There is this friend of mine, who goes by the name Smith. Smith is an intelligent, smart-looking young man, who wanted to raise funds for his Startup, but he does not know how to go about it.
He went for pitching, but it all came down to nothing, as he was told that, his business idea was not test-proven. He was disheartened and discouraged.
There are a lot of Smiths out there, who feel that they need to raise Startup funds first before they can get the needed capital to push up their ventures.
According to the 4Q 2017 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, in 2017, venture capital funding has been impressive, but recently, investors are shying away and are investing in fewer seeds and pre-seed rounds.
The average entrepreneur is expected to self-fund for, at least, two years before seeking to raise capital funding from outside.
Raising funds is good, but sometimes you need to push the Startup organically, to a stage, whereby, raising funds may or may not be needed.
Below are 4 ways you could consider before venturing to seek capital funding for your business:
Start slowly: Start slowly and try to maximize all the available resources around you. Ensure that you have a means of income.
Do not quit the job that is bringing in steady income because you want to focus on the Startup that has not materialized yet.
Start by using and exploiting all the spare time you have during the weekdays and during the weekends, before gradually making the transition from a full-time employee at your old job, to a part-time worker.
In time, you can migrate to your own business, full-time, when the Startup begins to gain traction. It is safer this way than to just drop everything and quit your job to pursue a dream.
Work on a low-budget: Do not bite more than you can chew. Run on a stringent budget.
Work with what you have on the ground and make sure that you maximize it, to give you the best result. Work with freelancers and part-time workers and rent a ready to use office space.
Build a winning team: You need the right people to key into the dream with you.
Building a winning team entails that you engage the services of the right personnel, who are well-informed and self-motivated, to help you to push your dream.
Sell your dream to them and they will help you to fulfill the dream in record time, sometimes, without receiving any monetary reward.
Connect with people, who will bring in new ideas to boost your prospects and take care of some things for your business that includes, accounting for accountability, promotions, and advertising, etc.
Solutions to key issues: When your Startup provides key solutions to some problems facing the society, the chances of it gaining traction, will be very high. You would not need to go out there to source for funds.
Funds will flow in for you because your Startup is bringing in solutions to lingering issues besetting the society.
