A staggering 99.5% of all the main sectors in the industries are made up of small and medium-sized enterprises. That means that the bulk of every single part of the business world is filled with those that have started their own business. The overwhelming amount of people employed in business work for either a small or medium-sized business. Although the corporations and the large multinational giants get a lot of the time in the press and even in Hollywood, those that move mountains are leaders in the SME world.
This should give hope to everyone that years to start their business, work for themselves, run the show of their professional life and career as well as have more control over their own lives in general. No matter how strange your idea might seem to you, to someone else it might be just what they have been searching for. That someone could be a private investor, a stock market investor, another business, a private citizen that believes in you such as a relative or a friend as well as the government. Getting your business off the ground isn’t the challenge that you face, it’s making sure that you survive the first 3 or 5 years.
There’s always a fish
Just as much as you are searching for a private investor to fund your business idea, so too is an investor searching for a great opportunity to invest in with regards to a business. There are of course the standard channels that go along the lines of mutual funds where investors have their money pooled into an index fund or a private portfolio.
However, there are investment companies that will offer to bridge the gap between business owners and investors looking to own part of a business in favour of funding it. A company such as Angel Investment Network does exactly this by signing up with small and medium-sized businesses and placing them on their online list of availability.
You need to upload either a picture of a video about yourself and your business. This gives you a profile on the website, along with the details that are published. Your standards and requirements are also clearly set such as the amount of funding you want. If you wish, you can set a minimum number for the amount of investment needed to be considered as an investor.
For example, if you need £60,000 overall, there can be multiple investors that give you this by one giving you half needed and the other investors giving you the minimum being £10,000. This means you have four investors in total that will be given different returns according to how much they paid in or possible different sizes of the shares if you have gone public.
Going down the hard road
Who said being successful was going to be easy? Whoever gave you the impression that running a business was going to be easy as pie? Sometimes when your other avenues have been exhausted or you are simply not willing to sacrifice your business for early funding then you have one last choice.
Going down the hard road is how many dreams have become a reality. What is the hard road? Essentially, you go it alone and you change your life completely. Sacrificing your current lifestyle to fund your business can be done in a number of ways. The most common is selling off your assets. This could be your car, expensive jewellery, artwork and yes even your house.
Selling of your house, cars and other possessions means you will need to downsize and change the way you live drastically. The majority of people work all their lives to get these things but if you really believe in your business and the potential for it to make a lot of money then this is the early gut punch you might need to take.
You’ll have to make sure that you are living frugally and modestly, pouring all your money that you got from selling your assets into the business. Now more than ever you will need to be careful and smart in how you invest in your business. Weighing up the risks and rewards suddenly becomes a lot more serious.
Lean towards the lend
What if you don’t need that much money to springboard your business? For many micro businesses, making the leap to being a small business is the first goal. Startups are just that, micro-businesses as the employee count is barely 10 for most. Just because you’re tiny doesn’t mean you won’t be achieving great things but you need some kind of capital to get you started even if it’s small. This might be because you need to make your first batch of products and get them in front of investors and or distributors.
One way you could achieve a small cash injection is by using installment loans for bad credit. If you have bad credit due to taking out multiple credit cards and loans that are outstanding and possibly overrunning payment schedules your credit score is going to be in the red. Many micro-business owners use these kinds of avenues to fund their early stages so instalment loans for those with negative credit scores or just above are a great opportunity.
You can choose from $100 to $5,000. Obviously, the loan comes to you in chunks so you’ll need to formulate a plan that makes good use of the money in stages. Making small batches of your product, buying equipment, or paying for services that help your business function are some of the more common things you can use this type of loan for.
Startups get off the ground by having two things. Firstly it’s the grit and determination of the owner to find a way and never give up. The second is using different avenues to find the money you need to fund your projects. You can always try to find a private investor by going to business and industry conferences but you might have better luck with advertising your business online. There’s always someone that is searching to invest in the next potential giant.