It was 9:30pm the other night and I was too tired to read like I usually do. So I was flipping through the local TV stations for something (anything) to fall asleep to. To my surprise, I struck gold and found an entire hour special on entrepreneurs who made it big with their ideas. The special interviewed and documented the journey of four different upcoming entrepreneurs. Some of you might be familiar with two of the people in the special: Tom from Tom Shoes (The guy who gives a pair of shoes away for every pair he sells) and Rick Bayless (founder of Frontera Foods). Now what was special about this show was that it actually showed a lot of the nitty gritty behind the scenes work that goes into pursuing a business idea. Many of us (myself include) dream of starting our own business and seeing our great idea come to life. The problem often times is how do I actually go about doing it? Where do I find an investor? How do I go about pitching my idea? What are the actual first steps I need to do to make this happen? Well, read on to find out about some helpful tools that should help answer these burning questions.
Figuring out how to take the next step when you’ve got a great idea for possible start-up can be very frustrating and difficult, which is what made this entrepreneur TV special so valuable. It had information I couldn’t find anywhere else. So for those of you who missed the show, here is a quick and easy summary of the resources and information they provided:
- Q: How to I prepare my idea for a potential investor?
A: You’re going to need to put that idea into a business plan before any investor is going to listen to you. How do you do that you ask? The following sites provide the best FREE resources to help you out:
- http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html
- http://www.startupnation.com/steps/55/3753/3/1/create-business-plan.htm - Q: Where can I find funding?
A: The program offered different sources to find potential investments (money!). My three favorite simply for their ease of use and options are: Prosper.com, Lendingclub.com, and thefunded.com. - Q: Where can I find a partner?
A: Going it alone can be even more difficult. For anyone looking for some help or a business partner, I’d recommend the following two sites based off my personal experience: (the first was hired in the TV special I mentioned here)
- http://www.startupnation.com/articles/1528/1/9-tips-partner.asp
- http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/
Again, I find these links to be extremely useful (similar to the tips from be your own boss) in taking the first steps down the road of entrepreneurship. I have also included the link to the Tools & Resources site put together by CNBC who aired the special (see bottom of post). They’ve compiled quite an abundant amount very useful information on the subject, which I encourage all of you to check out. Be sure to let me know what you think and what you thought of the special if you happened to catch it?
Source: CNBC – The Entrepreneurs
