Take On Some of the Risk You're not ready to start a business until you're prepared to invest your own money into it.

Self-financing in the form of personal and family savings is theNo. 1 form of financing used by most small-business owners.It's low-cost and has other advantages. For instance, when youapproach other financing sources, such as bankers and venturecapitalists, they will want to know exactly how much of your ownmoney you are putting into the venture. After all, if you don'thave enough faith in your business to risk your own money, whyshould anyone else risk theirs?

Excerpted from Grow Your Business