In terms of entrepreneurship and business, India has evolved into one of the top emerging countries in the world. Hundreds of startup companies have been founded there in the last years, many of which are enjoying incredible success. Funding of these startups is very key in scalability. But in initial phase it is important to find creative ways to fund startups.
Let discuss different creative ways
Personal financing. You may not think this is very creative, but I’m amazed at the number of new entrepreneurs who haven’t thought about saving any money before they start, or wouldn’t think of using their own savings to start a business. No investor I know will put money into a deal if they see that you have no “skin in the game.”
Personal credit lines. You qualify for a secured personal credit line based on your personal credit efforts. Credit cards can usually be acquired with even less history. We all know startups that have been built on one or both of these. The advantage is that you retain total ownership and control, as long as you make minimum payments.
Family and friends. These are people who should believe in you, without waiting to see if your idea works, or waiting until you have real customers, revenue, and hard assets. These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors.
Peer-to-peer lending. This is a process whereby a group of people comes together to lend money to each other. It’s been around many years, in examples like small business groups or ethnic groups supporting similar efforts. In the startup context, look for a successful entrepreneur peer willing to fund similar new ideas.
Crowd funding. Here you use the power of the Internet to find a crowd of like-minded people, with small amounts each, to back your efforts. This approach is now spreading beyond non-profits, pre-sales, and memento rewards, to soon include the ability to make small equity investments via the crowd funding.
Microloans. There are many private companies and non-profits that offer small loans, up to $35,000, to promote entrepreneurship, to individuals who would not normally quality for bank financing. Examples include Patriot Express loans, and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) loans.
Vendor financing. If you need tangible products for inventory, many manufacturers and distributors can be convinced to defer your payment until the goods are sold by you. This really means an extension of the normal 30-day payment terms to a period of months or longer, depending on your credit worthiness and extra fees.
Purchase order financing. The most common scaling problem faced by startups is the inability to accept a large new order, since they don’t have the cash to build and deliver the product. PO financing companies will often advance the required funds directly to the supplier, allowing the transaction to complete and profit to flow to the startup.
Factoring accounts receivables. This is similar in concept to PO financing, but applies the advance to unpaid amounts not yet due or collected from customers. In high volume startups starting to scale up, this will provide cash on your sales immediately, rather than waiting for 30 to 60 days or longer for payment.
Leasing. Leasing is also creative way of financing startup. Business work in idle way which require some Capital investment in terms of Place, Machinery, Equipment which can be taken under leasing. Here leasing can reduce expenditure as well as tax benefits.
Bottom line
Early stage Startup is all about hustle and this hustle is done through creative ways to fund startups. Day by days it is becoming easy to fund startups. Truly we can say that Startups are future.