| How to Use Other
People's Money for Your Business
By
Matthew Lesko
“Money is a
terrible master but an excellent servant.” - P.T.
Barnum
John Ray, the
famous 17th century author, was known to have
written the aphorism, “Money begets money.” In the business
world, I'm sure you've also heard the saying, “You've got
to have money to make money.”
There are
countless sources of cash, but by far, the best one to
utilize for your business is … other people's
money.
Perhaps one
of the greatest “secrets” of the richest people in the
world is summed up in those 3 words: Other People's Money
– OPM for short. If you took a cross-section of the most
affluent business people, you'll find that the majority of
them launched their fortunes using
OPM. In the next
few minutes, I will show you how you can
obtain other people's money for your
business.
What you do with the money, however, is up to you
– but if I were you, I'd take
P.T. Barnum's advice, and make money your
servant so that you, too, you can make your own fortune.
The use of
other people's money has become such an ethical and
acceptable mainstay in business because one can leverage
other people's money to your benefit.
For example,
you can leverage borrowed money into high-yield
investment programs that could generate a return that
would then pay back your lender and
line your pockets as well.
Or you can leverage
borrowed money into asset-producing or
income-generating real property. Or you can simply borrow
money to start or grow your business.
The benefits to
using OPM are obvious:
1) When you use other
people's money, especially within the
parameters of a corporation, your debt is
assigned to your business, and your
debtors can make no claims against your personal
finances; and 2) the infusion of cash allows you to have money to
make money for your business. Of course, even
with the proliferation of lending
institutions and venture capitalists, it is often
difficult to obtain other people's money, Well, since
Wall Street Journal has kindly
called me a man who “finds answers in
unlikely places,” I'm going to reveal an unlikely place
where you can obtain other
people's money.
This one is available to
all, and
yet very few ever take advantage of it. It's the
federal government.
In fact, I've even coined a phrase for this
source of money:
I call it “other taxpayers' money” – OTM for
short. The
federal government has millions of dollars of
taxpayers' money allocated to funding businesses like
yours and mine. Here are a few
great sources of OTM:
1) If you want to get training
and/or money to start your own business, millions
of dollars are available at www.sba.com. They'll
also show you how to find alternative sources of
financing, how to protect your invention, how to sell
your idea, how to license your
product, how to write legal contracts, how to sell
overseas, and how to buy business equipment.
2) If you want money to export
and sell products to foreign countries, you
can obtain it from the Export-Import Bank of the
United States at www.exim.gov. Or you can go to The
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) at
www.opic.gov.
3) If you want to obtain
government contracts, then access the
Procurement Assistance Offices online. Here, you'll learn
how to draw up a business plan
that'll get your business noticed.
They
can match the product or service you're selling with the
appropriate agency, and then help you
market to them more effectively. You can find these
programs at www.dla.mil.
4) If you need venture capital
for a new or existing business,
then you
need to go online and access the Small Business
Investment Company (SBIC). These are
privately-organized and privately-managed investment firms that are licensed
by the Small Business
Administration (SBA).
With their own capital and with funds
borrowed at favorable rates through the federal
government, SBICs provide venture capital to small
independent businesses, both new and
established. You
can access them at www.sba.gov/INV.
5) If you need free help or
want to learn how to do your own
personal
or business taxes?
All you have to do is access
www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info-bus_help.html.
You can also
obtain a free 26-page book on the Internet called
The Credit Process: A Guide for Small Business
Owners. It's
written for small business owners seeking
financing for the first time. It covers sources and
types of financing; funding resources;
preparation of a business plan; preparation of loan
applications; and action to take if a loan is
denied. It also
contains an especially useful and
comprehensive glossary of finance terms, agencies,
and fair lending regulations.
Matthew
Lesko is a New York times syndicated columnist,
and author of 2 New York Times
best-sellers.
He is regularly featured as the nation's top
expert on government freebies on TV programs such as
Larry King, Oprah, David Letterman, Jay
Leno, the Today Show and Good
Morning
America. His latest
book, “Free Money for Entrepreneurs
on the Internet” identifies hundreds of little-known
sources of free government money for
“net-repreneurs” and reveals the
secret
formula for easily obtaining the money for your business.
Free
Money for Entrepreneurs on the Internet
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