Raise Millions For Your Company: What Are VCs? (Prelude)
When its time for you to go out there and raise thousands or millions for your business – you’ll probably want to talk with VCs (or Venture Capitalists). If you’ve never done it before then it can be intimidating – even if you have the beginnings of the best business on the planet.Â
To help you, I recorded a brief overview of what VCs are, some of their key motivations and some invaluable tips that could move you closer to raising millions for your business.
Take a listen and if you have any questions or would like me to go deeper into a particular element of this overview – post in my comments section and I’ll be happy to reply.
If you’d like more tips and thoughts that could help you and your business – consider joining my mailing list and get my free “Start-Ups Launch Blueprint” today.
Here’s to YOUR Start-Up Success!
Andrew
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How to Register A Company For Less – The Blueprint Examined
Start Your Company for Under $87 Bucks
I have been following the blog postings of Yaro Starak for quite some time – I would say I was a big fan if it wouldn’t sound too hokey! Dammit! It slipped out..oh, well, it’s out there now. Gulp!
So who is Yaro and why am I a fan?
Well, Yaro can do a much better job of telling you who he is – in fact, that’s one of Yaro’s things, he’s open about who he is and what his motivations are – he’s a refreshingly regular guy that has worked every day for the last four years plus to learn and navigated his way through and over the hurdles of building a business on the internet within the blogging community. Yaro is slowly and surely deploying those lessons to grow his business and help others do the same.
I would really check out his blog – it’s got some great information if you are interested in building a blog, traffic or online business (or all three at once) but one point that Yaro made which resonated more than any other for me was to think about how you can create value in your blogs – don’t go out there trying to make money from day 1 but focus instead on giving your readers (even if there are only five of them 
) a reason to keep coming back, give them VALUE!
For that reason, I thought I would create a blueprint showing people how they can create a company for under $87. Why?
Because you can go online and spend anything from $$$ to start your own business if you use a lawyer or an online service (assuming they do a good job?) and many people starting companies for the first time will think that the only way to do it — mainly because they’ve never done it before and setting up a company sounds daunting and complicated. Let’s face it – anything you’ve never done before often sounds daunting and complicated but after you’ve done it a few times — easy!
So, the “Start-Up Launch Blueprint” brings a number of resources together to help the first time entrepreneur to start their own company, simply and with little fuss. I also included access to a number of free resources such as online books to help entrepreneurs determine what kind of company – LLC or Corporation — the pros and cons of both; finding a good accountant; attorney; bank; licenses and permits requirements and other key elements necessary to successfully start a business.
 If you are interested in Starting Your Own Business – read “Start Your Company for under $87 Bucks – A “Start-Up Launch Blueprint”
And how do you get a copy?
Well, for a short time only, I’m giving it away FREE if you sign up to my mailing list. I don’t want the ‘ad’ for this blueprint to clog up my blog for long, so I can’t guarantee, if you don’t get it today, that you’ll be able to get it tomorrow.
So, sign up to my mailing list and get “Start Your Company for under $87 Bucks – A “Start-Up Launch Blueprint’ NOW!”
Thanks Yaro and thanks reader!
Andrew
If this 13 Year Old Can Start A Business then What’s Stopping YOU!
I just read an article about a thirteen year old boy who started an online business -Â he’s basically setup a wordpress blogging platform and created an environment for people with a ‘Scottish’ heritage to join together.
Is it tough to set up a wordpress blog? Absolutely not – it takes, from start to finish, probably about 30 minutes but that’s not the point – the point is, the barriers you believe are stopping you from starting your own business are more inside your head than in reality, especially if you consider starting small and growing it over time.
Now, in fairness, I don’t know what this kid being thirteen has to do with anything – except that starting a business is first and foremost a ‘mindset’ thing which may (?) be rare in thirteen year olds…
But given the shaky economy – its an ideal time to start pursuing your dream to start a business, whatever your age.
Here’s the article:
http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/01/05/if-a-13-year-old-can-launch-a-startup-you-have-no-excuse/
Let me know what you think and consider joining my mailing list if you would like more.
Here’s to your Start-Up Success!
Andrew
10 Things to Remember When Starting A Business
1)Â Your business does NOT have to be completely unique…
If that was the case then there wouldn’t be McDonald’s AND Burger King selling hamburgers, in other words, don’t wait for the lightening to strike before you seize the day and begin your entrepreneurial journey. You’re idea does NOT need to be unique but how you execute should be – better?  faster? Cheaper? more bells and whistles? Less? Ideally find and focus on a real difference that your customers or prospects will care about then tell them over and over again, in as many ways as you can.Â
2)Â You do NOT need to quit your day job to be a true entrepreneur…
We would all love to write that resignation letter and tell the MAN where he can put his ‘stinking’ job (Read with Tony Montana Scarface accent)….but everything about starting a business takes, at best, twice as long as you expect to get every task done. If you can slowly gain momentum with your business, test it out, get a few happy, reference-able customers without giving up the pay check then you may want to think seriously about biting your tongue until your new business can keep you in the style you have grown accustom.
3)Â You do NOT need to spend a fortune to test a new business idea or product…
If it’s a physical product, create a prototype, find some would-be-customers and ask them what they think…believe it or not, prospects LIKE being asked their opinion – especially before all a products features are locked in. And if you’re lucky, those discussions will help you find something unique that none of your competitors have which will really increase interest and demand. It will also help you understand the mindset of your prospective customer and what do I mean by that? A few things – what is important about the product to them and how they talk about it – this will help you understand what elements you need to focus in on when marketing your product and how to communicate about those elements in a way that resonates with your prospects.Â
Blatant example – surfer dude product, pitch using the latest phrases and terminology of the target customer. Without spending the time to get into those conversations, you would probably resort to throwing in a few ‘Dudes!’ and hoping for the best…Â
If it’s a website or software then consider finding an inexpensive freelancer from elance – they often have people who can create a cheap testable version of a site or software without requiring a second mortgage on the family pet. Make sure you take a good look at the reviews from other folks who previously used their services.
4) You do NOT need to use an expensive lawyer to create a legal entity…
First there are many low priced options found on the web but even better (in my opinion) is to go directly to the source.  In my case I found the New Jersey local government website and used their pretty easy to understand website – establishing a business in a State brings revenue so you’ll find most States are very helpful when it comes to helping you establish your business. You can spend a fortune or even a few hundred bucks to a lawyer – but it took me about an hour to do online via my States site and all I paid was the regular registration fees via credit card.
Worth considering.
5)  You DO need to go that URL or web address…
Go to a site like www.GoDaddy.com and use their web address search capabilities to find the ideal url (web address) for your business and register it. This matters whether the business is web or product or service based -
6)Â Consider protecting your business by registering a Trademark, Service mark or Patent.
I’ll write a more in depth post on this area but consider if you need protection for your new business, especially if it’s unique or if you intend to build some kind of brand image around the product, service or website. The core reason for considering something along these lines is to ensure no one comes along later and capitalizes on your hard work in building the customer recognition in your particular business.  If you decide to explore this, here’s where you go -
Again, you CAN spend a fortune on a lawyer but again, online resources of this government agency is getting better and easier to understand than a year or two ago – so you may find you can do some or all elements yourself. This obviously depends on your time and comfort level. Take into consideration a couple of things: a) registering a patent, trademark, service mark etc is a process and takes time and money b) if someone infringes your patent or trademark – do you have the sums and the focus required to defend it?
7)Â You do NOT need others to give you the Confidence you need to pursue your idea…
You don’t NEED to have people tell you your business will be wildly successful, do you?
Sure, it would be nice to have a whole group of friends, relatives and better, angel investors, tell you YOUR idea is the next world changing business but their fond wishes (alone) and claps on the back will not move your business one inch closer to being a reality. What you need, more than anything else (even cash) is the passion, commitment and just plain grit to make your business a success.
When talking to others about your business ideas – you may want to consider the following:
a) Often, feedback from others can be inversely related to your relationship. Huh? What do I mean by that? It’s simple, those people without a stake in your future will probably tell you how great the idea is and how you should tell your boss where to get off tomorrow…your husband or wife will probably not, the reverse in fact. Inverse – see? Few will give you feedback on your business idea in a vacuum so, do yourself a favor and talk to the people who really matter – prospective customers.
b) If people you speak with input into the idea or product concept or prototype then they may have a legal stake in your company’s future. True! With my first company, my partners Father helped him out when my partner was working in his workshop – throwing in some ideas. He then talked about suing the company for some degree of ownership once the business was worth something until he received a significant amount of equity. Money makes people do some pretty strange things, so be careful about working with others on your prototyping, concept development etc.
You don’t HAVE to have a Business Partner…
With the first few companies I started, I was nervous. Would it take off? Would people buy? Could I get everything done? Frankly – the questions and fears seemed endless. One of the first things I did was find someone to talk to about my ideas as a way of getting alternative opinions and one person in particular seemed enthusiastic about my concept.
“Hey X – why don’t we do it together?”
…it seemed so natural at the time. Like lemmings, there seemed to be a reassurance in numbers, ‘cos if two people wanted to pursue the business idea then maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all…makes sense right?
Wrong!
Being in partnership in a Start-Up is TOUGH! There is stress and pressure involved in starting a business and you need to know what roles each partner will be responsible for delivering – ideally, your partner’s strengths should match your own weaknesses. Also consider ego – can you guys work together for 18 hours a day without ego getting in the way? How will you run the business? Will one person be the ultimate decision maker or will you run everything by committee? Sure, committee, why not? – It worked for early twentieth century Russia didn’t it? (Is the sarcasm coming through?)
So by all means get a business partner but make sure you both do your due diligence and consider ‘dating’ for a while before you commit to full on marriage.
9) Write a Business Plan and develop Financials EVEN THOUGH they’ll be WRONG!
I guarantee you your business plan and financials will be WRONG!
It will (if you are lucky) take you twice as long as you expect to get everything done – from product or web development…all the way through to getting your first customer or your first five thousand customers.Â
It will (if you are lucky) cost you twice as much as you put into your initial business plan financials to do pretty much everything.
And there are so many unforeseen costs and challenges that as soon as you press ‘SAVE’ on your final business plan and their financials – your plan is already likely to be wrong.
So why do it?
Because by going through the process of thinking about your new business and all its dimensions, you WILL spot challenges, issues, opportunities and you will probably have quite a few ‘A HA’ moments that could save you pain, time and money and point you towards some other exciting short and medium term ways of improving your business. It’s a process that should also help you determine timings of your business roadmap – i.e. when you will need certain resources such as people, additional funds, office space and so on.
Yes – your business plan will be wrong but it will be a good guide – without it, you are shooting from the hip and hoping for the best. Fun but riskier than it needs to be.
10) Create and prove Value BEFORE you raise money (if possible)…
The more value you can create and prove before you ask people to invest, the more of your own company you will probably be able to keep. It’s a simple equation – if you prove value then you are proving your company is more ‘valuable’ – therefore you get more dollars for a slice of the business than you would before proving that value.
An idea is worth something…
An idea with a prototype is worth X more…
And idea with a paying customer isn’t an idea – it’s the beginning of a business…
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I hope these points have been helpful. Let me know and consider joining our mailing list if you would like more.
Here’s to your Start-Up Success.
Andrew
Product Development: Get Creative, Get Frustrated, Get Started!
I’ve have never tried to get this very personal process down in one place before. From idea through to a real business step by step, with as many of my own personal techniques and suggestions thrown in, as we go. There are rainforest amounts of books printed about people’s startup experiences – what I’d like to try here is to write about the real techniques and steps I have been through many times before when taking a new business idea and working to move it through to a real product or service. Hopefully a more grounded approach than some of those ‘How to’ or ‘My experience as an Entrepreneur’ books. Well, we’ll see. Questions and comments very welcome!
So, want to start a business? Have the necessary passion to start a new business but are unsure where to start? Looking for that new, innovative, winning new business idea? Or perhaps you’re waiting for divine inspiration to serve up that winning idea like money from heaven before you actually get up off that sofa and GO FOR IT. Sorry to burst your bubble – waiting won’t make it happen. You have to ‘create’ it yourself. But maybe it’s closer and easier to get than you think, maybe you can come up with that idea today.
Here are a few ways that work for me – so much so that they’ve become almost unconscious processes that happen on autopilot and better yet, their easy. Give them a try.
When asked where my ideas for new business come from I often joke that it’s a ‘disease’, something which is uncontrolled, being delivered in the grey matter between my ears without conscious thought or a process. That’s close, but not exactly how it happens.
During my first interview for a role at Procter & Gamble fresh out university one interview question still sticks with me. The interviewer passed a glass across the table and asked me to name ten uses for it. Use number 1 was…a glass, she was unimpressed. Use number 2 was a paper weight, (better but still no cigar), number 3 was a lens to read small print in a document and before I knew what had happened, ten different and increasingly creative (read – crazy) uses had spilled out in the interview room.
That process is not too dissimilar from the process you could try. This redeployment of one product idea (in my case ‘a stack of Pringles’) into another product category (Fire Escape Ladders) helped me come up with the idea for my first company, X-IT Products to produce an idea I’d had for the world’s smallest, safest, strongest fire escape ladder. See the link?
A refinement on that creative free thinking is what we’ll call ‘What if’. Find a product, web service or business that is in the space that you are passionate about and really impresses you. Thought of it?
What’s great about that business? What do you really like about it? Now think about what would make it even better? That would take it from being a great business and make it a world class business. Write down every idea that comes to you….when you feel yourself drying up, read through the list and see if that squeezes any more ideas out of you. Take a read through that list and see if any light bulbs go off in your head – any really obvious improvements or refinements to that already great business?
The third approach that might work even better for you is what I’ll call the ‘Pissed Off’ brainstorm. Has a product, service or business failed to live up to it’s promise? Maybe they over sold you or your expectations were mis-aligned with the reality of the business. Maybe they screwed up or the product was faulty. Perhaps they don’t exactly meet your need. But who cares? You do, because this is an opportunity to figure out what the business or product needed to do to deliver on it’s promise, to meet and exceed your expectations. And if they aren’t meeting your needs because of some flaw, figure out what needs to happen to solve it.
Let’s try an example, I’m driving from New York to Philadelphia – it’s lunch time and I’m hungry. Watching the signs as I travel, what are my options? Ah, here we are – McDonalds, Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts and a few no-brand obscure Italian restaurants. More often than not if I’m hungry enough, I’ll drive through and buy something. But just once, wouldn’t it be good if I could get something that was healthier. It’s true that most of these places sell salads but then the light bulb goes off! Before Whole Foods selling organic and more ‘wholesome’ food, most supermarkets were similar. Whole Foods changed the supermarket ‘game’ – what about a motor way food joint that changes the game in the same way as Whole Foods?
A quick, drive through that offers freshly prepared, all organic, non-greasy, non-salad food? As of today, at least on the routes I drive, they would be the only food chain of its type. Talk about cornering an underserved market. Surely not everyone want’s a burger or a slice of pizza? Is this a winning idea? Who know’s but it could make someone a lot of money if it takes off. Don’t forget my percentage if you make this one a reality!
So, there are other ways that these ideas are created but hopefully these few are good as a start, so:
Product Design New Application:
Think of how one product or design can be re-deployed to solve other problems
What If?:
How could a great product or business be a ‘world class’ business? How does it need to change or improve?
The Pissed Off Brainstorm:
If only X did it this way….why couldn’t they just do Y?
Try these approaches and see where they take you. Feel free to come back and post how you get on. Maybe then I can write an article on some ‘what to do next’ steps for your new winning idea.
When you find your winning idea then you are already further along than most ‘would be’ entrepreneurs, now to go an make it a reality.
Sign up to our mailing list if you would like to get more ideas for your Startup Success!
Andrew
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You Think Therefore You Are! You’re Not Failing, You’re Learning!
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Image via Wikipedia I think therefore I am! Descartes, a French philosopher, came to that conclusion in 1644. “I think therefore I am.” - it had all started for Mr. Descartes when he wondered how he could prove that anything actually existed. For some reason, perhaps, just perhaps, everything he saw and experienced was imaginary. Imagine [...]