Sign PPT for Sales Teams Safe

Hey there. ;)Well, your question is very natural and common. I’m glad you asked it because you’ll be able to save a lot of time and frustration.Let me tell you right away that you should never address an investor to start a business. Makes sense? So, this is something that 10% or more of the wantrepreneurs typically don’t understand. If you’re trying to raise capital, that’s because you already have a business and is part of your overall growth strategy fundraising to scale faster.If that’s not the case, if you cannot pinpoint a clear bottleneck in a business that you already have, there’s really not that much use in addressing an investor.Now, I’m not saying there aren’t cases in which investors put their money on pre-revenue cases, because there are. But typically those are cases in which the founders are serial entrepreneurs and have some sort of track record experience. Basically, they know what they’re doing, and they are focused toward a single business model and idea. Besides, the market is often very sexy, we’re talking about some sort of skyrocketing industry.So, as a bottom line, I truly believe the answer is “no, investors don’t put their money on ideas”.So, what should you do, right?And here are a few steps that I’d like to share with you in case you want to develop any of those ideas (WITH FOCUS and consistency) without spending too much money - so that later on you can, then, raise the capital to build an operation:The first step you should always have in consideration – and we’ve already talked a little bit about it here – is to know your customers better than they know themselves. Now, this tends to be a highly repetitive point and can easily get boring, so let’s face the brutal facts: I’m not expecting you to get out there and randomly asking people on the streets what they think about your product. What I’m expecting you to do is brainstorming, researching online on forums, amazon reviews, and essentially, thinking and discussing a lot with your partners, friends or whoever you think is the right person, about your customer profile. Until you know this, there’s no business, so there’s no reason to raise money either.The second step is starting by the end version – seriously, I love this concept -, by Squeezing your Idea. This is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) 2.0. Instead of prototyping something, just avoid doing anything at all that consumes money and time – if possible. Design the package, the layout of your future version, and show it to customers. That’s all it takes to start generating traction – also known as revenues.The third step is – naturally – getting traction. Once again, you should tell to yourself “ok, here’s what I’m going to do: until I have someone paying me in advance for this product, or clearly giving me a good indication that he loves the product, I won’t spend 1 minute developing it”. This is the type of reasoning I’d like you to have, being strategic in your way of doing things and building your startup. Focus on validating the idea first, test it through 1-page website and Google AdWords, use Crowdfunding, get pre-orders, you name it. Do whatever it takes to have at least a few sound “YES!” before you start developing the product.And fourth, imagining that you need a small amount of cash to getting started with your business and that it isn’t enough money to bother asking to an investor, you have several ways that I like to call “Shortcuts to Capital” that you can use to fund your startup for the initial months. For example, bootstrapping is typically one of the best, crowdfunding is also another way – either through donations or equity -, but definitely the best is the so-called Customer Funding. Basically, through subscription or drop shipping models, or even by in-person negotiation to have your own customers funding your business – read this article on this subject.Alright? Hope it helped. ;) If you need anything, feel free to PM me.All the bestPedroP.S. If you’re looking to raise capital for the first time, feel free to download my 10-step quick guide on the subject, I think it might help you lining up the dots to get started. Here’s the link: 10-Step Guide to Raising Money