I was recently told of a Spanish saying which states that ‘money hides’. Never has this been more real.

Last week we wrote an article on  ‘Banks Battle Entrepreneurs’ which got a flurry of entrepreneurs contacting me with their particular war stories. Shocking.

The reality is things are even worse than I thought. You see, it’s no longer just banks running from entrepreneurs, it’s also venture capital firms, hedge funds, government entities and even Angels. ‘Money is hiding.’

There are 2 unfortunate consequences. First, entrepreneurs have to spend more time than ever digging out investors and cash. Right at a time when they’re stretched delivering for ever demanding clients with never fewer resources. Our entrepreneurs could get overloaded – burn out might emerge as the next social challenge and threat to economic growth.

Entrepreneurs need to learn how to efficiently mine for cash as well as any professional gold miner. ‘Cos you’re less likely to find venture financing right now than digging for gold in California. Money hides. So seek it out online, at your local bank, friends, family, the local pub. Anywhere and everywhere. Think alternative financing, Venture Capital 2.0, micro-financing, whatever.

Think smaller. All today’s prospective investors are risk averse and believe we’re heading for a double dip recession, particularly in the Western world. So ask more investors for less cash. Perhaps even $1,000 – $5,000 amounts. That way they’ll get the benefit of ‘safety in numbers’ and probably get less concerned about the valuation of your business. You could both win – so long as you’re OK managing multiple investors.

Go equity, not debt. If we’ve learnt one thing from the last 2 years it’s that while equity costs you more down the road (if you’re successful) it’ll make your business a whole load stronger in the short term – and you, the entrepreneur, less stressed.

Find money from your customers. For early stage businesses it’s much easier raising cash by selling products or services to customers than by chasing banks or investors. Just do it.

The second unfortunate consequence of money hiding lies with the investors. While they’re busy hoarding and hiding they’re missing out on one of the best opportunities for early stage investing. There are more ideas than ever, more available entrepreneurs, more innovation necessary and achievable than at perhaps any other point in history. And there is a massive, smart, available pool of human capital to support this thanks to downsizing, poor employment and business automation.

Innovation opportunities abound. The world is embracing the Web, mobile, Social, real-time, SaaS, MaaS, green, pharma, technical manufacturing, digital media, clean technology and life sciences like never before and the start-ups are smarter, more advanced, prepared and techno’d up than ever. They’re coiled, ready and waiting to be unleashed. With a little investor juice they could go a long way.

Together we can drive the world through its next great social and technological leap.

Investors just need to start thinking with their heads and hearts again – not under the mattress.