Guide to Lending Money

Blending strawberry smoothies for a living can be a pricey affair.

Brothers Kyle and Aaron Campos spent nearly $200,000 to open their Main Squeeze Juice and Smoothies cafe in Buckeye, Ariz., in 2005. Now they're experiencing year-over-year growth of 22%, which should increase even further with the franchises they have in the works.

The former computer programmers mainly used their own savings to fund the original venture; they also received a $35,000 bank loan and $20,000 from family and friends.

The friends-and-family route is one of the more popular funding channels for start-ups. In fact, Americans make 6.1 million friends-and-family loans per year for more than $89 billion total, according to CircleLending. ...