8 MUSTS TO START YOUR BUSINESS WITH LITTLE TO NO CAPITAL

Entrepreneurs will often have amazing business ideas, but they put them on hold due to a lack of capital. They assume that their idea will never get far off the ground unless they have major funding behind them. 

It seems that every day there is a new startup receiving millions of dollars from venture capital firms, but what you don’t hear about is the several startup failures that burn through millions of dollars only to fizzle out and shut their doors forever.

If your idea and plan of execution aren’t well thought out from the beginning, no amount of money can turn it into a winner. Have a great idea but very little money? Don’t let that stop you! Yes, there will be ridiculously long days with little to no sleep. Yes, you are going to be stressed. But those that want it bad enough will make it.

Here are eight tips that can help you get your idea off the ground with limited funds.

1. Build your business around what you know. Instead of venturing off into uncharted territory, make sure that you build your business around your skills and knowledge. The less you have to rely on outside sources the better. When your business is built around your own personal expertise you can eliminate consultants and outside assistance. 

Also, having that knowledge is sometimes all that is needed to successfully take the plunge into entrepreneurship.

2. Tell everyone you know what you are doing. Inform your family, friends, business contacts and past colleagues about your new business. Call, send emails and make your new venture known on your social-media profiles. Your friends and family members can help you spread the word, and past business contacts can introduce your brand to their professional contacts as well. This type of grassroots marketing can help introduce your company to a much larger audience.

3. Avoid unnecessary expenses. You are going to have plenty of expenses, and there are some that just can’t be avoided. What you can avoid though is overspending. Take something as simple as business cards. You could drop $1,000 on 500 metal business cards that give off the “cool” factor, or you could spend $10 on 500 traditional business cards. Being frugal in the beginning can be the difference between success and a failed business.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE SELLING, THIS STRATEGY SHOULD DO THE TRICK

There are no shortage of instructional sales books. In fact, there are probably too many. The difficulty with most of the books is that they tend to teach you how to follow a process or structure that can limit your ability to think on your feet or adjust to a dynamic situation.

A little bit of structured selling isn't a bad thing, but following steps that someone designed to sell to a certain type of buyer isn't going to provide a perfect fit for every situation. The reality is, there are a few basic steps that you can take to move light years ahead of the rest -- key word being "basic" -- that have little to do with the product or service that you're selling. In fact, they have nothing to do with the product or service you're selling, but instead have everything to do with you.

Selling has very little to do with what you sell and everything to do with how you sell, not the product, but yourself. People buy most products in a business setting because they like the person they're buying from, not necessarily because they have the best product or value proposition.

I'm not suggesting that you can have the worst product in your market and easily dominate with your sales genius, although it does happen. Your products should at least be competitive. If they're not, you need to figure out how to improve them or start asking yourself some serious questions -- i.e. why did I choose to sell this terrible product?

Stare into their souls. We all know that you only get one opportunity to make a first impression -- so I'll skip the boring motivational speech. It's how you take advantage of the opportunity that will start you down the path of separating yourself from all the others.

DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS SERVICE ON A STARTUP BUDGET ( YOU NEED TO READ THIS)

The late Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This is as true in business as it is in life: Outstanding service can help a company stand out and be remembered in a crowded marketplace.

Unfortunately, many startup founders believe that great customer service can’t be delivered until their company has reached sufficient scale. While it’s true that customer service can’t be streamlined and automated to the same extent as some other business operations, even the leanest of startup teams can create a wonderful experience if they have the right mindset.

Here are three ways your company can provide world-class service on a startup budget:

1. Put your customers on a pedestal. It may sound obvious, but if you want to deliver excellent service, you need to make customer satisfaction the top priority in your organization.

Pick a metric or group of metrics that you believe best represent customer satisfaction (e.g. net promoter score, churn rate, percentage of customers who make repeat purchases, etc.) and display it somewhere everyone can see. Let your team know that these are the most important metrics in your company and that it is everyone’s responsibility -- not just your customer service representatives and account managers -- to ensure that you meet and exceed your goals.

2. Listen to your customers, wherever they are. Customer feedback can come through a variety of channels -- email, social media, live chat, telephone and even snail mail -- so it behooves you to build a system that can capture, synthesize and analyze this feedback while your company is still small. Properly organized, this data can provide invaluable insights that can inform your product, marketing, service and even fundamental business model. While it’s probably not advisable to open all of your business’s decisions to a public vote, companies that demonstrate that they listen to what their customers say and take their feedback seriously tend to earn more respect and brand loyalty than businesses that operate inside of a feedback-free bubble.

5 WARNING SIGNS A STARTUP IS A BAD INVESTMENT

A company that’s not growing is dying. This is an unpleasant reality that comes with the 
capitalist system, and it’s especially harsh for smaller or newer companies. Between concerns over debt, resource acquisition and client maintenance, plenty can go horrifically wrong. It’s no wonder that 80 percent of small businesses fail.

The prudent investor must watch for these five warning signs.

1. Lackluster products. A common challenge for any new business is separating themselves from the crowd. A company unable to provide a quality or niche product will likely get steam rolled by others already established in their field.

Look through their product catalog to determine if the company has carved out a niche. If nothing stands out as unique to either the area or the market in general, rest assured someone else is already providing it. You should avoid investing in companies like that because, more often than not, you are disappointed in the end.

2. Lack of vision. To survive, a company needs a solid business plan stating the targeted markets, as well as a vision statement stating how the market will be penetrated.

One of the major issues small companies encounter is their inability to reach out, grasp

THE 7 DEADLY FINANCIAL SINS OF SMALL BUSINESSES

This year's tax season has finally been put to bed. And many people -- both small-business owners and consumers -- are breathing a collective sigh of relief. However, there is a fundamental difference between business and personal finances when it comes to taxes. While the “average Joe” may not have to worry about taxes again until next year, “Joe the small-business owner” needs to start thinking about his next quarterly tax filing now. Yes, for the small business owner, the taxman cometh four times a year. 

While this is bound to cause anxiety, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With proper planning and the right financial tools, many business owners can approach each filing with confidence.

For the entrepreneur who has achieved this, I applaud you. And for the rest, to start you off on the right track for next year I’ve flagged seven financial faux pas that are commonly overlooked by small businesses.

1. Not keeping financial records up-to-date. This is the number-one mistake small-business owners make and also the most important to remedy. While it seems logical to keep records accurate, it is easier said than done. No one wants to pour over accounts payable, receivables and cashflow at the end of a long day, which is why this important part of the business is often overlooked.

 One way to help manage this is to employ financial tools that do the work for you. The cloud has opened up a myriad of applications that can “speak to one another” and automate backend services. Additionally, the anytime, anywhere ability of cloud computing and smartphones makes it so you can update your books on the go.

STANBIC IBTC SECURES FACILITY FOR SME, ENERGY FINANCING

Hey there young entrepreneurs and business owners in Nigeria! I don't know how genuine or sincere their intentions are, but this looks to me like some good news you might want to read ... 

Stanbic IBTC Bank  said it has received a $100 million Line of Credit (LOC) from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for on-lending to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) operating in various sectors in the Nigerian economy.

Part of the fund would also be applied to the financing of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Nigeria, in line with the requirements of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF).

According to a statement from the bank, of the total amount, $75 million would be utilised in funding SME projects in the country while $25 million will be used for the funding of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

Stanbic IBTC Bank is the first Nigerian bank to receive CTF’s approval, it stated.

5 CRUCIAL BUSINESS LESSONS YOU LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL

All the talk has been about lessons you weren't taught in school. But here's the thing, we did actually learn some business lessons while we were in school. Here read this:

Entrepreneurs often devote thousands of dollars to coaches, conferences, guidebooks and magazine subscriptions -- all to improve their business management skills. However, running a tutoring company has led me to an important realization: I learned much of the knowledge I’ve needed as an entrepreneur in high school.

Here are the five pieces of advice that were most helpful to me:

1. Control your own learning. High school students are often encouraged to take detailed notes, sit in the front row and participate in class discussions to improve retention and performance. Likewise, learning to operate a business requires leaders to take an active role as a student.

For instance, if you’re skilled in accounting but weak in marketing, educate yourself about current marketing trends and best practices. You don’t need to become an expert, but it’s critical to understand the fundamentals. When you no longer rely on others to analyze new opportunities, you shape your company’s growth.

7 TIPS FOR HIRING THE TEAM YOUR STARTUP NEEDS TO SUCCEED (IMPORTANT)

When you set up your company, you are the developer, marketer, HR manager, finance director and CEO. But at some point you'd realise you can't do everything forever. To go the distance, you need to surround yourself with the top talent in your industry and create a team that feels like a family. Not to turn up the pressure but this is not a task to take lightly. The plus side is the opportunity to hand pick your team from scratch.

Here are my top seven tips for building your ideal workforce:

1. Hire people who are better than you. You may have experience in many different fields but you aren’t an expert in everything. You need a team of people tops in their field, whether its development, sales or marketing. Talent attracts talent, so this will bring in other great people to your business.

2. Build a team of peers.  At Huddle, when we hire a new member of the development team, for example, we include an interview with other members of the team as well. As you have your team in place, involve them in who is hired. This foster a sense of family within the company that leads to a more productive business. 

HOW TO CREATE A HEALTHY STARTUP ATMOSPHERE

A million things are on the plate of the leader of a startup. You’re so busy, always working or thinking about work, that all of a sudden you realize you've been up 72 hours and haven’t had a real meal in who knows how long.

Ensuring that you and your team are healthy can make the difference in whether your startup putters out or goes the distance. Can you afford to take sick days or have the stamina to keep pushing the startup forward if you, your team and the company aren’t in tip-top shape?

Here’s how you can keep all members of your startup healthy so it can continue to grow:

1. Reduce entrepreneurial stress and stay focused. A startup's atmosphere can be absolutely chaotic and overwhelming, which can lead to a business leader becoming stressed out. You may have tricked yourself into thinking you're as cool as a cucumber, but deep inside the stress of the entrepreneurial lifestyle will eventually catch up with you.

Maybe you think being stressed out isn’t that big of a deal. But stress can affect the body in ways you may not be aware of. You might make poor judgments more frequently, become irritable or sick more often or develop bad eating habits. Stress can can harm you "physically, emotionally, and psychologically," according to a Harvard Medical School special report on stress.

5 SECRETS FOR MAKING YOUR LOGO STAND OUT

Your logo is the face of your company. It will often be the first thing people see and the main thing they remember. If asked, most of us could name at least a few iconic logos, whether it be Coca-Cola's cursive script or the namesake bird of Penguin Books. And that's the whole point: You invest time in crafting the perfect logo so it will stick in people's minds.

"Other people have to be able to speak for your brand," says Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Simon & Schuster, 2013) and the James G. Campbell Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "You love your company, you think your company is great, but if you're not around, what are people going to be able to remember? And what are they going to tell others?"

The best logos have several things in common. Below are Berger's five keys to a successful logo.

1. Simplicity.

The first element of many killer logos is simplicity. "A good way to think about simplicity is how many moving pieces are there in the logo," Berger says. For instance, the old Apple logo was rainbow-colored, while the current one is rendered in solid black or simple grayscale. That newfound simplicity makes the logo easy to look at, which customers appreciate.

"The easier it is to process things, the more we like those things," Berger says. For that reason, most brands want to present a simple aesthetic that is easy for consumers to digest. Other major brands such as IKEA, IBM and Coca-Cola follow this rule. "It's hard to find iconic logos that have more than two or three colors," says Berger.

FINDING A VOICE FOR YOUR BRAND

Brand awareness is super important. With the right brand positioning, you can attract the exact target audience you're looking for. I know that with AlleyNYC for instance, we want awesome up-and-coming startups to be attracted to our space. We also know that AlleyNYC is an up-and-coming startup. We knew that being ourselves, and being authentic to who we are, no matter how many people we put off, we would attract really great people to join our community.

Here are some tips to help establishing the voice of your brand:

1. Ask yourself: "Who am I targeting?" Is your target older rocket scientists or young hipsters? In most cases, you obviously don't want to talk to your parents the same way you talk to your friends. (Until you get old enough.)

2. Speak to your target. Once you have defined who your target audience is, start speaking to them. Chances are, you have been dealing with them for years and you know exactly who they are. Do what works best as you already know it.

3. Ask the voice: "What would YOU do?" We love this one. It makes our job a million times easier. We hardly have to think about major decisions. In most cases, when something comes up that needs to be decided, we look at our logo and ask her: "What would Alley do"? We ALWAYS get an answer, and most of the time (nobody is perfect), it is the right answer.

ACCESS BANK ASSURES SMEs OF INCREASED SUPPORT

Access Bank Plc has blamed the poor organisational structure of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country as one of the factors obstructing lending to the sector.

However, the bank restated its resolve to continue to work with SMEs in order to grow their businesses.

Speaking at a forum for SMEs in Lagos, Head, SME Desk, Access Bank, Mr. Oyediji Atoyebi, noted that small and medium businesses are crucial to the development of any nation.

Furthermore, he described SMEs as the main driver of employment in any economy.

“The recapitalisation of the banking sector has enabled the growth of the sector with more banks offering credit facilities to eligible businesses.

“Owing to the organisational structures of majority of SME businesses and other organisational challenges, many banks find it challenging to accurately profile SME businesses and analyse their financial standing,” he added.

Continuing, he pointed out that Access Bank is providing access to finance to operators in the sector.

Atoyebi said Access Bank intends to bring down cost of banking for the SMEs as well as to provide financing at all levels of the value chain in the sector.

He also identified key issues in the sector to include poor funding, low managerial expertise, poor project feasibility study/business case, lack of proper book-keeping and absence of corporate governance.

Furthermore, Atoyebi listed the challenges confronting the SMEs to include unavailability of basic infrastructure, such as electricity, road, and logistic issues, among others; pricing competition, inability to access credit facilities and collateralisation of advanced credits.

He identified the critical success factors for the SMEs to include access to funding, extensible business architecture, government policies and capacity building.

9 WAYS TO BEAT THE COMPETITION BY SELLING LESS

The male red-breasted robin has a highly predictable reaction when another male red-breasted robin enters his territory: He attacks. Interestingly, what puts the first bird into full attack mode isn't the other bird itself -- it's the mere sight of red feathers. A single red feather in a pile of non-red feathers will set off this attack response.

In much the same way, prospective customers have a highly predictable reaction when they identify salespeople using old-school sales tactics: Their defensive walls go up and they become skeptical and distant. What actually puts the prospect into defensive mode isn’t the salesperson himself, it's the sight of old-school sales tactics.

These ineffective, outdated sales techniques are the red feathers that keep potential customers at-bay.

After over 100 years of the old-school selling method, which consists of enthusiastic and persuasive sales pitching with high-pressure closes, prospects today are weary of the typical salesperson. As a result, it is more important than ever before for salespeople to stand out from theircompetition. By being completely distinct from competitors, the modern-day sales all-star can bypass a prospect's predictable defense pattern and close the deal.

Here are nine ways to effectively stand out from the sales competition in order to break through your prospect’s defenses:

1. Interrupt the pattern: If most salespeople are doing the same thing (which they are), then you want to do the exact opposite. By doing the opposite of what a prospect expects the typical salesperson to do, you break the prospect’s defense pattern and can engage in a more productive sales conversation.

2. Drop the enthusiasm: Old-school salespeople are over-the-top enthusiastic and not genuine. In order to be totally distinct, drop the fake enthusiasm. Instead, be genuinely interested in prospects’ worlds. Remember that you are most interesting to someone by being interested in them.

5 WAYS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITHOUT ADDING MORE RESOURCES (A MUST READ)

Everyone in business today is being asked to do more with less. There is constant pressure to improve performance, maintain growth and beat the numbers. From large multinationals to independent contractors, increasing efficiency is top priority. Here are five tips that you will help you grow your business, without adding more overhead:

Automate tasks with software. Lots of tools are now available that allow for many manual tasks to be automated. For example, social media management tools such as Buffer or HootSuite let you queue up content and have it post automatically. They also let you manage social media as a team, instead of as individuals. Most blogging software also has similar functions. Set up content to post in advance, which frees you up to focus on generating new material.

Email marketing can also easily be automated. Low-priced software from vendors such as Hubspot and Marketo allow small companies to build automated customer relationship management systems that rival the sophistication of what Amazon has had for years.

Consider what other tasks you can automate, such as billing or accounting. Even public relations teams can set up daily searches to look for relevant articles based on keywords, instead of reading each headline one by one.

Focus on scalable channels and ignore everything else. Email is still the most cost-efficient and scalable channel. Every organization should have an email strategy. Even the smallest retailer can effectively use email to drive additional in-store traffic or online sales. Digital advertising and social media are also scalable and both require very little money to get started. While it does take time and effort to build a social media following, once you have it in place, it’s powerful and effective.

WHY HATING THE COMPETITION WILL GET YOU NOWHERE

I recently participated in a panel discussion on entrepreneurism and was asked by someone in the audience how to handle competition when you're building a startup. My short answer? Embrace it.

Using real or perceived competition to help drive your business can be incredibly empowering. It is a potent fuel in your fight for customers, mindshare and industry leadership. It's the fight that keeps ideas fresh and business interesting.

It also tends to make you focus on your own endeavor. Learning of a new market entrant, or even more difficult, hearing about a big player that is testing the waters in your space, instantly forces you to act. Differentiation and execution become focus areas.

If you're going to keep others from nipping at your heels or are truly planning to run against the big dogs, you need to be able to clearly articulate and deliver your differentiation. Why are you unique and better than the others and why should your audience care? If you can't convince yourself and your employees of your real differentiation, you're going to lose. 

THE LEADERSHIP STYLE THAT WILL BRING A STARTUP LONG-TERM SUCCESS

Consider the old adage that “founders can’t scale”.  Why is it that as a company grows the founder often finds him or herself replaced by someone from a traditional management background?  More often than not, the reason for the replacement has less to do with the founder’s technical ability and more to do with their overall leadership style.  The problem is that as the company grows the founder-centric (and often ego-driven) approach that helped get the company off the ground becomes something that can hold the company back.

Successful long-term leaders exhibit a markedly different skill set than founders, one that plays down their ego and puts the needs of their company and team before their own wants.

It’s a deceptively simple concept, but one that is incredibly difficult to put into practice with any consistency, especially when you’re dealing with the business you founded. The truth, however, is that if you are going to have even a remote chance of creating a successful, long-lasting company you will need trust, loyalty and support.  The only way to gain those things is to give them away. That’s the very core of being a servant leader, and it’s the secret to beating the “founders can’t scale” curse. 

Transitioning into this mature management style can be an incredibly difficult task for founders who risked everything to build their company, but it is by no means impossible.

As the co-founder of BodeTree, a financial-management platform, I have had to set my own ego aside as our company has continued to grow. I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but here are three steps that helped me transition into servant leadership.

1. Stop worrying about yourself. It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the petty details of running a company.  Worries about compensation, titles and who gets credit can (and often does) eat up the bulk of your day.  These worries are not only pointless but harmful and counterproductive. 

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT HABIT OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

In his book No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, business coach and consultant Dan Kennedy reveals the steps behind making the most of your frantic, time-pressured days so you can turn time into money. In this edited excerpt, the author describes the one habit you should adopt--and stick to without fail--if you want to be successful.

I’m sure there are exceptions somewhere, but so far, in 35-plus years of taking note of this, everybody I’ve met and gotten to know who devoutly adheres to this discipline becomes exceptionally successful and everybody I’ve met and gotten to know who ignores this discipline fails. Is it possible that this one discipline alone is so powerful it literally determines success or failure?

The discipline I'm talking about is punctuality -- being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, as promised, without exception, without excuse, every time, all the time. I cannot tell you how important I believe this is. But I’ll tell you some of the reasons why I believe in its indescribably great importance.

First of all, being punctual gives you the right—the positioning—to expect and demand that others treat your time with the utmost respect. You cannot reasonably hope to have others treat your time with respect if you show little or no respect for theirs. So if you're not punctual, you have no leverage, no moral authority. But the punctual person gains that advantage over staff, associates, vendors, clients, everybody.

It is my conviction that a person who cannot keep appointments on time, cannot keep scheduled commitments or cannot stick to a schedule cannot be trusted in other ways either. There is a link between respect for others’ time and respect for others’ opinions,

THE WORST MISTAKE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO CONTINUE IN 2014

Now and then I come across that person who runs a business like it's still the 1960s. It's usually a restaurant, convenience store, gas station or a little shop. It doesn't seem to have been cleaned in years. There are dusty pictures of Sinatra and the Pope (Pope John XXIII, that is) on the wall. There's a cat or a sleeping dog somewhere. The floorboard creaks. There is little sunlight.

And yet, this person survives. He may in fact be doing OK. The food is still pretty good. There remains a loyal customer base and/or little competition in the neighborhood. The business is running on autopilot.

But he's making one big mistake:

"Sorry, we don't accept credit cards." Or, "We only accept credit cards for purchases over $10."

Do you ever hear this at Starbucks, 7-Eleven or Olive Garden? No. And these companies will ruthlessly take business from the 1960s guy if they can.

Here's a fact: many people aren't carrying cash anymore. You will have to accept credit cards, and soon you will have to accept electronic payments. Don't try to pretend that we, your customers, don't know the real reasons why you don't accept credit cards. You don't want to pay the extra fees, right? And you don't want the tax man to know how much you're bringing in, right?

HOW TO ALWAYS BE READY TO ADAPT YOUR BUSINESS TO CHANGE

If you've achieved some success in your startup's first product, how do you keep growing? What should you do if an upstart gives your customers a product that delivers more bang-for-the-buck than yours? How do you know when the needs of your customers are changing and adapt to those changes effectively? How should you alter your startup's business strategy to take advantage of new technology?

I've seen startups use all kinds of strategies to stay ahead of changing customer needs, new competitors and evolving technology. One CEO acted as chief customer service officer, visiting with each customer after the sale to ask for feedback and adjust offerings as needed. Another wrote press releases three years into the future to create a vision of what the company should be doing three years from now. 

Both of these approaches have their benefits -- providing motivation to move forward and a clearer vision into the future. But what if your vision of the future is not the best one for your startup or your current customer doesn't represent your future target customer?

To tap into the strengths of some of these approaches while overcoming their weaknesses, I developed a six-step process to help entrepreneurs grow their business without boundaries.

1. Create a forward-thinking team. You should lead a team consisting of key functional leaders in your company and select customers and suppliers who can help you rethink your startup strategy. Check in with them often to stay on top of their needs.