FINANCING OPTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

• Side-hustles


  Additional jobs or businesses a person runs alongside their main job or business
• If the entrepreneur hadn't been brave enough, they wouldn't have been able to put their designs out into the world
• Sources of funding for entrepreneurs

  • Friends
  • Family
  • Fools (people who believe in the entrepreneur with little evidence)
• The three Fs (friends, family, fools) invested 60 billion dollars, three times as much as angel investors, in budding entrepreneurs in 2014
• Angel investors


  Seasoned investment professionals who invest in startup companies
• Venture capitalists


  Investors or firms representing several investors that focus on investing in startup companies, taking a "high risk, high reward" approach
• Accelerators/incubators


  Programs designed to accelerate the growth of a company so it becomes more profitable faster, often coming with mentors, paths to fast customer discovery and acquisition, and sometimes venture capital investment
• Equity crowdfunding


  A crowdfunding approach where people pledge funds in exchange for slices of ownership in the company, rather than rewards
• Grants


  Funding given by companies, foundations, and governments to support businesses and spur economic development, without requiring repayment or ownership
• Grants are tough to get because they are usually only allowed to fund specific things, and come with strict reporting and measurement guidelines
• The bottom line is that financing a startup can be tricky, so entrepreneurs should go where their connections lead them - whether that be friends, angel investors, bankers, or the internet