How did you start doing your own thing?

I agree with Scott, you will not get a sbl if your company does not have any income. The loans are not designed for startups.

About 2 weeks after I started my business, my computer crapped out an I needed to spend $2K on a workstation. Luckily for me I had just landed a large project where the 50% up front covered that expense.

Prioritize the required and desired and use the up front money to finance the startup costs and use the final payment for day to day costs. Granted, that is an over-simplified budgeting/accounting system, but my point it to manage all of the costs as you are building the business.

Good luck.