Once the company begins to raise equity capital from outside investors, the founders begin to suffer dilution. This is the loss of a proportional percentage of the company's shares when shares are purchased by outside investors.

Finance products which utilize a company‘s debtors as security such as Debtor Finance and Factoring are excellent ways to fund a business with a strong growth story.

Owners and managers of early-stage growing companies often have mixed views toward the institutional venture capital industry. On one hand, they welcome the money and management support they desperately need for growth, but fear the loss of control and various restrictions that are typically placed on the company by the investment documents.

Here's an example of a series A Term Sheet...

Growing a company often requires significant financing. Purchasing new equipment adding product lines, expanding the premises or raising additional working capital to fund growth are just some of the reasons why a company might want to think about putting together a proposal to obtain financing.

If marketing is the art of understanding customer needs and then creating solutions to meet those needs at a profit; then nowhere is marketing more important for an entrepreneur than at seeking funding from investors at start up and subsequent rounds.

Angel investors are individual investors that look for companies that exhibit high-growth prospects, have a synergy with their own business or compete in an industry in which they have succeeded.

How is ownership decided in a start up? When to bring investors? I'm being diluted! What does that mean? What's a ratchet? What's pre-money and post money valuation? Help!

This spreadsheet will help you to record and analyse receipts made by your business.

This spreadsheet will help you to prepare a projected cashflow for your business, in a format suitable for inclusion in your Business Plan.

This spreadsheet will help you to record and analyse petty cash expenses for your business.

Below is a one page investment teaser that can be used to excite a potential investor. If all the salient facts can be recorded in this form, it means that there is a clear and cohesive understanding of the business that is capable of being communicated.

This spreadsheet will help you to summarise three years' projected cashflows for your business, in a format suitable for inclusion in your Business Plan.

Bootstrap financing can be one of the best and most inexpensive routes an entrepreneur can explore when raising capital or indeed reducing expenses. In effect it's internal funding and utilizes unused opportunities that can be found within your own company by simply managing your finances better.