Not wanting to take on debt and believing they will be turneddown, most small business owners said they prefer to not even applyfor a business loan.

According to an online survey of 286 small business ownersconducted by financial information company Sageworks, nearly 77%said they have never applied for a business or personal loan.

Instead, they chose other means of funding with 59% of thesurvey's respondents opting to use personal savings to start theirbusinesses.

Roughly 30% said they didn't need any funding and 10.5% receivedfunding from friends or family, according to the survey.

However, a little more than 19% of respondents relied on a loanor line of credit, Sageworks discovered.

The survey also asked small business owners why they chose other means of fundingover business loans.

Sixty-two percent said it was because they did not want to takeon debt, and 24% said they did not believe they would be approvedfor a loan.

Twelve percent thought the cost of credit was too high, while 9% said the loan process wastoo time-consuming, the survey noted.

Sageworks Chairman Brian Hamilton explained that this reluctanceto take on debt is, in many ways, a good sign.

“Taking on too much debt can be harmful to a business.Management starts worrying about how to pay back the loans, ratherthan how to really scale the business,” he explained.

Lately, businesses not only have greater access to capital butthey're being cautious about accepting that capital and debt,Hamilton added.

The Raleigh, N.C.-based Sageworks said it conducted an onlinesurvey of small business owners April 23-25. The poll's respondentswere all business owners that had been in operation for less than10 years.