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When you are bootstrapping your company, sometimes you get a lot of rejection from the bank, and for my startup bookstore, rejection from the bank comes two weeks before the consummation of a deal that would throw us into a higher orbit in terms of business. There is much angst on this one, but there are ways out of bank rejection, and here are some handy tips on how to overcome bank rejection and how to get the money you need to commit to the deal anyways.

So you were rejected by the bank that means that plan B and plan C are firmly in the front of the window of opportunity for your startup company. That is you should have had plan B and Plan C if not Plans D through G to go along with the fall back position that you were hoping you would not have to activate. Unfortunately, banks are skittish right now, and if your credit tapped, your company has no business credit, and you are uninterested in paying for a credit account with Dunn and Bradstreet then it is time to go to plan B. Of course you could be getting frustrated that D&B’s site won’t work and let you sign up for a D&B number (the site has been broken for the last week, they don’t return calls) then you have to have plan B firmly in effect.

Some good ideas for plan B, C, D and all the way down the alphabet are (depending on your ability to tolerate risk):

1. Get a personal line of credit – While it is not a good idea to mix business money with personal money, if the bank is being skittish, and you have a credit rating above 700, you might be able to get a personal line of credit.

2. If you cannot get a personal line of credit, ask yourself what is left on the credit cards? A few thousand here and there on the cards is one way to do it, but then you are going to be hit with the interest rates, and paying off that credit card after the deal becomes priority number one. With banks cutting back on credit lines, this one is risky, it depends on what your credit rating looks like. Do not get a credit card with an excessive rate of interest, shop around a bit and find one that will not drive you deeper into a hole you will have too much of a hard time getting out of. Some business credit cards are charging upwards of 32% interest, make sure yours is between 6 and 9 percent.

3. Do you already have a personal line of credit and you are willing to risk the balance? While this might be your emergency money, if the deal is good, if the deal is win win, then you really need to think about tapping that personal line of credit if you already have one. If not go back to idea number 2, get a personal line of credit if your credit score is above 700.

4. Take an “emergency job” like teaching or one novel approach is to do independent consulting on the side to help pay down the debt you are taking on. Education does not pay much, you have to have a master’s degree to do this, but it is steady work that can be quite rewarding. One novel approach I read about today was to do independent consulting on the side, and use that money to fund your bootstrapped startup. The approach is novel, but has worked for one startup who was willing to talk about it right here on Seattle 2.0.

5. Make sure you are not in the infinite runway loop, Techflash has an interesting article on this one right here that goes into the idea that if you have tapped everything but still cannot get traction, then no matter what deals you make, it might be time to just stop, look at the risks, the rewards, and determine if the deal is worth getting even deeper into debt with your company. There are times when it is time to call it quits, this might not be the time, but it is something to think about, how far down the rabbit hole did you go, how much do you already owe, and what are the realistic expectations for paying any additional personal debt are you capable of paying off.

6. How much does the deal mean to the other side? Would they be willing to take say ½ now with the opportunity to pay off the other half in 90 days same as cash? What are their terms and can you afford their terms? This could be the time to break out the negotiation hat and see what you can get. If you can only afford some, but think that things will be great later on, this might be a negotiable way of doing this, where the deal is salvaged, and the risk is shared initially between supplier and consumer.

When you are bootstrapping your company, there are times when you have to make the deal, and there is always a way to make something happen unless you are completely tapped out. If you are completely tapped out the next best thing is to see if family and friends can help you out, although owing money to family is never pleasant, and they are investing in your company based on your word, they want to know how the money is being spent. In the longer run though, it is your tolerance for risk, how you think the deal will help you out and what you are planning to use the money for and how it will help your business grow.