I know I may be asking a little too much, but are there any places to "quickly" and easily get a business loan or venture capital? There seems to be a lot of scam type sites lurking around out there. I don't want to go to the bank because I highly doubt they will give me the amount of capital I need. My credit is not spectacular but not bad either. I have a solid business plan. Sales are booming and I am looking into buying a storefront soon. Thanks guys and gals!
May I ask why you need a loan or quick capital if you have a great business plan and sales are booming. Why don't you look to grow organically. In the current economic climate, its the people using other people's money that seem to be getting into trouble. Why not hold your 'cards' close to you and protect all monies coming in. Invest that back into your business and watch your stress levels disappear.
Thanks for your response silvastar! Up until now all of our business has been done online. I own a company who specializes in local web/graphic design and marketing as well as modeling and PR campaigns. We book all our models via telephone and e-mail to car shows, club openings, print ads, etc. etc. One of my designers and I usually drive out to meet with potential clients. Having an actual retail front(brick and mortar) would do our business great and clients would then come to us. It would also be nice to have a central place for the designers/booking agents/models/photographers to do their work at instead of trying to jumble everything through the telephone. I don't have the upfront savings to purchase an outlet and would much rather buy the location and do some nice interior/exterior changes rather than lease. Who knows maybe my dabbling in affiliate marketing will pay off.
Without wanting to go to a bank, your options are limited. Any VC is going to pull your credit just like a bank would. Opting out of bank financing is pretty much eliminating VC too. Any rich relatives? Mother willing to mortgage her house? Do you own your own home? You can tap the equity in it. A 401k you can plunder (poor option, but if the return is there...)? What about leasing a retail location in an out of the way area? My wife owns a mobile DJ business. Lots of business over the phone and web, but only one or two office visits a week. She leased the front offices of a local woodworking place. They use the huge shop area, but had nothing in their front offices. It is in an industrial section of town, but the rent is amazingly cheap and the landlord will let her do pretty much whatever she wants that doesn't involve tearing down walls. Before that, she had an office in our home. Our house is setup so that the first downstairs bedroom converted quite naturally into a meeting place for brides and grooms. That had some major tax advantages too since she could "rent" the livingroom for company meetings and such. In essence I guess I'm agreeing with Silva. If your business is going great, save some capital in short term investments like 12 month CDs and come up with a "can't say no" downpayment. If things are going well but a huge downpayment is too far off, don't worry about your credit too much and just talk to your bank. If the recession is showing any signs of affecting your business, take this opportunity to think creatively and find alternatives (even short term alternatives) to buying a $300,000 store on Main St.
I've used classified ads in actual newspapers before with lots of responses. Just have to know how to write an appropriate ad. Good luck
FYI,you can get the funding from many source other than bank. You can search for loan at here http://www.peer-lend.com/
I suggest you wait until this is an absolute need and then you lease for at least a year before you consider buying. "Don't let your monthly nut kill you" - Ralph Costa
Hi This is Nancy and i completed graduation and i started a business the is Data entry and i got more opportunities to that business. Most of the people suffer for their job so do not disappointed start a new business first is we face many up and downs so every one be strong and start a new life.I wanna thank for your service.Some of my friends just want to start a small business.I think they should need money regarding this.Shall i know what are the things should be needed while buying loan. ======== nancy143