Dragons Den a no...try Fund101

Not all business start-ups need £50,000+ and a Dragon mentor. For some, £500 is enough to buy that essential piece of equipment or hardware that will transform their fledgling business. This is why FM loves Fund101, the new initiative launched by Enterprise Nation.

Fund101 is a new business-funding scheme worth from £50 up to a maximum of £500. The clever part of the pitch is that to obtain the money, you need to convince the Enterprise Nation community to vote for you.

Once the number of votes equals the number of pounds requested, the money will be sent to your PayPal account. So, for £500, you’ll need 500 votes. The money doesn’t have to be paid back; it’s for you to use on your idea or business.

Within days of its launch, the fund had attracted a fantastic, diverse range of applicants:

Nathalie Ballantine aims to invest the money on a new oven for her cake business, while chimney sweep Andrew Jackson would buy a CCTV camera for detecting chimney defects.

There are also bookkeepers, photographers, designers, and an artist hoping to buy a human skeleton model for her anatomy art lessons.

If you could do with a similar cash injection go to http://enterprisenation.com/fund101
to find out further details and tips on how to improve your chances of securing the money.