Create a Ten Percent Profit Model

Most entrepreneurs, when starting to model their business operations using a spreadsheet, start with expected revenue by month. Then they calculate cost of sales, and then project their expenses, to find the bottom line profit or loss each projected month.
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Don’t Get Hung Up On Valuation

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up premoney valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road.
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Turn the Table: What’s an Angel Look Like?

Angel investors, particularly those in organized angel groups, are typically former entrepreneurs who have had successful liquidity events in their pasts, or executives of companies who’ve retired with the funds from their stock options.
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Find Your Champion

If you seek funds from an organized investment group such as an angel fund, venture capital entity, or even an investment club, the first thing you want to do is to find one person to buy into your vision.
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The Rule of Thirds

It is rare when one person starts a company, supplies all the funding, and shares no management tasks or equity with others, and still grows the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million dollar opportunity to cash out at exit.
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Eyeballs Aren’t Everything

Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, we investors—and acquiring companies—got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments.
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Can You Finance Your Company with Grants?

There are some grants available even for one person shops, from cities, corporations and even non-profits for just your type of business, especially if you support a social cause, can employ more people, or help turn around a geographic area in need of upgrade.
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