Starting my own business.....?

I have a desire to start my own business. I don't have good credit and I don't own any property. I file bankruptcy about 4 years ago and it has been discharged. I'm a single/divorced mom and my baby will finish school this year. I have my own website where I'm selling candles for ESD. The address is www.sweetheavenlyaromas.com... It is not very profitable at all. One of the things I would like to do is to open a small local business so that I can have a supply of candles on hand and also be able to sell them. I also want to start another type of business. Dealing with storage..(Sorry I don't want to give my ideals away). I want to know how I can get some backing with my credit history. Can I still get a grant or a sbl? Can I rent a building for my business? I have lots of creative ideal but no financial know how. Can I do this without having a business plan? Do I need to register the name of my business at this point although it is still an ideal? Please only serious answers.....

It will be hard to get a loan given your credit history.

My suggestion is to first make the first website profitable, before thinking of going in a different direction. With your website, the very first thing I will remove is your intro page. Take a look at big websites such as Amazon.com or Target.com -- NONE of these sites use an intro page that has absolutely nothing on it save a welcome screen. Why? Because you need to grab your visitors IMMEDIATELY with your offering -- and giving them a step to click on a link before entering your site is a deterrent. Lose that page -- it is not needed.

You can start your business with no money -- but it will not be easy. But if you're willing to work hard, and be creative and willing to learn, you can surely do it.

With poor credit, getting a low-cost loan from the Small Business Administration will not be an option. In SBA's document "CREDIT FACTORS A POTENTIAL BORROWER SHOULD KNOW" http://www.sba.gov/financing/preparation... you can qualify for an SBA loan if you have equity investment and collateral -- which both means money. SBA wants to see that you yourself is invested in your business, so they want to make sure that you have money in your business as well. Without money, then you cannot be approved.

Here are some articles that can give you ideas of what to do when you want to start a business yet you do not have capital:

No Money? No Problem! http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,46...
Seth Godin's Bootstrapper Bible http://www.changethis.com/8.Bootstrapper...
How to Start a Business With No Money http://www.smbtrendwire.com/start-busine...

I suggest you read the following books as well. Borrow them from your library or buy them from your favorite bookstore

- No Cash, No Fear: Entrepreneurial Secrets to Starting Any Business with No Money by Terry Allen
- Starting on a Shoestring: Building a Business Without a Bankroll by Arnold S. Goldstein
- The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki

It may help you if you could talk with a small business expert or free mentors to give you ideas on how to make your dream of starting a business come true even without money. Here are some places where you can find a mentor:

- Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_...
- Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs
- Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs... , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/ , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org
- Professional organizations such as the National Women鈥檚 Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.h...
- Industry and trade associations
- Local business groups, such as the chamber of commerce
- Local chapters of business groups