Abstract
Entrepreneurs often mention « lack of financing » as the main reason why an interesting transaction was not pursued or why a project could not be completed, why a company could not sustain its growth rate or why it failed. However, there are always two sides to a coin and bankers, lenders and investors will argue that they have the money and the intention to fund businesses, but that their criteria must be satisfied and that financial proposals must substantiate the needs expressed by entrepreneurs.
In a sense the law of offer and demand governs the financing industry as it does most other economic activities. The demand consists of day-to-day business transactions, strategic projects, expanding into foreign markets and other business operating requirements. On the other hand, offer materialises in the form of the various financing programs that are made available by financial institutions (banks, lenders, investors and government agencies), their expectations, and the availability of capital and mostly by their appetite for risk.
