20 Investments: Introduction. How Funding Works - Splitting The Equity With Investors - Infographic. A hypothetical startup will get about $15,000 from family and friends, about $200,000 from an angel investor three months later, and about $2 Million from a VC another six months later. If all goes well. See how funding works in this infographic: First, let’s figure out why we are talking about funding as something you need to do. This is not a given. If you know the basics of how funding works, skim to the end. Every time you get funding, you give up a piece of your company. Splitting the Pie The basic idea behind equity is the splitting of a pie. When Google went public, Larry and Sergey had about 15% of the pie, each. Funding Stages Let’s look at how a hypothetical startup would get funding. Idea stage At first it is just you. Co-Founder Stage As you start to transform your idea into a physical prototype you realize that it is taking you longer (it almost always does.)
Soon you realize that the two of you have been eating Ramen noodles three times a day. Registering the Company. The 50 Best Freelance Tools for Freelancing Online. Ah, the life of self-employment. It is certainly a rewarding one, but remember, it’s a jungle out there. Here at Bidsketch, we feel your pain: the internet offers such a vast ocean of resources that it can be hard to tell which ones are actually worth using. I’d like to believe that this post will alleviate a huge part of that burden. While it took many hours to write, edit, and re-write, it took countless hours of me procrastinating from my work and trying out new tools!
Let my many hours of exploration become your “cheat sheet” to the most worthwhile freelance and self-employment related resources on the web. Not only that, I’ve grouped them all neatly for you, feel free to browse at your leisure and share this resource if you find it useful! How to Avoid Procrastinating It’s my personal belief that every massive list (especially one made for people that get things done) needs to come with a bit of a disclaimer. {Join me in sharing this on Twitter, click here!} The Grand List 1. 2. 3/4. 5. 6. The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: More on The 100 Best Archives. 7 Marketing Links You’d Be Crazy to Ignore. 15 Quick Pitch Tips for Kick Ass Presentations. The pitch isn’t the only thing that will make your business successful; far from it. But it sure does matter when you have an opportunity to get on stage and present. Those opportunities may be few and far between, but you don’t want to blow them. And opportunities to pitch your business should happen all the time – because ultimately we’re always pitching, whether it’s investors, customers, business partners, candidates, spouses, or random people we catch on the street.
Pitching and presenting are critical skills for startup owners. After attending the YES Entrepreneurship Conference and watching a handful of young startups do their 5-minute pitches, and jotting down some notes, here are 15 quick pitch tips. First, let me say that I was impressed with all the presentations. Pitch Solo. Pitching is hard, whether it’s on stage, in a boardroom, on a conference call or anywhere else for that matter. 10 Free Business Tools Too Valuable To Ignore - OPEN Forum. Good things rarely come for free anymore, but check out these very valuable business tools that don't cost a thing. July 18, 2011 Small business owners and entrepreneurs love to save money, but at some point we’ve all learned the hard way that “you get what you pay for. " In a marketing-era where "free" offerings are the cornerstone of lead generation, we’ve also become wary of watered-down products that don’t add value unless we sign up for the paid version.
In fact, free stuff can consume way too much time and even end up costing money. But there are, indeed, good free resources. Here is a list of 10 resources and tools you'd be crazy not to use (in addition, of course, to OPENForum.com). 1. This powerful product ends the challenge of storing and syncing files and documents on different devices and computers. 2. If you have a business, your e-mail address needs to end with @YOURDOMAIN.com. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. I am still surprised by how many people do not have a LinkedIn profile. 9. 10. 21 Ways to get Featured in the Media. Your business: front and center in the newspaper, feature, on prime-time TV or out there where everyone can see you. It’s what dreams are made of. Media coverage can make or break a business, but landing any bit of coverage is the hard part.
From this list of 21 free or low-cost ideas to get featured, concentrate on two or three that fit your business and your personality and go after them with everything you have. 1. Do Something Remarkable It goes without saying that remarkable businesses are the ones that get featured every day. 2. You wouldn’t like it if someone you didn’t know asked you to give something to them. 3.
Is it really that easy? 4. My business landed on the front page of our newspaper a few years ago because I highlighted a story about a family I was working with. 5. Press releases are old school but they’re still great ways to announce events and changes within your company. 6. Every day journalists need to take in information. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
How to use LinkedIn to drive Massive Traffic to your Site. Exploiting the LinkedIn Traffic Goldmine by Steve Hughes LinkedIn is, amazingly, often overlooked by so many when talking about generating traffic from Social Media. If you explore Forums such as “Digital Point” or “Warrior” then you’ll see that the Social Media Sections are dominated by the usual Favorites such as Facebook, Twitter & Google + Digital Point Forum: Social Media Section Unbelievably, LinkedIn doesn’t even get a look in, even if you scroll down through the main Social Media folders.
The amount of Potential Traffic and Business that is being overlooked is staggering really. There appears to be a common misconception that LinkedIn is just a glorified Resume or CV site, this could not be further from the truth. LinkedIn: The Statistics Before I delve into how to fully utilise this fantastic resource, let’s have a look at some of the statistics, so you can realise just what a potent force LinkedIn, can and will play, in Traffic Generation. Pretty impressive eh? LinkedIn Connections. Welcome! Thank you for joining HARO - Help a Reporter Out. How to Write a Business Plan | Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed. Having been a non-employee for about 14 years now, I’ve made my share of stupid business mistakes.
I’ve also coached a number of people to start their own businesses, and I’ve seen many of them make similar mistakes. This advice is geared towards small business owners, particularly people who are just starting (or about to start) their own business. 1. Selling to the wrong people. While sales are important to the survival of any business, you don’t need to push your business on everyone you meet, including friends and family. Furthermore, it’s a waste of time to try selling to people who simply don’t need what you’re offering. Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. Just because someone is interested in doing business with you doesn’t mean you should accept. 2.
Until you have a steady cashflow coming in, don’t spend your precious start-up cash unless it’s absolutely necessary. 3. It’s also a mistake to be too stingy with your cash. 4. 5. 6. 7. I’ll say it again. How to Write a Winning Business Plan | The Labor Academy. Like this article? Please share it! If you’ve ever written a business plan you know that it can be one of the most difficult documents you’ll ever create. I’ve written numerous plans both for myself and others and it was an arduous task – but also a necessary one – especially if it was to be used to secure formal outside funding. The Traditional Business Plan The typical plan I produced usually included the following - - Executive summary – Mission statement – Success factors – Objectives – Company summary – Start- up Summary (funding & requirements) – Locations – Ownership – Services – Competitive comparison – Market Analysis (Trends, Growth, Needs) – Strategy and Implementation – Sales summary (Strategy, Forecast, Milestones) – Management summary (Executive profiles) – Financial Plan – Projected P/L Those are the sections of the typical business plan.
The Problem with Traditional Business Plans Why? A Better Business Plan Vision – this is the “big idea” of your company. Like this: Be Interesting - or Be Ignored. Hidden Gems: The 100 .edu sites every Entrepreneur Should Read. Whether you’re an ivy-leaguer or a high school dropout, chances are you still have quite a bit to learn from others.
Why not learn from the people who do learning best? Check out these .edu blogs and other informative sites for strategies, theory, and concrete resources for building and growing your business. Marketing Marketing may be one of the many things you try to squeeze into your business, but for the people behind these sites, this is all they do. Take advantage of their ability to specialize and use their knowledge to better market your business. Innovation Inside every great entrepreneur is an inventor, constantly thinking of new and exciting ways to solve problems and create new things. Industries Educational resources can sometimes be frustrating because they tend to focus on theory, while you’re looking for concrete ideas.
International Business In today’s global economy, entrepreneurs must be familiar with the ideas of international business. Knowledge & Information Accounting. 15 Websites To Sharpen Your Business Skills. From management, to marketing, to finances — business skills of all varieties are critical to have in this economy and incredibly beneficial no matter what your situation. In this article we’ve collected 15 different websites that will help you sharpen your business skill set in a number of different ways. Each of these sites is an incredible source of information, and some of them are easily worth reading on a daily basis. Here’s the list: Category: Management, General Bnet is a new-ish website that has become a major resource for anything having to do with business. They specifically focus on management, and much of the advice is directed towards working with other people and larger companies or situations. 2. A collection of Harvard’s best business bloggers, this site is a virtual goldmine of intelligent information. 3.
Category: Finance Get Rich Slowly is a personal finance blog with advice that is beneficial to all types of people in many different situations. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Business Plan Outline. Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs. Posted by gbravo on April 8, 2009 in Internet Marketing [ 1 Comment ] Online social networking is a great way for entrepreneurs to gain exposure, promote their ideas and meet other creative and business-minded people who can help them achieve their goals. In today’s information era, a good knowledge of online social networks is almost mandatory for anyone who wishes to successfully launch their own business. Networking sites are a good online marketing tool to help you find other entrepreneurs to partner-up with.
They also allow you keep track of growing trends and business news. Here is a top 10 list of the best social networking sites geared towards business owners and entrepreneurs. 1. Entrepreneur Connect is a networking site created over a year ago by Entrepreneur Media (publishers of Entrepreneur Magazine). 2. Killer Startups is a site that allows you to look at and review new startup companies as they emerge. 3. Konnects is a good site for those looking to advertise themselves. 4.