Angels Den Blog

The biggest entrepreneur-killers out there are the dual-terror tag-team of apathy and procrastination. Your idea may be the next big thing, but if nobody gets to hear about it then the idea might as well have never been dreamed up.

The modern would-be entrepreneur has a tendency towards paranoia, all too often worrying that if they do not tread carefully their idea could be stolen from them, or they could give the wrong first impression and be labelled for life. Fewer and fewer seem to take the chance of just running with it, making a few mistakes along the way, learning from them, developing the concept into a viable business, finding investors and building their business into a going concern. It has become far too common to research a business idea to death, spending valuable time in meetings, doing market research, getting the website just right, designing a funky logo and so on.

Don’t get me wrong – I believe that a certain amount of preparation and planning is required for any business to be a success, but there has to come a point where you say to yourself, this is it, I’m ready to go for it. So many people fall into the trap of overdoing the preliminary stages of launching a business when they should just get going.

To give you a good example, if you want to find investors to help you fund your business, they will be looking to see that you have clear direction and goals. They will be interested in your corporate identity, and what proof you have that your concept will work making everyone pleasantly wealthy in the process. But what you will find that investors value most of all is sales. Have you sold any? Who to? What were their comments on the product or service? Have the re-orders been flooding in? To find investors who are interested in supporting your business, you’ll need to show that they will get a return on their money, and the best way of showing this is to provide evidence of satisfied customers who keep coming back for more.

Although we’ve all heard of enterprising young people who have become millionaires before they were legally able to buy the champagne to mark the milestone, they are a rarity and not the norm. Most people have their stunningly simple but exceptionally profitable ideas some time later in life, once they have entered the state of being that we less than lovingly refer to as “employment”. The leap from employed to self-employed is then a big mental hurdle to get over, and the older you are and the more people rely on your income, the bigger that leap will seem. This is why so many would-be entrepreneurs sit on their ideas for ever, never finding the “right time” to let the world in on their brilliance.

For goodness’ sake don’t let that be you. One way to kick-start your business idea and gain the confidence to leave that nine to five behind is to find investors to give your concept a financial boost. Angels Den provides a forum in which small business entrepreneurs and investors can meet to discuss the possibility of working together to build successful ventures. To find investors prepared to fund a good idea really can be a very quick and simple process and could be exactly what your business needs.

Don’t fall victim to the desire to over-analyse your idea or the compulsion to do tomorrow what you should be doing today. Find investors for your business concept at www.angelsden.co.uk.

Image © Henry Bloomfield