Attention-grabbing tactics for niche products include providing snappy names and packaging, placing cold calls, and befriending the media in an effort to win PR, says the founder of a specialty women’s hosiery company.
Regularly reviewing your business plan ensures that you meet the needs of a growing enterprise. This allows you to identify key growth areas that you want to target.
Owners of growing companies need to begin positioning them for sale early in the life of the firm and continue to take steps toward sale throughout the business’s life, writes an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Included are eight suggestions for doing just that.
Angel financing – or funding from individuals with the time and money to invest in early-stage companies – is more accessible thanks to the gathering of such investors into networks, writes an erstwhile entrepreneur turned angel investor. The process is still arduous, but the author offers tips for easing the way.
There is no doubt that it is a nearly impossible time for entrepreneurs to raise venture capital. Only the best of the best new companies are attracting such funding, according to the author. Entrepreneurs need to prepare themselves when approaching venture capitalists. Increasingly, several must have factors have become an essential part of the necessary preparation.
An entrepreneurial company in its second year confronts challenges more
Many entrepreneurs with family-owned or closely held businesses say the most difficult challenges involve deciding who will succeed the current generation.
Young entrepreneurs with few contacts need to get real about raising money in a tough economy, and pursue avenues such as their own bank accounts, loans from parents and credit cards, writes the author. Another tactic is keeping costs low so that you need less money in the first place.
Companies that turn to contractors must structure both the business and the specific nature of the work accordingly, according to a software-company entrepreneur. On the business side, founders need to retain a competent attorney and match the right worker to the job; on the tech side, they must require that contractors produce their work within a framework that can be replicated for other projects, the author advises.
Finding venture capital is a matter of securing the right fit between founder and funder, writes the author. Affinity with a investor helps, such as pursuing groups that finance the type of company that yours is, such as a minority- or female-led firm; also necessary is a plan outlining your company’s financial prospects and a pitch for convincing investors that you can execute, the author notes.