How To Start A Small Business Funding From Angel Investors 101

Most young entrepreneurs want to know how to start a small business. When it comes to ideas and planning, they have it all sorted out. Thanks to so many business schools, people are much more aware of how to start their own business and how to go about things, but where they fall short is usually funding. Getting funding is a problem and sometimes, when they do manage to get funding; it spells doom for their business in the long run.

Where To Look For Them

A safe bet is getting funding from an angel investor. Private angel investors, who you know or who know you, are your best bet. This adds a nice personal touch, which is really important when it comes to business. You dont want it to be a completely commercial transaction, what you want is someone to guide you, someone to assume the role of a mentor.

Funding is something that is hard to come by, but a lot of young entrepreneurs manage to secure it because they know where to look for angel investors, but when it comes to pitching themselves, they often fall short! One of the basic things you need to master, when you are learning how to start a small business, is how to pitch yourself.

Pitching Yourself

Here is a brief guide:

Try to find out, by any means possible, what makes your angel investor tick what are their motivations behind their investment, what kinds of businesses have they backed in the past? These are very important considerations.

If you are satisfied with their background, then you need to arrange a meeting, but before that, do ask at least two people to speak on your behalf, to the angel. Then, when you two first meet, make sure you make a very, very good impression.

Draw up a business plan, a good one;at this point, let me tell you that you cant have everything and you have to offer your angel a very good share of the profit you make. That is basically the main factor which motivates an angel to invest. A great way to court your angel is, to make about 5% of your business report reward oriented. If nothing else, it will guarantee that the angel reads the entire plan!

A mistake you should avoid is, getting carried away. Most young entrepreneurs, with bright ideas believe that their business is bound to take off and capture the market so they estimate their business to be worth much more than it actually is which drives them to make killer deals. Say, you ask an angel to invest $ 250,000 for about 10% of the ownership of your company; you are unwittingly saying that you believe that your company will be worth $ 2.5 million after the investment! Hello? Get real!

Lastly, dont underestimate angel investors, the experienced ones have already been there and done that, so you cant fool them!

So do mind your ps and qs when you are learning how to start a small business, good luck!

Are you looking for some great small business ideas? You have probably come at a crossroad in your life wherein you believe you are now capable of running your own business. However, the big question remains. What kind of business should you get into? If you are just one person with very limited budget, this article will present to you some of the small businesses that you may want to consider.

But before we proceed any further, keep in mind that having your own business is never an easy thing. Surely you can get the permits, the licenses, the office (or home) space, and all the pieces of equipment that you may need to operate, but making good money out of it is another matter. I have seen countless number of first-time business owners close shop within just a few months since they opened simply because they did not plan well. Do a market research. Create a marketing or business plan. In short, be overly prepared before you even make the first great move to owning a business.

Here are some small business ideas that you may want to include in your list of prospects:

Start an online business. Getting a domain name, a web hosting account, and creating a website has gotten so much easier as compared to maybe almost a decade ago. Now, thanks to various services and tools, even complete Internet newbies can create their own sites within less than a day. It is now a matter of point and click system, wherein if you can point and click using your mouse, then you can now put up a website.

Offer your skills or talents. Are you good in writing sales letters or articles? There is a hot demand right now for really good copywriters and article writers. You can get writing projects from online business owners to the regular shop owner down the street. Because for as long as business need to market their business, there will always be a need for people who can write great marketing copy.

Put up your dream shop. Have you always wanted to own a selling miniature die cast cars? Now you can, and with the right promotion and marketing, you can earn a good income from it. It is called selling within a niche and in this case, you will be selling to people who loves collecting small metal cars. There are a lot of niches out there, and chances are you can set up a store based on it.

Go into a food business. Start a small restaurant, a convenience store or a bakery. The premise is that people will always need food and so it means you will always have a business because of that. Of course that logic is far from being perfect but the idea that you are selling a commodity based on real human wants, then having a food business makes complete sense.

Go into a consultancy business. Depending on your profession, you may want to start consulting with other businesses. If you are in construction then you can become a general contractor, if you into marketing then you can assist other small business owners with their marketing campaigns. This is one of the small business ideas that have always been quite popular.