If the SBA in your state isn’t able to offer you any financial help, there are plenty of other places to look. For example, if you are a member of a credit union, apply to them. They offer their members business loans at very low rates of interest and reasonable repayment options.

You can also apply for a home equity loan as mentioned in part 1 of this article. Don’t forget though that if your business doesn’t succeed, you are still eligible to repay the loan so be sure you can afford the repayments with or without an income from your new business.

Your bank is the next place you should try. Most banks have their own small business advisory service so go to them with your business plan and they may be able to offer you a start-up loan with not only a low rate of interest but also deferred repayments in order to give you time to get your business going.

It’s also worth considering a Peer to Peer loan. This is a growing area of lending and borrowing at low rates of interest. P2P loans are available for all kinds of people in all sorts of circumstances. You can find several P2P sites on the internet.

If all else fails, you might consider asking family and friends to invest in your new business. It doesn’t have to be an informal loan and it can be legally formalized quite easily to protect their investment. You can offer such lenders a share of your business and/or its subsequent profits or revenue in return for their investment.

If by now you still can’t get funding, there could be a good reason; maybe your business idea is not a good one. If your local SBA office and your bank have both been unable to help, you may need to revise your ideas and ask for the advice of the SBA in discovering where you went wrong and how you can put it right.

Don’t be too downhearted if this applies to you. Lots of new business owners are refused financial aid at first, and if all that is required are some relatively small adjustments to your idea or the scope of your proposal, the SBA or your bank’s advisors can help you make them.

Finally, don’t be tempted to use your credit cards for business start-up money! It might seem to be the obvious answer if you’ve been turned down elsewhere, but just imagine how much you’ll pay back on those cards and keep in mind, your business may not work out and you’ll be left with a huge credit card debt.