Angels Den Blog

Lord Tennyson had it right when he wrote: “’Tis better to have loved and lost than
never to have loved at all.“ In this context, we can paraphrase: “It’s better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.” (Actually, it’s better to have tried and succeeded—but this piece is all about having the gumption to try rather than to let opportunities pass you by, so I’m not going to split hairs.)

The desire to be an entrepreneur can range from a mild ache to an all-consuming passion. If you dream of owning your own business, don’t hide behind the comfort and security of an office job: go for it—or risk always being haunted by the entrepreneurial spirit…

We all hope that, when we look back on our lives in years to come, we will be able to say proudly that we have achieved and experienced all that we could have wished for ourselves. But the reality is that, all too often, our lives are filled with thoughts of ‘what if…’. Don’t let yours include: “What if I’d grabbed fate in both hands and actually made a roaring success of that business idea that I’d been thinking about for all those years?”

If you have a deep-seated desire to become an entrepreneur, there is no time like the present. Under current economic conditions, this advice may sound like madness and folly—but a good business idea is not devalued by the economy into which it is launched and, even today, there is plenty of private funding available to help good concepts backed by a solid business plan. In fact, many successful brands were born out of recessionary times and have gone on to global domination.

So why don’t more people follow their entrepreneurial dreams? The most common excuse used by people who are likely to fall into the ‘what if…’ category later in life is the lack of time and/or money with which to take such a big step in changing their employment status.

So let’s first address the time factor. Perhaps you’ve been made redundant from the job that you held for 15 years and employment prospects are looking a little bleak, with over 2.1 million others in the same boat: so what have you got to lose? Now, you have time aplenty to embark on that business that you were previously too busy to start—or even to think about clearly.

Of course, you might be lucky enough still to be in a job, but may fear redundancy in the near future. Starting your own business now offers you future employment on your own terms. Starting a business is not an easy way to a fortune, even with private funding backing you: it takes time and dedication. But get it right and you could become the master of your own destiny—something that very few employees experience.

But what if time is an asset that you have in abundance, but money is quite another matter? Very few people have enough of it and everyone could do with more. So many people are finding that their finances are in a worrying state these days. Savings are being tapped, mortgages increased and personal items sold on eBay just to make ends meet—so how on earth are you going to afford to set up your own business?

You could ask friends or family—but blurring the lines between business and friendship can be an uncomfortable mix. You could go to the bank for a loan—but the banks are not lending very much money these days, not even to major corporations. Venture capitalists are always interested in a good concept if you’re prepared to sign over a large percentage of your soul in the process—but even this stream of business finance seems to have dried up. So what are you to do?

Enter the world of business angels—those optimistic souls who provide private funding to aspiring entrepreneurs, helping them to launch or grow their businesses. Generally, these purveyors of private funding are high net-worth people who invest in fast-growing enterprises, either on their own initiative or as part of a larger group, or syndicate. In recent years, as more traditional means to acquiring business investment have disappeared, business angels have become an important source of private funding for entrepreneurs.

And in addition to private funding, these individuals often donate their considerable business expertise to ensure the success of their investments. Typically, business angels provide private funding to start-ups and small businesses looking to expand, and often look for those businesses to grow rapidly, with a planned exit strategy that will pay out within a few years.

So don’t be haunted by thoughts of ‘what if…’. Instead, follow your entrepreneurial spirit and let it show you the way to financial freedom. Private funding is an excellent way of allowing a small idea to blossom into a big business far more rapidly that you could have imagined.

If you’d like to find out more about private funding, business angels and speed-funding, visit <a href=”http://www.angelsden.co.uk/”>www.angelsden.co.uk</a> and set your entrepreneurial spirit free.