Abstract
In Germany, business start-up persons in the service sector have experienced some difficulty in obtaining classical finance for start-up projects. Despite their importance for the national economy, these service-oriented entrepreneurs often lack expertise in financial management. Furthermore, no proven business models for start-up-specific financing requirements are available in the service sector to guide founders of new businesses. In an attempt to close this gap, the author develops an "entrepreneurial finance management (EFM) field of activity". This EFM-business model provides a description of the EFM-environment and the EFM-courses of action for business start-up persons in the service sector. Nine German business start-up persons are interviewed by means of a guide-supported expert survey. The collected data is analysed by applying a grounded theory strategy. The inductively generated patterns are synthesized and used to elaborate and to develop existing approaches to entrepreneurial finance. By doing this, it is hoped that they can be made more compatible with the needs of business start-up persons in the service sector in the German context. The detailed findings presented here show the target parameters of founders of business in the service sector (such as start-up motives, financial objectives and financial management strategies); the essential conditions (characterization and tasks of the financial manager, funding requirements of start-up service enterprises, and start-up financing); and the design parameters (CPDS-methods and instruments).