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Here’s an excerpt from a good article on raising money written by Roxanne Allaire, of Roxx Consulting Service, Inc. You can find the original at her blog, Grow a Prosperous Enterprise. Yes…money is tight, investors are being highly selective with their funds, and they are interested in a return on their investment in the form of [...] Keep Your Ego in Check to Achieve Your Goals Why do people have to be so difficult? If they just did what they are supposed to do (in other words, what you want them to do), your job and life would be so much easier and less stressful. You might as well just ask why someone doesn’t [...] Don’t Try to Solve a Problem That Doesn’t Exist
It is critical that you are very clear and specific about the problem that you are trying to solve. This is especially true if you are trying to raise money to start or expand your business. Unfortunately, over the years, I have been witness to too many instances where my client thinks they have the perfect solution, the very thing the market must have, only to have absolutely no success at all. Why does this happen? Continue reading «Are You Pushing a String Uphill?» Presentation is Essential When Asking for Money
Now, everything we buy at the store has a nutrition label that tells us the ingredients, how much fat, carbs, protein, etc. That label tells us everything we need to know about what is in the package. But when you are hungry and just want to get something to eat, is the nutrition label the first thing you look at? Of course not. You look at the picture on the front because it shows you exactly what the product looks like and, to encourage you to buy that package, the picture is designed to get you salivating over the salisbury steak, pizza, lasagna, or whatever else in the box. You need to apply the same principle when you prepare a financing request for presentation to lenders or investors. Continue reading «Are You a Nutrition Label or a Picture?»
I was looking through an old edition of Home Furnishings Retailer, an industry trade magazine, and I came across an interesting article. The two main points of the article were: 1. Recognize that you have established a brand image in the minds of your customers, either intentionally through specific brand-building efforts, or unintentionally through your interaction with your customers. 2. According [...]    In the huddle the pro-quarterback looks at the other players and says, “We really need to win this game.  Let’s score a touchdown on the next play.”  The players respond, “Great, we’re with you QB, what’s the play?”  The quarterback snarls, “What’s the play? How long have you guys been on this team?  You’re supposed to know all the plays, especially the one I’m thinking of in this situation.  What are you being paid for?  Now you even want me to tell you the next play?  Next you’ll be expecting me to tell you my game plan!  You guys are supposed to be professionals and I want performance.  You should already know what needs to be done to win this game!”    Not a very good way to run a football team, is it?  Yet many business owners and managers use the exact same style to run their business.  They want performance from their management staff and employees but fail to effectively communicate the game plan to their team—if they even have a game plan at all. Continue reading «Does Your Team Know the Game Plan?»    I often recommend conducting your own due diligence review to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses in your company.  The idea is that fixing problem areas now will increase the value of your company and therefore improve your ability to raise capital.  These are the most obvious benefits of an internal due diligence review.    However, there are other benefits.  When you establish proper systems to fix the problem areas, you learn what skills your management team must have and you can more easily determine the organization structure that is best for your company Continue reading «An Unintended Benefit» A critical tool in building any successful business is an effective marketing strategy—one with an ongoing focus on creating new customers while increasing sales from existing customers. By definition, the marketing umbrella covers many business functions other than selling: market research, pricing, packaging, distribution, quality control, public relations, advertising and customer service. Businesses that focus primarily on the [...] |
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