Entrepreneurs and managers need to have their finger on the pulse of the business and the sure sign of impending disaster is running out of cash! Running out of cash is always a symptom of bigger problems within the business, which have to be put right. There are early warning…
What is it? Return on investment or ROI is the most commonly used financial term in many conversations about spending large sums of money. Simply put, it measures the profits or benefits arising out of money invested to achieve those benefits. It should not be confused with ROCE – return…
Raising funding for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) or even large projects is still a difficult and painful process out there. I had a long discussion with an experienced consultant recently who works with tech startups and his prognosis for the smaller end of fund-raising circa £250,000 was…
Advice on how to start up a business has been written about almost every day and the advice follows the usual steps. 1. Come up with the business idea 2. Research the market for the product or service 3. Write your business plan along with your forecasts for the numbers…
At some stage, every entrepreneur and business owner has to realise an exit from their business. The most important thing is to maximise the business value when you sell your business. I have already written about the key exit strategies in an earlier blog http://bit.ly/1eDQ4DF Whatever strategy you choose, it…
You’ve done the hard work and have a thriving business – what next? If you haven’t planned it already, it’s time you thought about how you exit and make some money for all that effort. Here are 4 key exit strategies to think about. Buyout This is the usual exit for a…
The usual question entrepreneurs get asked by investors’ is “what’s your break-even point?” Most will be able to give the answer and will understand it as when sufficient revenues are achieved to cover all costs and profitability is reached. In simple terms, it’s the volume of sales required to start…
Venture Capital (VC) is the source of equity funding for many startups and also larger businesses looking for their next stage of growth. VCs’ usually fund millions into businesses and should only be looked at when you need millions and when you have exhausted all other sources of funding. VCs’…
Angel investors are an increasingly important source of funding for startups and early stage businesses. Nearly 21% of business funding in the UK comes from this source and fills the funding gap between friends and family and the larger Venture Capital firms. Angel investors are experienced entrepreneurs who usually have…
Depending on the investor be it Venture Capital, angel investors or other type of funds, each will have differing criteria to evaluate whether the business is for them or not. Usually there will be common factors running through them that businesses seeking funding should know about. I have summarised…