by C. Robert Brown

Created on: February 20, 2009

My own business, I just marvelled at the tought. Really I did then the relization set in that I was broke! Seriously, broke!

As humorous as that may sound to many of you your laughter is a kin to a death rattle for those of us attempting to express our freedom through the entrepreneurial process of starting a business. Starting a buisness is not for the faint of heart. Believe me, anyone you talk to who has legitimately started a business on their own will tell you that that it is difficult. I don't think that I can honestly say that anyone I know who has started a business ever made the remark "it was easy". And to a much lesser degree I don't know anyone who knew exactly where the money was coming from, even the couple I know who had money up front.

So what we're looking at here is finding "seed" money for our business. This doesn't matter if it comes from your pocket or someone else's it's still "seed" money. This is very much different from operating capital. But lets look at this and let's look at it from the stand point of someone who is trying to get something, anything off the ground to make a better living. Nothing exemplifies this I think than the entrepreneur seeking to start a home-based business.

Caution is the watch word here. I can't emphasize this enough, caution. If you are seriously looking to start a business and I don't care on what level, write a business plan. You have to be realistic with your expectations and even though we are looking at this from the standpoint of the home start up guy, demand, market and competition all still have a direct effect upon our success. You need to identify your needs and no better way than through a business plan.

This is very important to us because we are looking at the financing of a start-up, not the expansion of an established company or brand. A full fledged, although small, start up. Money will be very important from the begining, bills will have to be paid and liabilities satisfied. Losses will have to be kept small. So with that here are some suggestions.

1. Start small, if you have a small sum of money available in your savings you be the lender! This means your initial operations will have to be scaled accordingly. This is a good thing. Learn your business while it's small, but remember only do business within the amount you have loaned your business and not one red cent more. Make you business work through effort not cash infusion.

2. Don't mortgage your home. Again don't mortrgage your home. If

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