GoFaxer Blog

You’ve got a great plan to run your new startup in the most cost-efficient manner. No need for an office. Everything will be online. You’ve got Internet fax. You’re ready to go.

Oh wait! Even though costs are low, you still will need to raise some money. As Carolyn Kepcher, the former start of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” points out, “This is always the hard part.”

In her recent article at msnbc.com she describes the seeking of money from what is typically called, “angel” investors, or in other words, friends and family. She says:

“When asking them for money, make sure of one thing: They can afford to lose whatever funds they decide to give you . . . If the company goes belly-up, you certainly do not want to be responsible for losses that might have an adverse effect on their lives.”

She then follows this up by suggesting that you invest your own money in your business. But she emphasizes that it shouldn’t be so much that you won’t have the necessities of your lifestyle. You don’t need to add the stress of paying your bills with the stress of starting a new business.

Regardless of how you raise your money, do it honestly and openly, with the understanding that like any investment, you may not get your money back. If everyone understands this, everyone will be more than pleased when you business is a huge success.

Perhaps one of the most challenging elements of business is thinking the entire process through. I know this might sound a little obvious, but I don’t think that anyone is perfect at this.  Asking the all of the right questions about your business from the single task and to the major project is an essential skill for any type of manager.

Carloyn Kepcher, of the television show, “The Apprentice” describes this quality as knowledge. She says:

“In order to bring your concept or product to market, you have to be prepared to answer every question, especially if you are presenting in front of potential investors or clients.”

As one is preparing a project or even creating the baseline of a business, one needs to be asking every possible question about the concept. This question asking process will give you a store of knowledge that will sell potential investors, business partners, employees, clients, etc.

Having strong data to support your thinking will help you make smart decisions. Think it all through. Before switching the an Internet faxing service, do a financial analysis of the process, with a projection on how much money will be saved by the switch.

If knowledge is the base of your business, innovation, shrewd decisions, and major growth will be far more likely.

You want to start a new business. You’ve got a fax through the Internet account and a laptop. You’re ready for business. Right? Well, not really. You’ve actually got a lot more to consider.

The next few days we’ll be discussing some advice given by Carolyn Kepcher, formerly seen on “The Apprentice,” with Donal Trump. She advises strongly on the need for passion.

Kepcher makes the point: “Being an entrepreneur means living, breathing and talking your idea.”

So you better be passionate about it. Many new business owners have a real passion for owning their own business. But they probably also better have some real passion for the product or service that they’re selling. If you don’t, potential clients and associates will not be passionate about helping you sell.

Entrepreneurs probably ought to have a real passion for the business model as well. In other words, if cross promotional marketing is going to be the key to your business’s success, you better sort of love marketing.

Your staff, employees, and team need to feel your enthusiasm. It needs to drip off of you, permeating your entire business so that everyone shares the exact same passion that you have.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a discussion of Networking as a fundamental key for your startup’s success.

From time to time, aside from info about Internet faxing, I’ve discussed various small business news and advice here. As I was looking for useful info to relate, I found this incredible article by Carolyn Kepcher on starting your own new business.

You may remember this writer as one of the three menacing business executives on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice.”  She is now the co-founder and CEO of Carolyn & Co. Media.

She outlines 10 basic things that you must have in your business. They are:

1. Passion
2. Network
3. Knowledge
4. Strategic partners
5. Raising money
6. Contribute what you can afford
7. Relationships
8. Take it slow
9. Informal board of directors
10. Computer and Internet savvy

For the next ten days I’ll be expounding on her advice on each of the ten topics. As I read through her explanations of each, they sounded really basic and in many cases really obvious. I mean, of course you need to have passion for your business idea.

But then I remember back to one of my very first entrepreneurial experience where some friends of mine and I started a window cleaning business. It seemed like a good opportunity. But as we got into the regular struggles of running a business we realized that we kind of hated washing windows.

So it was a rookie mistake, but I know that a lot of you are passionate about starting a business, yet need Kepcher’s advice. I hope it’s useful.