Businesses require finance for several purposes. These include:

Short-term needs - Finance may be required to cover immediate expenses (usually within a year) such as paying for raw materials or operational costs.
Long-term needs — Finance may benefit a business for a long period of time (over a year). This may include purchasing machinery or funding research.
To start up - Finance is required for a new business to cover initial costs such as covering rent or purchasing equipment.
To expand — A business requires finance to fund growth. This money would be used to increase production or employment.

Definition: Finance that is generated from within the business.

Personal savings - Money that is invested into the business by the owner from their own personal funds.
Retained profit - Profit that a business keeps rather than paying it out to shareholders, used for reinvestment.
Selling assets - The process of selling items that a business owns, such as equipment or property, to raise money.

Definition: Funds that are raised by a business from outside sources.,

Overdraft - Allowance for a business to withdraw more money from its bank account than it has, up to an agreed limit.
Trade payables - Money a business owes its suppliers for goods or services purchased.
Loan capital - Money borrowed from a bank which must be repaid with interest.
Share capital, including stock market flotation (public limited companies) - Money raised by a company through the sale of shares to investors. Stock market floatation is when a company becomes a public limited company (PLC) and offers shares to the public on the stock market.
Venture capital - Finance provided by investors in exchange for partial ownership in the business.
Crowdfunding - The collection of money from a large number of people. This is usually through online platforms.