If you want to grow your business, or you are going through a slow period, or your cash flow hasn’t been great, and you have suppliers to pay, you may want to look at additional funding to help you. Simply choosing the first high street lender that will give you the money you are looking for without carrying out any research or understanding what you are signing up for is a bad idea – you might well get the money, but at what cost? Instead, it is better to look into exactly what you need and how to get it; read on to find out how to start.

How Much?

To begin with, you need to know how much you are going to want to borrow. This is true no matter which funding option you want to try, whether it’s a traditional loan, an angel investor, or even crowdfunding. Without knowing how much you need to borrow, you could easily borrow too little or too much, and both of these outcomes will have a negative impact on your business.

Borrowing too little will mean that you have to go back and ask for more money to complete your plan. This won’t be looked on favorably by lenders who have already lent you money and seen that you spent it quickly and didn’t budget. You may not be able to obtain any more funds, leaving your project half finished.

Borrowing too much is also a bad thing. You could overstretch yourself and find that the repayments are too high; you’ll effectively be wasting money paying back a loan that you didn’t need. This can cause a problem with cash flow.

By working on a good business plan that details exactly how much money you will need and what it will be used for, you will be able to borrow just the right amount and show any potential lender that you have done your homework first.

Which Type Of Borrowing?

There are a number of different types of borrowing that you could think about when you want to borrow money for your business. The first that will most often come to mind is a traditional business loan, although this might not be suitable for everyone – without a trading history or good credit in the business, you may not be awarded the money you ask for.

If this happens, a personal loan could be the solution. This would mean you are personally borrowing the money and investing it into your business. The business should then pay you back (with interest if possible) so that you can pay the loan. Even if you have poor credit, this idea might still be possible as there are specific loans for precisely this situation. Visit this website to find out more.

Another alternative is crowdfunding. You would need to create a great campaign that captures people’s attention, and then use the money that they invest in boosting your business. An angel investor can be another excellent way to do this; not only will you receive the money, but in some cases, you will get their expertise too as they will want to be directly involved.

Understand The Terms

Whichever type of funding that you choose to go with, there will be terms attached to it. The terms will tell you how long you have to pay the money back, what the interest rate is, what penalties there are for late payment (or missed payments), and so on. It is crucial that you read and understand these terms before agreeing to the loan or other funding that is offered to you. Poor terms could mean that you are unable to pay the money back, or that you are penalized without realizing it.

It may be a dull thing to do, but reading the fine print of any financial agreement can save you a lot of trouble and difficulty in the future. If you’re not sure of the meaning of what is written, you should engage the services of an expert who can check that you aren’t signing up for something that will do more harm than good to your business.

Keep Control

No matter what you want the money for, no matter which type of funding you opt for, and no matter how exciting it might be to see that money in your account, you need to keep control of it and the spending that goes with it. If you don’t, you can easily overspend and have nothing to show for it.

Stick to your budget and everything will fall into place – your business will grow as you want and need it to, and you will easily be able to repay the borrowing.

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

In a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek analysis, Sebastian Wernicke turns the tools of statistical analysis on TEDTalks, to come up with a metric for creating "the optimum TEDTalk" based on user ratings. How do you rate it? "Jaw-dropping"? "Unconvincing"? Or just plain "Funny"?

After making a splash in the field of bioinformatics, Sebastian Wernicke moved on to the corporate sphere where he motivates and manages multidimensional projects.

Currently an Engagement Manager at Oliver Wyman, Sebastian Wernicke originally studied bioinformatics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. During his time in academia, he devised an algorithm for analyzing biological networks that now aids researchers in dealing with their innate complexity.

Susan notes: you wouldn't do it to them, so please, don't do it to me - or to other small business owners and entrepreneurs :)

By Jacqueline Throop-Robinson
CEO and co-founder of PassionWorks! Inc.

Susan notes: Jacqueline Throop-Robinson is an accomplished speaker, masterful facilitator and skilled coach, who has researched passion in the workplace for seven years. She's dynamic, fun, and full of energy. She's also a member of AWR.

She and her team can measure the extent to which people are passionate about their work, and help them discover what drives their passion. They’ve also identified how leaders can create environments that will increase passion in the workplace, and thus  improve business success.

I’m excited about PassionWorks!, and I’m delighted that Jacqueline is sharing some of her insights and tools with fellow AWR members.

The entrepreneurial path is not always easy for newcomers. Often, it’s the first time you’re actually representing yourself – and that’s a whole different ball game than having the political clout of a major corporation behind you.

It can be lonely out there, especially for those of us who are a bit shyer than we’d like to admit. Not all women entrepreneurs are naturally outgoing and aggressive.