Planning Your Capital Needs

• Determining Your Capital Needs - How much do you need to finance your start-up or expansion? Learn how to estimate your capital and working capital needs.
• Preparing to Raise Capital - Make sure you're prepared before you start looking for funding. Learn how to prepare yourself for investing or lending success.
• Partners and Investors: The Inside Story on Outside Investment - Investors and partners can both provide funding, but they also bring different expectations to the arrangement. Learn about the pros and cons of taking on investors or partners.
• How To Prepare an Effective Loan Proposal - Provide lenders with the information they need to approve your loan request.

Financing Options

• Sources of Financing - Need funding? This article provides an overview of options available.
• A Loan or A Line of Credit? What's Best For Your Business? - Is a loan of a line of credit right for your business? Learn more about these different types of credit.
• Financing from Operations: Pay As You Go - Learn more about non-traditional sources of financing like asset-based financing, receivables financing, and factoring.
• Collateralized Financing: Using What You Got - An unsecured loan is made without any collateral to back up the loan. Your signature, as the business owner or authorized representative of the company, is all you need to obtain an unsecured loan.
• Don’t Buy It. Lease It. - Leasing is often the ideal solution to meet the equipment and space needs of start-ups and small businesses.

Debt vs. Equity Financing

• Find the Right Lender: Get Terms That Fit Company Needs - The right lender is not just a source of financing, but also provides guidance, advice, and networking leads.
• Raising Significant Capital: What To Do When You Need Big Bucks - Need hundreds of thousands of dollars to take your company to the next level? This article provides an overview for finding the right investors for your business.
• Raising Business Capital With An ESOP: Give The Staff A Stake - In some cases, you can look inside, rather than outside, your company for funding. This article shows how your employees can help you raise capital and take a larger part in the success of your business.
• Should Your Company Go Public? - Going public is a great way to raise significant capital – but is it worth it?
• Direct Public Offering (DPO):  Expanding Your Team Of Stakeholders - Going public can take different forms; a DPO is a streamlined way of selling stock and raising capital that avoids some of the reporting and regulatory headaches.
• Angel Investors: Give Your Company Wings To Fly - Learn how to raise capital from individuals or groups of investors looking for the opportunity to profit from small business investment.
• Venture Capitalists: Working With Business Capital Pros - This article is an overview of the process of raising capital from professional investment firms.
• Maintaining Sound Investor Relationships: Take Care Of Your Partners - Acquiring funds is just the start of your partnership; here's how to build and maintain a great relationship with your company's investors.