Subscribe To This Site
Business Startup Secrets
Guess what I have been doing for the past few weeks? Seeking seed or Startup capital?
You may as well go out back and shoot yourself, if you think this process works reasonably. Reasonably is you ask and they help.
I have just come off about a two or three week journey promoting a new business venture idea and developing a BP (Business Plan).My idea was revealed to me and it finally occurred to me it is time to take action. So I did by visiting the office of a local politician in Atlanta and being pumped full of what I thought was very valuable information.
I came home and started to work on it and for the last week or so, I have been giving my all to my BP. Afterwards, I made several phone calls to organizations like Minority Business Development Association, Urban League of Atlanta, Small Business Development Center, Women’s Business Center, Counselors America’s Small Business and now, I was so overwhelmed with the longest list of Bull Shit, things I cannot do, instructions I cannot follow and more referrals to get more of the same erroneous bull.
I could see the next eighteen months of my life tied down to paper work and research to get me nowhere. How am I supposed to make a living?
About you and your idea, no matter how important it might be you or the world, these corporate giants are more concerned about investors getting their money back. They could give a shit less whether you survive or not.
What about balance?
What about predatory corporate practices? Why should the investor receive well more leverage than the entrepreneur? Why shouldn't the investor have to prove his ability to master the plan? Whose side are they on? Whose side should they be on? Whose paying their salaries? Do investors pay them?
At no time did they request to see my business plan. Being a 23 year military veteran, 54 years good American Citizen, own my own house and paid for over 20 years, No Criminal history, college educated, 20 years in business,,, none of that came into helped or came into play. All I got was more shit to do.
No matter how much I have given to my country, prepared myself and have no debts, I have earned nothing in return.
All they care about is profit and most of them do not out right on anything, but a phony resume. If they were doing a half-ass decent job would our economy be in such a depressing state? They are business as usual and script oriented. It ain't what you know?
I knew I wasn't getting any where and wondered if East Indians have to go through all of this before they are offered business opportunities. Then maybe I should go to them for help?
Why do not they just post a sign saying if you are a good American citizen without money, we cannot help you.
What minority to minority? Black male to Black male? Black male to black female? You know we talk about how non-productive Black males are and boast about all the resources they refuse to take advantage of? Is there any need to help them do anything positive?
It is what it is.
It is enough stress to come up with an idea, put it down on paper, determine in which direction to go, call for help and receive an overwhelming bunch of information, no single human being could ever do.
I do not know how others accomplish this, but in my experience, I hardly understood the language, much less knew what to do and they knew that, because I told them, this was my first time.
New to the game, these governmental organizations boast about all the resource they have to help serious people, they do everything to show you how knowledgeable they are, but instead of helping, all they are going to do is give you a longer row to hoe.
Instead of requesting your BP, logging and reviewing it for possibilities, they never ask to see it. They are scripted with a whole bunch of gibberish, no normal business person can understand. They are more focused on you understanding their long drawn out process, than helping to make your business into reality.
It seems they are eager and armed with a long line of technical jargon to lead you off into space, while justifying their jobs.
After they finish letting the air out of your ass, what's left?You'll have to go somewhere to get pumped back up!
Here’s my first lesson: You are hard pressed to find help on any startup venture and after visiting this website, it better explained to me why and what I was really up against. Here are just a few notes I gleamed from his website.
- how the truly great entrepreneurs start without outside capital.
- how to create the cash that will both start your business and get you taken seriously by investors later on. Even better, some entrepreneurs realize after using the Guide that they won't need investors at all. Good or good?
- the capital-chasing process is a stupendous waste of time for 99.9999% of startups.
- The business press has glamorized venture capital and created a whole package of myths around what is a very tough reality. Most entrepreneurs have no understanding that to secure financing they are making VCs the owners and themselves the paid help, whatever percentage of the company the VCs get.
- And few capital seekers have a true understanding of "standard" VC deal terms. Unfortunately the VC firms have huge PR firms and it is only the happy-spin story that ever gets told. Few horror stories make it to the press.
- The Smart Startup Guide teaches you how to get your venture off the ground with little or no outside money. It does so by revealing the financing strategies used by entrepreneurial greats when investors weren't available. Ironically, while the Guide tries to dissuade you from using outside money, the application of its strategies will actually make your venture all the more attractive to venture capitalists and angel investors.
- Angel investors differ from venture capitalists in that they are investing their own hard-earned money into your company rather than that of institutional investors. They usually invest in the range of $25,000 to $250,000.
- Don't waste your time chasing investors more than an hour's drive from where your company is situated. Both angel and venture capital investing are face-to-face relationships. If something starts to go wrong at an investment, the investor wants to be able to reach it in no more than an hour's car commute. They do not want to have to jump aboard a plane to hold an impromptu meeting with management team.
Our investments are concentrated in order to facilitate a healthy interaction between portfolio company managers and partners. We look for firms that have an opportunity to deploy capital on an efficient basis to significantly alter their growth trajectory and create value for the founders, managers, and owners of the businesses.
Candidates for investment should have good management teams in place, established sales, and serve large and growing markets. There are no industry restrictions with the exclusion of real estate, distribution, franchisees, and mineral exploration projects. Notes taken from Startup Capital for the rest of us?
Every day a gazelle wakes up and knows it must outrun the fastest cheetah in order to live. Every day a cheetah wakes up and knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will not survive. It doesn't matter if you're a gazelle or a cheetah, when you wake up you better start running! -Anon
This was good too: You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son. - Eddie Temple in Layer Cake
Those two more than accurately describes my Seeking seed or Startup capital experience? Do you think I will ever do that again?
I wished I had read this website first: Notes taken from Startup Capital for the rest of us?
(((your inner voice.com)))
