And now for the last in our series on shoestring financing for your business start-up, finding alternatives to traditional financing options.

Of course, as all small business people know, the most obvious place to find a business loan is at your local bank.

But a traditional bank loan, even if you qualify, means long-term debt and the possibility of endangering your home and other personal assets on a potentially high risk venture.

Here from Inc.com are three suggestions to avoid traditional financing options for your small business start-up:

1. Make your first customer into an investor

When Scott Mitchell founded Learning Productions in Temple, AZ., his first customer, Avnet Computer Marketing Group, was so impressed with his pitch they offered him office space, access to a computer network, equipment, covered his first payroll and even the cost of employee benefits. The help enabled Mitchell to keep start-up costs down to $150,000 instead of a projected $1.5 million and he later sold his company for $16 million.

2. Use drop shipping and credit from vendors

Michael and Marilyn Stopka's mail order European statuary reproductions are often shipped directly to customers from suppliers who have also been willing to advance the Stopkas' Arlingrton Heights, Ill.-based Design Toscano Inc. credit as well. (If you'd like to find out more about drop shipping and how it works, check out these two posts.

3. Go to your community for help

In a variation of example number one, local entrepreneur Robert "Joe" Murphy convinced 322 residents of Mount Ayr, Iowa, population 1,700, to invest a combined $640,460 in his community grocery store. Here, instead of a big corporate client, as in the first example, local consumers were asked to contribute to a service they valued, a local grocery store after one had closed its doors in the community and another had moved to the edge of town.

(For more on shoestring start-ups be sure to check our last three posts with links to Inc.com and bookmark this site for more bootstrap business tips and articles in the future.)