Every start-up begins with a brilliant idea, but to get your businesses off the ground, you need seed money. There are a whole host of ways that startup founders generate funding, including angel investors, bootstrapping, crowdfunding, and seeking venture capital, but another common means of doing so is asking family and friends to pitch in […]
Seeking Funding
6 Key Ways to Answer Investor Questions
Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Those who respond with one of the wrong answers, such as “I want […]
How to Safely Secure Financing for Your Business
If you need financing, what’s the first thing you should do? Head to the bank? Post on Kickstarter? Go on ABC’s “Shark Tank”? In a world where the finance industry has developed a product to take advantage of many well-meaning entrepreneurs (i.e. “the business cash-advance”), where companies promise you funding within five days and use […]
6 Startup Strategies That Turn Off Most Investors
Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. How an entrepreneur answers this question speaks volumes about their knowledge of business realities, customers, confidence, and their ability to handle investor funding. There is no perfect answer to the […]
When is it OK to Fund Your Startup with Credit Cards?
We are fortunate to be living in a time when new financing options for funding your small business are popping up every day. However, they all come with limitations. Here is a super quick rundown of some: Banks. Hesitant to loan money to unknown founders. Crowdfunding. With some the money you raise will be taxed […]
Contrarian Advice on Investment Pitch from a Pitch Veteran
“We coach entrepreneurs ‘think big.’ ‘Think change the world.’ That doesn’t mean use adjectives that are not credible. Everybody’s revolutionary and everybody’s disruptive now.” That’s Bill Reichert, managing director Garage Technology Ventures, veteran investor, a board member on multiple startups, and someone who has heard and reacted to hundreds of investment pitches. In this talk […]
10 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Meet Cash Flow Peaks
The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and […]
5 Tips for Finding the Best Loan for Your Business
There is a big difference between finding any business loan and the right business loan. If you a need a loan, you need to make sure you find the best product and price available to your business. You can’t expect the right loan to simply appear before your eyes. It takes a bit of searching […]
6 Reasons Smart Entrepreneurs Think Twice Before IPO
The visibility of Google, Facebook and a few others continues to propagate the myth that the ultimate objective of every entrepreneur should be to take their startups public via an initial public offering at the earliest opportunity. Everyone thinks this is the route to become the next billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg. In reality, this option […]
3 Tips for Financing Your Dental Practice
Opening your own dental practice is a huge step. Whether you are starting out on your own, or you are branching out from an already established business, it is going to be a challenge in many ways. One of the first challenges to overcome is that of financing. Consider Dental Practice Working Capital Loans These […]
