CHAPTER 5

Exercising Funding and Financial Options

Complexity demands agility, and few entrepreneurial areas have become more complicated than raising money for a business. Before the 2008 recession it paid to be aggressive and single-minded. Many entrepreneurs funded their companies by seeking money from venture capital firms or through bank loans. It was a relatively straightforward process, and while other options existed (i.e., Small Business Association loans), most entrepreneurs fixed their sights on a single funding source and pursued it vigorously.

In addition, entrepreneurs could often estimate with a reasonably good degree of accuracy how much money they’d need to start and run their business during its first year of operation, and ...

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