Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Actually you have free avenues of promoting your business and doing pre-sales as suggested or even running a mini sale on products/services you plan to offer.

You are using one of those avenues right now.  If you post your profile on and a listing on Marketplace both of which are free you may be able to raise the necessary funds.

Also try www.ideacafe.com they list business grants and contests for micro and small businesses.

While it is true that "traditional" lenders look for assets and base their decision on the ability (and probability) to repay the debt - I don`t completely agree that one cannot acquire capital if they don`t have assets.

Generally, investors (equity) are interested in the potential ROI and put a lot of value in the team that will be executing the plan.

I truly can sympathize with you. 

When I was beating pavement trying to get my own personal home-based business off the ground and establish it in a professional physical location, I almost lost hope.  I kept hearing the same thing over and over again at every bank I tried. 

One of the biggest hurdles I faced as I tried to make my business a reality was how to convince a lending institution that my business would make enough money to repay the requested loan amount. 

The bottom line is that I found out, in each attempt I made to acquire a small business loan, that collateral is one of the biggest setbacks most entrepreneurs and small business owner have to face and overcome. 

I found it very difficult to convince any bank that my home-based business could be a tremendous success, if I could acquire the resources I so desperately needed to get things on stream.  The fact remained that my efforts were fruitless.

However, I discovered an online lending resource, www.thesnaploan.com.  Based on my experience with this site, I was able to successfully acquire a start up loan for $100,000. 

What’s even better is that I was able to apply online, and I got my approval pretty fast, about two weeks. 

It sounds like this website could be right up your alley. 

Are you still using this company to raise money. I contacted the BBB and there is nothing negative on file for this company. The only concern I have is they have responded to the BBB with the nature of the business. Is it possible you could explain a little more in detail how this works?