Sometimes friends your own age are willing to work for little or no wages until your cash flow turns positive
The term “sweat equity” is often used for this type of contribution as the owner will often reward such loyalty with a small percentage ownership of the organization in lieu of cash. A variation on this is barter or trade. This is a method by which you could provide a needed service such as consulting or management advice in return for the resources needed for your start up. This needs to be accounted for in your accounting records also.
Person-to-Person Lending
Somewhat similar to raising money from family and friends is person-to-person lending. Person-to-person lending (also known as peer-to-peer lending, peer-to-peer investing, and social lending; abbreviated frequently as P2P lending) is a certain breed of financial transaction (primarily lending and borrowing, though other more complicated transactions can be facilitated) which occurs directly between individuals or “peers” without the intermediation of a traditional financial institution. However, person-to-person lending is for the most part a for-profit activity, which distinguishes it from person-to-person charities, person-to-person philanthropy, and crowdfunding.
Lending money and supplies to friends, family, and community members predates formalized financial institutions, but in its modern form, peer-to-peer lending is a by-product of Internet technologies, especially Web 2.0. The development of the market niche was further boosted by the global economic crisis in 2007 to 2010 when person-to-person lending platforms promised to provide credit at the time when banks and other traditional financial institutions were having fiscal difficulties.
Many peer-to-peer lending companies leverage existing communities and pre-existing interpersonal relationships with the idea that borrowers are less likely to default to the members of their own communities. The risk associated with lending is minimized either through mutual (community) support of the borrower or, as occurs in some instances, through forms of social pressure. » Read more