You have just had your eureka moment in your garden shed/office/workshop/lab, your idea finally works, you can change the world with your idea!
What do you do now?
Scaling up a business you have nurtured from inception is quite a task. Even if you have a world beating idea you may be left frustrated at your first attempts to take you business to the next level. You will feel that you need to be the master of all skills to get anywhere!
Why do I need an Executive team?
Most Investors, in the early stages, want to see a brochure, a investment deck (fancy name for a dynamic power point presentation online), an executive team with decades of experience and certification, and a business plan. So you now have to take off your inventors hat and become a marketing and business guru as well!
You have to prepare your business to present it well if you want to get the money. It's now you will begin to see the need for that public speaking class you should have attended years ago.
Many Investment consultants can help you get the team you need and online presence ready and pitch to investors, they are not cheap, but unless you are prepared for months, even years of turn downs and disappointments pitching to the wrong people, and you value your time, then you should at least consider a startup consultant.
Many startup businesses however, don't require a team just yet. Perhaps you have a simple product that can be sold online you may ask yourself why do I need the expense of a C.T.O., a C.F.O., and other executives? It's just one of the annoyances you have to deal with when you try getting your first startup funding.
Many investors say they are interested in 'shovel ready ideas,' yet every day you see more and more startups who are getting funded have a team of executives.
The Team does not have to cost you a fortune.
If you are certain that you can go it alone, your product or service is ready and requires minimum staff, you can sell it online, and the wife or the kids can help you pack and take to the post office or couriers, then that's all you need, why go into debt unless you need it?
Later as you become more and more profitable you can move to a small unit and take on a few more staff to get you growing even bigger. This then needs only minimum funding, then you could get that from family, friends and associates by offering shares where they are happy to wait a few years for their shares to grow.
Workout how much capital you need, then work out a value based on what you feel you can sell in a year times by 5, then offer a number of shares based on that amount to friends, family and associates. (Or the F.F.F. network as it is known in the industry; Friends, Family and Fools)
It is at this point you will find out who loves you whatever, and who thinks you are a 'joke,' use their negativity to motivate you to show them what you can achieve.
When you start pitching to Investors and you have had some seed funding already from the F.F.F Network, then this shows good sales skills and dynamism.
Social Media Marketing
It's not about just posting something online about your great discovery, and expecting the world to beat a path to your door, many investors won't entertain anything unless it's in their field of expertise regardless of how good your idea actually is, and with edge rank, the algorithm many social media sites use to show your post to your friends and to people outside your network, at an all time low, you really need to pay for promoting your posts to even get a small percentage to see it, and that done wrong is costly.
Many startup consultants have a massive social media reach through their marketing network, and a portfolio of Investors and Venture Capitalists who they have pigeon holed into what arenas they invest into and target market your idea to the right people saving you a lot of time, and if your business is time sensitive and you have others inventing similar things, and it is a race to get your product to market before them, then getting a good Investment consultant in, will be a wise investment.
Startup consultants can even pitch for you in front of those scary dragons!
Crowd funding
Sadly in my experience with getting my own funding and helping others get theirs, I noticed that the big crowd funding sites are now firmly in the hands of big business. Many of the products you see on Kick starter or Indigogo are so slick and well made and have very expensive videos done by the top marketing agencies, it makes the average shed inventor, close the door on their ideas and go back to a job.
These sites were originally aimed at real startups and offer a way to get funding for ordinary people, but if you spend a few hours posting on these sites, you will find that you, as a one man band are way down the pecking order.
Big Business pre-fund their campaigns to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars through many people, making a campaign look like it's really popular and you should not miss out.
Remember when music publishers would buy their own records to get them into the hit parade and get radio play? same thing with crowd funding sites now.
We tend to steer our clients away from these sites as they are not for the small one man startups anymore.
Loans
One thing you can try is a business loan. Like many a lender there are many hoops to jump through and time spent meeting bank managers who rely on the computer algorithm and you will first have to convince the bank's computer you don't need the money before you can get it.
Makes me sad to think of how many businesses from the 1950's through to the early 2000's survived on the good will and gut feeling of a bank manager who was well in touch with their community and their customers to grant extensions and loans based on how he felt about them without the need of a computer, and business and banks worked well together.
You may think getting a Limited company will negate any responsibility to the person, but Banks will always make you sign Directors guarantees and more often than not will need collateral as security, so; are you going to put your house on the gamble?
If you would like to speak to experienced startup consultants who can get you in front of the right type of investors then contact us. [email protected]
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