Business and Finance Times

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

The most important thing that comes to mind when you are going to start up your own business is how to arrange the start up business finance. There are lots of funding options available, which are mainly categorized under debt finance or equity finance.

60% – 70% of all new business ventures usually visit their local banks making the first attempt to arrange funds. When you take a loan from a bank to start your business, it comes under debt finance. This type of loan has to be typically repaid back at an agreed interest rate on the principal amount. Banks give out the loans to the borrowers by keeping their asset as collateral. If the business fails and the borrower is unable to repay the loan, the bank can then claim the asset.

When you have taken the loan from the bank as a debt finance, you become locked into a tight payment schedule and this can often be a problem for the small businesses when they are not able to generate more income than expenses during a period. There are also some other forms of debt finance which have started to gain popularity in the small business sector, such as credit card and leasing. The term leasing refers to the borrowing of money to buy specific equipment or machinery. In this case, the borrower works out repayment arrangements with the store from where the equipment is purchased.

Remember, when you chose the debt finance method for your business, you are mainly borrowing against your reserves rather then giving someone ownership of your shares. Therefore, always keep in mind on the aspect of funding that is right for your business. Don’t take loan from anywhere when you are sure of not able to repay back on the specified terms. Now, if you are in such a situation, you will think how to start the business. To answer this predicament, I bring to your attention, equity finance.

Equity finance is often taken as being risky capital, however it has been the savior of many small/new businesses who are either turned down for a bank loan or can’t keep up with the monthly repayments.

In equity type of financing, there is no guarantee for the investor that if he puts his money, he will get his money back. The big advantage however is that the money that is invested into your business from equity finance never has to be repaid. Those who have invested money into your business are well aware of the risk capital in return for a growth share of your business profit.

The investors will provide you the money that is needed for your business and to cover all aspects of the start up costs such as rent, purchasing of equipment and staff wages as well as making payments of your utility bills for the first few months.

Make sure that you have planned about your business venture in the proper manner and you know well in advance how much money will be needed to start up the business. You don’t want to increase your debt to income ratio in the coming days because of bad decisions.