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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.

 

More articles:

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 popular [...]

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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 are [...]

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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 their [...]

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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 [...]

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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, most business [...]

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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 [...]

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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 turnover [...]

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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 context [...]

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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 of [...]

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The Right Funding for Your Business Type

Venture Capital
You probably know who you are because you’ve been there already. Venture capital firms want repeat entrepreneurs. They want plans with huge growth rates, in high-growth industries — usually high-tech as well as high-growth. They want excellent management teams with proven track records. And they want plans needing multiple millions of pounds. They invest [...]

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