how to get money to open a retail store?

I am on optometrist and want to start my own business and stop working for others. In my world, the owner of the optical pays the doctor (me) a salary and makes a killing on my labor in the form of collecting the insurance money from the procedures I do and then more over on the sales of the lenses and glasses.

I have about 50,000$ I can invest right now and wanted to know how people open a business when the cost of entry is about 200,000$ just to open.

My operating expense is kept low because I will be on site and thus not have to hire a doctor, since that will be me.

I have so far looked at home equity loans, and refinancing my house as well as a business loan from citi bank (where I have my business account) and they all pretty much offer me 20,000.

what do I have to know and do in order to get the funding needed to open a location of my own?

As Jeremiah noted, friends and family are one approach.

As you've found, banks are another approach.. but they have a tendency to only give you money if you don't need it. It's even worse now considering how hesitant many banks are to loan.

Small Business Administration is another approach though that might not put you over the threshold either.

Another strategy is to find another doctor or two to pitch in to make the numbers work. It can give you more capital to start and a higher earning potential since there are two of you to split and grow the workload.

In your particular situation, you might look around to see if there's another doctor retiring. It may be possible to buy their practice and avoid many of the startup costs and initial customer/patient acquisition. If you don't have the full cash on hand, a revenue sharing approach might work. Think.. you pay $X now and Y% of revenue for the next N years. It can be a stable income stream for the retiring doctor.