Credit Cards or No Credit Cards

There are two pieces of advice I seem to see a lot when reading about starting a small business. One is to have savings that equal about a year to two years of income before you start your own business. The other is that savings may not be necessary, you can just use credit cards to carry you through until you start making money.

I'm curious, those of you who have businesses you own, how did you start? Did you have savings? Did you get a loan? Did you live on credit cards? From where did your initial funding come?