My start up business Sphere Force has been completely funded using my limited and fixed income and personal credit and without regret. I am passionate about and committed to the vision and mission of Sphere Force and have reached exhaustion of my personal finances just as we are preparing to generate income.
Operations expenses such as supplier/business insurance is part of the requirements to qualify for supplier diversity programs and are estimated to cost between $500-$1500 (monthly). I expect to negotiate equity or a repayment schedule. Is there advice on where and how to acquire seed capital? or how and with whom to leverage patented intellectual property for a capital investment? Any options outside the box of methods that will require me to have cash on hand or a near perfect personal credit score?
Answers
Normally no grants for startup businesses.
Most banks will provide an equity line of credit.
The equity could be on your home, land, business or other.
Talk with your bank's loan officer.
I started my residential rental business using a equity line of credit for the down payment.
Then as the equity in the building increased, I used this equity to purchase more rental buildings.
Good Luck,
Paul
Both Jennifer and Chris have provided excellent recommendations. One other option is to try a crowd sourcing platform like kickstarter.com. Be sure to do your homework first however, because social networking is paramount when taking this approach. What I mean is, if your startup has a good following on Facebook and / or Twitter for example, then you can leverage these contacts to donate when publishing your idea on the crowd sourcing site. Without an existing following / network, crowd sourcing may not work. If you have any questions please contact me directly. Good luck in your search for funding!
Donnie,
I'm not a mentor, but I've always admired entrepreneurs such as yourself for taking the risks you've chosen to take.
As someone with a small amount of experience in financial services, I would like to just provide some solid tips that you may not have heard. Some of these tips may be trivial to you, so please understand my criticism is intended to be constructive and not condescending/discouraging.
1) Have your finances in order completely. If you don't have financial statements, get some software and take a crash course in business accounting for startups. Financial investors are putting their money on the line for you, so you should do your best to be as financially literate as possible and be able to provide them with data to back up your claims about your company. Having your finances properly maintained is a win for both yourself and your potential investor.
2) Have a defined business plan. Know that whenever you do get the opportunity to meet with a potential investor, they are going to want to know that the person responsible for providing them a return on their investment is focused and ambitious. Do market research like no tomorrow.
3) Never miss an opportunity to look better than you actually are. I took a look at your website, and I see little things like grammatical errors and they instantly make me want to dig deeper into everything you put on your site. Make sure you are able to back up the claims you're making about the "Benefits of Solar". I believe that solar energy will save me money, but provide verifiable examples so that the detail oriented people will be satisfied.
Good luck, man. I wish I had an idea to start a business.
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