Getting Funding Is The Easy Part
In my work with new entrepreneurs seeking financing – often one of their first (and hardest) lessons is understanding that getting the money is the easy part. (Yes, even in today’s up/down economy.)
Sure, you sweat blood over investor presentations, business plans, term sheets and loan apps for a few months…
But now you have the money. Now what?
You’ve got to build a business over years, and meet your goals, and generate ROI and/or make loan payments.
And so we come to the first question I always ask in an entrepreneur sanity check session (regardless of the industry or location), preferably BEFORE funding efforts:
Why are you doing this? Some people simply aren’t cut out to be entrepreneurs. Sorry, you can follow your passion, and the money may not come. Read more: Not Everyone Is An Entrepreneur at Blogtrepreneur for another list of self-diagnosis questions (Here’s #2: “Handling problems causes me stress and pressure.” Entrepreneurs are comfortable in stress situations, and are challenged rather than discouraged by setbacks.)
My Second Question: How much time are you willing to commit to the business? It’s no longer a hobby or a cool idea. Sick days are not an option. The bank doesn’t care if you didn’t feel like working today. Fuzzy-wuzzy “work/balance” thinking doesn’t apply. You’re going to miss a lot of family events and work a lot of long hours, doing things you don’t like to do.
As for all the suddenly unemployed who decide they’ll become “consultants” – three basic sanity checks:
1. What’s your subject matter experience/expertise? Really?
2. Why would anybody pay you for it? (We’ve already got eleventy billion life coaches…and about the same number of “marketing gurus” …so think again before you get those biz cards printed or cough up $$ to learn how to make millions as a coach or consultant.)
3. Don’t burn bridges (yeah, it’s old advice, but still true. These days you can start a fire oh-so-easily on the Internet…one which could come back to kill ya when you’re up for that great job or project.)
Tags: start-up funding, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check
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