When it is time for you to take small business finance, you have to learn how to calculate your requirements properly. There are various elements that affect the amount of money you need. The crucial consideration to get funding as a start-up is making sure the start-up entity is structured and well organized.

Here's a great piece on creative startup financing by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html

I think it would help founders to understand funding better—not just the mechanics of it, but what investors are thinking. I was surprised recently when I realized that all the worst problems we faced in our startup were due not to competitors, but investors. Dealing with competitors was easy by comparison.