LibGuides: Getting Started in Entrepreneurship: Finance

Business Bank Account

Open a Business Bank Account
Do Not Use Your Personal Bank Account. Open a business account when you're ready to start accepting or spending money as your business. A business bank account helps you stay legally compliant and protected. It also provides benefits to your customers and employees.

Business Finance

Money-Smart Solopreneur by Adams, Laura D.
ISBN: 9781613084335
Publication Date: 2020
Whether you work by yourself, with an outsourced team, from home, or in coffee shops, this essential guide will give you easy-to-follow tips and strategies to create more financial success.
Crack the Funding Code by Judy Robinett
ISBN: 9780814439845
Publication Date: 2019-02-05
Crack the Funding Code demystifies the world of angel investing, venture capital, and corporate funding and lays out a strategic pathway for any entrepreneur to secure funding fast
Target Funding: a Proven System to Get the Money and Resources You Need to Start or Grow Your Business by Kedma Ough
Call Number: 658.15224 Ough
ISBN: 9781260132366
Publication Date: 2019-07-22
You'll learn about all the options available to you -- including conventional, alternative, and diversity funding -- and how to access them based on your needs and your demographic, industry, location, and other variables.

Startup Costs

Calculate Your Startup Costs
How much money will it take to start your small business? Calculate the startup costs for your small business so you can request funding, attract investors, and estimate when you’ll turn a profit.

Where's the Money

Fund Your Business
Funding your business is one of the first — and most important — financial choices most business owners make. How you choose to fund your business could affect how you structure and run your business.

Take a Finance Class

Entrepreneurship Database This link opens in a new window
Information for entrepreneurs and researchers that includes business start-up plans, video clips, journals, business cases, and more.
Information for entrepreneurs and researchers that includes business start-up plans, video clips, journals, business cases, and more.
lynda.com This link opens in a new window
Lynda.com is an online educational site that includes over 3,000 courses (and over 130,000 videos) in popular fields like web design, web development, IT, education/instruction, media production, and business. Normally, using lynda.com requires a paid subscription, but Charlotte Mecklenburg Library cardholders can access lynda.com content FREE with their library card number.

Business Credit Cards

Do You Need a Small Business Credit Card?
Small business owners need to closely monitor their finances and manage cash flow, especially in the first few years of operation.

Financing Options

Start a Small Business with No Money
Most of us have to be a little creative when it comes to finding the money needed to start a business.
Charlotte Business Resources
Local organizations who want to help you figure out the best financing options for your situation.

There's a Video for That

Working For Yourself: Finance Basics by BBC
Publication Date: 2019
Many small businesses fail because the bosses and senior operational managers can't get their heads around some fairly simple accounting concepts, in particular: profits, cash flow and working capital. Understanding and monitoring these is vital if owners and managers are to have an accurate picture of how their businesses are really doing.

Pitch Competitions

A pitch competition is a contest where entrepreneurs present their business concept to a panel in the hope of winning a cash prize or investment capital. (Think Shark Tank) This is not fast money. You often have to attend classes or there are other requirements. Competitions come and go. Search first for those in your industry, then cast a wider net.

Many Local Organizations
Google Search
Pitch Deck Tear Down
Do your homework. Find out what makes a good pitch and get honest people to review it.

Gale Directory Library This link opens in a new window
Select the "Encyclopedia of Associations". Find your industry organizations. The members are great for networking and finding out about opportunities.

Entrepreneur Suggestions

Venture Deals by Brad Feld; Jason Mendelson
ISBN: 9781119259787
Publication Date: 2016-11-18
Get the inside scoop on what venture capitalists want to see in your startup as you hit the fundraising trail. This is the highly anticipated third edition of the best-selling book which has become the definitive resource for understanding venture capital fundraising. The book dives deeply into how deals are constructed, why certain terms matter (and others don't), and more importantly, what motivates venture capitalists to propose certain outcomes.
Secrets of Sand Hill Road by Scott Kupor; Eric Ries (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9780593083581
Publication Date: 2019-06-04
Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.
Lean Analytics by Alister Croll
ISBN: 9781705223437
Publication Date: 2020
By measuring and analyzing as you grow, you can validate whether a problem is real, find the right customers, and decide what to build, how to monetize it, and how to spread the word. Written by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz, the book lays out practical, proven steps to take your startup from initial idea to product/market fit and beyond. Packed with over thirty case studies, and based on a year of interviews with over a hundred founders and investors, the book is an invaluable, practical guide for Lean Startup practitioners everywhere.