Banks

Bank can be said is the primary funding source for any home based business, small business or even an established business. To apply for any loan from bank, you should prepare a proposal or in other word, a business plan, the bank would want to see your financial statement, cash flow projection, business background, asset for the business and so on. The bank like the ultimate protection of hard asset, they also want to feel that there is little chance that the business will have to call upon these assets to pay off the loan in any case.

Bank also reluctant to loan to a business that couldn’t show at least a 2 years profitable operation, they would want to see also the business owner is heavily invested in the business before they approve the loan. The bank will not also release any loan that the loan amount is more than 50% of the business capitalization.

Personal loan

Personal loan can be a great funding source for your home based business, and one of the most common means of obtaining funds from this type of source is through a home equity loan. If you have an assets (NOT YOUR LIVING HOME!) that you have pay the mortgage for several years, you can consider to refinance the asset. You can then use the fund from your home equity loan to operate your business.

SBA loan

Small Business Administration(SBA) is also one of the great funding source for small business and home based business. SBA do not usually make loan directly to small business but they will guarantee up to 90% of of bank loan to the business. I would say the term and condition provided by the SBA from any country is different, you should contact your local SBA firm for more detail information.

Look for investor

Look for any investors that might have interest on your field of home based business, prepare a business plan for your business featuring every single aspect in running the business, particularly on the financial part and make an achievable commitment to them on the return percentage they can make from their investment.

i) Competitive factor
We do not have control over what our business competitors setting the price for their product or service, they may sell cheaper than you with the same quantity, more expensive than you or even same price as you can provide.

In most of the industries, the price range are usually falls in a certain range among the market players, it is hard for the companies to undercut each other significantly. As a home based business owner, you could probably charge lower than your competitors just because you have a lower overhead cost.

ii) Demand factor
If the product or service that you provide is with high demand, you probably could save much of your marketing and advertising bucks, you can charge your customer at premium price and you can probably do not need to give a discount. On the other hand, if you are selling a low demand product or service, you might have to lower the price to capture more market share. However, no matter how low is the price you can set, there is a bottom line where you meet the breakeven, so know your price before you start selling.

iii) Economic factor
If the economy is strong, then the consumer has more cash on hand to spend which could keep the product’s price stable. If the economy is down, the product’s price is usually lower where the business owner have to capture as much sell as possible from the customer with limited cash on hand. If it is foreseen that the economy is going downturn, do not ever try to launch a luxury product or service, because the consumer will rather keep the cash on hand or to spend it on the basic needs than to purchase a high end luxury product.

The key elements of cash management are:
- Open a business bank account
- Develop an accounting system
- Establish payment term for your service or product provided
- Make sure getting paid on time
- Debt collection when necessary

Information about taxation, merchant account registration, receiving e-payment should also need to be considered in managing cash in this topic.

i) Start up capital

Capital that the business owner need to jump start the home based business, where this capital can be used to purchase manufacturing equipments, office furniture, office stationary, business license, inventory, and etc.

ii) Working capital

Capital for the business owner to pay the monthly utilities bill, monthly operating expenses, staff’s salary and so on. This capital have to be continuously funded until your home based business meet the financial breakeven point. Most of the businesses fail because of the insufficient funds from working capital and they lost their start up capital to achieve the positive cash flow.

iii) Growth capital

As the name suggest, this is the capital that the business owner need to expand their home based business. I would say this capital is the least important among the three required capitals unless the business reach the financial breakeven point.

All three capitals are important except for the first two are vital if you are not able to meet the breakeven point. The business owner have to find a way to continuously funding for the working capital on their home based business and keep the business rolling, otherwise your business will be easily falls into failure at the end of the day.