One great thing about technology is the opportunities it provides for you to be creative and make a new startup project, app, or software concept as a way to make money. There are very few barriers to entry these days, as long as you know how to code. However, there are still situations where you’re going to need some startup money. This could be for bills, your time, or for some materials, but sometimes, you need cash in order to make cash.
Five places you can get these initial funds or resources include getting private loans, trying crowdsourcing, pooling money with friends and family, getting a sponsor, or fishing for a way to use free resources to create the effect of money.
Use Private Loans
By using private loans to fund your startup idea, you can assure yourself money quickly without too many stipulations other than the fact that there will be interest rates to deal with in the long term. Typically with loans of this type, they aren’t going to question much of what the loan is for, but are rather going to be concerned with their return on investment, in the form of repayment from you as soon as possible.
Try Crowdsourcing
With some forethought, you can put together a crowdsourcing package to help with initial costs as well. Typically you need to have a very concrete plan if you’re going to use this method, though, because the people who put money behind you are going to expect things in return (usually in the form of the product that you’re producing). There’s a lot of success on these crowdfunding platforms, but there’s a lot of failure as well because not all ideas are as good as you think they are.
Pool Money With Friends and Family
If you don’t want to get private loans, and you don’t want to crowdsource, another option is to pool money from friends and family. As long as they understand the details and benefits of your projects, borrowing money from family has the extra benefit of an extended payback timeline.
Get a Sponsor
If you’re willing to give up a little bit of power in your project, you can always go out looking for a sponsor. However, depending on the type of tech project you’re making – an app for instance – the sponsor may want some say in how the design and overall function relate to them as a brand.
Use Free Resources
And you can always figure out ways to wiggle around costs themselves by looking for free resources. There are lots of open source programs that you can use to get to the same end goal as professional ones – sometimes it just takes a bit more creativity, time, or effort to get the output that you want for your project’s prototype stage.
