Getting A Modern Day Grub Stake For Funding

Back about 100 years ago when a man wanted to head out and prospect and look for gold, if he didn't have the capital or cash on hand he would need to look around for someone who had money that they could loan out for a portion of the gold they found. This was called "Grub Staking." Back in the early days a grub stake consisted of enough cash to purchase the things the prospector would need. The terms and conditions of a grubstake varied from person to person. The person who loaned the money would then get "X" amount of gold in return for cash upfront payment. If the prospector/miner didn't come through with his end of the deal there was usually some collatoral of some kind that was left with the lender as a token of good will.

Over the years things have changed a lot but the fact remains for most prospectors or miners who wish to develope or expand a property, getting a grub stake is still the best way. They don't called it grub staking anymore however. The people who loan out money for mining ventures are usually people who understand the risks involved with mining. Because mining is such a high risk business there are very few bankers who will cough up any cash for you. Of course most banks won't give anyone starting a small business of any kind a loan as they know that most small business have a failure within the first five years or so. So that leaves the would be prospector needing to find funds elsewhere.

Aside from friends or family and having to sell everything you own, a lot of would be entrepreneurs are going online to places like kickstarter or some of the other go fund me sites. There if your idea is super great, outstanding and novel, you might get the funds you need. However because prospecting, mining ventures, quarries and gravel pits are not up there with the so called "trendy" ideas, you will most likely need to keep looking. Because conventional banking is loosing it's appeal and competative edge, a lot of new business people in the past few years have turned to OnDeck for small business funding. OnDeck is a specialty type of lender that caters only to small independant business. This is a company that started in 2007 so far to date they have loaned out over 6 Billion dollars to small business in USA, Canada and Australia. More so than just start up funding many business owners are repeat clients as they return for financing for things like expansion or buying more equipment depending on what their business needs are. Because they are totally internet based they are fast and don't waste peoples time like the major banks where you need to make an appointment and wait for days or weeks for an answer. The world doesn't work like that anymore and with OnDeck everything is done online through their website and that is just one of the reasons why so many aggressive new business owners are getting their funding from places like OnDeck

You see while most junior mining companies have the advantage of going to the markets to raise money for an exploration project or expansion, the smaller miner doesn't have those same advantages. There was a time maybe 40-50 years ago that there was no where to turn but the major banks and they wouldn't have anything to do with anything risk related so the would be miner would need to find other business men to get involved and that usually spelled disaster because it just takes one investor to want out and you have to somehow raise cash to buy them out or there just gets to be disagreements between parties and money and you know the rest of the story.

So if your looking at starting some kind of venture and wish to keep things as simple as possible but you don't have the money on hand to get started, the first thing you need to do is find that source of funding because mining like most ventures these days cost a lot of money. I get emails quite often from readers asking about where to get financing and I will always tell them to try OnDeck first as it seems to be a fairly good place to get funds. I have heard that some have gotten funding they required. You just fill out a form online and they get back to you and let you now in a short while if you are approved or not. If that doesn't work out I have had people run an ad in our classified section of the site here and there has been a few cases over the years where someone had some good property that needed to be developed and did find private investors so that is always an option. Either way it's like they say, "It takes money to make money."

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share. When seeking out mining stocks alsways use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.