How to Raise Money for Your Business

Collected from Inc., Entrepreneur, and AllBusiness.com, ways to raise money for your business:

1. Angel Investors
2. Venture Capital
3. Government Programs
4. Private Equity Financing
5. Bank Loans
6. Microloans
7. Joint Ventures
8. Strategic Partnerships
9. Customer & Supplier Partnerships
10. Direct Public Offerings
11. Equipment Leasing
12. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
13. SBA-Guaranteed Loans
14. Private Loan Guarantees
15. 504 Loans
16. Royalty Financing
17. Federal Government Venture Capital
18. Business Incubators
19. 401(k) Financing or Self-Directed IRA's
20. Reverse Merger
21. Initial Public Offerings
22. Institutional Venture Capital

You started out Boot Strapping (Seth's Bootstrapper's Bible), but the next phase will take some capital. Just remember when you are raising capital, it takes a lot of time. According to Business Know How:

Most companies vastly underestimate the time commitment necessary to successfully complete a financing. In actuality, a company seeking financing needs to budget between 500 to 1000 work-hours to the capital-raising process, spread out over a 6-9 month time period. The key processes in the capital-raising process include

1) perfecting the business plan, offering memorandum, and other company due diligence materials,

2) developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list,

3) contacting this list and responding to investor due diligence requests, and

4) negotiating the transaction.