The first time I raised over a million dollars, I thought it would be easy. After all, I had a great idea and experience in the industry.
Unfortunately, even with all of that going for me, raising money turned out to be much more difficult than I expected.
In the process of trying to raise my first few rounds of funding, I not only became adept at pitching investors but also learned how to build my business so that investors wanted to give me money.
If you want your own business to succeed, follow this guide on raising your first million dollars:
Choose a credible co-founder.
When you’re looking for a co-founder, it’s important to choose someone with whom you can work well.
The two of you should share a vision and set of values, as well as an understanding of how the business will operate within those parameters.
In addition, each partner should take on specific roles: one partner might be better at managing people or sales, while another might be a great engineer or designer.
Create a few viable product concepts and choose your favourite.
It’s important to remember that all of the concepts you come up with won’t work out.
You can’t expect to have a perfect product on your first try, but you should still start by creating a few viable products and then choosing the one that is most feasible.
The second step is choosing the one that is most interesting to you — the one idea that really stands out in your head and gets your blood pumping.
And finally, choose the concept for which there is an audience willing to pay for it!
You’ll want to make sure that this product has a good chance of success before diving into development or marketing efforts.
It may seem like common sense, but take some time here: if no one wants what you’re selling (or paying for), how will they ever buy it?
Talk to your potential customers.
Now that you’ve defined your idea and the market, it’s time to talk to potential customers.
This part of the process is arguably the most important one because it helps you find out what people really want from your product or service.
You can ask them directly by meeting them in person (if possible), conducting an online survey, running focus groups, talking with them on the phone or via Skype or Google Hangouts, using a website or blog (like this one!), posting on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook — there are lots of ways to do this!
If you have friends who also have businesses, reach out to them for references (or even just advice) on what worked/didn’t work for them when they were starting out; they might be willing to share their experiences with you if they know how much help it’ll give their friend in need!
Otherwise try searching online for companies that offer similar products/services; those companies’ websites should have contact information so that customers can reach out directly if needed.”
Raise seed capital.
Raising seed capital is a crucial first step in establishing your business.
It’s how you get the funding you need to launch and scale your company. Most first-time entrepreneurs raise their seed money from friends and family, angel investors, venture capitalists or government grants — but crowdfunding is becoming increasingly popular as a way to generate initial investment capital for small businesses.
With so many sources of financing available today, it’s important to know what resources are available to you before deciding on which type of funding fits best with your goals.
Hire the best people you can find or afford.
The greatest asset a startup can have is a team that’s better than its founder. You want employees who are smarter, more experienced and more talented than you.
That means hiring people who are better than you at what they do — not just cheaper or more passionate (though those are both important factors as well).
It’s tempting to hire friends and family as an easy way to fill out your initial team, but it might not be the best idea in the long run.
They may love your company’s mission, but if they aren’t skilled enough at their jobs to contribute productively or help take it to the next level then it’s time for someone else.
Use interns to fill gaps in the beginning.
If you’re just starting out, it’s much easier to hire an intern than a full-time employee.
For one thing, they cost less money and they’re often eager to learn from someone who has more experience than them.
They can also be a good source of ideas, which may help you grow your business or even build your network that leads to other contracts for work.
Produce a fantastic product.
Now that you’ve decided to launch a business, the most important thing you can do is produce a fantastic product.
If people don’t love your idea and/or aren’t willing to buy it, then no amount of marketing will make them want what you’re selling.
So before you waste time or money on anything else — from writing any code to hiring developers — you need to determine whether or not people will be excited about what you’re building.
How do you know if your product idea is great? Ask yourself these questions:
- Is there an existing market for this type of product?
- Do lots of consumers say they need this problem solved?
- Would they pay money for it if I built it?
Set up a system for gathering customer feedback.
You’re going to need to ask them what they like and don’t like, so you have a good idea of what direction to take the product in next.
Surveys, focus groups and interviews are all ways of doing this. Make sure that you ask customers about their willingness (or lack thereof) to pay for your product, since if people don’t want to pay for it then there won’t be any money coming in.
Also ask what they would want or expect to see in the next version of your app/product so you can keep up with the latest trends and expectations from consumers.
Find an advisor who believes in you and will partner with you as long as possible.
Find an advisor who believes in you and will partner with you as long as possible.This is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give.
The right advisor should be someone who has been involved in your industry for a long time, and knows all the players, investors and influencers.
They also have to believe in your product or service and be willing to work with you for a long period of time (ideally through multiple funding rounds).
You can raise your first million if you create a great product, hire great people and use advisors to help you find investors
What are the best ways to do this? The most important thing is to build an awesome product with a cool team that can be easily sold to investors.
This will attract investors because they see it as an opportunity for them to get into the company before it becomes popular.
You also need great advisors who have been through this process before so they can teach you how everything works!
We hope that you found this article helpful and that it inspires you to go out and make your dreams come true!
