Lessons

Lesson Info

Segment 1 - Funding Helps You Achieve Your Dream

Hi, I'm susan trader welcome today is going to be a really great day it's about empowerment your empowerment if you have a business idea or one too is so many people right here wanted to expand their business but don't have the cash to do it we're going to show you how to get the cash you want on the best terms possible with the least amount of frustration. How cool is that? I guarantee, and I'll say that again, I guarantee by the end of these workshops you will have a much bigger sense of what you can accomplish in business, not just today but over the course of your career. That's huge when you say you can't, I say you can when people around you say especially for creative people, artists, photographers, filmmakers you can't raise money from lenders or investors I say you can it is possible it's all about the process and feeling confident in your own business and what it can achieve now I am sure there are people right here plus people at home who are saying, oh, I'm not good at numb...

ers. Well, what I'm really good at is making the numbers easy and I know how you talk about numbers and how you feel about numbers will be a very, very different experience than anything you've ever had or experienced in your business careers it's what I'm known for and I guarantee you even though I teach at the mba level you do not need an mba to get funding for your business sometimes I think it may work against you actually now when I say my purpose is to help you achieve your purpose, I really believe that and I love what I d'oh why? Because I am just a catalyst to help you put your own dreams and turn them into your own reality taking your vision and making it your own reality so if you want to have your own film studio musicians studio if you want to start a new website as I said earlier expand your business it can be done you can raise that money for yourself as we said earlier we're going to cover credit cards crowd funding by the end of these workshops you'll know the difference between angel investors and venture capital investors. You'll know the difference between donation crowdfunding versus selling securities selling a piece your company online through crowdfunding you're going to learn how to price loans how to compare loans you'll learn about micro loans some of the lowest cost sources of loans in america especially for people with bad credit and so much more so let's get started and I do want to make a shout out to the audience I love questions I want to hear your questions I really want you to challenge me this is about your day and empowering you to achieve what you want to do in business, so really send me those questions I want to hear from you right here and in the audience, great. Here we go a couple things about me that wasn't mentioned before I come from venture capital, which is really providing businesses with capital plus also selling businesses, so we're going to learn how to create a business that is really going to grow in value assailable value, but also, over the last eight years I've been studying why start ups fail and interviewing business owners all around the country and learning what was it that tripped them up? Some of them had growing customers comes to rear base year after year, yet they went out of business why some of them had amazing products, why did they go out of business? And the answer is they ran out of cash, they simply ran out of cash. When you're out of quarters, you're out of quarters. So cash it's not about necessarily how good your product or service is. We're not even creating a product that works. I didn't come across companies that didn't build the products they wanted, but they ran out of cash successor failure is truly having the cash to serve your customers and continue to build and expand that's, the heart of it. Cash I think it's the best four letter word out their cash I love it coming in but companies close when they run out of cash that won't be you because you're going to become the masters of cash business ideas that are online community is sharing the altar here so I don't get funded photo market florida is saying I've been following the photography classes because my plan is to start up a photography company I'm looking to gather all the information here from susan to get started yeah we have another one here from across the water in the chat room and they say it's two a m here in guam so thanks for joining it soon I am from guam glad to have you looking to start a photography business without putting myself and my husband in the whole think a lot of people are there they're afraid of getting in that hole so hopefully we can learn some tactics to avoid that well we will cover if you want to buy some equipment say it's film cool equipment state of the art camera we're going to cover things this you know in these workshops on how to get that funded and not feel like you're in the hole I'm roe all it could be roar says I'm in southern california and I'm very interested in starting a tutoring business so something very similar to adam there as well thank you for sharing ok, we can do this. Yeah. Think about how much cash you need to do that that's what? I want them to think about how much cash is it? A thousand dollars is a five thousand dollars. How much money? Because really the starting point of raising money for your business is deciding how much you want. Empowerment slide number one I promised everybody that they would forever change how they think about what they can accomplish in business and here's the heart of this understanding and this slide it simply says there are only three sources of cash for a business and this applies to a start up business or a fortune one thousand business. It could be apple computer. You name any company in the you know, the united states or the world, it's all the same. Where do you get your cash from? You either get it from debt borrowing money. It could be from friends and family. You could even borrow money from your own personal savings account and put it in your business checking account. One source death another sources equity and that is turning to investors who will provide you with some amount of cash in exchange for a piece of your business that's the second source of cash. So at the start of stage it's usually a little bit of dead or a little bit of equity or a little bit of both and guess what as you grow same thing debt fuels the business equity fuels a business or the cash flow that is generated from serving customers those air the big three and that's all it is it's no more complicated than that but somehow we get so scared about it so let's make it any little easier way to think about it now I'm a mixologist right? I love cocktails I love recipes here's how I want you to think about your business and funding your business not just today but throughout your business career it's never one or the other and we're all creative people so if you are a painter you may think of debt has your you're creating your canvas a little bit of debt a little bit of equity as your company grows were adding in that operating cash flow to the debt and equity. So changing our perspective is it's never one thing at all that's your mindset change you put yourself is you are in command, you are the maestro you drive the mix, you drive the mix not anybody else. I want youto embrace the responsibility of always having cash in your company because without cash you're out of business and there are if you don't have cash then you have to turn toe others to get that cash and you can write you can as companies grow it's likely that the operating cash flow that's just simply the cash that comes in from selling from customers may take over the lion's share of your companies cash resource is but you are in charge you are in command whenever you delegate that to somebody else then you're going to feel stress I guarantee you but if you say to yourself I'm in charge my company is always going to have cash you have taken a major step forward in achieving business success not strange I'm probably the only person who talks about success it comes from having cash in your business it's not how many twitter fan you know twitter followers you have facebook fans it's rethinking how you lead your company forward and if you always put cash like oh I don't want to think about it to the bottom of your work day then you jeopardize your company so if you move it up higher to the top of your work day you are putting yourself in a position to accelerate danica patrick I love sports this's going back a few years was a rookie racecar driver at the indianapolis five hundred first woman to be leading the indianapolis five hundred six laps to go a young woman beautiful woman leading the famed indianapolis five hundred what happens, her car runs out of gas six laps to go that is the best image of what happens to really awesome creative business owners with great vision and great opportunity when you run out of cash you're at if you've lost the power to move your company forward what happened to danica all their competitors pastor by don't let that be you now I do want to make a caveat here yes we're going to talk about debt yes we're going to talk about equity and how to master getting those sources of cash into your business but I'd be really unfair if I didn't point out some other free sources of cash right? I don't want you to become dependent on these but they're out there for you especially for start up entrepreneurs first one s p I r federal grants you can get through any administration department of agriculture department of education there are specific grant programs in the first year and these air four profit companies not nonprofit you have to be a for profit company to qualify for these grants first year grant up to one hundred thousand dollars second year grant up to five hundred thousand dollars think about that okay department of energy department of agriculture department of defense department every single department offers grants so where do you go to learn about them s p I r dot gov just type in s p I r and look at take your business what you know in the product or service category especially in education look up what areas they are offering grants this year apply for them free cash now you have to do some things for it and just not going to send you a check, but they want to help spur great, creative, innovative minds just like our right here and are at home today you do have to be a u s citizen to apply for these okay, so that's place number one donation crowdfunding is another place where you may be able to get sources of free cash. Now if you're saying to yourself I want it or you're marketing a project in which people pay up front for a product it's not really free cash because you're on the hook to provide that product or service right? And we're going to talk a little bit more about crowdfunding a little later, but I want you to consider that you may be able to turn to crowd donation crowdfunding sites and pony up an idea or an op identity where people either donate to your business or advance purchase for your business. When I work with a lot of start up entrepreneurs, they're always afraid to ask for freebies suppose you need warehouse space before signing a lease for warehouse space see if somebody might lend you or give you a little piece of their warehouse space for free if you were starting a service business, see if ask people around you, do they have an office where you can incubate your startup idea? First, my rule, whenever you're asking for free products, services space is not make it forever. The very best way to get a yes is simply to put a timeline on it, because then they're more likely to say yes. So you say for six months, can I use your warehouse while I get my business going? Free source striking better deals with vendors if you don't ask you don't get you be surprised, especially, I think andrew's incubating and working with expanding her business. Um, with artists and her for her website, some vendors that she may work with on sourcing some of her products and services, she may be able to ask for better credit terms, not have to pay her creditors for in three months, but asked for six months when what you're doing through all of this is saving your business cash, and while we're going ahead very soon into debt and equity, I want to highlight this, his opportunities, we're creative innovators in this audience. I want you to kind of tap into your own creative talent to invent how you get cash for your business and not think it's complex, but to think of it as a way that you can inspire how you work with other people and encourage them to share your vision of where you want to go, okay? Sources of debt and equity. Obviously you and I've heard this morning that several you have really funded your own enterprises, right? So for either equity or debt, you can put money into your business in either way. That's so cannot outsiders those who? Your sources. What is the key advantage of using debt versus equity number one? It is generally available um all across the united states, lots of lenders, new sources of lenders opening up online eso there many more sources? Easy access sources of debt versus equity usually don't have to share a piece of your company when you return to lenders. So if you really care about owning one hundred percent of your business always, then for the most part you're going to be playing ball in the debt world those they're going to be your sources of cash until your company has enough customers to pay the company's bill's dead is a wonderful short term source for writing out problems of just paying bills. It gives you a little bit of extra firepower to pay your bills, to work with vendors, to market to products and services grated opportunities here, but the number one is you don't have to give a piece of your business away. Tow lenders there are a few exceptions where an opportunistic lender may say gee is pretty hot company won't you give me a little slice of your company so I'm not saying they won't ever ask to own a piece of your company but for the most part that's not what they dio that's not what they care about and for ambitious thinkers while most people think debt is for the short term needs let's think bigger let's say you want to have your own film studio let's say you want to set up your own education centers there are a number of programs we're going to talk to you about today where you can get money to buy the building to build out the musician studio the film studio the art studio so again just because you don't have it today but you have a dream doesn't mean it can happen what's the key difference between lenders and investors in terms of their own mindset and thinking lenders are short term thinkers they need a steady pay back right they're not big risk takers they want to get interest back from you either in a monthly or quarterly basis they want to know when they're going to be repaid investors are a little different fraidy cat they're not interested in getting interest and small amounts back from you in the next quarter and they're not going to say to you when exactly will I get my money back? Lenders will ask you that question investors they have a much longer term horizon they may not deed their money back for a good five to seven years right? So there's a different in mind difference in mindset I hate it I get so many business plans and executive summaries and a lot of times they'll work with business owners will use the very same business plan to pitch lenders as investors that's mistake number one they're two very different types of vehicles funding vehicles so the projections air different your pitches different your persona is different if you're presenting to a lender fast growth we're going to conquer the world really aggressive language it's going to scare of the lenders off because that's not their mentality there's short term thinkers right very low risk some other things cash flow predictability they do want to know that source of cash they want to know where your customers are and how fast those customers are paying you investors if you have a big idea it's entirely possible let's say for a biotech or clean tech operation or a product that takes a lot of development time you may not have to have a customer for four years five years, seven years but still investors will believe in you that's not the kind of scenario that would make a lender very happy right? But here's the biggest difference between lenders and investors that I want youto really appreciate and that is because I'm here to protect you and help you understand the pros and cons of all your different funding up options out there because you are going to become great shoppers for cash, right? That's what I'm creating here by the end of these workshops, you're going to be awesome shoppers for cash, the big difference between lenders and investors. If your business opportunity for some reason doesn't work out and it's sort of outside your control, lenders will probably turn to you personally to be paid back investors not okay, so what I'm saying it is, it is possible even if you have no cash to turn to both sources, but if it doesn't work out, you can walk away a lot easier here with investor cash versus lender cash. Any questions about that innovation, please? Because what lenders that seems pretty black and white and pretty clear that I have an interest rate hanging over my head or I have a deadline on the date for that renewal moment for that payable being dio, but with investors, it seems like that motivation doesn't really exist clearly to be business on for, for what reason would they didn't want a baby to constantly grow and constantly put time and effort into their business and growth? We are going to so deep dive into all the motivations of investors in some future segments but let me give you a short answer to that, whereas lenders care about your cash flow because if somebody owes a quarter of your business and they're willing to stay with you for five, seven years, maybe even ten years to get your money back. What they want is that the value of your business itself grows over time, so they want to invest when it's like this and they want to be apart and have an ownership stake when it becomes like this, right? So that little slice becomes a big slice of something. So if the investor puts in a million dollars success to them, is their state becoming worth ten million dollars, twenty million dollars and here's? Another thing doesn't that match your motivations to whence you all love to have a piece of a business that's worth for ten, twenty times the value of the cash you put into it? That's the investor motivation, that kind of thinking is not at all on the lenders radar screen. Sure, they would love to continue to lend to you and have a relationship while you grow into that monster big, valuable company, but federal regulations require them to look at. Do they have the ability to pay my interest? Do they have the ability to slowly pay me back over time? That's their job? So we're going to learn which types of lenders are going to be the best fit for your business at the right time, and we're going to learn, when is the very best situation for you to turn to wealthy individuals or vcs to help provide that equity to supercharge the growth of your business? Does that happen very similar question to that from time capsules, hoping that answers your question question as well, but a couple of things that maybe we just talked about, we are going to be covering a future segment, so if you want to address them now, because cashes clay is asking, how do you gauge the credible market size for a product in a category that doesn't exist? How do you do this? Bottoms up calculations is that something we're gonna be covering over the next couple of days and the next cut the seventh? We will be doing that? Definitely absolutely, um what we're working on in the immediate segments is more on the death side, but we will definitely be addressing equity, absolutely motivations, how to price your your shares, how to build the value of your shares and we have some special bonus materials as well that answer some of those questions, I think one of the bonus questions is fifty questions investors will ask and some of that is definitely related to building the value of your business and probably one of the most exciting parts of those segments is going to be we're going to cover um key elements of value that worked for any kind of product or service business in america that investors love and certainly will reward you too for elements it's life changing I think very empowered but yes, we're going to cover so much that he will know how to negotiate to his advantage how much cash to ask for whether it's worth it for him to turn to wealthy individuals or venture capital funds. I would love to know a little bit more about his business so that we can even taylor some of the content to his specific me might have actually I'm not sure we might be a she was sorry about that because she's also it's now you go women traditionally have ah, a lot of challenges in getting funding, they get funding it significantly lower rates and men are we going to be talking about those sorts of challenges and perhaps the challenges of ageism when you're looking for your favorite topics? Yes I have I will be mentioning specific sources of debt sources that on ly lend to women entrepreneurs I will be covering angel investment clubs that only that are women wealthy women, investors who on ly investing women cos I'm going to be covering a venture capital fund just in case that on lee, invest in minority entrepreneurs. When I say we are covering a lot of ground on funding sources, I really mean it and it's not just funding sources in silicon forest, but I'm talking about opportunities, whether you live in tennessee or boston or minnesota of florida, we really cover all of the united states.