Do Business Well

Third Example: Monty, the highly motivated 35 year old marketer with a dream

Monty was a successful marketer with a senior position at a leading manufacturing company. However, although he was earning a good salary, he carried a lot of debt. He was still paying a large bond, his two children were in a private school and his wife wasn’t working.

One day Monty was reading an overseas business magazine where he read about a new computer software package that had been successfully introduced into the American market. He followed up with the company which launched the package in the United States and discovered that they had not yet appointed a representative. After doing his homework, Monty believed the package would do well.

He approached the American company and requested the rights for the package. Based on his track record, they agreed to give him the rights for a six month period after which his performance would be reviewed. Part of the deal, however, was that Monty had to develop the market at his own expense.

Monty had the skill and determination to launch the business but he had zero capital. Furthermore, even his cashflow was stretched because of the debt that he carried. What would you do? Monty had an excellent, secure job making good money. Financially, he was extremely vulnerable. And this computer software package was untried in market.

Would you put it all on the line? Monty was in what we call a “Moment of Destiny”. He could go out and pursue his dream. Or, he could go back to the Comfort Zone. Well, Monty chose to pursue his dream. He compiled a superb, captivating business plan. He presented it to a combination of venture capitalists and bankers. They bought into him and his dream. He gave the business everything he had. And he made it big.

What’s our point? If you have the desire, the dream, the discipline and the courage, you’ll always find a way of raising the capital.

There are investors who are constantly looking for great ideas to invest in. Now, more than ever, it is a land of opportunity for turned-on entrepreneurs with exciting business plans.

So never use money as an excuse not to start your own business ever again!!

The preceding three examples are conventional ways of raising capital. However, we can also think of creative ways such as thefollowing:

You might decide to make 30% of your business available to family and friends. You can then approach these people with a plan where they supply the capital in return for a share in your business. Built into the plan could be an agreement that, at a certain point in time, they can sell the shares to you at a price that would give them a higher return on their money than other conventional investments.

Another route is the joint venture option, where you retain 49 % of the business and sell the other 51 % to a business partner or investor. Having a 49 % stake in a viable business should still beat being asalaried employee!

After reading this section, we hope you now are now confident that if you really want to start your own business you can find a way to raise the capital. You may need to drive a “skedonk” for a little while and work part time, but we assure you that these moderate sacrifices will be well worth it in the end.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
How to generate the capital you need simply and painlessly continue…

• Franchising Advantages
• Is a franchise the optimal solution? From the prospective franchisor's viewpoint
• Some Franchise Terminology
• Selling the Franchise
• The franchise agreement
• Franchisee Selection Tips
• Dealing with commercial banks
• Poor Choices
• How to generate the capital you need simply and painlessly
• Is the business franchiseable? Some critical success factors

5 Comments »