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Your Lucky Break - But Can You Afford It?

You've just seen the chance to put together a great deal for yourself - a "can't miss" new business, a chance to invest in someone else's, or you've found the ideal property on which to build your new home. But you need $10,000 cash, and right away! Could you raise it overnight? Could you raise it at all? Actually, it's easier than it sounds, and if you can't do it right now through the ways we'll show you, then you should start making preparations so that, when your chance does come, you will be able to raise the money overnight and take advantage of some terrific deal.

Raise $10,000 in 24 Hours!

As a person who believes in getting the most out of life, we assume you already have several national credit cards which enable you to buy things when you want them even if you're temporarily short of funds. But did you know that these same credit cards, nearly all of them, also allow you to "buy money!". The "cash advance" privilege that these cards extend is the best way to raise the cash you need, immediately, and with no questions asked! If you have reasonably good credit, your credit limit on each of your credit cards should be $500 to $1,000 at least, with American express often giving a $2,500 limit, and if you have ten cards with this cash advance privilege, each with a $1,000 credit limit, you can simply go to the banks involved, and draw out your $10,000!

If you don't have them you may not realize that it's possible to have ten credit cards that offer cash advances, but you must remember that different banks sponsor different cards, and they all want you to use their card. For example, you can have a Visa from Chase Manhattan, and another, separate, Visa from Bankers Trust, plus a Master Charge card from Citibank, and a second Master Chargecard from Chemical Bank. The possibilities are numerous, and you should take advantage of them for this is certainly the easiest way of raising cash quickly. If you don't hold these cards now, then you should begin to establish the credit that will enable you to get them in the near future, so you will have the reserves available when you too need to raise cash quickly.

Top of the Line - the T&E Cards

Aside from the no-fee cards like Master Charge and Visa, there are also the travel and entertainment cards like American Express, Carte Blanche and Diners Club. These cards charge a yearly fee for holding them, and are more difficult to get (your annual income and your credit standing must be higher), but the amount of cash advances they allow you to draw on are higher, running as high as $2,000 or $2,500 each. American Express even offers a Golden American Express card, which many business men use, which allows them about $5,000 of instant cash immediately!

Another Sure-Fire Way to Get Cash Fast!

Most bank accounts today, and yours is very likely to be among them, come with automatic overdraft arrangements whereby you can write checks for more than the balance you have in the bank, and the bank will honor them merely automatically adding loan money to your account, and charging you the interest due for that loan.

In effect, this is an immediate and automatic loan to you, without any current credit check - which is especially handy if, at the moment you need the money, you happen to be unemployed, and planning to start a new business, which banks sometimes look upon with disfavor, and refuse to loan upon until you're big and successful!

So go ahead and write a check for the full amount that you're allowed to draw upon, which is seldom less than $1,000, and which, in some banks goes to $5,000 or more.

If you're lucky enough, or provident enough, to have established two or three bank accounts while you were in the chips, each with its "ready-credit", "check-credit" or whatever-they-choose-to-call-it provisions, you can, of course, really cash in on this one, completely legally, and amass enough capital for your new business.

Blood is Thicker Than Water!

If you're stuck for sources for capital, or at least for sufficient capital for the business you have in mind, give some careful thought to whom you could ask to help you. Almost all of us have a favorite relative or two, and, if we're lucky, at least one of those may have money. Of course it's nice if he or she has loads of it, we all like to have a rich uncle, but even if the amount is not enormous, perhaps you'll succeed in persuading one or more of your relatives that they should help you, from whatever they've got put by for a rainy day. Mother, father, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, even cousins - try'em all where there's any chance at all they might have some bread stashed away, and might spring some loose for you.

If your relatives are friendly to the idea, but they want to hold on to their funds, don't overlook another neat idea - one of them can co-sign with you on a bank loan, and this almost always ensures that your bank will go along with a loan that they might otherwise have refused, or give you a loan for a much larger amount than they would have granted you yourself on just your own personal credit. It's really no skin off their back, just so long as you keep up the payments on the loan. Of course, co-signers are not restricted to relatives. You can have your best buddy, or your girlfriend or a fellow employee co-sign for you.

Don't Forget Your Friends!

Sometimes we don't realize that we're lucky enough to have some good friends, who, in a case of this sort, might be willing to come through with a loan for us.

Insurance Policies Can Do More Than Just Protect You!

Depending on the type of life insurance policy you now hold, and especially if you've had it for a number of years, you may be eligible to borrow against its "cash value". In most cases, this money is available to you at a very low rate of interest, and also, generally, you can keep the money out, providing you pay the interest, without having to repay the principal at any set time.

Another Hot Idea for Raising Cash!

If you're buying the home you're living in, and have a conventional home mortgage, you may not realize that if you've been paying down the mortgage month by month for a number of years, you have a considerable equity built up. In addition, your house may now be worth more than you originally paid for it. Therefore, either your present bank or another may be willing to refinance your mortgage, which will provide you with a chunk of available cash with which you can capitalize your new business. One advantage of this scheme is that you will most likely not increase your monthly payment by very much, perhaps it will not increase at all (although payments may extend for additional years at the distant end). and thus you will not have a heavy loan repayment schedule added to your obligations early on in the beginning of your business.

Besides the possibility of refinancing the original mortgage on your house, there is another way of using the equity you may have in your house - you can get a second mortgage, either from a bank or from professional lenders. One reason why you might go the second mortgage route would be if your first mortgage was written at a very favorable rate of interest (such as 5 1/2% or 6%) which you would not be able to match on your refinanced mortgage, and consequently you would not want to refinance the larger principal amount.

A Windfall May Be In Your Attic!

Have you considered, while you're looking around for sources of cash, what you have right in your own home? Some of those heirlooms, paintings or other antiques which you or your wife may not care for, and which you may have stashed in the spare room or the attic, may be worth a lot of money, far more than you have ever imagined. Get them appraised, show them to a knowledgeable dealer or a friend who's an antiques buff, and find out if you're sitting on a goldmine that you never even knew existed!

Collect What's Due to You!

Do you have some friends to whom you have loaned money in the past, and who have not yet paid you back? Or are you owed money for services rendered of one sort or another? Or does an ex-employer still owe you sick pay or vacation pay that he has not paid you? Don't let these things lie any longer unpaid - you need that money now! Put on the heat, make some urgent phone calls, write a few letters. For most collections, the Small Claims court can be a great help.

For collecting from your employer, your best bet is the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, which will almost certainly have an office in your city. If your claim has merit, they will make sure that you receive what's due you.

Summary and Recommendations:

All of the many suggestions contained in this Report should certainly get you the capital you need to start your business. Of course, you can combine two or more of the methods if no one alone will provide what you're looking for. And although we've not specifically mentioned it, don't forget that regular commercial banks (not savings banks, they're not allowed to) will sometimes make loans for the establishment of new businesses if the know the borrower from past experience, and see a potential in the proposed business. Don't assume they will say no, and so don't ask them. You'd be surprised, they may just say "yes". They're particularly likely to lend you some of the money you need if you've already proved that you can raise money and that you have the majority of the money you need. For example, if you've raised $10,000 already by other methods, they may come through with an additional $3,000 for working capital.

It's a fact that in raising money, the more you seen to have, the more people will be willing to lend you, so once you've begun to make money based on your initial $10,000, you will find it easier to borrow more to keep you business or other new venture going. While not all of the ideas in this Report can really be worked out overnight, once your foundations are laid, in credit, in relationships with relatives, friends, venture capital and government sources, it is easy to raise funds when you need them, from people who have learned from experience that you're a good businessman to lend to!