Reference no: EM132220276

For this assignment you will read each paragraph from part 1 and 2 and respond to the students forum with 200 words a piece with your thoughts about the statement presented.

1. After listening to the podcasts, I see that I am nowhere near prepared for to present my company to potential investors or even to a bank for a small business loan. I did not know that all of the things they listed were required in order to seek possible investors. I know I have small business from doing something that I have been doing and loved to do since I was in middle school and high school. I just want to get my name out there and spread my artwork as much as possible. Before taking class at APUS I had no idea what any of this stuff was from business planning to cash flow work sheets and capitalists’ investors.

I first need to revamp my business running all together. The first thing I need to work on is sitting down with my wife and coming up with a business plan by first listing out goals and figuring out our financial plan. Our business plan is put together but after listening to the podcasts it can surely use some work. I think that the power point that was mentioned in the podcasts that lays out everything about your business so well that it speaks for itself. My only thing with the PowerPoint is that he mentioned laying out the management team and the management teams experiences and background. The only person on my team is my wife so I although that looks like it would be easy to do the hard part about it is that she has no background history in art, but she helps me run my business because we are a team.

The best advice gotten from the podcast is to understand the dynamics of the funds that you are seeking. Understanding the amount of money that is going to represent the right number of investors. Smaller funding will give you smaller number of investors and how long you will have to pay that finding back. This was so helpful because it reminds me of what my mother use to tell me all money is not good money so be careful how you get yours. “Think like owners act like principles” (Mark Grovic Podcatsts) is the best line I have ever heard.

2. It looks like am not all that prepared to present my funding plan to a potential investor after listening to the podcast. I realized that that first impression counts and in other to convince an investor to invest in your business, you should have your ducks in a row and have some statistics to back it up and I am not there yet. But the good thing is that, the podcast was an eye opener to me as to what investors look for and what they want to hear before entrusting you with their money.

The element that I still need to work on is how to close the deal. In closing the deal, this is where you put your salesman's capabilities into practice and show the potential investor of how viable the business is or projected to be. I have not been able to make a strong final push when it comes to closing the deal because I do not have an actual sales numbers to go convince potential investor. I am working on saving money to push the business a bit further, so I can have some figures and data to use to looking for funding.

The best piece of advice that I deduced from the podcast has to do with preparing a summary of the business to include the product, targeted market and customer base, the management team and using the investor desk is very crucial for entrepreneurs to land a proposal from a venture capitalist. What I also realized is that, in other to be able to pitch your product and service to an investor, you as an entrepreneur needs to have your ducks in a roll by providing the investor with a brief background of the company, business model, types of product and service that is been worked on and the achievement of the business. This when well written and delivered will paint a progress picture of the business to the investor which is mostly what they want to hear.