6 Modern Ways to Finance Your Start Up

Regardless of how interesting your start up idea might be, the  reality is that there is no one sitting cash in hand and happy to throw money at you. You need to devoutly source for the right amount of capital needed to make your dreams a reality. We take a look at some of the modern ways to raise the funds you need.

Enrol with a startup incubator or accelerator

Startup incubators are all over the place these days. They are mostly affiliated with the big academic institutions, large companies and even community development organisations. Look around you and check at the offices of these establishments for startup funding. In addition to seed funding, majority of them will also provide office facilities and consulting if you need it.

Go into white-labelling or early licensing agreements

This process involves looking for a major customer or a complimentary business that sees value in your idea and is ready to give you an advance on royalty payment for you to complete your development. It requires lots of legal documents though so you may need to consider the costs of legal advice before embarking on this venture.

Secured Loans

If you would rather go the old fashioned way of simply obtaining and working with bulk cash, a secure loan is the way to go. Secure loans provide you with as much money as traditional lenders without subjecting you to the same rigors. If you own your own property then you have a high chance that you can qualify for secured loans. Secured loans are good for people with for bad credit as they are secured on assets. So with secured loans for bad credit you people can get loans to push their startup ideas off the ground.

Exchange equity or services

This basically involves exchanging your skills or anything you have for something you need. For instance, you can get a free office space for your startup by agreeing to offer computer systems support for the owner of the space. You can also exchange equity for accounting and legal support.

Crowd funding

Crowd funding campaigns are one of the newest ways of getting money for your startup. Crowd funding has no limits or thresholds. It involves getting people online to make pledges online to your startup during a campaign.  Some variations include pre-order of your products for later delivery.

Engage with venture-capital investors

These are professionals that invest institutional funding in qualified startups that have a proven business model and are ready to scale up. However, you don’t need this if your startup is one that may be considered small opportunity. Most of these investors will only consider investing if you demonstrate need for at least £1m.

These are some of the major ways to get adequate funding and make sure your idea succeeds. Consider each one carefully and settle for the one that is best suited to allow you focus squarely on growing your business.