Starting a business can be costly, especially in certain fields such as brick-and-mortar and retail. But there are ways to drastically reduce your startup costs, and to secure funding without giving away the rights to your company, or going into serious debt. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard entrepreneurs lamenting over the fact that they gave a huge percentage of their company equity away to get angel investors or venture capital, and realized later they could have done it on their own without giving up so much equity. Let’s say you secure $100,000 from an angel investor in exchange for a 25% stake in your company. (Realistically, most investors ask for higher amounts, but we’ll use 25% for easier math.) Now let’s say your company makes $1,000,000 in profit in its first year. This means your angel investor would receive $250,000 for that initial $100,000 investment, and that’s just in the first year! Over the years, this could add up to millions of dollars!
