Despite these grim financials, the amount of new small and medium-sized firms that were started over the past two years was higher than they have ever been over a consecutive two-year period. According to a report published by the Kauffman foundation, on average 543 000 new businesses were created each month from mid 2011 to mid 2012. So how did these startups manage to raise the money to do so despite the Great Recession?

Experts say this could be down to the type of personality you as startup owner have, obviously massively influenced by other external factors too. If you are more cautious, over-think everything (twice) and have a very conservative outlook and approach on your life and personal finances, you tend to take a different path when raising money for your new business. You would probably be tapping into your own savings, using part if not all of your redundancy payout and drain all available personal credit to retain total control, as the thought of owing anyone $500,000 “is just terrifying” one such entrepreneur said.

On the other side of the scale is your very open-minded, sometimes even risky, entrepreneurial counterpart, following a very different approach. This entrepreneur approached angel investors for a capital investment of $200,000 as she wanted to take her business nationwide from day one. She’s also already pitching to more investors, and seems to be enjoying the challenge it holds. “It takes a certain personality to love going in front of people who fire questions point-blank at you and let them dig into your finances.”