Chatsworth Consultancy
52 FINANCE
Chatsworth Consultancy
Access to finance
Overcoming and breaking down the barriers to finding capital at the start – up phase is pivotal for today’ s entrepreneur. The all too real and sometime perceived hurdles and barriers are seen as the number one reason to fail at start – up.
Getting off the starting block can be harder than you think. The world of the business start – up can be full of clichés, bad ideas and bad advice not to mention dead ends and blind alleys. So how do you successfully start up any enterprise in today’ s market?
Engage turned to
London – based business consultancy Chatsworth Consultancy for some answers:“ During our many years of helping our clients to achieve and sustain their success we have noticed that by the time companies have a record of success, venture capital is abundant.
For your business to be viable you must be viable. So many times people have come to our offices with excellent business ideas but no personal track record of handling finances.
Most start – ups have a cleaner, a tea and coffee maker and a general dog’ s body and a bookkeeper, but what most people don’ t realise before taking that step is that they need to be filling all of those positions and more.
If you have a business idea you should be the first to put money towards its success or failure. Why would any one else do it if you don’ t? Your mortgage lender should be one of your first ports of call. Traditionally this has proven to be an efficient manner in which to raise capital.
Friends and family and even your partner and / or their family would be a good next step. You would be surprised where and who money will come from. If you have the right type of character and people believe in you enough they will pull out all the stops to help you.
Your current employer – by taking early retirement or a redundancy package. Even an advance or loan has worked in some cases. You never know until you try.
Finally don’ t overlook the strangers or casual acquaintances, who can often be more than willing to come up with capital. If I had a penny for every time someone said“ I got the money from Mr X or Mrs X, they have got more money than sense”, I would not be rich but I would have a full piggy bank!” engage ISSUE TWO 2006