Where to Find the Elusive Small Business Start-up Money for Women

If you are a woman small business owner looking for money to start up your business, I bet you've probably noticed how hard it is to find. Haven't you?

If you've been having difficulty finding all those mythical millions—nay billions—of funding opportunities for women, join the crowd. Thousands upon thousands of women search the Internet each month looking for small business start-up money, and tens of thousands of women give up, feeling frustrated, disheartened, and baffled by money-promising scam sites which lead nowhere.

The fact is that the start-up money is not there. At least, not the way it used to be. However, don't give up hope!

Funding opportunities for women starting up small businesses do exist. You just need to know where to look.

Three Places to Find Small Business Start-up Money

1. Visit www.grants.gov to find out if your business purpose fits within federal grant guidelines.

On this site you can find and apply for a number of federal grants. For small business start-up loans, grants.gov redirects you to SBA.gov. That's because the federal government works through agencies like the SBA when funding money for small business start-ups.

2. Search for information on the Small Business Administration's website, www.SBA.gov.

This is an excellent site for all your small business needs. Plus, as a bonus, there are many local SBA offices around the country where you can go and talk with a real live person.

a. Finance Start-up page: http://www.sba.gov/services/financialassistance/grants/index.html

This page gives a list of grant and loan programs, though not the grants or loans themselves.

b. Local Resources: http://www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html

On this page, you can search for your nearest SBA.

3. Contact the Rural Development Administration (USDA RDA) if your business is in a rural area: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/

The RDA provides assistance to businesses starting up in rural areas. Assistance usually comes in grant-loan combos, or just low interest loans.

Five Strategies for Finding Small Business Start-up Money

1. Take advantage of any assistance or information offered to small business owners by your state, county, or city government.

2. Ask owners of similar businesses how they funded their start-ups.

3. Look for larger companies, organizations and foundations that share your purpose.

4. Consider a loan-grant combo.

5. Google: "small business start-up grant", + "your type of business".

If you are a woman small business owner looking for money to start up your business, you've probably noticed how hard it is to find any. Money for starting up businesses is hard to come by, especially if you don't know where to look. If you've been searching to no avail for small business start-up money or have thrown up your hands in frustration because of all the scam sites that lead nowhere, hang on. Don't give up yet! Funding opportunities for women small business owners do exist. Follow the information and links in this article to discover how and where you can get funding for your small business start-up.