H: ii) Raising Finance
Equipping your Business
You will need to equip your business at the outset, but the costs can vary differently.
If based at home, you may only need a telephone and stationery. A manufacturing business may need specialist equipment, vehicles, a sales force etc.
You need to know if any favourable tax incentives are available to a new business, as this could be beneficial if you are expecting to make a profit.
With regard to vehicles, costs can be spread by either lease purchasing (where you buy the equipment at the end of the lease), or by straightforward leasing. It can be a tax efficient method of equipping your premises, and obtaining the vehicles you need.
Raising Finance to start/purchase your Business
If you require additional finance to get started, and you do not already have the cash, or can't raise it easily by selling investments etc, there are two principle routes:
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Release the equity contained in your house/property, by mortgaging or remortgaging it.
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Borrowing. If you need to borrow money, organisations will often lend if your research has been thorough, and you are prepared take a proportion of the risk yourself. They generally do not like to lend money to people who will suffer little/no loss themselves should everything fail!
The proportion of the start up costs a lender will allow can vary enormously, and is dependant upon many factors, especially security for the loan.