Business Funding For Dummies (eBook)

Helene Panzarino (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-119-11160-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Get the business funding you need to secure your success

The issue of funding is one of the biggest pain points for small- and medium-sized businesses-and one that comes up on a daily basis, Whether you're unsure about how to go about getting a loan, unfamiliar with the different options available to you or confused as to which would be the right solution for your particular business, Business Funding For Dummies provides plain-English, down-to-earth guidance on everything you need to successfully fund your business venture,

Friendly, authoritative, and with a dash of humor thrown in for fun, this hands-on guide takes the fear out of funding and walks you step-by-step through the process of ensuring your business is financially viable, From crowd funding and angels to grants and friends, families, and fools, it covers every form of funding available-and helps you hone in on and secure the ones that are right for your unique needs,

• Includes mini case studies, quotes, and plenty of examples
• Offers excerpts from interviews with financiers and entrepreneurs
• Topics covered include all forms of funding
• Covers angels in the UK and abroad

If you're the owner or director of a small-to-medium-sized business looking to start an SME, but have been barking up the wrong tree, Business Funding For Dummies is the fast and easy way to get the funds you need,

Helene Panzarino is an entrepreneur, educator, mentor and advisor with nearly twenty years of experience helping  thousands of SMEs understand, prepare for, and access traditional and alternative funding options at all stages in their business growth,  A frequent round table participant, media guest, and event speaker, Helene combines hands-on experience with theoretical know-how, and a passion to share this with the wider community,

Inhalt

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started on Funding Your Business 7

Chapter 1: Preparing for Funding at Any Stage of Growth 9

Chapter 2: Recognising the Stages of Business Funding 25

Chapter 3: Preparing the Groundwork for Raising Funds 49

Chapter 4: Becoming Investment Ready 105

Chapter 5: Loving the Paperwork: Preparing Your Business Plan 107

Chapter 6: Creating a Winning Pitch 125

Chapter 7: Making a Successful Pitch 143

Chapter 8: Getting Help 161

Part III: Exploring Your Funding Options 175

Chapter 9: Finding Free Money 177

Chapter 10: Securing Early-Stage Funding 193

Chapter 11: Securing Accelerator Finance 211

Chapter 12: Considering Debt and Other Bank Funding 225

Chapter 13: Understanding Equity Funding 249

Chapter 14: Considering Alternative Finance 273

Part IV: Going for Growth 299

Chapter 15: Measuring Performance 301

Chapter 16: Getting a Mentor 325

Chapter 17: Exploring Strategies for Growth 339

Part V: The Part of Tens 363

Chapter 18: Ten (Plus One) Pitfalls to Avoid 365

Chapter 19: Ten Things Funders Don't Tell You 375

Chapter 20: Ten (Plus One) Terms You Need to Know before Raising Start-Up Capital 383

Index 391

Textauszug

Introduction

The fact that you’ve taken this book off the shelf or been given it as a gift is a good indication that you’re seriously thinking about starting or expanding your business, and you realise that you’re going to need some other believers, in the form of lenders, investors and facilitators, to accompany you on your roller-coaster journey. Firstly, well done for thinking outside the box, and secondly, congratulations for realising that help is at hand and you don’t have to do everything on your own.

Whatever your reason for dipping into the pages that follow, it’s safe to assume that you have an inkling that luck and a fair wind are not enough to enable you to achieve funding success for your business, and you want to find out as much as you can in order to ensure that you come out with the best result for you and your business.

This book starts with the premise that a good idea, better-than-average skills and hard work are not enough for you to raise the finance you need to create a viable business – one with growing revenue, healthy profit margins and a good rate of return on investment. It brings together information and examples from a wide variety of sources, some essential knowledge, and some tips, hints and guidelines for maximising your efforts to achieve funding success, no matter what the economic backdrop is.

About This Book

Half of the businesses that start this year will fail. Of those that survive, few will reach the scale necessary to make a significant impact on the UK economy as a whole. Everyone in the business community wants to see this situation improve, and it’s clear that some extra help is required.

One area that’s been identified as a stumbling block to business growth is accessing appropriate business finance (you can find out more in the government-commissioned Scale-Up Report). Many smaller businesses aren’t aware of the full range of external funding options on the market. However, you can find a good deal of funding out there, and like water trickling down and through, it’ll find its level. This funding is looking for good business deals to invest in, but not just any old deal flow; it wants good, solid businesses with amazing teams and a product or service that has a growing and sustainable market. It’s up to you to find the right funds at the right time and for the right price.

If this isn’t happening, it may be due to:

• The lack of a strong business foundation to approach funders from
• A lack of awareness about what funding products are in the market, or where to find them
• A lack of education and practical understanding as to how to effectively prepare and successfully approach and obtain funding
• Entrepreneurs and business owners feeling overwhelmed in the face of the changing funding landscape, which now has technology-enabled platforms adding a new dimension to the receding traditional offering

This book gives you help in all these areas.

In addition, every business needs a business plan, an eye-catching pitch deck, an impressive investment memorandum or opportunity note, and a short, sharp, crystal-clear executive summary. You also need a well-researched and thought-out story that covers how much money you need, what you’ll use it for and what you’ll provide in return to a funder that has the faith and conviction to back you, your team and your credible plan and idea.

This book is also invaluable to the inventors and innovators among you. If you’re researching or developing some groundbreaking or life-changing product or service, you may benefit from the down-to-earth business advice and guidance I provide, as well as the unearthing of possible financial support, be it tax credits, grants or competitions. Your discoveries may mean the difference between your next big thing languishing in the bottom drawer or successfully travelling from the lab to the light of the public gaze.

Business Funding For Dummies, UK Edition, can help you succeed no matter what stage of funding you’re seeking. Whether you’re about to take your first plunge into funding or you’re an experienced entrepreneur, you can always discover something new. This has never been more relevant than in the current funding climate, where alternative finance is really finding its voice and creating many challengers to traditional providers, and the lines between investment rounds made by equity providers are blurring, opening up avenues that may have previously been closed to you.

This book is set out to allow you to dip in and out of it to suit your situation and needs, no matter what stage you’re in:

• If you’ve not started your business yet and want to be as well-informed as possible, consider starting at the beginning of this book and working your way through each chapter.
• If you’re already up and running, and you’ve had a bit of funding to get you started, you may want to pick and choose the areas where you’re less knowledgeable, or have knowledge gaps, as a starting point, radiating out from there as you go along.
• If you’re further along and more confident in your funding knowledge and experience, you can find a particular topic that enhances your knowledge and also serves as a review or refresher guide.
• If you prefer to learn by example, the True Story and Warning icons may be good ways to shed a little light, using other people’s experiences as a guide.
• If you’re familiar with the more traditional forms of business funding but only just beginning to explore some of the new funding methods, check the relevant chapters for topics to improve your knowledge and confidence levels as you begin to explore whether they’re appropriate for your business needs.

Foolish Assumptions

This book brings together essential, go-to information about getting your business funded. It assumes that you’re either just starting your funding journey and want to see where you stand now as well as the road ahead or that you’re somewhere on the road already and want to find out what’s out there that will work for your business at every stage along the way.

You may find yourself in need of this book for a number of reasons:

• You’ve been given a gift or an inheritance that provides enough to get you started on realising a long-held dream or ambition, and you want to spend it wisely – as well as see what other funding you may need to go with it.
• You’ve finally been cut loose from the drudge of the day job that you’ve disliked for years, with a financial incentive to soften the blow, but you have a feeling that this leaving present may not be quite enough to launch your world-dominating enterprise, so you need to explore additional funding options.
• You may have already made a start on your business, and to the surprise of everyone, including you, it’s doing so well that you can’t keep up with the finance it demands! If so, you need to discover more about what your options are and how to secure additional funding.
• You can see the potential for your business to become a world leader, or the next big thing, and you’re curious as to what that journey to your island retirement may look like in funding terms.
• You’ve read about how well the UK economy is doing, and the great environment for supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking finance – tax incentives, mentors galore, business support schemes, export programmes and a plethora of funders – so you thought you’d find out what all the fuss is about and get on board the funding train.

This is a book for a business that has or will have products and services that people want to buy so your business can grow and access a variety of funding options. This book has chapters that point you in the direction of potential guidance and advice, and assumes that everyone has something to learn.

I don’t assume that you know everything about how to go about funding your business, or that you’re less of a businessperson if you have some knowledge gaps. What matters is that you’re eager to learn and willing to make a start.

Icons Used in This Book

All For Dummies books use icons to highlight especially interesting, important or sometimes dangerous information. In this book, I use the following icons:

The Tip icon draws your attention to useful and practical points or information.

This icon alerts you to a potentially precarious or dangerous situation, and reminds you to stop, look and listen and proceed with caution.

The Remember icon gives you a gentle reminder that this bit of information topic is important enough for you to note it down.

The True Story icon lets you know that I’m referring to a real-life business example that shows you how another entrepreneur handled a situation or topic that you may encounter yourself one day.

The Technical Stuff icon is next to information that number-crunchers may like but that isn’t necessary to understand the topic at hand.

Beyond the Book

As you embark on and travel further along your funding journey, you can add to or supplement what you’ve read here by checking out some of the 24/7 extra information hosted online. You can access bonus articles and an extra Part of Tens chapter by going to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.1.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Wirtschaftsrecht
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Finanzierung
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Schlagworte: all forms of funding • Angels • angels in the UK • angels in the UK and abroad • Business & Finance • business funding • Business Funding For Dummies • Crowd funding • Entrepreneurs • every form of funding available • financiers • funding available • fund your business • fund your business venture • get the business funding you need • getting a loan • Grants • Helene Panzarino • how to go about getting a loan • how to successfully fund your business • how to successfully fund your business venture • Mathematics • Mathematik • Mathematik in Wirtschaft u. Finanzwesen • SME • start an SME • Wirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 1-119-11160-9 / 1119111609
• ISBN-13: 978-1-119-11160-3 / 9781119111603