The sustainability of a business depends largely on the funds raised before you start. Subsidies, bonuses, exemptions… Identify the local mechanisms in favor of business creation. To increase your borrowing capacity, ask your relatives, use crowdfunding or ask for a loan of honor. Obtaining a bank loan is never easy, but certain arguments may be in your favor. Otherwise, call on a Business Angel ready to invest in innovative start-ups. Venture capital funds invest in companies whose growth potential appears high in the medium term.
Aim wide from the start
The sustainability of a business depends a lot on the financial resources mobilized at the start: companies created with more than 80,000 euros survive at 80%, against 60% for those starting with less than 2,000 euros, according to an INSEE survey. The search for funding must therefore be carefully prepared and meet specific needs. Jean-Philippe Deltour, co-founder of the professional financing broker CreditRelax, still remembers this creator who had asked him for 800,000 euros “to last the first year”. Example not to follow, of course!
The imperative rule to convince your potential partners is to explain to them in detail what the funds will be spent on. “They want to keep the freedom to finance the projects that they like and meet their expectations in terms of return on investment,” insists a financing consultant at the Agency for Business Creation ( APCE ).
Instead, bankers take charge of fixed assets (a computer, for example), goodwill and real estate. Bpifrance, the public investment bank, will finance seed money, cash or innovation. Local investors, on the other hand, will cover recruitment expenses. The financing plan must detail the use of this money.
BOOST your personal contribution
Most investors require project promoters to take part of the funds out of their own pockets to prove their involvement. Are considered as personal contributions the money held directly by the partners, but also the sums collected from relatives – which the Anglo-Saxons call love money (see below “Increase your equity). This contribution allows, for leverage, improve the company’s borrowing capacity. It is also advisable to apply for unsecured loans: granted on a personal basis to the creator of the company, they are considered as equity. .
MAKE a serious canvassing
It is time, at this stage, to solicit the professionals. “The search for financing is a necessary course, because it reinforces the vision of the project leader”, underlines a person in charge of the People’s Banks. Funding sources are legion, and each solicitation will take time. Determine an action plan and work preferably by telephone to gauge your chances of success before filing a file in good and due form.
Get help close to home
The French business creator is lucky compared to his English, Swedish or even American counterparts. In terms of aid and subsidies intended to support entrepreneurial initiatives, French mechanisms are legion. There are several thousand of them, spread over the whole territory and for all types of companies. Charline Goutal, a young Essec graduate, took advantage of this when she created the lingerie brand Ma P’tite Culotte in 2013. “I needed cash to launch my first collection, but also reserves to be able to live during the launch period. I obtained a loan of honor of 30,000 euros and benefited from the payment of my unemployment benefits for more than a year.
The case of this designer is far from isolated. Today, in fact, the majority of entrepreneurs consolidate the financing of their project by relying on arrangements combining zero-rate loans, bank guarantees and subsidies. The increasingly effective support of support networks is no stranger to this escalation.
