The art of raising Capital Investments for your business

In South Africa the odds of raising venture capital are equal to the odds of getting struck by lightning while standing on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. I’m just over-exaggerating. The odds aren't that good.

Most entrepreneurs have to dig, scratch, and graze out a business while living under very difficult conditions. I know this because I’ve been there myself. I’ve learnt that if you want to get an investment, show that you will build a business. Make sense. Make a difference. Don't do it for the money. Do it because you want to make the world a better place. This applies to the smartest of technology startups as well as to low-tech, no-tech, and nonprofit organizations. If you do succeed in building a business, either investors will be fighting to give you money or you won't need their money. Both are good problems to have. On the other hand, if you perform unnatural acts to raise money, you probably won't build a business, and you probably won't get the money, anyway.

A logical and fair question is to ask oneself: How do I build a business without capital? By bootstrapping the business. Meaning that one starts a business with zero capital base. Entrepreneurs can bootstrap almost any business—especially if they have no choice in the matter.

A bootstrappable business model has many of the following characteristics: low up-front capital requirements, short (under a month) sales cycles, short payment terms, recurring revenue, word-of-mouth advertising.

In the end we should remember that everything is always impossible before it works. That is what entrepreneurs are all about—doing what people have told them is impossible.

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