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Casual Articles - Need Money? The Lowdown On Investors
Let’s see, which came first the chicken or the egg? While the jury is still out on that old story, I recently realized that many entrepreneurs don’t clearly understand the difference between branding and marketing.I’m here to set the record straight once and for all! The findings might surprise you and will forever change the way you look at your business.BrandingHow is that you choose one product over another? You do so by considering price, availability, evaluating the high touch elements of a company like customer service, respect you have for that company, and then of course product quality.A brand therefore is the combination of
As a business woman have you ever committed any of the 5 most deadly networking mistakes? Often business women commit deadly networking mistakes without even knowing it. These tips point them out and tell you how to correct them the next time you meet some one. Remember we are always networking at work, at church, in the neighborhood and of course at our networking events.1. Mistake #1: Giving someone your business card before they even ask for it or when they really didn’t want it. Note a person may never ask for your business card and you may never need to give it to them in order to effectively network. The process of networking is really about getting to kno
What's going to gain favor for your business; is it a sound business plan, skin in the game or an operation that’s in the black but desperately needs a propeller? Once you locate investors that will give you the time of day the hard part begins. You’ll need the answers to questions such as:
• How much are you willing to give up?
• What else are you willing to do to see your company stay alive and thrive?
• Just what is you company worth?
The acceptable answer to these and other questions can vary from one end of the spectrum to the other depending on whom and what type of investor you’re talking to. Think of potential investors like an inverse dart board. The bulls eye in this analogy is not the goal rather it’s the starting point and the ultimate objective is the big outer ring which represents the big money. The first fund-raising level is you. Your good name and credit are the first to go on the block. After all, if you don’t have the faith in yourself necessary to risk bankruptcy and homelessness then why should other people have faith in you?
As you move to the next layer finding investors is still relatively easy but now you have to be willing to risk Mom and Dad’s retirement, and all that goes along with it, or hit on your friends and risk suffering their ridicule if things don’t work out.
The better point of being here is that the value of the company, or its assets, are seldom in question. Most of the time these folks just want to help out because you’re either related or the benefactor of a great friendship. Their stock, if any is ever actually transferred, becomes a conversation piece or dream of future wealth. From a business stand point people in the inner circles will only bet on you once and rarely can you count on any of them for sound advice. The next circle is the angel investor. These days finding an angel is fairly easy even if getting them to part with their money is
Remember back in the day when you had to drive from print shop to print shop to find the best deal on full color printing? If you were in need of direct mailings, you had to contact a completely different company, or left on your own to create your own list and head out to the post office all by yourself with no guidance whatsoever. Well, times have changed, and the Internet has made the world a much smaller place! Keep this in mind as we go over a few tips for buying low cost, full color printing and direct mail.First of all, there’s much more to being “low cost” than just “cheap”. It seems that anyone who has a computer and a program or two calls themselves a
• How much are you willing to give up?
• What else are you willing to do to see your company stay alive and thrive?
• Just what is you company worth?
The acceptable answer to these and other questions can vary from one end of the spectrum to the other depending on whom and what type of investor you’re talking to. Think of potential investors like an inverse dart board. The bulls eye in this analogy is not the goal rather it’s the starting point and the ultimate objective is the big outer ring which represents the big money. The first fund-raising level is you. Your good name and credit are the first to go on the block. After all, if you don’t have the faith in yourself necessary to risk bankruptcy and homelessness then why should other people have faith in you?
As you move to the next layer finding investors is still relatively easy but now you have to be willing to risk Mom and Dad’s retirement, and all that goes along with it, or hit on your friends and risk suffering their ridicule if things don’t work out.
The better point of being here is that the value of the company, or its assets, are seldom in question. Most of the time these folks just want to help out because you’re either related or the benefactor of a great friendship. Their stock, if any is ever actually transferred, becomes a conversation piece or dream of future wealth. From a business stand point people in the inner circles will only bet on you once and rarely can you count on any of them for sound advice. The next circle is the angel investor. These days finding an angel is fairly easy even if getting them to part with their money is
California is a notoriously bad state to do business in. Regulations, worker’s compensation and tax issues overwhelm companies. Seeking relief, many incorporate in Nevada. Unless done carefully, this decision can lead to disaster.Doing Business - JurisdictionJurisdiction is a legal term used to define who has authority over something. Applied to this article, the term refers to the issue of which state has the right to regulate a business. In California, the issue boils down to whether you are considered to be “doing business” in the state.California is the one of the most aggressive states when it comes to defining jurisdiction. If you maintain of
As you move to the next layer finding investors is still relatively easy but now you have to be willing to risk Mom and Dad’s retirement, and all that goes along with it, or hit on your friends and risk suffering their ridicule if things don’t work out.
The better point of being here is that the value of the company, or its assets, are seldom in question. Most of the time these folks just want to help out because you’re either related or the benefactor of a great friendship. Their stock, if any is ever actually transferred, becomes a conversation piece or dream of future wealth. From a business stand point people in the inner circles will only bet on you once and rarely can you count on any of them for sound advice. The next circle is the angel investor. These days finding an angel is fairly easy even if getting them to part with their money is
You have asked great questions, you’ve uncovered at least three important customer needs that your offerings can address, and you’re ready to begin your product presentation. Know what you’re going to do now? If you’re like most salespeople, you’re going to lose all of the momentum you’ve built—and maybe the sale, as well—by launching a long, boring, and standardized recitation of product features. Your sales presentation won’t even focus directly on the key needs you took such pains to identify.People don’t buy product features. They buy solutions to their own needs.Customers don’t care about your product features or even about the benefits those feat
As you move to the next layer finding investors is still relatively easy but now you have to be willing to risk Mom and Dad’s retirement, and all that goes along with it, or hit on your friends and risk suffering their ridicule if things don’t work out.
The better point of being here is that the value of the company, or its assets, are seldom in question. Most of the time these folks just want to help out because you’re either related or the benefactor of a great friendship. Their stock, if any is ever actually transferred, becomes a conversation piece or dream of future wealth. From a business stand point people in the inner circles will only bet on you once and rarely can you count on any of them for sound advice. The next circle is the angel investor. These days finding an angel is fairly easy even if getting them to part with their money is
There is a big difference between how well you think your school is performing to how it actually is! You measure exactly how your business is performing accurately by keeping statistics like keeping score in a game.Statistics are like the dials in an aeroplane’s cockpit; imagine getting on a plane with no dials! How comfortable would you be just relying on the pilot’s judgement on how fast and high he needed to fly, which was the right direction to go in and how much fuel he had left to get you safely to your destination? Scary thought right, well running your business without keeping statistics is exactly the same, your heading for a crash!Statistics
Angels will sit down with you in a restaurant, at your expense, and talk to you about your business plan or model. If they get infected with your energy or enthusiasm and the model/plan is feasible you may get the backing you need. Angels aren’t especially concerned about valuation but neither do they have large amounts of money.
From here the going gets a little get tougher.
The most common next layer is an incubator. Generally you get the basics, such as receptionists, assistants, meeting rooms, copy machines; phone and network access is provided free or at a substantially reduced rate. If you find a good one you may receive help refining your business plan or, more importantly, you may get to network with, or receive council from, seasoned executives. The downside of incubators is that some are government funded or assisted. In this case they may not be as experienced in the real worlds as you might like, they may be restricted or limited in the types of businesses and business models, and they expect a large part of your equity in exchange for their services.
If you decide to forgo incubators the next step is small venture and funds or angel groups. These funds consist of somewhat savvy people with an eye toward a certain market. Most often they aren’t chartered and sometimes their contributors or members don’t meet the requirements for a sophisticated or accredited investor; reasonable intelligent individuals with net worth’s in excess of one million dollars.
Some of these funds want a full blown business plan while others just want a one page exec
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