This Company Could Help You Finally Start a Business This Year

You’ve heard the adage: It costs money to make money. Getting funds to cover startup costs is probably the biggest deterrent for most folks who want to start a business.

Where should you turn? Should you ask family? Start a crowdfunding campaign? Find investors first? Or should you take out a loan?

Maybe a combination of all of the above? Doing all that alone can be daunting.

After 12 years of being a stay-at-home mom, Cheryl Cavalli launched her own business.

She knew she needed the flexibility to stay at home with her kids, so she merged her passion for travel with her business goals and decided to start a home-based travel company.

But businesses don’t happen overnight. After deciding on her business plan, Cheryl and her husband, Virge, had to clear one of the first hurdles of entrepreneurship: getting the funds.

How to Get Money to Start a Business

The Cavallis needed about $20,000 to get the ball rolling. But they were dreading the hassle of finding the best loan. They didn’t want to spend days scouring the internet or making phone calls (gasp!) to bank after bank to get a good rate.

“We weren’t looking forward to jumping through all those hoops,” Virge recalls.

That’s when they found Fiona, a search engine for financial services, which can help match you with the right personal loan to meet your needs.

Fiona searches the top online lenders to match you with a personalized loan offer in less than 60 seconds. If your credit score is at least 620, its platform can help you borrow up to $100,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 4.99% and terms from 24 to 84 months.

“All of the major loan providers were presented in a very simple table [by Fiona] — what their rates were, what the terms were,” he said. The couple got a $20,000, three-year loan with a 5.9% interest rate from SoFi, an online personal finance company.

Cheryl used the funds to cover overhead costs — marketing, designing the website and buying time to develop a clientele.

Three years later, Cheryl’s business, Pipe Dream Vacations, is thriving thanks to the low-interest loan she found.

If you want your business plans to thrive, too, break your plan down into actionable steps. Don’t just say you’re going to “launch a business this year.” Instead, start with smaller tasks like “estimate the overhead costs” and “apply for a loan.” Take baby steps.

That way, when next year rolls around, you won’t be staring at the same to-do list.

Adam Hardy is an editorial assistant on the Make Money team at The Penny Hoarder. Read his full bio here, or follow him on Twitter @hardyjournalism for other easy ways to make money.