5 Effective Ways To Raise Money For A New Business You may have a winning business idea, but unless you can arrange for the right amount of funds it mostRead More
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]]>You may have a winning business idea, but unless you can arrange for the right amount of funds it most likely will not transform into a successfully scalable venture in the 5 plus years to come. The question is – where do you get the money from? Well, there is always the bank loan; but it’s the hardest to get for a new entrepreneur.
How do you manage to raise money for a new business? Here are 5 of the most effective ways to do it. Remember though, you may have to mix and match all or a few of them to make it work to your advantage.
Self-funding is often the only option for a new entrepreneur, as financial institutions make it difficult for them to get a loan. Liquid assets aren’t the only option though. You can leverage your other assets to raise the necessary money.
It can be anything – downsizing to a smaller home, selling off your luxury car, selling off jewels, and so on. You can also take out a loan against your home, your savings account or even your whole life insurance policy.
While banks will ask for business plans, financial projections, and collateral before they give any loan, you may not have to face any such hurdles when you decide to borrow from your close ones. But it’s easier in theory than in practice.
You may not have to pay any interest (or even if you have to, it’s usually quite low). But make sure you get every detail in writing. And also make sure it is a loan, and you don’t give away a legal stake in your business to everyone.
If you can convince your suppliers to work with you in such a manner that you have a fixed period of time before you need to pay for the supplies, things can work out. It works in the same way for established businesses.
But it isn’t easy. You have to provide suppliers with a good business plan, financial projections, collateral, and any other documents they ask for to make it work. Once you have the agreement in place, you will have a fixed time before you need to pay them.
These are successful entrepreneurs who can help you get your business on track. But remember, it’s not a loan; it’s an equity investment. So, you have to hand over a slice of ownership to them when you get their money.
The advantage is that you don’t need to fret over regular payments or interest rates. But on the downside, you may have to share the authority over your business. And it may be a little difficult at times to ask for approval from every investor.
Certain companies specialize in finding lenders for small businesses. All small business loans can help you find the funds for your new venture. But you need a business plan, financial projections and some money for the startup.
Online lending sites are good places to get loans for your small business too. But they are unsecured loans. And it’s essential that you scrutinize every detail, especially the fine print, of the loan agreement before you sign on the dotted line.
You can also check out the loan programs available from the government to identify possible opportunities to get adequate financing. If you are eligible, it can take out one of the biggest hurdles in creating a successful business – startup costs.
Venture Capital by Elaine and Kaiwen Leong
StartupLand by Mikkel Svane
Everyday Entrepreneurs by Ken Horn
Do Cool Sh*t by Miki Agrawal
The Startup Survival System by Kurt Won
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]]>A summary of things you should know about Do Cool Sh*t according to Miki Agrawal: Introduction In this episode Miki Agrawal takes a deep dive into her book, Do CoolRead More
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]]>In this episode Miki Agrawal takes a deep dive into her book, Do Cool Sh*t, where she reveals her insights on starting a successful company and living happily ever after.
In her book Agrawal teaches you fresh yet effective tactics for starting a new company from brainstorming to raising money to getting quality press coverage without having any connections. The goal of the book is to provide you with a quirky yet honest look into the life of a serial entrepreneur and give you the confidence to quit your job, start your own business, and live a happy life.
This book is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs who are currently working for someone else and are ready to make a move into the world of self-employment.
My book is one that you want to finish and finish fast so that you get all the answers to the thrilled adventures I take you on.
You can go in and out because each chapter holds their own, but it does have a story art if you read it from front to back.
Put your running shoes on a walk out that door! The minute you walk out that door and put one foot in front of the other things will start to fall into place.
When I was 24 years old I started by going to these one on one interviews with potential investors. Sitting across from these investors I found myself very nervous and not feeling like myself. So for six months I just sat in meeting after meeting, feeling very uncomfortable, and raising no money. I knew that I need to figure out what I was doing wrong and that’s when I realized I wasn’t authentic. It became very clear that if you can’t be confident in a meeting they aren’t going to invest in you. I started hosting fundraising dinner parties where I would invite anyone I knew with extra change in their pockets. I knew free food and a nice evening would get people in the door. When it came to introducing the business idea I realized at the time that I was not confident enough and had someone else pitch it for me. From those dinner parties I was able to raise $250,000 for my first restaurant business. This is just one of the examples that I share in the book and I share every bit of the detail of hosting these dinner parties.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 07:10
“Iteration is perfection.” – Unknown
I started off working in Investment Banking when I graduated from Cornell University. 9/11 happened just a few days after I moved to New York, I was supposed to be at the World Trade Center that day but it was the first time in my life that I slept through my alarm clock. That was sort of my wake up call. I played professional soccer for a couple of years; I worked in the film business and worked my way up in production. I had my first stomach ache when I decided to start my first business which was a gluten free farm-to-table pizza concept in New York City. My newest project is called THINX which is a women’s empowerment apparel company that provides a sustainable underwear solution for women to wear doing their time of the month.
When you are in college entrepreneurship is really not something that you study and there wasn’t an entrepreneurship course. And so I began to read books by entrepreneurs and walked away so inspired but with so many questions. I wanted to find a book that I could read and one that gave me the step by step system to go from step zero to step one in business and life.
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
Buy Do Cool Sh*t by Miki Agrawal on Amazon today
Visit MikiAgrawal.com to learn more about Miki and her story
Visit DoCoolShit.org to learn more about the book
Follow Miki Agrawal on Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Startupland by Mikkel Svane
Startup Mixology by Frank Gruber
The Freaks Shall Inherit the Earth by Chris Brogan
Relevant advice and tips:
5 Important Things That Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know About Starting a New Business
7 Signs That You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur
What did you like and not like about this episode? Fill out this one minute survey here.
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