How To Finance Business Growth

You can start and grow a business with very little money. In many cases, however, you will be able to grow your business more quickly if you can invest in its growth. With that in mind here are five options to consider for financing business growth.

Barter with other businesses

Bartering may sound old-fashioned. In actual fact, however, it’s very much alive and well and can work brilliantly for businesses. The key to successful bartering is to know the value of what you’re offering and make sure that you’re getting something of (approximately) equal value in return. This does usually involve some trust so it tends to work best with businesses you know.

Monetize your business assets

In the real world, bartering is good but it will generally only take you so far. Ideally, you want actual cash income. You may be able to get more of this by monetizing what you already have. For example, if you have real-world space, you may be able to sub-let (some of) it at least some of the time without it negatively impacting your business.

If you’re operating purely in the cloud, then make sure you monitor your real-world usage carefully. Act promptly to scale your resources up or down. This ensures that you are always paying for exactly what you use. Remember, a cent saved buys as much as a cent earned.

Apply for grants

This one can be hit or miss but if you hit it’s often free (or very affordable) money. It’s therefore always worth keeping your eyes open for business grants. Businesses that can demonstrate some level of social responsibility often get priority for these. Similarly, grants are frequently offered in line with general aims, for example helping businesses to be more sustainable.

Get business credit

The key to getting business credit is to work on the assumption that you’re going to need it. If it turns out you don’t, then your preparations will have benefitted you anyway. If it turns out you do, your preparations will benefit you even more. Preparation number one is to polish your credit record to a fine shine.

As soon as your credit record allows, get a small amount of business credit, like a business credit card with a low limit. Use it regularly and responsibly. This will keep pushing the needle on your credit score in the right direction.

Invest for your business

There are two ways you can do this. One is to invest personally but to divert (part of) your profits to your business. The other is to have your business own its own investments (assuming you’re incorporated). You could use a combination of both.

In either case, there are two key points to keep in mind. Firstly, you need to act mindfully. This means that your investment strategy has to be tailored to your goals. For example, is your aim to maximize capital growth or to maximize dividend income?

Secondly, your choice of trading platform does matter so do your research before you pick one. FXGlobe reviews are a good place to start. Fees are (very important) but so is the user experience. This includes security both in terms of regulation and in terms of cybersecurity.