The government is often talking about how it wants to help small business: the good news is there are some very real and practical ways it is offering its support to SMEs. The demands of being a small business can be enormous. You will often find yourself involved with all aspects of your venture – to the most minute detail. This can be exciting whilst at the same time very demanding. No one said it would be easy to build up a business from scratch. After all you have so
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The road to starting and building your own business is a minefield with possible mistakes at every step, believe me I know. One wrong move, one wrong partner or contract, and everything could come crashing down around you. Since most entrepreneurs tend to be “all in” when it comes to starting a business, if you are considering taking the first step perhaps you should pay attention to the following list of the five most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. If you fall into any of these traps, it could
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Venture Capital firms see a constant stream of start-ups telling them that they have developed a unique product that is going to disrupt their chosen market and deliver huge returns. To combat this, they will generally have developed a set of investment criteria that nine times out of ten will govern whether they decide to invest or not. To put it into context, a typical VC might review 2,000 or 3,000 plus ‘opportunities’ per annum and only invest in 10 or 15, while active angel investors might see 200-300 and invest in 4-5. The odds
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There’s a cyclical nature to fundraising. Certain sectors rise quickly and become competitive while others decline. So how do you know what is hot and what is not? If you work in the industry and are constantly gauging the state of the market like me you ask yourself a couple of key questions. First, which sectors are in vogue now in Seed investing and Series A investing? Second, is there a delay between the sectors attracting seed capital and Series A capital? In other words, do seed investors see
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Crowdcube recently closed a £3.8 million Series B round and topped it up to £5M by raising £1.2M in just 16 minutes using its own crowdfunding platform, a new world record! Balderton Capital, which has previously backed fellow alternative finance platforms Zopa and Wonga, is leading the transaction and has installed one of their partners as a member of the Crowdcube board. The £5 million that raised has been earmarked for investment in UK and overseas expansion. Crowdcube has doubled its team to 50 and opened new satellite offices in London and Scotland alongside its headquarters
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Bringing together private and public sector capital, Enterprise Capital Funds (ECFs) provide equity investments for businesses in the UK. Set up in 2006, there are now 16 ECFs in Britain worth £543.5 million, comprising £321.2 million of government funds and a total of £203.7 million has been invested in 169 companies to date. Managed by a number of well-known venture capital firms including MMC Ventures, Notion Capital and Passion Capital, new funds are determined by a rolling investment programme. In 2008, management of of ECFs, along with other
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London-based venture capital firm Balderton Capital has raised a new $305 million fund aimed at investing in European TMT Series A deals. The backer of companies including LOVEFiLM, Wonga and MySQL has closed its fifth European fund and now has $2.2 billion of funds under management. According to the firm, the new fund is hoping to take advantage of ‘growing opportunities’ in the European technology sector and secured a contribution from the European Investment Fund. Set up in 2000 under its previous name Benchmark Capital Europe, Balderton Capital rebranded in 2007 and claims
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With the Tax Year end looming now is the time for both start-ups and investors to take advantage of tax-efficient Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS). But is £150,000 per start-up really enough to succeed in today’s economy? Since its introduction in 2012, SEIS has helped some 1,250 businesses. However, with just £150,000 per start-up available to small and early-stage businesses, many of these start-ups will face fundamental problems due to the lack of follow-on capital. Whilst SEIS is helping to pave the way for business growth, more is required if
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When trying to raise money and even before pitching to investors many entrepreneurs make mistakes. Here are 7 of the most common mistakes which should be corrected before approaching an investor. 1. Pitching the wrong money Many people waste time sending business plans to any investor that they can find (Banks, Angels, VC’s, Crowdfunding etc). If you use this kind of “Shotgun” approach in your finance-raising strategy, you’ll experience rejection, frustration and waste a lot of your valuable time. Research the best source of finance for your stage of business
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Many SME’s think that a non-exec Director is for big businesses with big budgets but this couldn’t be more wrong and is probably the best kept secret of some of the country’s fastest growing small businesses. Here are just 6 reasons why we think you can’t afford NOT to appoint one! Accountability Many small businesses, particularly if owner managed, may not bother to have board meetings at all – or if they do, they turn into long rambling affairs where nothing significant is achieved. A non-exec will facilitate and chair
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