Do I Pull the Trigger and Start My Own Business? – Part 5: Creating a Budget
If you have been following along with the series, you have now validated your concept, completed a go to market strategy and brought in the right partners for your business. For most entrepreneurs, this next step is usually the most difficult one – creating a budget. At the very least, you need to determine how […]
Do I Pull the Trigger and Start My Own Business? – Part 4: Validating Your Concept
So if you have been following along on this series, you have assessed your personal situation, mapped out your branding and marketing strategy and identified potential business partnerships. We will focus today’s blog on validating your concept. This blog is more geared towards those entrepreneurs launching a B2C product. The one thing I have learned is never to […]
Do I Pull the Trigger and Start My Own Business? – Part 3: Business Partnerships
On my last blog in Part 2 of this series, I touched on the concept of not trying to do everything yourself. It is very possible you may contemplate bringing on a founding partner to launch your business. While it is very tempting to choose a like minded close friend, it is better to follow the relationship […]
Do I Pull the Trigger and Start My Own Business? – Part 2: Go To Market Strategy
This particular blog is geared towards the “Inventor” looking to launch a B2C product. In the 80’s and 90’s before the days of PVR and Sirius XM, traditional advertising was much simpler and more effective. Placement of a TV or radio ad on a major station resulted in mass exposure to a wide demographic. Technological advances including PVR, […]
Do I Pull the Trigger and Start My Own Business? – Part 1: Personal Situation
Based on a few requests, over the course of the next few weeks, I will be addressing various topics related to considerations before pulling the trigger on starting a business. The very first consideration is your current personal situation. I am currently 40 years old and decided that this year was a good time to launch Vistance, […]
Do I really need to hire a CFO right now?
For start-up companies, accounting is often the most ignored segment of the business with the lowest allocation of resources. The CFO is typically one of the last executive positions filled, and generally only when they are forced by outside parties, due to an initial public offering, or demanded by investors or the board of directors. Of course, […]
Entrepreneurs Are from Mars, Accountants Are from Venus
Ask a business owner how they feel about their accountant, and you’ll often hear the same things: Ask accountants what they think about working in companies and you often hear the same things: What is really going on here? Are accountants and entrepreneurs from two different planets? Well not necessarily, but it is easy to […]
Hitting the Reset Button
In order to provide guidance on future business strategy, we thought we would take some time today to look back at what happened when the pandemic first broke out in March 2020. As a financial consultant, we provide our clients general best practices on review of the internal business. However, admittedly, when a company is […]
The Resiliency of Entrepreneurs in the Wake of COVID
In early March, we realized a seismic shift was hitting the business world like never before. In the wake of the pandemic, our clients’ tone changed from a rosy expansionary outlook to one of uncertainty and survival. By mid March, after two capital raising engagements cancelled, we came to the realization that traditional capital raising […]
How a Door to Door Sales Job Changed My Life
As a teenager with minimal work experience, opportunities for summer jobs were slim. I ended up taking up a job that required no prior work experience or education: door to door sales. I joined a company called Red Rocket at Yonge and Bloor where we were sent out to various territories to sell $5-10 knick knacks including […]
