With the current fundraising and lending climate, entrepreneurs need to be innovative for their businesses.

Jason Manning had an innovative idea to fund his company. He was writing a book called Save My Company, Buy This Book. As Jason says on his web site,

“It started as a book about my life and the struggles that I endured as I built a thriving company. I was not going to complete it until I had done just that, and I was well on my way. Then everything that I had accomplished began to crumble due to a business relationship gone bad. This sent me back to the beginning, only this time I did not have the money to start again. I had to start looking for investors. I found a group that is showing alot of interest and may very well agree to invest for a large percentage of the company which is fine with me if I have to do it, but I needed a back-up plan as well. One thing I have learned, is that nothing ever goes as planned. So I came up with the idea to finish my book, and use the proceeds to fund my company.”

Sales of the books will be used to pay for patents and produce industrial safety equipment he  designed for hospitals. Jason admits that he did not meet his goal of selling 50,000 books ($1M) to fund his company, but woud still like to sell 5,000 more copies before bringing on investors.

What other innovative ideas have you had for funding your company during the great recession?