Hi, a great resource to reach out to for advice is SCORE, one of SBA's resource partners. SCORE is a nonprofit association comprised of thousands of volunteer business counselors throughout the country. They are trained to serve as advisors and mentors to aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners (at no cost to you). You can find your local office or set up an online meeting to chat with someone about your questions. You may also want to check out this blog post about borrowing startup funds. The related articles featured after the post may also provide some helpful information. Best of luck!

Yes a self-directed 401k can invest in one's own business start-up. However, the 401k provider's plan documents must allow for self-directed investments such as the purchase of employer stock as investing in one's start-up business entails transferring/rolling funds from former employer retirement plans or IRAs to a new self-directed 401k sponsored by the C-Corporation and subsequently the rollover funds are used to purchase newly issued stock shares by the C-Corporation. You can learn more regarding this transaction commonly referred to as 401k business financing This post was edited to remove a link. Please review our Community Best Practices (http://www.sba.gov/community) for more information about how best to participate in our online discussions. Thank you.