Finding money to start your home-based business
Farrah Gray/NNPA Columnist
Issue date: 3/29/09 Section: Business
From the person who wants to start a lawn mowing service to the Harvard graduate that is going after their own commercial consulting firm, young and mature entrepreneurs alike, often get creative in finding money to start their own home-based business.
While the economy continues its historic crisis, and many people look to get rich working from home, two questions usually come up: how can I do it and how much business startup capital do I need? A typical home-based business can get started on anything from no money down knocking on doors for work to less than $1,000.
For example, try handing out printed business cards in your neighborhood. You may also want Internet access with email or cell phone services. Many Fortune 1,000 CEOs launched their businesses with $10,000 or less. And more than a third of those CEO bootstrappers started with less than $1,000.
If presently, business startup money is not an option for you, do not fear as there are several steps you can follow to ensure that whatever business startup money you do have, no matter how small, is able to stretch.
It is also important for you to sacrifice and cut back on expenses in your personal life. Write out your monthly personal budget and cut out non-essentials, such as going to the movies, eating out, or buying those unnecessary new shoes.
Did you know the average person that uses coupons saves 12 percent on their family food budget? So if you are spending $600 a month on groceries and household items by using coupons, it saves you $78 per month.
Cutting back on coffee drinks saves the average person $28 per month while cutting costs for spa salon visits and beauty products saves over $45 per month. That's a combined total savings over $150 per month to invest in your home-based business -- more than enough to get the word out by securing a Web domain name and creating an online business presence with any of the Web site hosting services.
During the first year of business, it may be appropriate to ask close family, friends, local organizations, and wealthy individual "angel" investors in your community such as lawyers, doctors, professors or established business owners to come onboard as partners in order to raise more money to invest in building your business.
While the economy continues its historic crisis, and many people look to get rich working from home, two questions usually come up: how can I do it and how much business startup capital do I need? A typical home-based business can get started on anything from no money down knocking on doors for work to less than $1,000.
For example, try handing out printed business cards in your neighborhood. You may also want Internet access with email or cell phone services. Many Fortune 1,000 CEOs launched their businesses with $10,000 or less. And more than a third of those CEO bootstrappers started with less than $1,000.
If presently, business startup money is not an option for you, do not fear as there are several steps you can follow to ensure that whatever business startup money you do have, no matter how small, is able to stretch.
It is also important for you to sacrifice and cut back on expenses in your personal life. Write out your monthly personal budget and cut out non-essentials, such as going to the movies, eating out, or buying those unnecessary new shoes.
Did you know the average person that uses coupons saves 12 percent on their family food budget? So if you are spending $600 a month on groceries and household items by using coupons, it saves you $78 per month.
Cutting back on coffee drinks saves the average person $28 per month while cutting costs for spa salon visits and beauty products saves over $45 per month. That's a combined total savings over $150 per month to invest in your home-based business -- more than enough to get the word out by securing a Web domain name and creating an online business presence with any of the Web site hosting services.
During the first year of business, it may be appropriate to ask close family, friends, local organizations, and wealthy individual "angel" investors in your community such as lawyers, doctors, professors or established business owners to come onboard as partners in order to raise more money to invest in building your business.
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