Money, dinero, argent, soldi, whatever you call it, a startup needs it desperately. But it’s not always the easiest thing to get a hold of.
So what do you do if you have a fantastic idea but no funds to back it up? If you have no real credit history and limited other resources (family, friends, venture capitalists, etc.) you may still qualify for a Small Business Association (SBA) loan program. They also have programs specifically for women and minorities as well.
The SBA doesn’t actually make loans though, it guarantees a portion of the loan (anywhere from 50-85%) to qualified individuals …read more

If your looking for venture capitalists (VC),  go west  – or even just to the midwest.
According to the Washington Post,  West Coast and Midwest regions are becoming even popular for VC.
In addition, VCs are investing more. In the US, VC investing grew from $1.2 billion in 2002 to $1.6 billion in 2007, an increase of 33 percent.

The American Small Business League has filed a suit against the Small Business Administration (SBA). The lawsuit claims SBA violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by refusing to release the names of Fortune 1,000 firms that were counted as small businesses and may have received SBA money.
News reports have shown giant corporations like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Rolls-Royce have received small business contracting dollars after purchasing small firms with pre-existing government contracts. Until the rules changed in June, those firms were not required to change the status of those subsidiaries. Some estimate more than $100 billion were given …read more

Tackling big markets is great. Nobody wants to start a company in a market worth $5. Creating new markets is great too, but most startups are built in existing markets – and often they tout the enormity of those markets as a great reason to get into them.
“The mobile industry will be worth $50 billion in 5 years!”
“Advertising online is going to be worth $100 trillion by 2010!”
You can get this sort of data all over the place. Analysts put out reports all the time expounding the growing size of various markets.
The result is that many startups take this approach:
“If …read more