Business Angels Taking The Risk

When you’re building a new business, or looking to expand your old one, the first thing you’ll always need is money. Money doesn’t just grease the wheels of business, as the old adage goes – money is the wheels of business. Everything in business depends on it, and if you can’t get funding, your business plans will never even get out of the starting gate. So, what do you look for in an investor? Some investors, called venture capitalists, represent large bases of other investors and, as such, are spending their money on your project, much the way a stockbroker or investing firm works.

On the other hand, there also exists a kind of investor who invests his or her own money in starting companies. They’re taking a risk, and are often careful where they invest, but they do invest somewhere – and with the right sales pitch, that somewhere could be your company. These investors are called business angels, and work either singly or in pools of capital. They may invest now, while shares are cheap; wait a few years for your company to mature, and then sell to other stockbrokers or back to you, if you’ve made enough profit.

The problem, of course, is that business angels are investing their own capital. No one, as they say, is more careful than a man spending his own money – business angels will be very careful where and what they invest in, so you’ll have to have a bulletproof sales pitch, if you expect to succeed and get the funds you need. A key here is preparation. Before your first meeting with your investors, make sure you know everything there is to know about your company, your market, your target audience, and your locale – nothing impresses people more than a ready answer for every question and plenty of hard evidence.

Also, make sure you have a good, clear business plan. Know how many people will be on your payroll, what equipment you’ll need to buy, what office space you’ll be renting, and how all these expenses translate into profits at the end of the year. Without a clear idea of how you’re going to make money, investors will be reluctant at best. Know the means by which you’ll get your cash, and you’ll better be able to predict the results to others.

Prepare for questions before you go into the meeting. Think about what you might ask if you were in the investor’s position. Questions like “how much do you expect to make the first year,” and “how do you expect profits to rise over the next decade,” are to be expected, as well as other questions more tailored to your specific situation. Know your unique selling points – what makes you stand out from the crowd? Why should the investor choose to give money to you instead of the next guy or the next girl in line outside the investor’s office? Show them you’re unique, and you’ll de facto eliminate the competition.

Much of the way these meetings is entirely psychological. Make sure you yourself are confident in voice and posture. Know you can make money and you’ll be much more confident when you make that claim to an investor. A straight back and a strong voice do wonders and can often be even more effective than strong logical arguments for what you say.

Make sure you’re committed as well. If you haven’t invested as much of your own money as possible, investors will suspect you of scamming or of not trusting your own company. If you’re heavily invested in your company with both time and money, investors will be more likely to believe your commitment to its successful completion.

Are You Taking Your Business Internationally?

At some point in your business' life, you might be contacted by someone in a far-away land who's heard about your business somehow (probably through the Internet). This will be your first encounter with the international market. For many businesses, once you've conquered your local area and done business by post or email with other areas of the country, dipping a toe into international markets seems like the next big step.

Preparing to Export.

When you're preparing to export your products, there are quite a few things you need to do. Firstly, make them as light as possible for the purposes of international shipping. Check that you'd be able to get the things you're selling to the place where you plan to sell them without it becoming prohibitively expensive. Next, check if there are any customs requirements -- you might find that either your own country or the target country has laws that will require you to register what you're sending and perhaps pay extra taxes. On the other hand, selling internationally may mean that you don't have to charge your own country's sales tax.

Obviously most of these things don't apply to non-physical products. One thing that you still need to be careful about, though, is currency fluctuations -- how stable is the currency you plan to start trading in? If it has problems, you might want to price products in your own currency instead.

Look for Niches All Over Again.

When you're trying to sell things to international customers, you need to make sure that there is a market in each country. Something that is very useful and in-demand in your country might just cause confusion abroad -- or, likewise, something that's only moderately popular where you are might be seen as revolutionary.

If you're not sure, you could talk to a few local businesspeople about how they think your product would be perceived, and they may be able to suggest a suitable target market for you. As always, research is key.

Produce Internationally, Supply Internationally.

If you're going to start exporting, you might want to consider importing as well. If you buy in bulk, you can generally get things far cheaper from developing countries, especially the 'Asian Tiger' countries like China, Taiwan, Indonesia and South Korea. Give it a try -- you could be delighted to find that they can make your product for a fraction of what it costs you, and all you have to do is a little quality control.

I understand that this approach is particularly useful for clothing products, which are labour-intensive yet can be produced cheaply and well by these countries. Note that you're unlikely to be exploiting anyone -- the country you're importing from simply has a lower cost of living. To be extra sure, shy away from offers of having things made in developing countries or dictatorships.

Try to Be Culturally Sensitive.

When you're dealing with international customers, you need to take their culture into consideration. In some countries everyone knows English, while in others they would be offended if you didn't get your materials translated. For all you know, the name of your product might be a rude word in some language or another, or the marketing might be focusing on benefits that people from some countries are unlikely to respond to.

This is one of the reasons why you're best off selling to countries that you have some experience with. Ideally, you should have the ability to speak the language, as well as having spent some time in the country. Failing that, read as many guides as you can and see if you can meet with people of that nationality socially.

Note that you should be especially careful about dealing with countries where there is some history or possibility of political unrest, as you can lose a lot this way.

You Are Not a Jetsetter.

Finally, remember that it's a bad idea to start flying around the world to pitch your products or meet your customers, especially in the age of the Internet when almost everything can be done from your home. Did you really get into home business to throw away your profits on expensive flights and hotels? Exactly.

Reasons why Internet Private Investigation is Taking Over the Online World

Why are internet private investigation services important now? It is because more and more people are putting all their information on the Internet.

People do not want to be left out of the modernization that is happening in the world today. So to become in tune with technology, they eagerly embraced the online world.

To be one with the online world, your information is needed so that it would be easy for other people to find you. Oftentimes, when conducting business online, you give out details that should have been kept private. When this happens, you are very much prone to those that can easily intercept all the information even before they reach the intended destination.

Before you know it, another person has gotten hold of your credit card and is using them for their own personal purpose. The worst thing that could happen is when your identity is stolen just because that person knows everything about you.

In answer to all these online crimes, Internet private investigation services opened their doors to counter wrong doers. These investigators have comprehensive knowledge about what people are capable of doing using the internet. Using every means of internet software and tools, they can track down illegal procedures immediately.

You can tell how effective these investigators are by the number of crimes and criminals that they have cornered on the internet. You may think that programs or other tools are the ones capturing these persons. What you may not know is that there are real people behind who is doing the job for you.

Most online businesses enlist the services of private investigators online to filter out the good from the bad. These businesses know that they are vulnerable to persons that want to take advantage of what they have. Since they cannot prevent people from accessing them online, the only way they can prevent unwanted things from happening is to have investigators check every detail about the online visitors.

One of the useful things that private investigators use in their internet service is computer forensics. This is not like the forensics that is being done physically.

Expert technicians are the persons capable of looking out at computers. They look at the sources of documents and data storage systems. They make sure that the systems remain clean of hackers or unwanted and suspicious entries.

It is also their duty to track down where unwanted entries are coming from. When they have carefully investigated all the details, they report their findings directly to their clients. It is during this time that the business is able to figure out ways on how to solve these problems, change their system and bring the intruder to justice.

Internet private investigators are not only limited to crimes that are going around the internet. They do simple things like recovering of files. They are trained well in this field also. Part of their job is to maintain the smooth sailing operation of the online business.

Those who venture into the internet private investigation business are people with comprehensive background about computers and the online world. Without any knowledge of these things, they are not really qualified for this kind of job.

So the next time you feel that someone or something is posing a threat on your online business, do not call the FBI. Get the services of internet private investigation because they reign supreme in this kind of business.