Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

A month? 6 months? A couple years?

I am totally unfamiliar with this process.

—paula

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Dont know for sure yet but probably in the neighborhood of $150,000  — I`ll need it sometime around April-May `08.

—paula

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Salaries, insurance, contracted services (hosted adserving & bulk email), laptops, an integrated mobile phone system, accounting & lawyering, travel expenses for me. The whole shebang is going to be home-based and split up over 7 cities across the country, so I won`t have an office to worry about — however I will need to get everyone connected up properly with phones and computers, and reimburse them for things like broadband. I will also be personally traveling to these cities to get operations there up and running, so I`ll be living on the road for a while — I`ll need a reliable sub-compact car that gets excellent gas mileage. I`m thinking used Jetta diesel.

I made a huge post last night that explains what I`m doing in a bit more detail here.

For whatever its worth, in the immediate I`m working on drumming up $17,000 so I can get my web infrastructure built, finish up the biz plan and get myself moved to Detroit. If you have any suggestions how to go about doing that I`m all ears!

—paula

Paula,

The length of time from initial contact to completing the deal depends on several factors including:

1. How well prepared you and your company are.
2. The due diligence phase.

Generally, for professional angel groups and VC firms - this part of the process takes 3-6 months after initial contact.

You should also consider the time it takes for you to be "capital ready" when you approach investors. 

 

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

sorry to be a dunce — what is "capital ready" ?

—paula

Paula,

Sorry - I didn`t mean to be so esoteric. We use that term with our client`s and it sort of slipped into my post.

To us, being capital ready means that both the people and the business are ready to move forward once the provider of capital is “on the scene”. The objective is to avoid backtracking or halting the progress of the engagement.

  

What specifically is needed to be “capital ready” will depend upon several factors including:

1. The stage of your business
2. Type of business
3. Your capital strategy –  both short and long-term
1. How much
2. For what purpose
3. Method of acquisition
4. Previous capital activities

Almost everybody has heard that a basic business plan is part of being “capital ready”. While the following is by no means a complete list – here are a few more to consider:

 

1.      What is your capital strategy or plan?

2.      The business should be properly structured and “engineered” to accept the capital being sought. (i.e. if you want a company line of credit – you need to have a formal entity. If you intend to sell equity, the company needs to be “designed” to accommodate this)

3.      Do you (and your team) know what to expect as the process and are you prepared to “handle” it?

4.      Do you know what questions (FAQ’s) that will be asked and are you prepared to respond?

5.      Are the necessary / appropriate documents in place (available) for the “due diligence” phase.

6.      What capital “magnets” have (or could) you include – which would reduce the real or perceived risk?

7.      Are you comfortable with what you (the company) is prepared to do in order to acquire this capital – and more importantly what you are not willing to do?

I hope this helps.

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Business Growth Masters, LLC -
Capital Catalysts for Entrepreneurs
Home of the Scalable Business Plan and QuikStart Capital Programs
http://www.bizgrowthmasters.com
info@bizgrowthmasters.com

Since you are only looking for 17k, how about trying www.thesnaploan.com.

I use to think angel investors meant.  Someone invests in your company, you know like an angel, as a good faith act and not expect any repayment.

In reality, there is no such thing as free money.  At least, I have been unable to locate it.

I tried thesnaploan.com and found success, so I thought I would tell you about it.  I know how frustrating and stressful looking for funding can be.

Good luck.