If you are an entrepreneur looking to get your start, chances are you will need a little help getting things going when it comes to finances. It is not always easy to get all of the money to start your first (or even second) business together, so you may need to seek investors to help your ideas come to fruition.
Investors are looking for ways to help grow their financial resources—it’s what they do. So how do you get someone to believe in you and ultimately help fund your business? Here is a short list of qualities that investors are looking for when they are deciding who to invest in.
Innovative
Whether you are attempting to use a fresh perspective regarding an outdated business model, or are trying something completely new, realize that investors are more likely to invest in something that helps bring a freshness to the market. Standing out and bringing something new to the table can help you get a leg up on your potential competition. Try and find something unique about your proposal and make that your emphasis.
Proactive
You want to be able to show that you have thoroughly thought everything out before bringing your ideas to a prospective investor. This can make all the difference in the world; anticipating problems and their solutions will give investors the peace of mind they are looking for when it comes to giving to money to get started. Show that you have planned and forecasted effectively and you will be sure to win them over.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Steve Farnsworth is a serial entrepreneur and a student at Fort Lewis College and at the age of 24, a Young Go Getter! Check out his site Burner Sports, where he serves as the President.
The time for change is NOW! Cliché you say? As over used as that phrase is these days, it is very true in our business environment. The only thing that you can always count on is change; everything in our daily lives change rapidly. A decade ago you could deliver a product or a service as promised to your customer at the quoted price and the sale would be complete. Now-a-days customers always want more. Customer demands and expectations are higher than ever before. Are you ready to fulfill those needs?
Anyone that has ever worked in a retail setting during the holidays can attest to consumers always wanting more! If you have ever sold products or services than you can certainly relate to this as well. As a sales person, reflect on the last sale that you completed. What did the customer want? What were their expectations? Did you at least try to meet the customer’s needs? Did you get frustrated or upset when you had to go beyond the “norm” for the customer? Every sales person at one time or another has gotten frustrated with a customer, and complained about it. My question is why?
Customers are very important to any business. Customers “push” you to do better. Yet many people in an organization complain about that, why? Many sales people and company’s think that having a “pushy” customer is a negative. When in actuality the customers “pushiness” holds you and your company to a much higher standard. The customer is “pushing” you to be better at what you do. A customer’s job is to push for more; push for better pricing, push for a speedy delivery, push for better quality, etc. Your job within your company is to not only meet their expectations but also to remind yourself and your co-workers that customers are not the root of your frustrations, stress and failures. They are the root to your success, profit and growth.
Knowing how to handle your customer’s when they are unhappy is a crucial part to your success in any position that you have in an organization. Knowing what techniques to use and when to use them is just as crucial. I have some helpful tips that can be used by anyone that works with customers.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Is the goal of your business to make money and provide a great life for you and your family? Yeah, same here. But what about all of your business expenses that eat away at your profits? What if you could put together a plan that not only built up your marketing and branding but also took some of the headache out of your administrative costs. Below you will find twenty ways to get your business running like a well oiled machine for just about zero cost. If you know of any other ways that have been left off the list, please feel free to take a moment and let us know in the comments section.
Business Marketing
1. Social Media Websites - Building up social media profiles on sites related to your field can do many things for you. It can gain you traffic to your website, it can build up your branding efforts and it can also allow you to network with potential clients as well as other businesses in your field. For instance, my stumble upon profile is a PR3 and in some search engines, the PR value is passed through even though the links are no-follow. This helps get my links to my websites in higher rankings in these search engines. It also helps me network with potential clients as I have already designed two websites for clients I met on stumble upon and delicious. For a full list of social media websites in various niches, I’d suggest checking out this post on traffikd.
2. Link Directories - The main objective with link directories is to gain the link juice to get your search engine rankings up. Yes, you can find a few diamond in the rough link directories that will also be able to send you some traffic directly to your website, but the main focus should be on building up link popularity for your site so you rank for the proper terms in the main search engines. You can find various link directory submission services on some of the popular marketing and business related forums online who will submit to 1,000+ directories for a very low, low cost. *word of warning: make sure the submissions are done over a few weeks as google and other search engines track link popularity and a sudden burst of 1,000 links in one day screams “ban me from your search engine”.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Tisha Kulak is a writer for Creditorweb.com, where she writes about credit card offers, business credit cards and responsible credit card use.
There are more entrepreneurs moving forward and following their dreams of opening a business and operating a successful business of their own. While many have found success in starting up, most will face the all-important decision of how to continue to finance their businesses, especially if they are still in the early stages and require more capital to continue on. Here are some things to consider when searching for money beyond a personal savings account.
The Business Plan
This is the first consideration you need to make before even approaching anyone for money. You need to have a solid business plan that you understand and feel confident is complete. While you may have begun your operation without one, it is essential that you have a full understanding of what it takes to keep making your business work. People who give you money want to make certain you are not setting yourself up for failure, or at least a lot of struggle.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Steve Farnsworth is a serial entrepreneur and a student at Fort Lewis College and at the age of 24, a Young Go Getter! Check out his site Burner Sports, where he serves as the President.
Anyone who has ever bought a car or a house from a dealer knows that sales people have MOTOR MOUTHS! It’s a fact, just call up any real estate agent, or car salesman, and you won’t be able to get off the phone until you commit to something. These two industry’s are an exception to what I am about to tell you. Real Estate Agents and Car Salesman are paid to talk, yet even they should know their limits.
I worked for an Environmental Chamber Manufacturer for about three years (I still do consulting for them), as a sales associate. It was primarily a position where I would make sales calls and receive sales calls. We were trained to do 2 things while on the phone with a prospect, or a current customer. The first thing we were trained to do was keep the conversation brief. I would time how long I was on the phone with each customer by using a stop watch that was always on my desk. I was trained to keep the conversation at about 3-5 minutes per sales call. This was a typical sales call, some situations required more time because more knowledge and information was communicated back and forth which is perfectly fine.
The second thing that I was trained to do was to ask questions. I would ask a lot of questions. This gets the customer talking; it gets them excited and engaged in the sale. I would just sit back, listen and take down as many notes as possible, which could be used for the next time we talked. This process of listening also allowed the buyer to sell themselves in many ways, I mostly just had to supply the information that they required. Sure I would talk about why our products are better than ‘the other guy’s’, but the real sale was made when I asked questions that allowed them to see the benefits in our products without me saying too much.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
Ryan is a twenty something attending graduate school in Texas. He fancies himself an entrepreneur and writes about relationship marketing, eCommerce, and other elements of business as it relates to Generation Y, on his blog, Ryan Stephens Marketing.
Most of the MBA students I know think they are absolutely brilliant. Because of the piece of paper they get when the graduate they will probably get to start out at about $100K a year. Evidently this notion, coupled with their narcissism, entitles them to think they are better than you and me. And that is okay with me because I am confident I can attain that status (provided I want to) in the amount of time they spent in the ‘real world’ and coming back to get their MBA.
The rest of this post outlines 3 reasons why you should skip obtaining your MBA.
Reason #1: It’s about PEOPLE — not rules, theorems, and formulas.
Being a great business person, or a great marketer is about connecting with people; it’s about building and solidifying relationships, and it is about making your brand a Lovemark. Managerial Cost Accounting doesn’t help you do that. I do not want to spend my life tucked away in a cubicle (or an office), but out on the streets interacting with and learning from consumers. What do they really want? How can I facilitate our relationship by providing them with the solution they are looking for?
What theorem teaches me how to do that? When you start seeing your business as a business of margins you are in danger of becoming a commodity. You can learn all the strategies in the world to get attention for your business, but what do you do when you get it? Is it sustainable? Learning about the people, your consumers and what they want enables you to thrive and consistently answer these questions. A piece of paper that dictates how well you ran regressions does not.
Keep reading…
ShareThis
|
Subscribe to our RSS feed
PPC Management
Hell Yeah Dude!
Reverse Funnel System for Beach Bums
