Palo Alto Software
Search
20% Discount on Business Plan Pro Premier Edition
Click here to buy now or call 0845 351 9924
 
 

Financing a Business

There are various forms of funding for you to consider when starting or growing a business. From outside investment to using your own funds, this section outlines some of the benefits and pitfalls of each option, and walks you through the steps to get funded.

 

Financing your Start up Business

Decisions regarding how you finance your business should be taken very seriously as it is one of the most critical decisions you will make at the start-up phase and forms a key part of any business plan. When considering the different financing options, you need to spend some time learning about the conditions that come [...]

Read the full article →

Elevator Pitch Part 1: Personalize

(Reposted with permission from Planning Startups Stories) If you can’t say it in 60 seconds, you have a problem. Your strategy isn’t clear enough. Nowadays we call it “the elevator pitch,” meaning a quick description of the business that you could do in the time you share with a stranger in an elevator. It’s becoming [...]

Read the full article →

Sales Forecasting

The Sales Forecast Sales forecasting is an integral part of business planning. I have written on the subject of sales forecasting a number of times in the past. However, for many of us, we are now dealing with a level of uncertainty we have not encountered previously in our lifetimes. As a result, some managers [...]

Read the full article →

The Business Pitch

The pitch The use of phrases such as ‘business pitch’, ‘elevator pitch’ and ‘video pitch’ have grown in popularity in recent months. But what are these terms and what do they mean for entrepreneurs? This short article describes the concept of pitching in detail, as well as recommending some tips for those needing to pitch [...]

Read the full article →

An Inconvenient Truth – Lessons for Entrepreneurs

I recently watched Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, and found it compelling viewing. It is an excellent production and helped shine a powerful spotlight on climate change, the challenges we face and some steps we can take to reduce the effects we are causing[1]. It painted a very bleak picture for the future of [...]

Read the full article →

Top 10 Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid

Business Plan Mistakes The importance of business planning is widely documented; however, guidance as to what constitutes good business planning is less clearly defined. This article aims to redress that imbalance by describing 10 of the most common mistakes that occur in business plans. While the business-planning process is in itself a very worthwhile pursuit, [...]

Read the full article →

Delivering a winning business plan pitch

After a business plan has been written, the next stage often involves pitching the plan to prospective investors. This very fact means that the plan authors and management team should be one and the same and that ‘outsourcing’ the business plan writing process should not be considered. It is not just the content of the [...]

Read the full article →

Dragons’ Master Class – the numbers you need to know!

Those familiar with the BBC2 show Dragons’ Den will be all too aware of the following scene. The entrepreneur is tasked with presenting his business plan to a panel of investors (i.e., the Dragons). The business plan pitch is going well, and then one of the dragons asks the simplest of questions, ”What was your [...]

Read the full article →

Do You Need Funding

Most businesses need financing. Cash flow is different than profits, so profits don’t guarantee money in the bank. There’s financing needed to manage starting costs, stock waiting to get paid, and other factors. Much of that is what we lump together as “working capital.” Most people think of financing as debt, borrowed money. In this [...]

Read the full article →

Securing Venture Capital Funding for Your Business

We do have some tips and suggestions. You probably know all of this already, but here are some refresher tips: Polish your business plan. Reread the executive summary, management team, competitive edge, and financials. If you’re operating in Internet space, in the present market, make sure you are generating traffic and focusing on the ability [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries