Funding for small businesses changed significantly in the wake of COVID-19. The Small Business Administration helped small businesses stay afloat with the Paycheck Protection Program that provided loans to help struggling businesses keep their workforces employed. However, the loans were only offered to existing business, so those intrepid entrepreneurs who launched businesses during the pandemic did not qualify.
Funding challenges are not new to startups. Many startup business owners must fund their fledgling ventures with their life savings. While this is a practical means to start a business, not everyone has the cash to get their dream off the ground.
When cash is scarce, a little ingenuity, agility and the TSBDC can give businesses the financial lift they need to take off. Here are 10 alternative funding sources to consider if you are trying to start a new business but lack access to funding:
- Crowdsourcing.
- Personal credit cards.
- Family and friends.
- Angel funding.
- Small business credit card.
- Online lenders.
- Venture capitalist.
- Equity financing.
- 401(k) financing.
- Seller financing.
Dreamers to experienced entrepreneurs and every small business owner in between are all encouraged to contact the Tennessee Small Business Development Center to tap into the agency’s exhaustive research into new funding alternatives, and benefit from its extensive history of helping new businesses get off the ground and grow existing ones.
The TSBDC network, for more than 30 years, has helped small business owners, entrepreneurs and individuals with business ideas access the financial and technical resources to establish and grow businesses that compete in the global marketplace.
This year, the TSBDC aims to help launch 14 new businesses by providing free one-on-one consulting. Entrepreneurs and business owners are invited to make an appointment to speak with a TSBDC professional adviser at www.tsbdc.org. Advisers meet with clients at Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Maxine A. Smith Center and the Business Diversity and Compliance Entrepreneurs Network Center at 480 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Memphis, Tennessee, 38126.
NaShawn Branch, D.BA., is executive director of the Tennessee Small Business Development Center. Passionate about helping small business owners succeed, he has advised more than 500 small-to-medium-sized businesses, including 54 startups, and has raised more than $4.5 million in capital infusion over the past 10 years. Daphne Thomas is associate vice president for communications, marketing and community relations at Southwest Tennessee Community College. An award-winning executive, Thomas oversees advertising, media relations and enterprise communication for the college.
