# Entrepreneurship

## New Venture Financing

1. How do entrepreneurs finance their new business ideas?
Many entrepreneurs don’t start a business because they believe that starting a venture will require substantial sums of funding, and they personally do not possess these reserves. The most common means of starting new ventures is by bootstrapping—that is, attempting to found and build a company from personal finances or from the operating revenues of the new company. This term comes from the expression “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” (the fingerholds on boots). Bootstrapping can complement traditional finance sources, helping entrepreneurs to reduce their reliance on them or eliminate these sources entirely.  depicts seven bootstrapping strategies.

### Types of Capital

There are two main types of capital for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can access debt capital, which is borrowed money that must be repaid at some agreed-upon future date (e.g., from banks, credit cards, or finance companies), and equity capital, which is the owner’s investment in the company and does not have a specific date for repayment (e.g., angel investors, venture capital).
Debt financing is available to most entrepreneurs and can involve loans of various lengths. Short-term loans typically require repayment in less than 1 year and are often credit-created or bank loans. Immediate-term loans must be repaid in between 1 and 10 years, usually in periods. They are useful for small and moderate-sized companies. Long-term loans last over 10 years. Businesses must be operating for a long period of time to be approved for these loans to show stability and reliability to repay their debt. Equity capital does not require a business to promise to repay any debt. Equity capital is an investment in the business, frequently from selling common stock.

### Sources of Capital

Entrepreneurs can utilize capital from several sources. The most common type of capital is personal savings. By using personal savings, the venture eliminates the expectation of repayment on a loan, and the entrepreneur does not face as much financial backlash when profits do not meet expectations. Friends and relatives can often be a fast way to gain capital. However, financial issues may create tension in these relationships. Angel investors are individual investors or groups of experienced investors who provide venture financing from their own funds. Venture capital is financing obtained from venture capitalists, investment firms that specialize in financing small, high-growth companies and receive an ownership interest and a voice in management in return for their investment. Internal funds are retained earnings within a firm that can be reinvested into the business.
Banks offer many types of loan services, including lines of credit, straight commercial loans, term loans, accounts-receivable loans, warehouse-receipt loans, and collateral loans. A line of credit is an informal agreement between the bank and the borrower (the business). Straight commercial loans are based on the borrower’s financial statements and are typically made for 30–90 days. Term loans mature in 1 to 10 years. Accounts-receivable loans are made against a borrower’s receivables, and once collected, the bank is repaid. Warehouse-receipt loans use inventory as collateral for a loan, and as the inventory is sold, the loan is paid off. Collateral loans use real estate mortgages, life insurance policies, stocks, and bonds as security to ensure loan repayment.
Crowdfunding is the process of raising new venture funds from a large “crowd” audience, typically virtually from the Internet. Crowdfunding is rapidly becoming a popular way to fund new ventures, with over $1.04 billion in 2018 for U.S. businesses alone. Crowdfunding comes in three main forms: (1) reward-based, in which backers receive an early version of the product or another reward, (2) equity, through which individual investors receive a company share, and (3) debt, which allows the backer to earn interest. The world’s largest crowdfunding platform is Kickstarter, which has received over $4 billion in pledges from 15.5 million backers for 25,700 projects. The average crowdfunding campaign raises $818; however, some companies raise millions of dollars. Typically, each crowdfunding project sets a goal for a specific time period, and entrepreneurs publish web pages to depict their product services.
1. How do entrepreneurs finance their new business ideas?
Bootstrapping is attempting to found and build a company from personal finances or from the operating revenues of the new company. Entrepreneurs can access debt capital, which is borrowed money that must be repaid by a future date, and equity capital, which is the owner’s investment in the company and does not have a specific date for repayment. Crowdfunding is the process of raising new venture funds from a large “crowd” audience, typically virtually from the Internet.