Start here · Essential guide
Business Funding Options Compared
A plain-language overview of self funding, borrowing, investors and grants, with the typical costs, trade-offs and questions to ask before choosing.
Money and Rules
Financing Options
How outside money works, its costs and how to judge whether to use it.
Bootstrapping a Business With Your Own Revenue
Learn what bootstrapping means, how growing from your own sales works, and the pace, cash and personal trade-offs to weigh before relying on it.
Business Grants Explained
Understand what business grants generally are, why they tend to be competitive, and how to read eligibility terms, deadlines and reporting conditions.
Crowdfunding as a Way to Fund an Idea
A general look at how reward and other crowd models work, how much effort a crowdfunding campaign needs, and the risks of promising what you cannot deliver.
Giving Up Equity: What Investors Typically Expect
Learn the general idea of trading ownership for money, how dilution works, and what equity investors often expect in return, including influence over decisions.
How Small Business Loans Work
Learn the basics of principal, interest, terms and repayment for small business loans, plus why borrowing only what you can repay matters most.
Personal Guarantees and Risk to Your Own Assets
Learn what a personal guarantee generally means, how it can expose your own property to business debt, and what to read carefully before you sign.
Understanding Interest Rates and Total Borrowing Cost
See how to read an interest rate, fees and total repayment, with a hypothetical calculation showing why the headline rate is only part of the real cost.
What Lenders Look For in a Loan Application
Learn which documents lenders commonly request and the general factors they weigh, such as repayment ability, credit history, collateral and business plans.
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