have you tried your local business link? Prince's Trust? Business link can help support and give you advise on funding available in your area, I'm not 100% sure but I think there's an online facility where you can register and access grantfinder,this gives you access to grants and funding available in your area. Prince's trust on the other hand will help if you are under 30, you will need a business plan and can apply for market research grant to test the market, after which the maximum you can apply for is 5k and another 5k expansion grant after commencing trading. I know the situation you're in and i'm starting with my own finance which is not much. I hope this helps. Regards, F Khan
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F Khan

Have you tried other resources ?.......business angels /venture capitals /funding from various institutions of European Union ??? any experiences or thoughts?

To Be Honest I haven't although I do know these a investors whom you have to presnt a business plan too and may have to do some presentations, I know business Link do actually have a business angels network and they can help. Business Angels if they invest will in exchange for funding have a share aswell as loan repayment terms these vary subject to contract on the other hand they can actually help in the management of your business. I say try the business link website they have various links to various sources including business angels and they can actually advise on european funding.
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F Khan

I don’t mean to sound rude, but if YOU don’t believe enough in your business to put some capital in (ie backing it with your property) they why should someone else feel confident about risking their money? I don’t know anyone who has been funded entirely externally. It is a myth to think this happens. Banks don’t give loans unless they are backed with assets. If the company has no assets, then it will be backed by the director’s assets. You can no doubt limit your exposure to the value of the initial loan. Would you invest your savings in someone else’s business (that you have no control over, and are just getting a few % return on) if they said they didn’t want to risk theirs? This is what you are expecting the bank to do. To get started you need a good idea, some lucky breaks and be prepared to take some risks. James Smith Chartered Accountant www.uktaxshop.co.uk 01284 764436
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James Smith
Chartered Accountant
www.jamesesmith.co.uk

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Your indispensable guide to Small Business Bookkeeping, Self-Assessment & VAT

Its also a myth to imagine your property is safe just because there is no charge over it to the bank. With a start up almost all borrowing will have to be guaranteed by you personally even if your business is a limited company. The reason for thay is your business will not have assets to satisfy the bank's need for security. If you owe above £750 then after a court judgment an order can be placed on your property and a court can order it sold to satisfy the debt.
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LawHound Limited www.lawhound.co.uk
01244 300413

HI

I would also suggest Raw Business, they have a Business Angel called Simon Dolan who has put up to 5 Million to aid business to help not only new business but to also try and reduce the business failure rate by helping business expand. You can twitter Simon for investment, reallly nice guy and willing to listen



Kindest Regards


Lewis

Hi, You must have been asking for quite a lot, for the bank to want house as security.
In that situation ,I think others are right by saying ,would you risk it? Clearly you wouldnt.
I am finding it hard that the banks are not helping establised customers improve or expand their business even in a small way. And as far as these guys who say they start with nothing and make it rich, they are very few and far between. Dont get me wrong ,its not impossible, if you are in the right place and everything clicks together at the same time, it is possible.But very,very rare. Look at Simon Cowel, tea boy in a record company and it had nothing to do with his father being the chairman at all. Stories like that brings a tear to my eye, just thinking how well he done. There is hope for us all.

When i spoke with my bank a little while ago, they will only fund up to 50% of what is required and even with that they still wanted security.
I asked about the small firms loan gurantee scheme and they said that again, if they were to put it under that scheme then they would still only fund up to 50% of the required amount of which 75% of the 50% would be guaranteed to them by the scheme.

How are people meant to get on in life, i have over 14yrs experience in doing what i love and felt that it was time to start my own, full business plan, full 5yr forecasts etc which the bank agreed is very achievable in the way i had constructed the business, so although they agreed with my plans, they can't help because i don't have the security or 50% of the funds myself.

Does suprise when you hear of some people who have just left university, got all the degrees but no actual work experience and they get 100's thousands as investment. Makes me sick.

Anyway, i have gone through some business angels and whilst nothing has been confirmed yet, it is looking a little more hopeful.

To address your first message on how people get by, simply don't start a business that involves borrowing vast sums of money.

It may sound stupid, but you don't *have* to have a business with huge start-up costs.
The web allows people like me to learn a programming language, buy a domain name and to rent a server.
Obviously you still need a good idea, but, armed with a programming language, you can pay for hosting and that's basically all you need.
£5-a-month buys you good enough hosting for an e-shop, £30 or so gets you a developer/souped-up shared hosting plan and above that you can pay for what you use in so-called 'cloud' hosting. As a developer, I come up with a cool idea, pay for what I use(storage, backup, data transfer and processor time) and the hosting company manages it all.
If I want to do marketing, obviously that costs money, but that's my entire cost to run a business.
From that I could run a Facebook application, a dating site, anything I can build. I need no employees, loans or funding from an investor.

If my idea sucks or fails, I stop paying for the hosting and go back and make something new. I don't need to risk my house, commit to £30,000-a-year(or more) for renting a shop, or some obscene fee for a franchise.
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Khalid.

I'm blunt when critiquing websites and ideas on this forum. The public won't sugar-coat their opinion about your offering, so there's no point in me doing so.