Lately we have been covering the dearth of small business loan availability. This bring one to as the question, “where exactly are small businesses getting the funding for their activities and investments?” Well the Census Bureau's survey of business owners may shed some light reports Business Insider. The SBO reveals seven important facts about small business financing among which that the majority (51.2 percent) of small employers needing money to expand use either their own or family members’ savings or assets. Business profits or assets are a key source of money to expand; 29.1 percent of small employers use this source of expansion financing.

Further, banks are an important source of expansion capital for small businesses; just shy of one-third of small business owners report using a bank loan to finance expansion. Credit cards, both personal and business, are a common source of money for small business expansion, with one quarter of small employers needing expansion funds obtaining at least some of it from this source. More than one-in-ten (11.4 percent) of small business owners report using equity in their homes to finance small business expansion. Government-guaranteed loans and loans from the government, such as SBA loans, aren’t a source of expansion capital for many businesses; the SBO data show that less than 3 percent of small businesses needing expansion capital get money from this source. Almost no small employers use venture capital to expand; the SBO data reveal that only about 0.5 percent use this source of financing.