At some point in every entrepreneur’s career, there will come the time when they need to secure funding. However, getting the funding you need is no easy feat. The startup game is a risky business to get into, and a lot of that is because entrepreneurs are competing with a lot of competition for a limited amount of investment. As such, it is your responsibility to demonstrate why your idea is a great idea to invest in; it is up to you to convince them to open their wallet.
But in order to do this successfully, you are going to need to understand what the common mistakes are so that you can avoid these mistakes when you’re finally ready to secure some cash.
You Have To Understand Your Financial Position
This is the single biggest area of mistakes suffered by new entrepreneurs. So eager to prove themselves – and show off their great idea – they make huge mistakes regarding their financial position. Sometimes they haven’t done basic things, such as they haven’t secured loans to improve credit, personal credit, the credit that investors will scrutinize. Other times they will make completely unrealistic valuations of their company in order to grab attention. But anything that demonstrates you have misunderstood your financial situation is going to backfire massively. The reason for this is it shows a lack of understanding, a lack of maturity, a lack of leadership and a lack of ability. So always know your finances and always be truthful about them.
Surround Yourself With A Great Team
No successful business leader or entrepreneur has ever found success purely on their own. Apple, Google, Microsoft; every single one of these was started by a team, and that is a valuable lesson to learn. As such, it is imperative that you surround yourself with a group of people that will bring value to your company. An investor is much more likely to invest in a team of people than one person, and that is because the risk is massively reduced. They can be more confident in a startup that has a financial controller, a sales director, a design specialist and a user-experience manager than they can be in a single person that has an idea.
Know Your Place In The Market
It is such a simple thing to understand, and yet one of the big bear snares that catch so many newbies out. If you are starting a business – whether it offers a product or service – you have to know exactly where it is going to fit in the marketplace. Anyone that is investing in a startup is going to want to know about your go-to-market strategy, and that starts with knowing where you are going to launch and the demographic that is going to need you. This strategy is important to an investor because it is the very thing that gives you a competitive advantage over the other companies that operate in this sector, this niche, this industry. So know who you are, where you fit and how you are going to grow, and know all the little details too.
A lot of people like the idea of building their own small empire. Money is a key motivator in today’s world. And, it’s near impossible to avoid it’s snare. If you want to make something like this happen, though; you have to put in the work. And, it all has to start as early as possible to make the most out of it. It’s important that you start thinking about money as soon as you reach adulthood. Leaving it late will make it harder for you to make tracks. And, it will also mean you will struggle to amass enough for the future. To help you out, this post will be covering three areas that need to be considered when you’re trying to secure your financial future.
Saving money is fundamental to having it later in life. A lot of people struggle to spend as little as possible. And, instead, will spend everything that they make each month. But, you really need to be putting something away. The best way to get yourself going with something like this is by saving as much as you possibly can. Limit your spending the very bare minimum. And, save everything else that you get. Once you’ve been doing this well for a few weeks, you can consider spending more. It can help to cultivate savings habit with a basic savings account, which will allow you to track your money much easier than a regular bank account. But, be careful; it’s easy to fall into old spending habits if you’re not careful with your money.
Once you have at least three months worth of essentials and bills saved; you can start looking into investment. Investment is just like saving; only, there’s a little more risk. And, you will be making money throughout. When you first start investing, it’s alright to make risky investments that will pay big. But, once you have a decent amount; you will want to look into safer investments. The best type of investment for this sort of job are government-backed bonds. They will be protected from loss. And, most are tax free. So, they’re nice and cheap for you to use.
For most people, the biggest source of income in their lives will be their job. So, you need to be thinking about this in everything that you do. If you work hard when you are younger; you’re almost guaranteed to have an easier later life. Developing a good career will help you to make sure that you keep your income growing. And, that you always have something to rely on. Doing this can be a challenge. And, will probably take many years. But, it’s worth it in the end. You just have to start early.
Hopefully, this will be the turning point for you. Now, you have everything you need to start making sure that you have a secure future. Most people find that they stress about later life a lot. If you find yourself in this position; working to make a difference will make you feel much better.
A lot of people don’t know that, in the online business world, “ecommerce” and the online “marketplace” are two different things. Online marketplaces, for sure, are a form of ecommerce, but not all ecommerce businesses are marketplaces.
That might sound a bit odd, at first. Many seem to believe that the two terms are synonyms. In fact, those who are looking to begin an online store are best finding out what these two business models are before they start going further with their plans. Whether you decide to start an eCommerce business or a marketplace business, there is a lot to consider. You want to make sure your business is a success and by implementing the right steps, this is where your business can aim towards. Through tools such as ACH payment processing services for effective online payments, a supportive network and a good marketing campaign, you’ll have your business up and running in no time.
The main difference: taking the prime examples
When people talk about ecommerce, they’re generally referring to sites like eBay and Amazon. But there’s a big difference between the two, right? While the two businesses can find themselves competing, they both clearly work on very different business models.
Amazon is the more common model, and the one that people often mean when they talk about starting an online store. Amazon is actually a supplier – they have a warehouse filled with most of the goods they sell. eBay, on the other hand, is a marketplace. eBay doesn’t sell its own stock – other people are the ones using eBay to sell their own shares. eBay essentially acts as the middleperson. (Although it’s worth noting that Amazon also facilitates other sellers, using their service called – hey, whaddya know? – Amazon Marketplace.)
Which is best for startups?
This article, of course, assumes, to an extent, that you’re looking to start an online shopping business but don’t have a direct desire with regards to how you go about it just yet. Some will have already decided that they want to be a supplier like Amazon. If you’re reviewing your options, then you may be wondering which one comes with less initial cost and which one can bring the most profits in the long-term.
As you may be aware, ecommerce websites are usually the ones that make the most money in the long run. However, they also present the biggest risk because you need to spend so much on overhead as well as inventory. This can be fine for those with enough capital, but a marketplace may appeal to those who need lower starting costs. That’s because you’re not actually buying the stock in question. And if you’re using multi-vendor marketplace software for business owners, then you will find it easier to work with more vendors, which can encourage short-term profit.
Considering brand loyalty
Of course, one of the things that really help businesses thrive is brand loyalty. Customers who love your service will be happier to preach about how great you are to others. You have a lot more control over this aspect if you’re running an ecommerce business. Sure, a lot of daunting responsibility falls into your hands, but when things go right, customers will know it was your hard work.
Now consider something like eBay, a marketplace. More often than not, your positive or negative experiences have little impact on how you feel about eBay itself. It’s the sellers who you actually bought from that get the praise or the flack. Of course, that doesn’t mean the marketplace is a passive thing – you will still need to step in if a seller tries to wrong a customer! This is how you can shine in this area.
As people, we want a certain degree of independence and self-reliability. It’s only natural that the same goes for business. We would all like to take care of everything we need in-house. Sometimes, however, that just isn’t realistic. Especially if you’re a smaller business. If you’re confused as to where to dedicate your time and where to dedicate your resources, then it’s about prioritizing when you seek some help outside the business. Here, we’re going to look at when it really matters.
The structure of a business, assigning workloads and optimizing workflow are things that a business owner should learn to take care of by themselves. Project management, communication methods, and work prioritization are skills that can help you in many different situations. However, nowadays, the structure of a business isn’t all down to good planning. It’s about the tech that helps the business operate as well. IT support could be a crucial thing to rely on when the time comes that you realise you need not just a bunch of computers but a network that lets them connect together and share resources much quicker from person to person in the workplace. Deciding whether to outsource or to get a team in-house is all about the cost-effectiveness of it. Smaller businesses, for instance, might not the burden of keeping full-time employees to handle what is only an occasional need.
A good degree of business sense and knowledge of best practices are another essential quality in a successful business owner. But you can’t be expected to know the ins-and-outs of how your business interacts with the various laws and regulations. Especially not when the legal minefield that is human resources is involved. When it comes to drafting up policies, whether they’re about hiring and firing, dealing with harassment, health and safety, promotional efforts and more, you need to make sure the policy covers every potential conflict. Without some legal expertise on your side, you could find the business stepping over the bounds more often than it should.
You naturally want the most talented people in your team. However, you’re going to want those talents applied in areas that you’re dealing with often. Sales, administration, the running of the business is what matters to you every day. Website design isn’t something that you’ll constantly be working on. But it still matters a great deal to the business. Unless you truly have some world class site building and branding talent within the business, you want to reach out to those people who really know what they’re doing. Otherwise, you could end up creating an amateur image for the business that does you more harm than good.
Some business owners treat outsourcing like a dirty word, but the chances are that, if they haven’t already used it before, they’ll have to rely on it at some point in the future. It’s all about knowing when to outsource to keep your business cost-effective and always making progress on the right path.
Businesses want the best people in their employ. It makes no sense to settle for an average workforce because it encourages mediocre results. The firm needs a team of awesome workers to build an awesome company. It’s that simple. What isn’t simple is finding the candidates that ooze excellence as they are high demand. Plus, there is a lot of fish in the pond, and sometimes the small ones get caught in the net. With that in mind, the following list has put together a handful of creative techniques to locate the best of the best.
Check Out Job Websites
Not many employers click the ‘visit here to do job search’ button because they don’t think it is in their interest. After all, they aren’t an employee looking for a job – they are the employer. However, this is still a brilliant method as it allows the company to check out the competition. By acting as a job hunter, the firm can evaluate the landscape and then tweak its offer to go one better. It’s a little underhand, but hey, this is a brutal industry. Also, job sites tend to have a version for employers, a version which allows businesses to post jobs.
Search For Ex-Military
Why would anyone want a sharpshooter sitting behind a desk? Wouldn’t they be a liability? It’s true that ex-military personnel can be tricky due to their previous employment. Still, they have lots of skills that can benefit the company. The best example is their leadership qualities as soldiers and officers know how to give orders and follow orders. Even better, they know how to get other people to comply, and their teamwork skills are second to none. As long as they have a natural flair for the position, they could be promotion material.
A referral system is a fancy way of saying a firm should promote internally. Although it does have pitfalls – ‘inbred’ culture e.g. – there is one huge advantage. People call it access to the passive candidate in business circles, and there’s no better employee. The passive candidate tends to be a person that isn’t interested in a job because they are happy with their role. Therefore, they don’t have their name on the job boards because they aren’t looking to move. Also, they are usually the best workers because they are highly valued and competent. By promoting in-house, a company has access to a host of people that didn’t think they wanted a change. As it turns out, they are curious.
Host An Open House
Yep, an open house is the same as an open house in real estate. The difference, in this case, is that the business isn’t looking to find a buyer. Nope, they’re looking for an employee. What’s great about this is that it allows employers to ‘wine and dine’ the people they want to talk to and ask them questions. All they have to do is get them in the room, which isn’t hard when there is free food and free alcohol.
But, a company shouldn’t overuse this tactic. It’s effective, yet only in small doses.
Recent Comments