3 Alternative Ways to Fund Your Start-Up
The market has changed beyond all recognition in recent times, regardless of which industry or sector you care to analyze. One of the universal changes revolves around how business owners and entrepreneurs fund their operations, as traditional bank loans have become increasingly inaccessible to households and commercial ventures alike in recent times.
With this in mind, entrepreneurs would be well advised to seek out alternative funding methods in the modern age, including the suggestions offered here.
- Access Equity Crowdfunding
Since its emergence in 2005, crowdfunding has helped to fund and sustain numerous independent ventures. Despite its success, it was once eschewed by serious investors, many of whom balked at the lack of tangible reward for their financial assistance.
The platform has evolved in recent times, however, meaning that businesses can now offer an equity crowdfunding model to potential investors. While this may require entrepreneurs to sacrifice a predetermined amount of equity in their business, it effectively targets serious investors who are in the market for genuine returns.
The key is to understand the precise amount of capital that you require, while placing a fair value on your business and determining the maximum share of equity that you are willing to sell. Then you can leverage equity crowdfunding to set up your business without incurring significant long-term debt.
- Embrace Factoring by Selling Your Accounts Receivable
The issue of minimizing your business’s long-term debt burden should always be at the forefront of your mind, which is why factoring represents such a progressive funding vehicle.
Factoring allows businesses to successfully leverage their accounts receivable by selling them to third-party investors. The main advantage of this approach is that it enables businesses to secure payment once a specific product has been completed and invoiced, rather than being bound by 30-, 60-, or even 90-day payment terms. This optimizes the level of working capital that is accessible through your business at any given time, while also reducing its long-term debt burden.
You can simply repay these funds once the client has settled their invoice, before repeating at the process at any time as and when required.
- Build a Personal Store of Wealth to Invest in Your Business
In some instances, you may want to eliminate the debt burden from your business entirely, particularly as the post-Brexit climate continues to worsen. One of the best ways to achieve this is to build a personal store of wealth, which you can subsequently reinvest into your business as you choose.
Of course, the challenge here is determining the best methods of building personal wealth, but one of the best options is to trade on the financial markets. This offers you access to a diverse range of markets and asset classes, from physical commodities and secure wealth stores like gold to derivatives in the form of currency. Through the type of online trading platforms that exist today, you can manage multiple assets simultaneously while creating a diverse portfolio that offers genuine returns.
You must remember that knowledge is your primary weapon as a financial market trader, however, particularly when investing in changeable and liquid derivatives such as currency. Learning resources are therefore crucial to your development and your chances of achieving sustained success over time.
