How to Raise Capital: The #1 Skill of an Entrepreneur (lessons from Robert Kiyosaki)

April 6, 2010

Capital is the lifeblood of every investment. Without capital, there can be no product, no property, no sales, no cash flow. Check out Robert’s video about his experiences raising capital for his first entrepreneurial venture. In pitching his investment workshop, Robert Kiyosaki discusses: * Robert’s experiences raising capital * Why raising capital is the #1 skill of an entrepreneur * How you can develop this skill to benefit your business and real estate investing.

Whether your current or future investments involve business or real estate, raising capital is vital to keeping your investments alive and producing cash flow.

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Tips on selling a business

April 5, 2010

Here are Five Points to Consider when selling a business, from an experienced business broker:

If you are considering selling your business then it might come as a bit of a shock that the majority of the businesses listed for sale, never sell!

There are a lot of factors that come into play in a business acquisition and you need to expose your business to the right potential buyers and have all of your business information available including details on risk management, your business plan and your business financials.

Business brokers are experts in marketing businesses for sale and can assist you in making sure your business is investor ready.

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David S. Rose on pitching to Venture Capitalists

April 3, 2010

Pitching to a VC is all about YOU. An investor is investing in you, as much as your idea and business concept.

Thinking startup? David S. Rose’s rapid-fire TED U talk on pitching to a venture capitalist tells you the 10 things you need to know about yourself — and prove to a VC — before you fire up your slideshow.

David Rose is a serial investor and a serial entrepreneur. Here’s his list of what is important in convincing an investor that you are the right choice.

It’s about
* Integrity
* Passion
* Knowledge
* Skills
* Leadership
* Commitment
* Coachable

And of course, it needs to be presented with an infectious enthusiasm!

On presentation techniques, and powerpoint, David says:

“Without question I’ve seen many presentations (both with and without PowerPoint) that are Too Slick, and to me they are at least as much of a turnoff (perhaps even more) than is one that is Too Rough. HOWEVER, that’s not the only choice one has. The slickness is *not* just a function of the slides; it has much more to do with how over-rehearsed, or patronizing, or ‘un-real’ the presenter is. I see hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of presentations each year, including many dozens at conferences like TED, where presentation is often elevated to a high art. And while great presentations are far from common…they do happen.

There’s a wonderful word, first used by Castiglione in 1528, that nails the concept. “Sprezzatura” is “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.” That is to say, it is the ability of the courtier to display “an easy facility in accomplishing difficult actions which hides the conscious effort that went into them.”

If you watch the very best presenters at their very best, people like Larry Lessig and Rives and Steve Jobs and Seth Godin et al, there is absolutely NO feeling that they are Too Slick. But all of these guys spend absolutely enormous amounts of time preparing their slides, rehearsing their presentations and mastering the technology…so that the result comes off as “without effort…and thought”. ”

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Ready, Fire, Aim :Taking your business from $1m to $10m – lessons from Michael Masterton

March 29, 2010

In Part One I talked about how a business needs to go from zero to $1m in the eyes of Michael Masterton. This is infancy in the lifecycle of a business.

In infancy, the focus was developing your Optimal Selling Strategy by understanding your marketing, testing different things,  and creating a unique selling proposition. It was also about adding as many new clients as possible.

Many businesses stall in infancy and become victims of their own success. The owners may reach a point where they can make a good living from the business. The danger of this is that unless things change, they will stagnate. (95% of businesses stay smaller than $1m turnover per annum).

Here I talk about the next stage – childhood, in which a business goes from $1m to $10m.

“Childhood” is about changing gears and adding new products (even at the risk of cannibalising your existing products).

At this stage of the business, here are some points to note:

* Add new ‘front end’ products
* Innovate – look for improvements to existing products – not revolutionary new products (originality is overrated)
* Add many products and ‘let the market decide’ which will work
* Add backend products that you can sell to your existing clients.
* Aim for speed, not perfection
* Don’t jump categories – make changes to existing products that are one degree removed.
* Don’t try to make huge leaps or change the selling channel.

Most importantly, acknowledge you need to grow personally to handle and lead the rapid growth of the company.

This is most likely to be the stage at which your business decides to seek capital. Having proven its business, it can use the capital to grow the business.

Critically, this is the stage at which your business is the most attractive to an investor.

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Michael Porter : The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

March 28, 2010

Michael Porter is a pioneer in the thinking around competitive strategy. In this interview he outlines his model for an analysis of an industry and the competition within it.

This is an essential part of your business plan.

As an entrepreneur, it is essential that you understand the environment in which you operate. More importantly, when seeking capital, that you are able to convey a summary of your industry and where you sit in it to an investor.

A pdf of the content is also available here.

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Ready, Fire, Aim : Stage One (of Four): Infancy

March 13, 2010

From ” Ready, Fire, Aim. $0 to $100 million in no time flat”.

Summary : Part One of Four+

Michael Masterton is a serial entrepreuner and advisor to many business owners.

His philosophy is one of choosing action over perfection. He breaks the life cycle of a business into 4 stages – Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood.

In Infancy, Masterton’s advice is highly practical. Focus on sales, sales and sales.

Your business is a train, sitting on the tracks. ” You want to get it going, not spend time polishing it. You should put coal in the furnace and get the boiler hot. Steam runs the pistons, polish doesn’t”.

Why it matters: This is a book for entrepreneurs. Hopefully that is you.

Here are his observations on businesses in their infancy.

* Don’t waste your time on corporate marketing.
Don’t do marketing that is based on building a brand. Do marketing that is focused on sales, getting leads, and growing a customer base.

* Don’t waste money on invisible business extras like office space, furniture, equipment and the like.

* Don’t be misled by phony business experts.
Be careful who you listen to. Have they succeeded in the field they are advising in?

* Be proud of your business acumen, but don’t be arrogant about your business ideas.
Have the confidence to back yourself, but don’t let your ego get in the way if your ideas are wrong.

* Ask for advice from smart people.
However successful you become, reach out to others for advice.

* Don’t ever believe you know more than your market.
You may know a lot about your product or service, but don’t commit yourself to a major idea until you have tested the market.

* Make sales your company’s top priority.
Don’t delegate responsibility for this role. Hire and manage well, but you need to be in the driver’s seat of this process.

* Learn everything you can about sales and marketing.
Read and listen to everything, and everyone you can. This will help you with your business, and allow you to start a 2nd and 3rd business.

* Discover your optimum selling strategy  (OSS)- the combination of media, pricing and positioning that brings you the most qualified leads.
Working out the best channel and message for your company is your main job. Once you have that, you can leverage your activities.

* Understand pricing. Learn the balance between winning orders, and making profit. All other things being equal, go for more customers and growing your client base.

* Understand Allowable Acquisition Cost (AAC).
Understand two sides of marketing – allowable acuisition cost and lifetime value. Know what you can afford to spend to win a customer.

* Make your marketing goal to bring in a number of qualified customers.

* If possible use direct mail or email to discover your optimum selling strategy.
This gives you a low cost mechanism with fast feedback.

* Don’t invest a lot in inventory until you have figured out your OSS.
There’s cheap ways to test such as selling, then making or fulfilling the orders.

Check out the book…

Three Great Ideas You Can Use:

1. Developing a sales strategy is absolutely essential to any business venture. Developing an “Optimum Selling Strategy” can be the difference between success and failure.

2. Understanding the difference between marketing and sales is also critical. Learning this and putting it to work can be the difference between success and failure. Development of the Unique Selling Proposition for our business is crucial as well.

3. Every start up business needs four personality types to make it work: a seller, an improver, an organizer and a pusher. Identifying those business types in your business will make success much more likely.

+ Still to come: Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood.

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How Ryan Allis raised $5.35 in Venture Capital for iContact

March 13, 2010

Ryan Allis, the author of entrepreneurship book bestseller ‘Zero to One Million’ shares how he raised $5.35 million in venture capital for iContact at age 22 and provides tips on how other entrepreneurs can raise capital. He provides tips for knowing when it’s right to raise venture capital, getting introductions to investors, negotiating a term sheet, increasing valuation by getting multiple term sheets and playing multiple firms’ offers of one another, and how to select the best venture partner.

Ryan Allis, the author of entrepreneurship book bestseller ‘Zero to One Million’ shares how he raised $5.35 million in venture capital for i…all » Ryan Allis, the author of entrepreneurship book bestseller ‘Zero to One Million’ shares how he raised $5.35 million in venture capital for iContact at age 22 and provides tips on how other entrepreneurs can raise capital. He provides tips for knowing when it’s right to raise venture capital, getting introductions to investors, negotiating a term sheet, increasing valuation by getting multiple term sheets and playing multiple firms’ offers of one another, and how to select the best venture partner.«

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All Marketers are Liars – the story of your business

March 7, 2010

Video Presentation by Seth Godin (Author Meatball Sundae, The Idea Virus, All Marketers are Liars, Purple Cow, The Dip, Permission Marketing and others…)

This is a great presentation by Seth Godin to Google executives on what makes companies great.

The most relevant point for me is that it is not the technology itself which makes a company succesful (much like a VHS v Beta choice, Yahoo for example built a better auction engine that eBay, but noone uses it).

It’s all about how you connect with your market, and why the blue box from Tiffany’s IS the product.

It’s the distinction between being the best at what you do, and being the best at marketing what you do.

More from Seth Godin here.

Why this is important: markets are cluttered, people are busy. The success or failure of your business, and therefore how interesting it is for an investor comes down to several factors, but marketing is key.

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Guy Kawasaki talks about entrepreneurship

February 20, 2010

Guy Kawasaki The Art of the Start

Guy Kawasaki The Art of the Start

The Big Idea

You have the idea of a lifetime and yet you do not know where and how to begin. It is a dilemma shared by entrepreneurs everywhere – what does it take to turn a great idea into action?

(click to see more)

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You are here: your journey through business growth

January 28, 2010

whatgotyouhere

Business growth is almost invariably accompanied by, and demands, personal growth. It’s part of the package that means an entrepreuner has to run the business, recruit, motivate and inspire other leaders as well.

You can’t pull off a high return venture without being a strong leader or becoming one in the process (often as business grows, if the personal resources are not there the the business will stall, or the person will opt out of the leadership role – or be forced out).

If you know this going in then you can prepare for it.

Marshall Goldsmith is a coach to CEOs. In this book, he lists the flaws in people that are holding them back from reaching the next level. Often these flaws are the same things that have helped people be succesful (so far), but are now acting against them.

So rather than telling you what to DO, it tells you what to STOP DOING.

Summarised in 2 parts… (please click to view or right-click to save)

Part One

Part Two

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