{"id":268,"date":"2015-06-18T12:09:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T05:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartrepreneur.net\/?p=268"},"modified":"2024-06-08T13:01:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T13:01:18","slug":"nghe-thuat-khoi-nghiep-giai-quyet-van-de-dau-tien-tien-dau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taminhtuan.vn\/en\/nghe-thuat-khoi-nghiep-giai-quyet-van-de-dau-tien-tien-dau\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Entrepreneurship: Solving the First Problem \u2014 Where Does the Money Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tBefore money, people also have aspirations, dreams, passion, thinking, and a yearning to create\u2014to think differently and break out of old patterns to solve the toughest problems, even with extremely limited resources.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Instead of pursuing investors, learn how to make investors pursue you<\/strong><\/p>\n

A wise baseball batter does not swing before the pitcher makes the throw.<\/p>\n

A wise investor likewise will not invest if the company they are considering has yet to show certain \u201csignals of success\u201d for the future.<\/p>\n

Of course, this signal needs to be detected early, sometimes when it is not yet clear; that is what makes a real investment opportunity. But the startup needs to take practical action to create certain \u201csignals,\u201d which investors can then recognize.<\/p>\n

In this case, a \u201cstartup on paper\u201d is like a \u201cball\u201d that has not yet \u201cleft the thrower's hand\u201d\u2014nothing proves the startup's actual abilities. An intelligent investor therefore has no reason yet to invest in it.<\/p>\n

To get through the \u201cfundraising battle,\u201d a Start-up must make results appear, however small. A Start-up does not yet need to be Successful, because success can be broken down into small successes. These \u201csmall successes\u201d are the \u201csignals\u201d that make investors \u201ceager about the investment opportunity right before them\u201d and \u201cline up\u201d for the \u201cprivilege\u201d of investing in you.<\/p>\n

So what are those small successes? They might be:<\/p>\n

Qualitatively:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Have a strong team of Founders
\n2. Have experienced Mentors
\n3. Have effective, hard-to-copy proprietary technology and\/or business know-how that gives the Start-up a competitive market advantage
\n4. Have good partners or relationships
\n5. Have a product Demo
\n6. Have a Prototype
\n7. Have an MVP (Minumum Viable Product) and be able to officially offer it to the first few customers
\n8. etc.<\/p>\n

Quantitatively:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Initial number of users
\n2. Number of customers who have purchased the product\/service
\n3. Website visits, conversation rate: visit -> visit a 2nd and 3rd page -> access product information -> purchase
\n4. Brand Awareness among the Start-up's target customer community (frequency of coverage in reputable publications, brand recognition \u2014 for example: 3\/100 means that of 100 random people asked, 3 know this Start-up)
\n5. What matters is the weekly and monthly growth rate of these metrics. Investors will track the Start-up's growth in these metrics for several months before deciding to invest in a major Deal.
\n6. etc.<\/p>\n

2. The chicken-and-egg problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

To produce a Result, a Start-up needs Resources.<\/p>\n

To use Resources, a Start-up needs to cover the Costs of those resources.<\/p>\n

To pay Costs, a Start-up needs Investment Capital.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Startups need $ Money.<\/p>\n

Briefly: Startup has money -> has results<\/p>\n

But What if a startup has no money?<\/em><\/p>\n

The founders now fall into a mental \u201ctrap\u201d in entrepreneurship: money is needed before results can be created.<\/p>\n

Their dilemma is this: investors need startups to have Results before investing Money, while startups need Money to produce Results.<\/p>\n

The chicken and the egg\u2014how do we solve it?<\/em><\/p>\n

The result is that without investment, the startup produces no results, and without results, it receives no investment. It stands still until the founders abandon their dream, thinking, \u201cWithout money, nothing can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what do people have before they have money?<\/em><\/p>\n

At this point, a startup must be creative enough to produce results without costs. That is each person's talent and art of entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

Some examples of how a smart entrepreneur (Smartrepreneur) solves problems:<\/p>\n