Deciding to open a retail store is easy. Actually finding a location, filling it with merchandise, hiring employees, and getting people to buy from you is really hard. And expensive. Here are five financing options that you should consider if you can’t afford to pay for everything out of pocket.

#1. Find Investors

One of the best ways to get the money you need is to get others to invest the money you need for startup costs like hiring a team, manufacturing your products, leasing space, creating marketing materials, etc. You can get these investments from angel investors, venture capitalists, or even just from people in your network who want to invest in your shop in exchange for a percentage of your profits once you start making them.

Having investors can be great since they give you the money you need and usually stay out of the way. A lot of the time, however, there are strings attached. One example is the aforementioned sharing of profits. Others may want to have a say in how you run your shop or which vendors you use.

#2. Make Use of Take-Home Layaway Programs

Take-home layaway is a program that financiers like Crest Financial Services offer to retailers. According to Crest Financial reviews, take home layaway is exactly what it sounds like: you use the credit to buy your store supplies—from furniture to computers to decor—from other retailers “on layaway,” and you get to take all your supplies with you and put them to work while you’re paying them off.

Take note that you typically can’t use this type of credit to fund startup costs like leases, hiring employees, etc. It is only offered for the purchase of material goods like office supplies and furniture.

#3. Offer Financing to Customers

Offering take-home layaway to your own customers is one of the best ways to keep people spending money in your store. While you can set this store credit up using your own system, you can streamline the process and remove the headache of collecting and processing payments by partnering with a third-party financier. This can be done by partnering with a major creditor but it is often better to work with independent companies, especially when you are trying to grow your customer base.

One of the best reasons to use independent third party take-home layaway financiers like Crest Financial (and to shop with the companies who work with them) is that most don’t require your customers to have any sort of credit before they apply. They don’t even run a credit check. Instead they base their approval on whether or not your customers meet their minimum income requirements.

#4 Sublet Your Space

One of the best ways to get the money you need to afford your space and your merchandise is to invite other shop owners to share the space. You can divide the store into sections and charge rent for the space and utilities they use. Doing this helps reduce your own overhead because you won’t have as much space to fill.

Another method of doing this is to sell items on consignment. Invite local artists and makers to sell their products in your store in exchange for a percentage of their sales. This reduces the amount of inventory you need to secure and helps bring in more money at the same time.

Perhaps the best reason to sublet and do consignment sales is that it reduces your marketing responsibility. Your subletters and independent artists will promote their work and offerings to their own audiences who will then be more likely to look around and see what you offer too when they come into the store.

#5 Crowdfunding

Setting up a Kickstarter or an IndieGoGo campaign to help generate operating costs is a fantastic way to introduce your idea to your community and build buzz for the shop at the same time. If you are confident that you can raise what you need, use Kickstarter. If you’re not, use IndieGogo. This is because Kickstarter will only release funds if the goal is met. IndieGogo will allow you to have whatever you’ve raised (minus their fees of course!). Successful crowd funding campaigns can also attract investors by showing them the demand and excitement for your shop.

These are just some of the ways you can finance your business and get your retail operation up and running. If you get creative, chances are you’ll come up with plenty more!

Many people struggle to keep up with their monthly bills, but don’t know what to do about it.  While it isn’t the only option, getting help from a debt consolidation firm is a solution to this problem that is sometimes overlooked. But if you have made the decision to put a debt relief program to work for you, there are 3 steps you can take to put your plan into action.

Step 1: Choosing the company.

Do your homework. Begin by reading articles on debt consolidation so you can learn more about it. Next you should make a list of debt consolidation firms you are interested in working with.

Check into each company. Have they been in business long? You most likely aren’t going to want to choose a firm that has only been in business for a few years. You could check with the Better Business Bureau to find out if anyone has made any negative reports about them. Discuss any fees associated with each and be cautious about the services they offer. If what they promise sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Some of these companies do not have your best interests at heart, and only want to make as much money as they can from your unfortunate situation.

Step 2: Meet with the representative.

Make sure you are comfortable with him or her. You are going to be meeting with this person many times in the next few years as you work on consolidating and paying down your debt, so you want to have a good working relationship with this person. Also, go into the meeting prepared to discuss your financial condition. Have any documentation with you that could help you develop a plan together to reduce your debt.

Step 3: Make a plan and put it into action.

Make sure you understand the plan. You want to feel comfortable with the process you are going through so there are no surprises. Also, you must resolve to stick with the plan, as discussed, and resolve not to accumulate more debt to add to your woes.

Getting out of debt is hard and sometimes you just need the help of a debt relief program to help you get started in the right direction toward paying off your debt.

Have you ever used a debt consolidation program? Would you ever consider one?

It doesn’t occur to many young people to buy life insurance. Most people in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s don’t anticipate needing life insurance, but the unexpected can happen to anyone. If you have people who are depending on you financially — a spouse or partner, children, aging parents or other loved ones — then you need life insurance to help make sure they will be okay if something were to happen to you. Life insurance can also help provide an inheritance for those you leave behind, even if you don’t have a lot of assets.

The best time to get life insurance is when you’re young. By the time you reach your 50s, premiums can become prohibitively expensive. Chances are that when you’re in your 30s or 40s, you’re more likely to have young children, a non-working spouse, or other dependents who won’t stop requiring food, clothes, a roof over their heads, college money, and other support even if you’re no longer there to provide it for them.

Who Will Provide for Your Family When You’re Gone?

If you’re married or have children, or others who are financially dependent on you, you need life insurance — and chances are you don’t have enough. You may have life insurance through your employer, but most employer policies only offer life insurance worth the equivalent of one or two years’ salaries. If you have dependents and a mortgage, you’re going to need a lot more coverage than that to make sure your dependents are protected.

Most experts recommend getting coverage equal to seven to 10 times your annual salary. You should have enough coverage to pay off your mortgage and provide for your family for as many years as it will take your surviving spouse or partner to get back on his or her feet. You should also make sure you have enough coverage to help your surviving loved ones carry out other plans, such as putting the children through college or financing a comfortable retirement for your surviving spouse.

The younger you are when you buy life insurance, the cheaper it will be — but go ahead and wait until you need the coverage. When you’re married, and thinking about starting a family, that’s the time to buy coverage. Talk to an agent to learn about your options regarding life insurance. You may want to choose term life insurance, which covers you for a specific period of time, and is cheaper than whole life or permanent insurance, which will pay a lump sum to your beneficiaries no matter when you die.

Life Insurance Can Be Valuable When You’re Still Alive Too

When most people think of life insurance, they think of coverage that pays their beneficiaries a prearranged sum of money on the event of their death. But life insurance can be useful to you while you’re still alive, too. Life insurance can be an investment vehicle, allowing you to invest your premiums in investment accounts that increase your policy’s cash value.

Your life insurance policy can also be a source of cash if you need to cover medical expenses or long-term care costs. If you become terminally ill, you may be able to sell your policy to get cash to cover your medical bills and related expenses. Or, you may be able to earmark a part of your insurance premiums to cash accumulation, allowing you to build up an emergency reserve of cash that you can use to continue paying your life insurance premiums if you suffer a loss of income. You may even be able to borrow against your life insurance policy’s cash value to cover other expenses that may arise, such as a child’s medical bills.

If you have a non-working spouse or partner, children, or others who are depending on you to pay the bills and put food on the table, you need life insurance. An adequate life insurance policy means you’ll be able to continue providing for your family, even if the worst should happen. Life insurance is the best way to protect your home and your family’s way of life, since it lets you leave your loved ones a cash lump sum even if you don’t yet have that many assets.

Being a homeowner comes with a ton of responsibilities. One of the most important…making sure that the mortgage is paid in a timely fashion. However, if you’re like most homeowners, your mortgage is your largest monthly expense. Though proper budgeting can help you to make your payments each month, there are other things that you can do to save money on your mortgage payments so that you can start putting that income to other expenses. Below are just a few options you may have available to you:

1.  Refinancing

One of the first options for saving money on mortgage payments is refinancing. The concept of refinancing is applying for a new loan. This allows you to pay off the old loan with the new one. The reason this is beneficial to homeowners is that the new loan comes with new terms including lower interest rates, shorter (or longer if you need more time) loan periods, and more. There are several programs available for individuals interested in refinancing their loan including government assisted loans FHA streamline loan. For military personnel and their families, there is the option for offers like a Lowvarates.com VA streamline refinance loan. Each loan type and program offers different advantages to qualified benefits.

2.  Add Extra Money to Your Mortgage

Your mortgage is compounding interest, which means that interest is charged each month on top of the principal interest accrued. By adding even an additional $25 a month to your mortgage, you can begin paying more towards the principal balance on the loan. As the principal balance decreases, you’re reducing the amount of interest you accrue each month, thus paying off the loan faster.

If this is an option you’re going to take, make sure that you have contacted your lender to find out if there are penalties for prepaying your mortgage. When submitting extra funds, be sure that you specify that the money is to go towards the principal and not the interest so that your lender knows exactly what you’re trying to do.

3.  Make One Extra Payment Every Year

If you can’t swing paying an additional amount each month, you could decide to simply make one extra payment each year. If allowed by your loan term agreement, you can make an extra payment at the end of each year. Depending on the type of loan you have, doing this every year could allow you to pay off your 30 year mortgage in just 22 years.

4.  Put Extra Cash on the Principal

If you have a lump sum of extra cash that you can afford to use, putting it towards your principal balance can help you pay your mortgage off faster. For instance, income from a part time job, income taxes, bonuses at work, cash back rewards from credit cards, and whatever other income you receive can help put a dent in the overall balance. Remember, you want to make sure when you send in extra money that you specify putting it towards the principal balance and not the accrued interest.

5.  Find Homeowner Insurance Discounts

Though your homeowner insurance payments are separate from your mortgage payments, it can still be beneficial to find savings in this area. The more you can save on insurance, the more income you can put towards paying down your mortgage. There are plenty of ways to save on homeowners insurance, including shopping around for better offers, investing in a home security system, and upgrading certain components in your home to improve its integrity and safety.

Having various avenues to help manage your mortgage payments is ideal to prevent falling behind on payments and ruining your credit. Remember, because your mortgage is a binding contract, you’ll need to review it or contact your lender to find out if there are any penalties you should be aware of. You want to prevent adding extra costs as you pay down your mortgage and save money in the long run.