Asking funds and who is qualified to ask for

Usually an investor will answer you after he can see that:

a). you are registered as a company (or any legal entity), and therefore you are committed to your project in fact, not only as an intention to do something,

b). you have a good business master plan, which means that you already invested some resources and expertise, then did your homework and researched the market, for the SWOT (internal Strengths, Weaknesses of you, and external Opportunities and Threats that you will meet on the road),

c). you have a team (for example an engineer, an accountant, a lawyer, etc) which will support you - because NOONE will give money to a "solo dreamer" to spend it, all that you receive is for the running business expenses of the whole team involved into the project.

Is that enough ?

No, of course, because a lot of people around are just solo dreamers, wanting big checks for spending (by themselves alone), like searching for a rich employer to "hire" them, to have them as "CEO"-s of their own dream company, and so on.

This is not going to work this way, despite of how sweet and nice could you make a PowerPoint presentation about your project !

Ah, and don't forget:

d). if the investor, after 6-12 months from now, still see you active in the same project, you could have a lot more chances to hear you and look after what you've done and what steps you have made.

Because when asking for the funds, you must "talk the talk, and walk the walk".

For short, lazy people don't get funded.

Don't imagine that your sudden big need for money makes a complete stranger to suddenly become a best friend of you. No way.

Angel Investors

I will note something very interesting that could happen in this world of "angel investors", so please pay attention.

It starts with you - having a company, having some expertise on your own, having your staff of experts that helped you to make a business plan and a project, etc. So you already know that you just need XX or YY amount of money, for ZZ destination and expenses. Everything is clear and good.

Then comes some person saying that he represents some investors, asking your project plan (so they are easy gaining knowledge in this branch, know-how, everything, confidential data, market trends and data analysis - which is very costly to achieve, by the way, names and positions of the expert people involved, similar projects of you or of the others around, market positioning of your own project, sensitive details, highly competitive advantages that your team could have over its competition, and so on...)

Now, here comes the question: how do you protect your project against the economic espionage ? From the bad guys, just wanting to learn your secrets,

They key is numbers

As I told you previously, in any business they key for success is the numbers. Business owners try to reach high income, cash-flow or profit.

There is one way to achieve that : use the numbers. If you reach 1000 potential customers, you possibly can have at least 2-3% orders. If you have the right customers, you can have 20-30 % closed deals.

Chose only the most responsive clients because they show they are interested in your products or offers. This requires from your part to have a 2-3 people marketing team.

If you are a single business owner I can show you tomorrow how to do that with less effort or less money. For this case, you must be the lonely bird that wake up early.

You have two ways : follow the trend of the industry, or create your own trend. The last one is better for you.

Time is right

Leonardo da Vinci said this : "The time is always enough for those that use it".

I couldn't say it better.

For that, it is requested something important though : to provide value to the others. If one can become enough significant to the others, his time will become significant, too.

In politics or business, it is like a pyramid. Those from the top send value and receive in exchange power. In politics, sending value is sending ideas to the others. In exchange you receive votes.

In business, send value (products or services) and receive money instead.

Our voters or our customers push us on the top. They give us the power.

So, the time is right.

Your real asset

Your real asset is yourself. If you cannot "sell your self", you cannot sell anything. If you improve that "product" you can have a chance to make it.

One friend of me told me once : "If I would knew from the beginning who would be my best clients I would approach them from the first day."

Of course, that is not enough : you have to know who to approach, what to ask him and how to ask him. That makes sense if you have something to offer instead. Nice birds attract other birds for mating by using beautiful feathers and colors. Never black ugly and arrogant birds attract companions.

This is also happening in business world, too.

Laziness

If one would ask me why many buyers prefer to ask intermediaries to source them anything instead of going to a Chamber of Commerce and receiving from there a list of real suppliers, what should I answer?

What is more costly? To pay for a list with 100 best producers of some product, or to pay a handsome cheque to an intermediary?

The answer is in the middle : if the price is right, that man deserves a fair compensation for his trading skills used in the benefit of the buyer.

What is your opinion, though ?

Strategy or opportunities

Many business people struggle to earn a serious flow of income during hard times of today.

Many of them lacks though the basic understanding of the business world : if you are an employee, you have an exclusive "client" (who is your employer) and not many, as have any usual successful business. If you are the owner, you can have a lot of real clients, on which you must focus to fulfill their orders and receive their business.

What fail to understand the brokers and intermediaries of today is that they must earn the attention and trust of the clients, not of the competition. They just try to convince the others how reliable are they, how serious and trustworthy. Which is a mistake, because is like trying to convince anyone on a street that you are a serious people. Most often "sober" is mistaken by "serious" and noone ask if you are indeed professional or not. Simply because most of them are not, too, and they cannot check that by themselves. In a street you meet daily new people that come and go away. They are though NOT YOUR CLIENTS !!!

If you chase opportunities, you can never succeed. If you have a strategy, you can. "Yes, you can !"