CO— partners with Entrepreneur.com to bring you a roundup of the best Entrepreneur articles each week. Below are this week's favorites.
Financing your business is essential for any entrepreneur to get off the ground, but it can be difficult to know where to start and how much you’ll need. Some business owners choose to seek a loan, while others may be better off finding private investments.
To help new and existing small business owners learn how they can get funding for their business, we’ve rounded up some of the best content from Entrepreneur.com contributors that was published in the past week.
Tell a story in your pitch
Investors hear dozens of the same type of pitch all the time. To stand out and connect with your prospective investors, you need to tell them a story. Jessica Abo, founder of JaboTV, shared her ideas on how entrepreneurs can use storytelling techniques in their pitches in “This Entrepreneur Shares What You Can Do to Nail Your Investor Pitch Deck.” Abo talks about how stories are how people communicate messages to one another for the human brain. By putting your investor pitch in the form of a story and leading your investors on a journey, they'll better remember your idea, your passion, ways you've helped people and how to solve your customers' problems.
Read the full article on Entrepreneur.
Make your pitch look professional
In addition to using a story to help sell the finer points of your business, your pitch should also look as professional as possible. This is something that the CEO of Best Stocks, Roberto Liccardo, stressed hard in his article, “7 Steps to Creating a Crowdfunding Project That Will Get You the Money You Need.” According to Liccardo, having high quality images and a professional video can really help sell your service or product to any investor. Alternatively, using low quality media can hurt your pitch and make you and your business come off as unprofessional.
Read the full article on Entrepreneur.
[Read more: Famous Investors' Best Advice on Finding Backers]
According to Anis Uzzaman, general partner and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, venture capital funding is the most dominant source of funding and has been at an all-time high in recent years.
Reach out to family and friends
When starting a small business, many people get hung up on trying to find a wealthy connection to invest in their business. However, you should lean on your strongest connections first. This means reaching out to family and friends to fund through crowdsourcing. In “7 Fantastic Ways to Fund Your Next Billion-Dollar Idea,” financial and investment consultant Richard Maize talks about how getting small investments from the people you know best can help give you your first boost and will get your business plan out in front of more people.
Read the full article on Entrepreneur.
Seek out corporate venture capital
Many startups choose to seek funding by raising venture capital. According to Anis Uzzaman, general partner and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, venture capital funding is the most dominant source of funding and has been at an all-time high in recent years. In most cases, startups get their capital from just a singular party. However, in his article, “Why Raising Corporate Venture Capital Benefits Startups,” Uzzaman stresses that entrepreneurs should seek out a variety of investors in their early stages of funding. This way, you can get guidance from different perspectives and better take control of your growth in the future.
Read the full article on Entrepreneur.
[Read more: What Is Venture Capital?]
Keep a founder-favored structure
Many small business owners are so desperate for funding that they'll take investment deals with unfavorable terms. In her article, “What You Need to Know About VC-Favored Structures vs. Founder-Favored Structures,” Mital Makadia, partner at Grellas Shah LLP, shared what future entrepreneurs need to know about venture capital structures. She stated that founders should put in place structures that are friendly to them to retain a high valuation, keep as much control as possible and not risk losing as much liquidity.
Read the full article on Entrepreneur.
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
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