[Steve White]

How did you finance your business when you initially started it?

Personally, I used my only personal income to finance mine, but I am now seeing a nice tidy profit trickling through.

What about you guys?

[akula]

customer finance, same old story

[davep]

same as you, fully self financed

Initial cost is $70
monthy cost $10 (fixed)
$30+ (advertising)
next month will be a one time charge of 300 for incorporation

if you look around the web you can find really good and reliable deals especially if you're an internet start-up

also the more talented you are the cheaper it should be because you can do the programming and designing yourself (my site doesn't look so good so my friend is working on that) but my site isn't going for looks to succeed

[tekmoney]

Bootstrapping. Started with a few saved up bucks, had a bunch of equipment already, and then just started marketing and meeting people. We've been careful with our expenses, and even though it can restrict growth, once you're in a safe zone to spend a lot more on marketing, then it just really blows up.

[MsNadi]

This is something we should keep up and as we incur LARGE costs or utilize different sources of funding, we can contribute.

Funding is obviously a concern of most entrepreneurs (and probably what deters 90% of them, and the 10% of us who continue, it forces us to reevaluate our strategies) and something that many people post. When we all get started, we think we're going to need $10Ks of thousands of dollars and as we realize that its unrealistic to think hopping on a message board will help one find that perfect investor (20/20 hindsight: how stupid is that) we've had to get creative.

Lets keep this going.

[MsNadi]

And to answer the question: re-evaluating our approach and bootstrapping.

LLC formation costs: $70 (in california)
Various Domains: ~ $200 (my partner and I own between 15-25 domains)
Business Identity: $500 (logo, letterhead, business card and media kit)
LLC Taxes: $800 (coming in April). Its the california state minimum LLC taxes, enforced whether revenue was earned or not.

Next big expenditures:
Splash Page development: $200 - $2000
Website development: $10K +

[sicnarftea]

what website are you making msnadi, paying 10k+ for the website development and 200-2k for a splash page seems abit over the top.

as for financing, it was from personal income and savings.

[utkarsh.s]

I am a student and working part time during term time. I'll use most of the money for my venture. I know its hard but I'll have to pay my web developer. Actually, funds is a big problem to get started so one has to strategize and allocate the portions accordingly. Also in my case I'll be earning then paying for rent, food and my venture ... i've gotto sacrifice niteclubs and stuff.

But this in itself is and adventurous challenge.

[DerekC]

prosper.com for some joint ventures I have going with school buds and personal income for others.