When beginning a business it's important to know where your money is going to come from. Often times it’s rewarding to seek out alternative financing opportunities. With a little research, you could find grants or opportunities meant for someone like you. Here are some examples:
First Nations is an organization that provides grants and investments for Native American economies. The organization helps Native American youth, and they also help strengthen non-profits. Their mission is to strengthen economies to support Native communities. If you have a company that hires Native American people, that is considered “green,” or possibly a nonprofit that supports communities as well, then this organization may be very interested in supporting your business. Another similar organization is Oweesta.
CFED is an organization that helps empower low or moderate-income people to build wealth. They have led in policy change for several levels of government and strive to advance economic opportunity for many. Their organization would probably be happy to play a part in a company that is hiring people who need jobs, and also stimulating opportunity economies. They provide a program for entrepreneurs who have a critical role in the growth and stability of their economy. They focus on entrepreneurs that provide jobs or others through themselves or micro businesses.
A lot of these different types of funding are very important for us as entrepreneurs. When researching alternative funding I found a lot of organizations are looking to invest in companies, or entrepreneurs, who are providing jobs and stimulating their economies. Trying to stimulate or grow an economy anywhere is hard to begin with, but trying to where there is no economy, or in a region that has a bad overall economy is even harder. With the help from these organizations, you can be a part of something much larger than starting a business, you can create opportunity.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Experts Views on the Value of Business Plans
Sir Richard Branson
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group and is an entrepreneur and investor. Starting his first business at the age of sixteen with the magazine Student, he was on the fast track to success in entrepreneurial business. He is most notably known for his success with his businesses developed from Virgin Group. He opened airlines, record stores, and even a record label. He was knighted in 2000 for his “services to entrepreneurship.”
Richards’s key strategy is to work towards business ideas that interest you. His interests are to rise above challenges that seem impossible to overcome. In business plans, he looks for this challenge, as well as determined minds that want to live life to the full and experience it. In his own autobiography, he states, “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.” (Losing my Virginity, 98)
I would use this key point to keep the confidence I have in my business plan. When asked about obstacles I may face with my business plan I will have strong solutions, and make it known that challenges can be overcome.
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and television personality most notably from the television series Shark Tank. He was raised in Pennsylvania, and experienced his first business practice when he was twelve, and sold garbage bags to raise funds for a pair of shoes he wanted. From there in college, he had a lot of jobs from teaching dance, to promoting parties.
During his career with the TV show Shark Tank, he has invested in over 80 businesses, as well as given a lot of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
The biggest take away I get from his role on Shark Tank, is to come prepared when meeting with investors. Often business owners come into meetings with the investors and do not have the correct answers to questions they have. The most important is to have the financials in place. You must know how much you are worth, how much you’ve made, and most importantly you should be pretty accurate with your numbers.
When I meet with investors, I would be sure to have all of my information present, so that the investors feel they can trust me and trust their decisions to invest.
Resources:
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (1998)
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Unfriended
2015 had a lot of great, and not so great films released. To find some good ones, Buzzfeed put together a list of The 19 Best Horror Films Of 2015. A lot of filmmakers tried to follow current trends to attract viewers, and Unfriended is not any different. Unfriended is a horror film that takes place completely on the computer screen of a teenager. A young teen Laura commits suicide and her friends try to uncover who leaked the video that leads her to kill herself.
This film is extremely experimental, but continues to play on some trends we have seen in the past like "found footage" films. Films like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity have found new ways to create horror films that seem more authentic to the viewers. The idea is if even in the moment the viewers can believe the film is real or based on real events, and then they can enjoy the film more.
Another very large trend that is current is social media. It is fair to say that most people use social media and are affected by it. The creators of Unfriended had a great advantage with their marketing, being as they were able to use social media to advertise a horror film about social media. The filmmakers were able to get extremely creative with their marketing to attract their viewers to see the film. They also did a lot of marketing at Playlist Live, which is a very popular convention for people to see Internet celebrities or YouTube stars. They also used the popular app KIK for marketing. They created a profile with automated responses where people could have conversations with the girl who committed suicide in the film. The primary market were high school kids who actively used social media who could relate to the films topic more.
The film has a sequel set to be released this year, and will be released by Blumhouse Productions.
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