One of the problems for anyone starting a business is funding. Bank lending is as tight as ever and many of us would find it hard to get any funding from them above and beyond a coporate charge card.
Fortunately there are an increasing number of sources for small grant payments and low interest loans to help you get started.
Eligibility for some of them is linked to age criteria though.
Here are a few of them. These are grants and loans available from the government, businesses and charities:
StartUp Loans for young entrepreneurs. We’ve previously talked about these loans.
StartUp North Devon offers a Bideford Business Start-up programme. We talked about the grants available before.
New Enterprise Allowance for people who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks. This replaced self-employed credit and offers a mixture of ongoing reduced rate benefit entitlement and a low rate loan.
The Prince’s Trust – funding and support for young entrepreneurs. The Development Award can give you up to £500 towards things like tools or a qualification you need. The Enterprise Programme offers business mentoring and start-up loans.
The Fredericks Foundation – micro-business loans for people in disadvantaged circumstances. Devon is one of the areas they cover.
Shell LiveWIRE – free funding and support for young entrepreneurs.
These are loans available from non-traditional lending sources:
Iwoca – ‘instant’ working capital for eBay businesses
Seedrs – small scale crowdfunded investment capital
Crowdfunder – crowdfunded investment funding
Funding Circle – crowdfunded loans to small businesses
Photo credit: Images of money
