These days, it’s tough to find the money you need to start a business, let alone stay in business. To better understand the small business funding and financing options out there, here are five blogs that show you what’s available, how to best take advantage of them, plus winning strategies for scoring the capital you need to grow your company.
- Bloomberg Businessweek. The “Small Business” section of the BW website offers two good bloggers who cover money issues on a regular basis. In “The New Entrepreneur,” writer John Tozzi posts updates of news and studies that affect small business financing, such as the federal government’s new Small Business Lending Fund, and U.S. senators pressing for more regulations on business credit cards. In the “Small Business Financing” section, Karen Klein answers business owners’ questions on everything from fixing strained business partnerships to putting your business up for sale.
- Business Credit Blogger. Good credit — and lots of it — is key to every small business. Blogger Marco Carbajo’s goal is to show you how to build that up while keeping your personal and business credit separate. Besides highlighting good credit cards for small-business owners, he also writes about finding business-friendly creditors (FedEx, for one) and how to use net 30 accounting to build up good credit.
- David Worrell. This serial entrepreneur and former “Raising Money” columnist for Entrepreneur is a self-proclaimed spreadsheet geek and funding wizard. He offers his years of experience in simply-explained posts, like his opinion on why mobile payments are the way to go, and a slideshow of the steps needed to raise $1 million or more in seed funding.
- National Federation of Independent Business. The NFIB, a nonprofit that lobbies for small business owners in Washington, offers business information, resources, and discounted professional services and products. You don’t have to join: Articles on the “Small Business Financing” page are free. Pick up good money advice here, like preparing a stellar loan application, securing peer-to-peer funds, and finding the best places to get government grants.
- Venture Hacks. If you’re planning to travel the treacherous road of venture-capital funding, or just need good money-raising tips, serial Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant share their advice online, also linking to the best advice from other startup-funding pros. Recent posts focus on getting leverage in “hostage” negotiations, and the anatomy of an un-fundable startup.
[...] never settled on anything else. But a recent shout-out by Intuit, naming me to a list of “The 5 Top Blogs for Small Business Finance” made me a bit self-concious. So as you have already noticed, I am working to re-brand this [...]