Poor Sales
Often getting things up and running takes longer than anticipated. Starting
up as an entrepreneur you first have to gain a competitive profile, call
attention to your existence and your competencies, convince customers of
your expertise, etc.

This is time-consuming. VERY time consuming! If you think it will take six
months to get sufficient customers you should multiply by at least two. Just
to be on the safe side.

Therefore, it is important that you have enough capital to stand up to the
hard and financially sluggish initial period. You can take this penetration
phase into account in your budgets by budgeting pessimistically or set forth
a worst-case-scenario.
Its purpose is to identify the worst possible situation for your company
(slower sales than anticipated or non-existent sales) and try to estimate the
cost of such a situation.

The essence of business start-up funding is to inject the required capital
into your business. This allows you to dispose and act in anticipation of
unforeseen events to prevent such events from inhibiting the operations
and growth of your company.


Personal resources
The first source of financing you should go to is yourself. Do you have
money in the bank, assets placed in buildings or diamonds? If you believe
in your venture you should use your own funds first. If you don't it will be
difficult to borrow money elsewhere.
Many entrepreneurs have little money so they have to go elsewhere for
funding.

Families and friends
Family and friends can be a good source of financing, especially in the
early stage of your business when relatively small amounts of money are
involved.

Consider borrowing from several people rather than trying to get it all from
one person. This way, you can ask for an amount from each person based
on what they can afford to give you, and not on what you need.
You could:

• Write down the names of everyone you know, regardless of how remote
the relationship. This might include family, friends, colleagues, mentors,
teachers, neighbours, your dentist etc.
• Circle the names of the people who have some insight into your
character and/or personal and business skills.

49
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51