Your chances of getting a multi-million $ check from a big VC are kind of the same as winning the lottery – tho you would fare better with the lottery than giving away the store to an outside investor.<\/p>\n
If you’re ready for round 2, and have exhausted the F,F, & F group, there’s still money around for ventures that make sense.<\/p>\n
Before you go looking tho, KNOW YOUR COMPETION AND THE MARKETPLACE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I’ve seen so many plans where the enterpreneur was so inwardly focused on their own project, they didn’t realize they were a couple years behind the curve – there are competitors out there, farther along, with more bells and whistles.<\/p>\n In the first dot com boom, I saw lots of plans where the team had built “half a company.”\u00a0 Great product, or service, but no plan or idea how to monetize it.\u00a0 That’s a relatively important part of the equation.<\/p>\n So where to look?\u00a0 Strategic partners.\u00a0 Find your potential biggest customers (if you’re in the B2B arena) and offer them a small piece in return for an investment.\u00a0 Better yet, let them basically pre-pay for product or services you will deliver in the future, and not have to give up any equity.<\/p>\n Another source is suppliers\/vendors.\u00a0 People you will be buying from on a regular basis.\u00a0\u00a0 They are advancing funds to you (in either debt or equity) in return for your commitment of future business.<\/p>\n Finally, remember this about your business plan.\u00a0 It’s not a roadmap of how to operate, but rather a marketing document used to raise money<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em> And don’t hire a outside firm to write the plan, unless it’s a completely collaborative effort.\u00a0 If you can’t explain it, you can’t sell it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your chances of getting a multi-million $ check from a big VC are kind of the same as winning the lottery – tho you would fare better with the lottery than giving away the store to an outside investor. If you’re ready for round 2, and have exhausted the F,F, & F group, there’s still… Continue reading Where to Find Money in Tough Times<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,19,1],"tags":[3318,3319,3636],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}