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		Your products and services may be the best around but the lack of finances can be the difference between success and failure. It is probably true that the reason for failure of most businesses is not lack of customers but lack of finance. Finance is the lifeblood of every business. Without finance you cannot purchase your raw materials, pay your wages, pay the rent, pay the light, heat and power and finally, pay yourself if you are lucky. It is essential therefore to prepare a proper business plan, which will include cash flow projections. A proper business plan will first of all show you whether or not your business is viable and if it is it will secondly be required to convince your investors and/or bank to provide the initial capital for the business. You will at the very least require a bank overdraft and depending on the type of business you are starting you may require substantial cash injection at the beginning to purchase equipment, materials, expertise, premises and a hundred and one other things. Every start-up business will have different needs but all businesses require cash and therefore if it is important that a proper business plan be prepared with your financial advisers. Once your business plan is prepared, you may need to talk to your bank and/or investors and this will involve entering into loan agreements with your bank, agreements with equity investors and in some cases, agreements with government agencies who may in some cases provide start-up finance by way of grant or interest free loan. You will of course be anxious to sign any agreement as long as you get the money. However, it is absolutely essential that you are fully advised as to the nature and content of these agreements otherwise all your hard work may be for someone else's benefit. There are many other sources of finance including: Savings. Leasing. Venture Capitalists Companies and Release of Equity in your home. It is of course important that you do not over borrow particularly in relation to your home. In our opinion this should be the last resort in financing your business and you should ask yourself are you prepared to finance the start-up business with your most valuable and precious asset.

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