Donald Hunter™ Financial » Financing Small Businesses

Tips to Bootstrap Your Way to Immense Profitability

Donald Hunter — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:57:56 +0000

Bootstrap Your Way to Immense Profitability by Proving Your Idea Solves A True Customer Need!

As a lender who works with entrepreneurs and start-up companies, my motto with them is always “show me the money!” When a prospect opens up their wallet and pays money for your product or service, then you can say you have a valid business. Until you have real customers who are credit worthy, most lenders and investors won’t give you funding for your business dream because you haven’t proven it works. I recommend to every business owner I coach to do everything you can to leverage your assets to put your firm in a strong position before you attempt to secure financing from outside sources.

Before you get your first sale, you only have an idea which could work. You don’t have a business. Being turned down for financing can be a good thing for you. This may sound counter intuitive since rejection doesn’t make you feel very good, but it’s truly a great source of valid feedback. It often means you need to do more work to prove your business plan. I get financing clients who procrastinate about writing their business and marketing plan, but they want me to help them get hundreds of thousands of dollars for their dream. Would you invest in an entrepreneur who hasn’t written a comprehensive plan? You should try to see it from your lender’s or investor’s point of view.

Whether you’re looking for financing or to raise money from an investor, your goal should be to make sales as early as possible to generate real revenues for your new venture.

Recent sales are the evidence I want to see at Donald Hunter Financial. Contracts, invoices, purchase orders, all show a market for your products or services. And you want to have well established customers with a great track record for paying their bills

A huge benefit of bootstrapping your way to profitability is the more products or services you sell early on, the less outside money you need to raise to make further investments to position your company for growth while at the same time securing your intellectual property and branding your products and services.

Generating cash flow through an actual sale may be the only option for service companies or businesses with few assets to secure financing. Bootstrapping means you will need to give away much less equity in your company to investors.

A Warning to Bootstrappers

Before I go further, I have one caveat for you. Leveraging your existing assets is a great goal, but you don’t want to run out of money trying to do it all yourself. Once you run out of money, no serious lender or investor will work with you. I say this because most financing sources want you to have current funds available to invest at the time they decide to approve you for funding. The amount you’ve already invested doesn’t matter. So keep a balanced approach when going it all alone!

Benefits of a Bootstrapping Mindset

It keeps you focused on revenue generation
You keep control over your idea
You get to reap more of the financial rewards
You learn to manage your limited resources efficiently

Types of Businesses Where Bootstrapping Make Sense

The business relies on your proven personal talents and skills
The business doesn’t require large sums of capital to get started on a small scale
You already have good industry contacts

Type of Businesses Where Bootstrapping Doesn’t Make Sense

Lots of R&D is required
You need expensive equipment to deliver your product or service
A prototype costs lots of money to build
You have no prior experience serving the market
Your business requires economies of scale and scope

As a business coach, I help business owners and entrepreneurs figure out whether they can start-up without outside capital. I guide them through the process of analyzing their sales model from the perspective of rapid revenue generation. My goal is to help them to construct a business model focused on producing a few quick sales as soon as possible.

Bootstrapping Tips

Spend your funds only on marketing and sales activities directed at a well defined target market.
Make sure your target customer is credit worthy.
Create the lowest cost prototype which is good enough to make a sale (E.G., paper design or video).
Develop the product only when you get a purchase order in-hand.
Don’t go out and rent office space and purchase unnecessary equipment

There are lots of alternative ways I can help you to fund your business growth. If you generate invoices or purchase orders, you‘ll have access to fast, flexible financing options through my Money Tree Cash Flow program. And most importantly, your credit isn’t an issue with these funding alternatives. Invoices or purchase orders from a credit worthy customer allow you to get cash to fund daily operations and to manufacture your product. You won’t need a loan or capital from an investor to fund your operating costs in the start-up phase! You can rely on factoring or purchase order finance for immediate cash, which is not a loan. Sign up for a complimentary finance consultation to speak to me about ways in which I can help you fund your business.

Bootstrapping Consulting

Are you a “bootstrapper”? What are your top three goals you need some help with right now to start up your business? I can help you develop ways to target your customers to focus on generating immediate sales to prove your business idea meets a true customer need.

You’ll then be in an excellent position to seek funding to expand your business at a much faster pace. Then, I can help you get quick cash for your invoices and purchase orders through my Money Tree Cash Flow program.

Call me today at (866) 323-9123 or sign-up for a complimentary session in my Bootstrap to Profitability Coaching Tune-Up program. I’ll help you develop your business strategy to take advantage of your bootstrapping opportunities straightaway.

Donald Hunter

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Business Lines of Credit

Donald Hunter — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:48:18 +0000

Need the flexibility to take advantage of business opportunities as they arise?

A Donald Hunter(TM) Financial business line of credit can help. As the owner, you can get cash to use toward the purchase of inventory, equipment, or to improve cash flow. Business lines of credit are usually repaid from your business’ operating cash flow (e.g., cash payments and collection of receivables).

Two types of lines of credit

1. Reusable

A reusable line of credit allows you to withdraw, repay, and borrow again up to the original amount committed by your lender throughout the life of the loan.

2. Non-Reusable

A non-reusable line of credit allows your business to borrow an amount either in a one-time lump sum or a loan disbursed over a period of time. Each time repayment is made, your available credit is reduced by that amount.

Taking out advances is fast and easy. You can choose automatic pay downs, cash advances from your line of credit, and investment of your excess cash balances.

Get Flexibility!

You can use a line of credit for a myriad of purposes:

Pay for seasonal changes in inventory and receivables.
Take advantage of supplier discounts.
Have cash for emergencies.

Call us at (866) 323-9123 to Start Funding Now.

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Financing for Small Businesses

Donald Hunter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:24:30 +0000

Donald Hunter^TM Financial is seeking real estate and financial professionals to join our Total Commercial Services (TCS) team

The Total Commercial Services Program gathers a team of expert professionals selected by Donald Hunter^TM Financial who work together to provide superior commercial finance services to small businesses.

Our clients often tell us that one of the most difficult aspects of starting a small business is the complexity of the process. Once they are established and need additional funding, they face many challenges. There is such a wide variety of lending, accounting, legal, and business-consulting services available, it is difficult to choose. The process of researching companies and individuals whom they can trust is too time-consuming for many, especially while they are also spending the majority of the time focused on their actual business. Moreover, they cannot afford to hire each individual professional necessary to meet their funding requirements.

Why join our Total Commercial Services Program?

Because, if chosen, you would become part of a team of experts in various fields, increasing your potential for gaining new clients.
Because it allows you the opportunity to offer clients a complete set of quality financing services beyond the single service you provide.
Because the convenient, one-stop formula of the TCS program opens the doors for small business owners to remain strong.
Because helping small businesses is the first step in rebuilding the U.S. Economy.

Call today and sign up for our TCS webinar to learn more about how the program works.

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