If you have equity in your house, the Small Business Administration will often underwrite a loan but also with that personal guarantee. A new SBA program established as part of the economic recovery package is only now getting going, and it's not yet clear for whom it will be truly useful.

State and local business development organizations often have loan programs designed for businesses that don't qualify for bank or SBA loans. But they often have narrow economic development criteria as well and sometimes will not consider companies that already have meaningful equity invested in them. I'd do a lot of homework before launching into a process that can be heavy on the paperwork and light on the ultimate dollars.

No matter what routes you pursue, I can promise that fundraising will be much more time-consuming than you anticipate, and, in fact, this should figure into whether you undertake fundraising at all. Time spent soliciting money is time not spent building the business. If you definitely need the money, be as targeted as you can in your approach. It's always easy to find people who want to kick the tires, but finding people to write checks is, almost by definition, one of the toughest things in business.