7 reasons why startups should start independently?
If you have ever a new idea you were probably thinking about investment. There is a lot of capital in the market for new businesses which could help you in the startup development. Before you ask investors about the money you should try to do it on your own. Vision of external funds on your bank account could be very tempting but at the beginning you should focus on the problem that you want to solve.
Your first goal should be to validate your business idea. Do it quick, and cheap. Get the feedback and see what you get. Start fast and spread your idea to people. Why so important it is? Because you don’t have a crystal ball and only the voice of customers could verify your business. Building startup with your own funds is a really good idea for many reasons:
- Efficiency – when you have a little bit of resources you probably will search for the most effective way to spend it. So you can learn how much every single dolar worth is. If you can’t do it with your own capital how will you do it with someone elses?
- Freeware – there are many free tools that you can use. And you should find it easily. It’s not neccesary to spend a lot of money on CRM, ERP, big website or other things when you have a single customer.
- Control – you can drive your startup in the way that you like. Nobody will tell you what to do.
- Satisfaction – every new customer could be a really big success for your business. And you will probably take more care of every of your early clients.
- Shares – starting with your own money will let you to have control on your business shares. It’s important in case if someday you’ll look for investment. Your shares will be worth much more than if you gave them away at the begining.
- Savings – there are many other ways to bring funding to your startup. You probably have savings that you can use. If not, you can always ask family, friends or other guys to lend you some money.
- Proof – if you can do something big without external cash the way to success is open for you. Just think how you can scale your business with the investors money. They like when something works.
Building foundation of your startup without investors money is not so hard. Test your idea, spend money wisely, gain experience and take care of every customer. Grow your startup brick by brick. Then you’ll be prepared for the expansion and investment. Go for it!
photo: CC flickr.com by JakeandLindsay Sherbert
