There are different advisory services for starting a business. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CC) , for example, provides information and assistance to businesses in almost all sectors. The CCI also offers advice on setting up and promoting businesses . The CCIs are located throughout USA and have creation contacts in the regions. They offer personal consultations as well as other information services.
Many universities also offer special information offers for the financing and start-up of start-ups. Public grants aimed specifically at start-ups are particularly attractive: those who can apply for these funds successfully receive not only help to finance their start-up business, but also (longer term) advice. Public aid for business creation generally offers better conditions than loans and private sector participation.
To have the opportunity to benefit from state grants, one must submit an application for each individual program. As is often the case, convincing arguments are also needed: you introduce yourself with your team and explain why you need to be supported.
If you have in your possession a solid business plan from which you can tailor certain aspects to the demands of the application, then your chances will be greater. A suitable offer is always a good opportunity to improve your start-up’s own financing, which is why a suitable application is always worth trying. You will get four types of funding for startups.
The most popular grants can be roughly divided into funding programs and competitions.
Business creation assistance program
If your business is included in a support program, you will usually receive a low interest and / or long term loan . Often, the start of the program is seen as a grace period during which you suspend debt repayment. The start-up support programs have partly specialized in specific sectors.
In addition to state aid, you can get information from financial systems managed by the regions or independent organizations .
Start-up competition
Competitions for general or specialist start-ups do not only focus on financial support. In addition to cash prizes and non-cash prizes (such as coaching, consulting, or office space), professional commentary on the business model and media attention are also welcome. It can also lead to new contacts that you have previously been denied. On the Sowefund portal you will find all the important information about start-up competitions .
Small innovative companies should not miss these start-up competitions organized every year in USA. They represent a real springboard for these emerging companies.
Promote your start-up through crowdfunding
Crowdfunding, crowdlending and crowdinvesting represent relatively recent financing possibilities for a company. By “crowd” we mean a group of people who wish to co-finance a specific project by making their individual contributions.
Crowdfunding
The crowdfunding (also called crowdsourcing) is to convince others of your project and collect money for its implementation. This route is suitable for financing concrete projects or products, but not especially for the general financing of a company. In the context of a start-up, for example, collecting grants for a product prototype or for the development of specific software is conceivable.
Campaign initiators just need to create a page on their project, introduce it, and indicate a target amount they would like to use for the campaign. This sum usually has to be collected within a certain period of time. If the crowdfunding goal has not been reached by then, all donors will get their amounts back because the action is considered to have failed.
If the crowdfunding is successful, then the donors usually receive a counterpart. This is not financial in nature but rather material. Donors who have made a small contribution thus receive small gifts that are part of the crowdfunding project (gifts, goodies, products offered by the company). The value of the gift is usually less than that of the donation and is a good way to advertise a new business for free.
WORDS OF WONDER 