The most difficult and most obvious hurdle to try to clear when launching and sustaining a business is funding. Starting a business is a daunting and time consuming task and ensuring that you always have enough money on hand to run things is much easier said than done. Odds are you may never appear on an episode of “Shark Tank” to pitch your business to a group of billionaire investors so you will have to find other ways to fund your business operations. Here are some tips to do just that.

DIY

This concept may not work if you’re looking to scale your business at hyper-speed, but using your own money, or “bootstrapping,” is a great way to launch a small business. While a risky choice, some of the world’s most successful companies started out by bootstrapping founders that raided savings accounts, home equity accounts and maxed out credit cards to fund their business at its earliest stages. If you really believe in what you’re starting, you may be better served to literally bet on yourself.

Crowdfunding

Websites such as Kickstarter have played a key role in starting some businesses. While donors don’t receive any ownership equity in the company they are generally given some sort of a gift for helping fund the upstart. For instance, if you’re starting a clothing company you may set up different levels of giving to receive different items. While this will cause you to give away some inventory off the top, it will not only bring in funding, but will also get the word of your business out quicker.

Micro-loans

While banks and lenders may be hesitant to give you a huge sum of money to get a new business off the ground, you can apply for a micro-loans. Micro-loans typically range between $500 and $35,000 and are used for people who need less money than a commercial lender is willing to pay attention to. The few hundred micro-lenders in America typically have a little higher interest, but are often willing to help small business owners fund their ideas.

You don’t have to land a spot on Shark Tank to get your business off the ground. There are options available all around you, including some that we didn’t even get to here. Funding is out there for you to make your American dream a reality.