Crowdfunding Your Startup [INFOGRAPHIC]
In a down economy, it’s difficult for entrepreneurs to access the capital needed to build their venture from the ground up. Luckily, projects can now be funded by a powerful combination of the social Internet and generous networks of friends, colleagues, and communities. This model is called “crowdfunding” and is sweeping the startup nation by storm. It seem s to be an entrepreneurs dream,. bit are there problems in the way?
Check out the below infographic on how to navigate the new crowdfunding landscape (click image for larger view).
Click for Larger View
infographic source: drawing a crowd
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Is There Ever a Bad Time To Start a Business?
Do you dream about starting a business, but don’t know if it is the right time? Are you concerned that the economic recovery still has a long way to go, so now might not be the right moment? Are you letting fear stop you from following your dream of owning a business?
Starting a business is something that can be done, no matter the economic climate. You may have to adjust your plan, but if you are savvy enough, you can find the customers your new business needs.
You cannot wait for the perfect time, or you will always be making an excuse as to why now is not the right time. The fear will always be there, so embrace it instead of running from it. Harness your fear and direct it in a positive way to ensure you are making smart decisions and thinking before acting.
The Right Frame Of Mind
The one thing that you need to have before starting a new business is the right frame of mind – the right attitude. If you are not mentally in the game, then don’t even bother. Conceptualizing, forming, growing, and running, a business takes a lot of time and energy, and creates a lot of stress and uncertainty. If your head is not in the game, then your business is doomed to fail from the start.
A great mental attitude can trump your lack of business knowledge. You can always gain knowledge, or hire someone smarter than you, but without passion, you lack the drive to be able to have a successful business. Having the right mindset is something you need before becoming an entrepreneur. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot while you build your company.
The Right Idea
However, the right frame of mind will only get you so far. You also need to have a great concept for a business. This doesn’t mean that your idea for the perfect business has to be something that nobody has heard of before – it just needs to be unique.
While there are probably plenty of unique businesses that have yet to be thought of, you don’t have to be a pioneer in order to be a successful business owner. What you do need is to bring something original to the table. If you are going to compete with existing companies in the marketplace, you have to have your own unique selling point. What makes you different from the other guys? Why would consumers (or businesses) choose you over your competition?
Take The Bull By The Horns
You can analyze yourself to death and never take the first step to realizing your dream of being an entrepreneur. While it would be foolish to throw caution to the wind, quit your day job and devote all of your energy to starting a business, there is nothing to say that you can’t commit to moving forward as quickly as you can, under your current circumstances.
Figure out what type of business you want to start, and assuming it isn’t a totally unique concept that the world has never seen, figure out how your business is going to be able to set itself apart from the competition. Commit to yourself that you are going to actually become a business owner sometime in the foreseeable future.
Don’t procrastinate any longer thinking now isn’t the right time to move forward. You have the power to convince yourself the time is never right. You also have the power to take control and move past your fears. Working for yourself is like nothing else. Why would you want to delay this opportunity any longer?
About the Author: Marshall Davis runs Talking Small Biz, a website where small business owners and budding entrepreneurs can learn about products and services to help them become more successful. Read his blog and learn more about becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Photo Credit: milos milosevic
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
4 Lessons Learned From Mistakes of Internet Past
The speculative bubble of “dot com” era was a period of rapid growth followed by a significant decline between 1995 and 2000. Many of the companies that prospered during this brief explosion relied on venture capital and initial public offerings to cover expenses.
They valued growth over profitability which later led to significant problems. Companies soared to incredible heights on paper with little actual value, leading to numerous repercussions in the financial world. Even at the time, one didn’t need a PhD to see the problems in online businesses, Companies of today may learn from the mistakes of this time.
1. Using IPOs and Venture Capital for Expenses
Many successful businesses such as Amazon.com, Google, and eBay survived the dot com era. Amazon and Google in particular relied on IPOs and venture capital for expenses, used the free spending strategy, and valued growth over making a profit in the first few years as their stocks soared exponentially. During this time, the founders mostly had no income. Many people profited from this speculative wealth that ultimately led to crash. Educated investors knew the crash was coming and thus profited from the companies’ growth and got out before the stock market crashed. Companies should have a plan for profitability and capital for expenses to avoid this pitfall.
2. Failure to Develop a Solid Business Plan
Businesses should develop plans that include strategies to become profitable within a short time. Investors are more astute since the ’90s’ dot com bubble, and are less likely to invest in companies when the stock prices are overvalued and the fundamentals aren’t favorable. Profitable business plans should include a strategy for marketing, sales, product development, and asset acquisition. Without both long-term and short-term strategy, businesses will fall victim to using the Internet for growth with little concern for their sustainability.
Dot-com-era business all had similar business plans essentially promoting a monopoly in each particular sector. Ultimately, this strategy would allow only one company to emerge successfully and the majority would fail. Moreover, some businesses’ ideas simply didn’t pan out. For instance, online retailers didn’t consider that huge shipping costs would deter users. Their business plans and models were not well researched and didn’t anticipate potential problems that e-commerce would bring, but just relied on the momentum of the public to propel the ideas.
Businesses with novel ideas that will change the way people interact in the world should recognize that these ideas are not developed instantaneously. Many companies have become seemingly successful overnight, but other vital events happened to prepare them for this success. Every company should recognize that not every idea will be profitable immediately.
3. Free Spending
Venture capitalists were freely giving money to business owners, and business owners were freely spending it in turn. They purchased lavish items for the business, took expensive trips, and stayed in luxury hotels. Executives were paid in stock options as opposed to cash. Many of the founders became instant millionaires after the IPO, then founded more dot com companies to repeat the cycle of empty explosive growth. Businesses need to spend prudently until they become actually, sustainably profitable.
4. Predictive Tools Not Used
Many business owners mistakenly expected the adoption of the Internet to be immediate. Current and historical data should be gathered and analyzed to avoid similar mistakes with other new technologies. Numerous tools have been developed since that time to help investors and business owners analyze the market. With these tools, business owners may better be able to identify ideas that don’t have the potential for longevity.
=
These are just a few problems that occurred during the dot com era that were detrimental to companies. From the business plan designed to create monopoly to the lack of use of predictive tools for success, the dot com era was plagued with mistakes. The self-made millionaires of the time might disagree, as well as companies such as eBay, Amazon, and Google that survived the crash and continued as internet giants. They are, though, the exceptions, not the rule. In general, businesses should adhere to basic models and principles with proven success rates, even if a lucky few have managed to shoot the moon.
About the Author: Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and
history to medicine and videogames. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things
instead.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Are you clear about your Business Idea?
Having worked with a startup since quite some time now, I have realized that one does not need to know rocket science to be an entrepreneur. You just have to plan and plan well. Right from the ideation stage to the execution to the allocation of your resources, all your activities should be planned well. Your idea need not be revolutionary in order for you to start; it just has to be in place!
Do You Lack Clarity?
One key reason why most startups fail is due to the lack of this clarity. ‘What do you want to achieve through this endeavor? What solution are you attempting to provide? Who are your target customers?’ – these are some crucial questions which need to be answered before you venture out.
These questions might seem redundant at the beginning but eventually you will realize that the answers to these questions hold the key to your success. As your venture grows, there would be different teams pulling and pushing this idea in different directions- your marketing team will have a different understanding of your product/service, your product team will have a different approach. At such a juncture your vision of the product/service is important to bring everybody on the same plane. Each team might be right in their own way and (without sounding too skeptical) might be thinking about the good of the organization, but there is only so much that can be achieved with the resourceson hand.
Don’t Be Led Astray
With new technologies coming up and new segments joining your target group, the lure to deviate from your core idea will be very strong. You will always find a better website, a better team and a better technology in the similar field of business and you would be tempted to incorporate their ideas into yours. This might be detrimental to your core idea. I am not suggesting do not take inspiration, I am just saying do not lose out on your key focus.
The clearer you are about your product/service, the easier it will be for you to steer your team in the right direction. Remember you cannot be everything to everybody but you can always be something to somebody!
About the Author: Shilpi Choudhury is a SEO, Social Media and Business Blogger based out of Bangalore, India. She is currently working for Vavia Technologies, Bangalore, specialists in developing Web and Mobile Applications.
Photo Credit: rachaelvoorhees
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
The Safest Small Business Startup Strategies Are Virtual, Guerrilla, and Flexible
Our continually struggling economy, at least on ground-level, is sending aspiring entrepreneurs mixed messages. On one hand, there’s enormous incentive to stake your claim at a time when competition is low and human resources are high.On the other hand, the still-unknowable future state of our national and global economies is enough to intimidate even the most ardent of entrepreneurs.
While we often can’t make up our minds as to whether to invest our capital into budding businesses or stow it away in StorageMart lockers for fear of an economic Armageddon, there are ways to make your enterprising dreams come true while minimizing the risk of these uncertain times:
Virtualization
The lingering frailty of the real estate market means that at any moment another crisis could lead to rising rent as mortgages skyrocket. For start-ups renting office space, this could devastate the budget for monthly expenses. In addition, the cost of furnishings and supplies takes their toll on limited income too. Considering the prevalence of cloud computing and mobile Internet connectivity, start-ups should forgo a centralized work environment in favor of a remote operation. The benefits of an office fail to apply to young small businesses in an age when the Internet is the primary means people research goods and services.
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing tactics center on the idea that the modern public responds better to seemingly off-the-cuff promotions and brand awareness. It’s also a conveniently cheaper way of executing large-scale marketing campaigns than traditional means such as television and radio. Guerrilla marketing takes some serious creativity, because, in essence, its got to be a purely original approach to spreading awareness about your goods and services. It does, however, keep you from having to invest large volumes of cash up front for more mainstream campaigns through pricey marketing agencies.
Flexibility
The main objective is to make your business practices elastic in their necessity. Young businesses need the ability to change pace or strategy without the added expenses of increases in marketing and further investment in company assets. You’re going to want to change some of the things you do because every small business start-up makes mistakes. You want to make sure these inevitable mistakes don’t result in major setbacks due to the added cost of fixing them when your business model is set in stone.
Don’t hold back on a great small business idea at a time when the best thing you can do for yourself and for your country is to do your part to help get the economy’s wheels turning again. But at the same time, don’t set yourself up for potential failure by investing large amounts up front when you can succeed just as easily by practicing a Spartan business lifestyle. Offices and expensive marketing can always come later.
About the Author: This article was contributed by Riley Kissel.
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
So You’ve Got an Idea – Now What? 8 Foolproof Steps from Idea to Implementation
If you’re reading this blog, you probably had the realization at some point in your life that you could do it better. Maybe you were working for someone, and realized that there was a better way to run the business. Or maybe you were using a product and had a flash of insight about how to improve it. Or perhaps you had a brilliant idea for a product that could change the world.
But you’re realistic. You know things are never as easy as they seem. You’re willing to gamble your time and money on your idea, but what’s the first step towards realizing your dream? And how do you make sure you don’t lose all your money on a business that ends up failing?
Where to Focus?
The answer is to focus on the customer, not the product. It’s easiest to demonstrate this approach by example. Let’s say I have an idea for a new kind of recipe site, designed specifically for professional chefs. Before spending thousands of dollars building the site and creating all the content, I would go and talk to chefs and ask what they would like to see in a recipe site. I’d look for forums or Facebook groups for chefs and ask for ideas. I’d put my vision out and try to get feedback. And I’d do all of this before building the product at all.
Testing, Testing…
So now I’ve got a sense of how to build this amazing recipe site. My instinct might be to build out a huge site now and have a big release party in 6 months. But what if everybody was excited about it on forums and interviews, but nobody wants to pay? Or what if, when the site is actually built, it turns out to not really work the way people want it to? That’s where the idea of a minimal viable product comes in. Once you feel like you have a basic handle on your customer, create the minimum experience you need in order to test if you’re on the right path. For my recipe site, I might just create a site for desserts, with plans to expand into other meals if it goes well. I might have a very rudimentary billing system, and only the most important of my site’s future features.
Crowdsource and Improve
Once you’ve got some people using your product or service, you’ll have a better understanding of where to go. So far, I haven’t spent too much time or money on my recipe site, so if it turns out it’s a flop, I haven’t lost everything. I can talk to my customers and find out what’s going wrong: Do they have a hard time finding the recipes? Do they like the site but not want to pay as much as I’m charging? Or is the whole idea just not something they’re interested in?
If the answer to the last question is “yes”, it’s a disappointing day, but at least I haven’t wasted a huge amount of time and money. But otherwise, I’ve learned a lot from talking to our first customers. Now I can make changes – changes I probably never would have thought of myself, or changes I thought were unimportant but that my customers really value.
8 Foolproof Steps from Idea to Implementation
The process in its entirety looks like this:
1. Have an idea.
2. Talk to potential customers about the idea.
3. Build a minimal viable product or experience.
4. Get customers.
5. Learn what they like and don’t like.
6. Make changes.
7. Repeat 4-6 until you have a business people are steadily buying from.
If you get to 7, congratulations! It’s time for:
8. Scale out your business and grow like crazy.
The fallacy that too many entrepreneurs fall for is thinking that step 8 comes before step 3. They think (and I’ve thought this, too!) that, if they could just build the perfect product or service, the customers will come. In fact, you need to have the customers in order to know what the perfect product even is.
If you’d like to read more about these ideas, check out Steve Blank’s Four Steps to Epiphany and Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup.
About the Author: Michael Kaiser-Nyman is the CEO and founder of Impact Dialing, an easy to use power dialer and hosted predictive dialer for small businesses, call centers, and political campaigns.
Photo Credit: Roomic Cube
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
3 Tips for Startups to Survive
No matter how good the idea is or how much money startups have, they have to first think of survival before they entertain thoughts of success; it’s not that easy to float a company today, simply because the competition is fierce and most spheres of business are saturated and overcrowded. Read more
Running a Small Business From Your Home: 8 Ways to Make it Work
‘Start small’ has always been my mantra in my years of coaching start ups and emerging entrepreneurs. It may feel unambitious to run a business from your home but it has many dividends. It helps you have time to ‘test the waters’ without racking up unnecessary overheads as a start up. It also allows you time to make your mistakes and fine tune that business model you had all nicely painted in you business plan or executive summary.
So go ahead and try to work from home and if you are already at it, lets take a look at how to excel at it.
Get Dressed and Go To Work!
‘But I am at home and besides no one can see me through the telephone ‘, you may say but the very act of getting up in the morning and getting ready to sit in your work area and do some uninterrupted work will boost your work morale and get your innovative juices flowing.
One of the mistakes home based entrepreneurs make is being too informal about their work ethic; that is one robber of time and MONEY.
Look The Part
Remind yourself often the reason why you left paid employment or college, for that matter, to pursue this dream of yours. Don’t allow yourself come across as slouchy and unprofessional. When you are meeting leads or prospective clients, you want them to register some trust in your ability to do what you say you do. ‘You are addressed by the way you are dressed’, one of my mentors always said.
Create A Sanctuary
It may be a desk in the dining area or a cleared out space in the garage, designate a place where you can work on your computer, write down ideas and keep revolving documents. Let other people in your home know and respect this place as your thinking spot. Even the children can understand this, just let them know.
Obey the Routine
Write out your daily schedule and use that to create a roaster which will form the blue print of how you operate. Everything from time for follow up phone calls to time spent online or days and times for hitting the road for some networking etc. Whether your a service provider or manufacturer this can work for you. An entrepreneur has told me he works a mandatory 14 hours everyday and that’s any 14 hours! You can try that if it suits your lifestyle, some personality types work better that way.
Tone Down the Distractions
No need fixing the conference call with your manufacturer and accountant at a time when, for instance, the children are back from school or the cleaning lady is hoovering. Keep the distractions at bay when you are working or better still work from a nearby coffee shop when there is work being done in the house or other similar one off distraction.
Meet the Clients!
Although some traditional professions like accounting and law frown at it, going to meet your client rather than them coming to you may just work very well for entrepreneurs, even ones who have ‘big’ offices. I find that it helps bridge the formality gap and it helps you see your client in his own environment and often helps to meet his need better, given the extra feel of his personality you may be getting from such visits.
Be Honest
If you are a start up and this company is just you for now, say so. It is absolutely unnecessary to say ‘we’ when speaking about your business. You should say ‘I’. If you are good at what you do and deliver on your promises you won’t need to amp the capacity of your business by saying ‘we’.
Also ‘underpromise and overdeliver’ has been said for years and it still holds true. The customer is always delighted when results are delivered earlier than stated.
Be Memorable
Because there are many other event planners, web designers or software developers everywhere you turn, it should be a priority to make yourself memorable …… in a good way that is.
You are the face of your start up, even where a prospect does not end up an actual client, let them remember the experience of interacting with you. They may just call you again. Being respectful, personable or playing the charm card is not a sign of a lack of confidence, on the contrary it shows you know who you are and what you can deliver.
About the Author: Cynthia Obioma Ezeani has worked extensively in Nigeria coaching start ups and emerging entrepreneurs since 2006. She currently resides in Massachusetts.
Photo Credit: Roland
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
Small Business Start-Up Priority #1: Your Office Desk
The Small Business Boom
With all the funding available these days for starting your own business, it is no wonder so many people are choosing to do so. And with so many new businesses around, it is important to ensure that you have the edge it takes to draw a profit in your market. For any business the bottom line is of paramount importance but for a business start-up even more so.
The smart way to surviving and prospering in the early years is by spending the necessary time planning and making smart investments.
Your principal, whether it consists of loans or your own saved cash, is the fuel that will get your business off the ground. The more you invest initially, the longer it will take for you to start turning out profits, but the more properly equipped for success you will be, assuming you plan well.
Your Office Set Up
Most home office set-up investments are used to purchase a few basic things:
A personal computer
An office desk
Peripherals (printers, scanners, extra speakers, fax machines, etc.)
Other job-specific necessities (computer programs, envelopes, etc.)
Of these, the most consistently needed are the first two: a computer and a desk. With the speed at which technology is constantly changing and developing, it is important to know what to look for in a computer, fortunately there is lots of information out there to help you with your PC purchase. Office desks, on the other hand, serve a more basic, less complex function, but there is surprisingly little to be found in the way of advice about this essential purchase, this is what I would like to spend some time on in this article.
When Shopping For an Office Desk
Keep in mind every aspect of your business throughout the process of shopping for your desk. Ideally you need to know how much business you expect to be doing, what the realistic requirements of that business would be, how much time you intend to spend at your desk each day and doing what tasks, and what your relationships with your customers and associates will be like.
A Desk That Speaks Success
Ultimately, the customer is the most important element in the success of any business. The more personable your business appears to your customers, the more likely they will be to choose your product or service.
So of course having an attractive office desk is important where you have a business that requires you to be meeting customers in person on a regular basis. An executive desk may well be your best bet, a Dmi executive desk for instance. Typically a traditional desk in Cherry Veneer, Mahogany or Walnut Veneer will do wonders for your credibility.
Some businesses, however, are run entirely online, and if this is the case then your top priority is that your desk be functional.
You can save a lot of money by buying a more plain-looking contemporary office desk, but which is also packed full of features, like; a hutch, under the desk storage space, grommets for cable management, lateral files, adjustable shelves, keyboard tray and computer tower storage.
The Right Desk for the Job
I reality your choice may not be as clear cut as I have suggested here. That’s to say you may never be receiving customers in your office but you may like to have something that still looks good. There are some nice metal and glass office desks which are inexpensive and offer great functionality.
There is an enormous range of available desks tailored to every imaginable function; in order to know what desk is right for you, you have to make a lot of decisions about what exactly your business is going to do. How extensive will your customer relations be? Will you correspond via email, telephone, fax, conventional mail, or all of these? Will you be shipping packages regularly? How much storage space will you be needing?
Each of these decisions has implications concerning what you will need in a desk, and under-planning by overlooking any of these details can be a costly mistake at worst and a pain in the rear end at best.
Used office desks are not easy to sell, and new ones are not cheap to buy. Make sure you know what equipment besides a personal computer your desk will have to accommodate.
You Know What Desk Is Best for You
While all of these factors are important, there is another overriding one, the way you feel about the desk you are thinking of purchasing. Starting your own businesses is one of the hardest things you can do. If you are serious about doing it without getting burnt out, you need to be satisfied with your work environment. Having the right office desk improves your attitude toward your business, increasing your chances for success.
Finally, because of the long hours required of entrepreneurs, it is important that you find a desk that fits your body type. Injuries related to computer use and other tasks that involve repetitive motions of the hands are no joke. The last thing you need is constant pain holding you back from accomplishing all you are capable of in your market. Take your time and find the right desk for you.
About the Author
Lloyd Burrell is an expert in office desk furniture and other office-related subjects and he is also publisher of the leading office desk review website. Lloyd is British, but currently lives on the West Coast of France with his wife and two children. His hobbies include traveling, enjoying French cuisine and culture, and keeping fit. Whether you are wanting to buy a DMI executive office desk or a ready to assemble office desk, Lloyd can help you find the right product for you.
Want to be our next guest author? Here’s how you can…Click here for details.
7 Ways to Save Big Money When Starting Your Business
Do you think you have a great new business idea? It is easier than ever to start a great company that looks and sounds professional for peanuts. With all the virtual services available today, you do not need many of the things that were traditionally required in years past. And to top it off, some are even free.
There are countless business owners starting companies with very little money and turning them into a multi-million dollar companies years later. Here are some tools and services you can use to help start your adventure.
Business Identity
First things first. Before your business can have any sort of existence, you need a company name, logo and identity. You can have a professional custom logo made for as low as $99 to $149. Thelogocompany.net has an impressive portfolio and are relatively cheap compared to others for how many different mockups you receive. Once you have a logo, you will need some business cards printed. Overnightprints.com will do it for as low as $10.
Office Space
If your business requires a place to conduct your work and meet with clients in a professional atmosphere, the cheapest way is to use what they call executive office suites. You are renting an individual office or room in a building housing a number of other offices all rented to other business owners. Many of them have common amenities such as furniture, phone, Internet, kitchen and meeting rooms. Web sites like readyoffices.com should help you find what is available in your area.
Telephone System
Technology has really improved and help advance telecom systems. Do you want your business to sound like a fortune 500 company with a phone system? You can with a service they call a virtual pbx or phone system. You can have your own toll-free number with an auto attendant. No matter where you are, you can sound professional and stay connected. Companies like grasshopper.com have plans starting at only $10 a month. There is also a service called Google Voice that is fairly cool and free. It allows you to pick a local number that you can have forwarded to as many land lines or cell phones as you want.
Faxing
Buying a fax machine is so 1990 and using a digital or virtual fax service online is so 2010. You can receive faxes and download or have them emailed to you. Faxesanywhere.com is a good choice for only $7.95 a month.
Credit Card Merchant Services
Like most businesses, you may need to accept credit cards as one of your payment methods. If you need this ability, we recommend obtaining a merchant account. This is a professional way to accept credit cards as well as having the most products to choose from to process your cards. Such products can be terminals, Internet gateways, wireless terminals, electronic registers, etc. There are hundreds of processors to choose from including many of your local banks. MerchantMaverick.com is a great review site that has reviewed almost a hundred different processors and should help you find a solid, reliable processor.
Making it Legal
Many businesses should opt to incorporate their business. Forming an LLC has become the most popular option in recent years. It has a lot of benefits over other structure types and is relatively easy to do. You can use a service like legalzoom.com or do it yourself for free. You will still have to pay the state fee regardless of how it is done. To do it yourself, simply go to your Secretary of State’s web site. Follow their instructions on how to file, fill out the articles of organization form and submit the papers. If you are a sole operation, it is not necessary to file the Operating Agreement. This agreement spells out the financial and management rights & responsibilities of the LLC members. You can file this anytime after you form your LLC, but it is recommend to work out the details before hand with any other partners to avoid any agreement issues. You can find templates for this file online for very cheap and even free possibly.
Number Crunching the Easy Way
Hiring someone to do your book keeping can be expensive. You can do it yourself for not very much. There are several online services that charge very reasonable prices, such as outright.com and freshbooks.com. Freeshbooks even has a free plan to get you started.
About the Author: Curtis Stevens is with Gotmerchant.com, a merchant account provider that helps merchants accept credit cards. They also provide ecommerce tips to businesses through their company blog.
Photo Credit: krossbow
Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…
