business.