Now Is The Time to Form Your Startup

By Jim Hansell

As the nation desperately seeks ways of creating jobs to lead the country out of recession, a new funding source has become available that will revolutionize the opportunities for starting new businesses. Founders of all types of businesses in any location will now be able to raise seed and later stage financing for basically any startup with a compelling plan. The days of limited venture capital funding for high-tech investments located only in Silicon Valley are over. Now Is The Time To Form Your Startup explains how crowdfunding can provide inexpensive seed capital never before available to businesses of any type, as well as startup management techniques that will extend a startup’s working capital to propel new companies toward sustainability and profitability.

The beauty of this new source of funds is that it eliminates the venture capital emphasis on technical degrees for entrepreneurs from just a few universities. Since crowdfunding opens initial and later stage funding to a new class of investors, experience and industry-specific success are more important than college degrees for entrepreneurs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jim Hansell
• Release date: Dec 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9780977016129

Jim Hansell

Jim Hansell is a heavily experienced small business operations expert who for the last 20 years has acquired various small businesses for the purpose of increasing their value so they can be sold at a profit. Under his model he owns the businesses outright, or for larger deals, he may have several associates. His skills allow him to participate in the in the world of venture capital without being simply a banker, and he is not constrained by the self-serving rules imposed by venture capitalists. He currently is reinventing a long established manufacturer of embedded business-to-business communication devices. Jim, an MBA and a CPA, has written two print books on entrepreneurship and small business, plus his recent ebook, Now Is The Time to Form Your Startup. This new book identifies non-traditional sources of financing and working capital, and highlights solutions to a number of pitfalls faced by most small companies.

Book preview

NOW IS THE TIME TO FORM YOUR STARTUP

Jim Hansell

Published by Jim Hansell at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Jim Hansell

ISBN 978-0-9770161-2-9

http://www.mcdpublishing.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1 Startups and the Government

Chapter 2 Sources of Startup Funding

Chapter 3 Do it Yourself: Moneysaving Tips and Tools

Chapter 4 Some Startup Pitfalls

Chapter 5 Acquiring Entrepreneurial Education and Skills

Chapter 6 What Does it Take? The Startup Entrepreneur's Recipe for Success

About the Author

Index

~ ~ ~

Preface

Why do so many people want to start companies in the United States under our economic model? Because the emotional and financial rewards for growing an enterprise can be enormous. Being an owner of a small, well-run business can provide a pride of accomplishment that is difficult to measure, and the value created as a profitable company grows, and the knowledge that the founder has the skills to do it again (and again), afford a level of security that cannot be duplicated.

I have written this booklet because I sense that while more and more people are interested in starting their own companies, information about what it takes to make small entities successful as presented in business schools and the media is seriously flawed. Management of small business is a very high-skill activity and not well understood or properly taught in our business schools.

As a small business manager, I have successfully grown a number of startups, micro businesses, and turnarounds since leaving public accounting in the late 1960s. I have used my education, training and skills to create growth and value in many little businesses by obtaining capital and providing effective, hands-on leadership for them. Although many of the companies were technology- and software-based, some were not. While some of the companies had venture capital investments from some of the most recognizable names in the industry (Tom Perkins, Don Lucas, and many more), a number had little or no venture capital investment, and I had to be creative in obtaining funds for growth. And when company growth and market conditions were right, I managed IPO and secondary public sales of stock, although I also raised substantial funds through bond sales and other debt. I never sold stock to the public in order to leave a company - I did it primarily to raise capital for future growth.

Since I have been involved with startups and turnarounds for so long, I have become particularly adept at keeping unprofitable companies alive with minimal cash while new products and services are developed. Time and time again, I have reduced large amounts of debt to give strapped companies extended life - and now debt reduction seems to be a hallmark of my experience and skill.

In my opinion, business schools and the media give too much emphasis to venture capital and the idea of start up and get out. Success stories in startup magazines and newspapers seem to thrive on young, serial entrepreneurs, their ability to effortlessly raise venture capital, and the amount of money they make in short periods of time - before they are on to their next creation. Management skills, time and patience do not seem important to these managers, who seemingly have little interest in building a solid company that will provide for its owners and employees for many years. When seed funding comes from venture capital, the entrepreneur will never have control of a company; and the interest of