Hi Michelle,

I'm glad to hear you're not falling for the internet scams. DON'T pay anything up-front to anyone to find funding.

Venture capitalist are tough to deal with, especially if they don't understand your industry.

Start with your industry and a very thorough businessplan. Then start within your industry. Find people that have been very successful, either as manufacturers or distributors. Contact them and ask if they would be interested in making a private investment and quickly tell them how much the investment would be. This rules out the people that think it might be a good idea but have less to invest than you need. Saves a lot of wasted time and effort. There's nothing saying you have to only take in a single investor...sometimes it's easier to get 20 people with $50k than it is one person with a spare million.

I usually find that raising money within the industry is easier than trying to educate people on the industry so they'll invest.
Hope this helps...
Denny