Where to find your startup loan

There’s no denying it: Creating, running and financing your own small business can be challenging, exhausting, nerve wracking and rewarding experiences—in that order. Acquiring a startup loan is all of those things and the only way to get to the best part—the reward.

The time for a startup loan comes after the seed money, and after you’ve been in business long enough to show positive cash flow. Few business owners are fortunate enough to have enough revenue to finance their own startup loan with the proceeds, though. So where do they get the money their business needs? From one of the following sources.

• Self financing – If you can swing it, do it. The key to doing so successfully is that you must not forget this is a startup loan; you’ve got to separate your personal finances from your business finances as soon as possible, so start making payments on the loan from business revenue as soon as your business can handle it.
• Online bank applications – It doesn’t make sense to go from bank to bank applying for a startup loan; it’s too time consuming. Submitting startup loan applications online means you can submit more applications in a shorter time span and increase your chances of success. Unfortunately, most banks—not all—will be looking at your personal finances with a skeptical eye, and after starting a new business few business owners are able to retain the golden credit score they started with.
• Friends and family – In the early days of your business and throughout your life you’re going to need more than just financial support from those near and dear. You must absolutely not allow business transactions to damage those relationships. Safeguard those bonds by treating their startup loan with the same gravity you would a bank loan: execute a contract with the assistance of an attorney and have the agreement notarized.