Posts Tagged ‘Q&A’
Looking for Quick Funding – Ask ActSeed
Monday, July 30th, 2012A question from Sean through our Ask ActSeed service…
I am looking for some quick funding. Do you have any resources?
We have seen deals from connections within ActSeed.com happen quickly, but investors and lenders aren’t keen on making a decision without full information. The ActSeed Entrepreneur Group profile can be completed in an afternoon if you’ve already mapped out your business model in some way. The key to quickly move from intro to deal usually depends upon how quickly you can demonstrate that you can implement the idea and make money for you and the investor. Getting the key info on the table fast is what ActSeed.com helps with.
The process to find investors through ActSeed is:
- Register on ActSeed.com and then
- Join the ActSeed Entrepreneur Group
- Complete the two Company Profile screens (public and private info)
- Search ActSeed’s network of investors (Investor Group) and
- Contact investors that you find who seem to fit your deal
ActSeed Investor Group members will also be looking for deals that fit their interests and may contact you directly.
There’s a nominal membership fee that supports the services ActSeed provides. It’s a month-to-month fee, so there’s no long term commitment and we don’t take any of your company’s equity.
If you’re looking for someone to invest based upon a loose concept without much detail and without spending any money, then the best place to look is to the people who already know you well, as they will be investing because they know you personally, and their evaluation of your business will be largely based upon your personal relationship.
In summary, if you are asking friends and family for funding, you can sell yourself first. If you are asking strangers for funding, be prepared to thoroughly sell the business model and your plan for its implementation.
We wish you success in finding your funding, and thanks for sending us your question.
Sincerely,
The ActSeed Answer Team
Selling through Facebook or Pinterest without a Web Site
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012An entrepreneur in the ActSeed community recently asked if it was possible to sell a unique fashion accessory through Facebook or Pinterest with no traditional web site. Here’s what we told them…
Facebook and Pinterest are often great venues to market your product, but keep in mind you will need an ecommerce platform to actually transact business.
Have you considered eBay and Bonanza.com? You can open up storefronts on eBay and Bonanza for very little money. You can post your products there. You can even post on Craigslist and drive business back to one of the other sites if you want.
We recommend using Facebook pages and Pinterest as marketing and promotional venues to draw buyers back to your storefront(s). Don’t rule out the value of setting up a simple web site and unique domain name. For less than $100, you can have a domain and a WordPress web site where you can blog about your items, embed your eBay store and draw even more attention to your products, including a good ranking in Google’s search engine.
All in, you can get set up and manage this combination of social media and ecommerce for around $30 per month (plus listing fees on eBay). Just a few years ago, it would be unthinkable to build a good web commerce and marketing presence for anything less than a few thousand dollars a month.
If you really want to turn up your promotional engine and reach thousands of reporters and media outlets (and an amazing social media dashboard that puts your Facebook and Twitter “on steroids”), you can add the Vocus and PRWeb small business marketing suite for a few hundred dollars a month, which will pay for itself through the time it will save you in managing and optimizing your social media activity. The Vocus team will give you a great demo here.
