Would you like to have investors at your fingertips jostling to fund your startup? Most entrepreneurs would like that.
It’s what everybody wants! Although it can be a tad bit difficult, but in actual fact, there are startups who know exactly how to get funds and they almost always get it.
There isn’t a single formula or line of actions to get funds but there are reliable steps guaranteed to speed up the process. Here are 7 you can consider.
1. Have a business idea that can scale
Business idea that don’t scale rarely create values for investors. To get funds for a startup, there are series of questions that need to be answered.
What is the demand for your products or services? Do people actually want what you are providing? The worst thing that could happen is having products or services nobody wants.
The number of potential customers, who they are and their location.Who are your customers? Where are they? How big can they get ? How fast can they increase?
Why will your products or services appeal to potential customers? Why should anybody want your product? What differentiates it from others? What edge do you have over competition? What new problem are you solving?
Who are your competitors? Do you know them? What is their market share? What tactics can you learn/borrow from them?
What is your unique selling proposition? If you can’t answer this question there’s no point going ahead with it. Your unique selling proposition is your big gun, it’s what you should pull out to wow anyone who shows interest in your product or service.
These are some of the questions you need to answer to ensure you have a business idea that truly has the potential for growth.
2. Validate your idea by building an MVP
The next thing you should do is to validate that idea by building an MVP (minimum viable product).
Eric Ries in the book The Lean Startup defined MVP as the version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.
In simple language, you could call it a prototype, but it’s more than that. It’s a very basic version of your product or service that you market to test your assumptions about your business model.
Creating and working with your MVP means releasing a bare-bones product, so that you can learn what people want and don’t want without going all out and wasting too much resources.
Based on what you learn, you can then make a fast…