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10 Ways Your Chamber of Commerce Can Help Your Business Grow
Joining your area's Chamber of Commerce can be a smart move for your home business. Because businesses that participate in this group promote each other and work together, your own business can grow and prosper quickly. Here are just a few ways...
Are You Using the Right Form of Energy?
As we near the end of summer, here is a question I have for you, “Are you using the right form of energy to grow your business?” Are you having trouble growing your small business as fast as you want? Are you making all the right moves and...
Discover the Secret to Success in Your Own Back Yard
Yesterday, I went above and beyond the call of duty for community service. Thanks to me, not one black fly within a five-mile radius of my home went to bed hungry last night, and because of my loyal patronage and recurring need for calamine...
E-Business's Best Friend: eCRM
From Ebay to the smallest home-operated start-up, e-businesses of all sizes struggle to accurately answer a common question: who are my customers? If you can't answer that question, chances are you're also in the dark about the following...
Making Press Releases Work - Creating News Where None Existed
Aren't you tired of hearing how extremely easy it is to get free publicity? Have you tried the suggestions that most public relations "gurus" give you? The hard, cold truth of the matter is that you cannot write a press release about any old...
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THINKING SMALL
In talking with one of my funding reps recently, he mentioned that in his many dealings with entrepreneurs at many levels, he found that the vast majority of them had been trained to "think small." The reasons for this were that they were constantly being reminded of
1. the difficulty of raising capital,
2. high interest rates charged by lenders to small companies or
3. the insistence by many venture capitalists that the company owner(s) surrender control of their companies.
If, instead, they continued to "think small," they could still retain control of their company, even if they were unable to expand due to lack of capital and a funding strategy. Thus, these entrepreneurs are encouraged to export their products or services and are discouraged from becoming multinational corporations.
I've found similar attitudes. When I discuss a $1 million funding , I've often heard, "But it costs more to go public in the States" or "We only grossed $2 million, last year." These are often examples of being stuck in a mental rut, locked into what is thought to be "possible."
In such cases, my response is, "I understand. That's what you've been thinking about and planning...and that's fine. However, can you set that plan aside for a few moments and imagine what you might be able to do if your company were a multinational corporation? If you could get not only that million, but several millions more?" I generally hear a long silence at that point. Then the ideas begin to pop, the possibilities expand. If, however, you really don’t want to be a multinational corporation with its associated problems and the hard work required, along with the potential huge rewards, probably reading on is a waste of your time.
But if such an idea appeals to you, what are some ideas which might be considered?
ACQUISITIONS
You can grow the value of your company rapidly by finding cash producing companies in your field, supportive of your main product/service, that you might be able to acquire for cash. That saves you the huge costs of creating a new market. You buy it already established instead. It builds company value far
faster than by simply ramping up production, advertising and/or marketing.
FRANCHISING
Does your product or service lend itself to franchising? Macdonalds and similar firms would be far smaller if they had simply opened branches. The business would have become unwieldy very quickly. Helping others to own their own businesses, while they, in turn, increase your company’s cash flow, makes great business sense. It’s another way to buy a new market rather than building it.
FACTORING
While you’re building your company, can you increase cash flow if your product or services are sold to other commercial enterprises. Factoring is the fastest, most reliable form of rapid cash flow ever invented. One of the cheapest, too. The practice is over 3,000 years old and used by hundreds of thousands of companies. See my full article on this subject.
INTEGRITY AND PROFESSIONALISM
Probably the single biggest factor which made us decide to work with this funding group was their extremely high levels of integrity and professionalism. They trumpet a win-win-win intention from the very beginning. In over twenty years in the financial field, I’ve never met a group like them. Click her to read about them.
THINKING BIG
My suggestion is simple: Think BIG! What was your original dream? Might you be able to achieve it faster than you've thought? How big are you willing to grow? As an entrepreneur, what are you willing to tackle? If you can qualify for the funder’s program, we'll support you in your rapid expansion toward your goals.
About the Author
Mr. Barnes is President & General Manager of Capital Funds Group Ltd., a Canadian based consulting firm specializing in putting companies and financing together. They also work with non-US companies to take them public rapidly and inexpensively, then funding them with expansion capital.
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