A daunting requirement of any new business venture is finding the money to do it all. Your options range from asking relatives and friends for personal loans (on the lowest-commitment end of the spectrum) to approaching venture capitals for funding (on the highest-commitment end of the spectrum).

I enjoy hearing people’s stories of success, specially the ones who turn around and offer advice to others who wish to follow a similar path. In this video on Business Week, Christine Comaford-Lynch offers her story along with some useful (yet sometimes obvious) pointers on how to raise capital for your business idea. (I say obvious because if you have to be told that you need a good business plan before asking for money, then you should probably stick with your current career path. Entrepreneurship is not for you.)

Christine worked for Microsoft as a ‘contract’ employee, which is essentially a tax strategy by the corporation. When the IRS cracked down on Microsoft for this employment practice, the company gathered all ‘contract’ employees and instructed them to find a Human Resource Firm to sign up with in order to restructure their employment status (boring stuff, but bare with me).

Christine had always been looking for a business idea, during this meeting she did not think that the services of the HR firm are impossible to conduct personally. So she stood up and offered to employ all the contractors as the HR provider. Next day, 35 employees signed up, and she was on the phone with her dad trying to learn about ‘payroll’ for the first time in her life.

A million dollars later, she is now described as a ‘serial entrepreneur’, having raised five businesses which have all either been acquired or gone public. She wrote a book, and is currently consulting small to medium businesses while contributing articles to Business Week.

Money breeds money. With an abundance of ideas and the cash flow to support new ventures, subsequent endeavors are usually much easier to accomplish than that first idea that started it all. Therefore, taking the time to craft your capital-raising strategy is an extremely important step towards building your business empire.

I hope you enjoy the video.