Grow Smart Business Webinar Interview with Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends
April 25, 2009 :: Steve Fisher
Anita Campbell, Editor of Small Business Trends will be one of five panelists on the GrowSmartBusiness Webinar (next Thursday, April 30 at 2pm ET). Her well-rounded expertise will shed light on two of the biggest challenges for small businesses –marketing and finance – as revealed in the Small Business Success Index. We asked Anita to address some of these issues in advance of the webinar.
1. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of raising capital for a small business?
It depends on the age of your business.
(1) STARTUPS — If you are a startup, uncertainty about the future is your biggest financing challenge. Your business is unproven and you don’t have a track record yet. Emotionally it may feel much riskier as a startup entrepreneur to seek funding, because you don’t know what the future holds. How do you predict sales? How fast will your business be able to grow? Are your expense predictions realistic?
You know what they say about a startup seeking money: divide your sales projections by half and double your expense projections. It always takes longer and costs more to get a new business off the ground. And I’ve found that to be true when I started my own business and in many startups I see.
The problem is that because the future is uncertain, too many startups underestimate their capital needs. Then they give up just before the dawn, because it looks darkest then. And that’s a shame.
Startups need to get creative about alternative financing sources. Common sources of funding for a startup:
READ the rest of the interview at Grow Smart Business…
IN THE MEAN TIME….
Register for the GrowSmartBusiness Webinar at www.growsmartbusiness.com/webinar.
Find out YOUR marketing and finance score by taking the survey – your results will be benchmarked against the Small Business Success Index.
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