How to Fund Your Startup Business or How to Fund Your Business Growth | The 15 Super Moves – Part 1
Audio Transcription
WARNING: Today’s radio show is not for you if you are not 100% committed to your business and it’s eventual success. Learn the 15 proven super moves for funding your startup or business’s growth from business coach and U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Clay Clark and Doctor Robert Zoellner.
- NOTABLE QUOTABLE – How do you get over the fear of losing it all? “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” – Steve Jobs (Co-founder of Apple and the former CEO of PIXAR)
- NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “Nobody is ever going to care about your business as much as you do.” – Doctor Robert Zoellner
- NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “You must be the pig at breakfast and not the chicken.” – Doctor Robert Zoellner
Move #1 – Credit Cards [ 02:30 ]
Am I kidding? No. I have met many top entrepreneurs who very successfully funded their business using no-interest 18-month credit cards. Companies like Barclay, American Express and others understand that many times a business owner needs funding but you may not have a line of investors begging to invest in you. Thus, they have created no-interest 18-month credit cards with large limits. This may be a great solution if you know that you will be able to pay off the balance of the cards in the next 12 months.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “You must be the pig at breakfast and not the chicken.” – Doctor Robert Zoellner
Move #2 – Family and Friends [ 16:34 ]
Am I kidding? No. Sam Walton (Walmart), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and countless other entrepreneurs secured funding from people that they know. Sam Walton’s father-in-law lent him the money to start his first business. The parents of Jeff Bezos pretty much emptied out their retirement fund and invested $300,000 in his business because nobody else wanted to invest yet. If you 100% believe in your business model and it is working, then you should absolutely consider borrowing money from friends and family. I recommend borrowing smaller amounts of money from more people such as $10,000 from 10 people instead of $100,000 from one person. Typically, having one major investor creates problems as they try to dominate each and every one of your business decisions because they have sunk so much of their personal money into your business (and wouldn’t you).
NOTABLE QUOTABLE– “The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!” -George Patton, Jr. (He was a member of the U.S. Army who was in charge of the U.S. Seventh Army in many of the battles fought in the European and Mediterranean regions. He is best known for his leadership of the U.S. Third Army in both France and Germany after the Allied Invasion of Normandy in June of 1944.)
SUPER MOVE #3 – Create a Premium Package [ 21:40 ]
Typically the top percentage of your customers (economically speaking) don’t care about the price you are charging at all. In fact, they value the most exclusive VIP experiences possible. I recently worked with a sports coach who introduced a premium package to his clients and was able to land five Premium Package deals that pay $1,500 per month versus his typical price point of $150 per month. The clients he sold the packages to loved the exclusivity and they didn’t really even care about the price.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “Don’t be afraid to assert yourself, have confidence in your abilities and don’t let the bastards get you down.” -Michael Bloomberg (The founder and owner of Bloomberg L.P. and the former mayor of New York City who is worth approximately $44.7 billion dollars)
SUPER MOVE #4 – Offer Discounts for Payment in Advance [ 26:25 ]
Change your pricing model or your packages to create a situation where more of your customers will pay some or all of the balance up front before the service or products are delivered.
SUPER MOVE #5 – Raise Prices by 5% [ 32:55 ]
Typically when you raise prices by 5%, your customers will not lose their minds and only about 5% of your customers will openly complain. Meanwhile, you can take that extra 5% and grow your business.
SUPER MOVE #6 – Lease Instead of Buy [ 41:40 ]
You may want to consider leasing equipment instead of buying it up front and outright. When I was growing my entertainment company, I did this with the purchase of our phone system. The phone system would have cost $70,000 to buy outright (this was old school before Voice Over IP phones had been created yet).
Transcription:
Casting for this evening, only Business School, Bloom and Bloom welcome back to the Thrive time show on your radio. My name is Clay Clark. The former USS PA entrepreneur business coach of the Year sent here on a mission to get you into a great financial position.
What what does it mean to be in a great financial position? This is what it means to me. It means that you could go to Atwoods on a on a Saturday and buy whatever the heck you want, and I don’t have business coach to stress out about it.
It’S the ability to my daughter goes to Saint Augustine school and it’s the ability to be to buy a hot dog. If you want to you know, if they’re at the play at the performance, it’s the ability to take the kids to Chick-fil-A, it’s the ability to live in a business coach way where finances are not something that you think about it.
So it is so. But but what happens if I default? If you’re, not business coach intentional, you’re going to drift in, find yourself working at a job? You don’t like or running a business.
You don’t like, because business coach according to Forbes, 57 % of people want to start up a business. They want to do it, but eight out of ten of the people who business coach do start a business fail every single day on this show we like to break down business school without the BS would teach you business coach specifically what you need to do it today show goes out
To all the people out there who want to learn how to fund their startup business coach business or how to fund their business growth, you’ve got a business idea or maybe you have an existing business, but you business coach won’t know how to fund it and I’m not going to teach You a bunch of theories and not going to teach you a bunch of vague ideas, I’m going to teach you specifically the moves that will work.
Okay and you teach me the pythagorean theorem. I could business coach have a squared plus b squared equals c squared it. That’S the only three square number one credit cards am I kidding.
No. I’Ve met many top entrepreneurs who are very, very successful who fund their business using no interest 18-month credit card. They start business coach I’m telling you and you can go to. Creditcards.Com Barclay has a card. American Express, has a card, and the bottom line is a lot of people Steve.
They don’t want to end. The banks aren’t going to lend you ,000 to start your business or not going to lend you fifty business coach thousand to get started lot of banks.
Don’T want to lend you any money until you for approving the concept, so someone’s listening to the show today and let’s say you’re a contractor and you want to maybe do some work on the side and you want to start your own business coach construction company Steve out there. Just you’re probably not going to be able to get a standard loan to start.
Maybe maybe the business coach credit cards is. It is a move yeah. You know it’s there and some people it will access. Maybe the equity in their house get a home equity line of credit, but if you don’t have that, and even when you do have that it’s a much more difficult process then go online and applying business coach for a credit card.
If you have good credit and you can get a credit card that has a zero interest for any. Of time no see you can, somebody might be saying: is your mortgage professional, your company, total lending Concepts doing doing very, very well and you guys business coach are growing that Business what we will say well, you know I don’t want to apply for a credit card.
Cuz I don’t want to get a credit cards. Are my credit Steve break down the truth about credit cards, how they impact your business coach credit score and just got to walk us through, maybe on a high-level, maybe even go deep.
If you want to about how credit cards impact your overall credit score of people, that business coach just believe that credit cards are bad there, it’s like saying like maybe like guns, are bad and then you will say no people are bad right.
Well, it’s the same thing as credit card people use them wrong; they use them properly. They charge Em Up by groceries by stuff they business coach shouldn’t be buying they jack up.
The balance give you an example of how I view a credit card. I feel like a hammer, and I don’t know if you had up for some reason: people keep putting cameras in the conference room to screw with me, I think they’re business coach putting in Hammers and I’m serious. I didn’t think you were buying them and bringing them to the office.
They know that I’m OCD has to be like a dozen I just going to let go to Lowe’s and buy all the Hammers in the toilet. So we having a meeting in the clients like business coach why are you holding that Mallet Hammer?
It’S call your leads and then you smack them out. Remember now here’s the business coach thing about that could be used to you’re, obviously hammer and nail. It can be used to pull out of nail, it can be used for something positive.
You could also use a hammer to bang holes in walls. You can also use a hammer to hit somebody. You can use a hammer to business coach good uses in bad news. Is it’s the same thing with credit, but just feel like that you shouldn’t use credit cards at all to grow business and my mind in my experience. For my background: that’s just fall yeah and here’s.
The thing 30 % of your credit score is derived from business coach revolving credit, so people will every day they’ll say why don’t I get my credit pulled because I’m afraid that inquiry unpack my score, know you paying your bills on time?
Will impact your score and oh by the way you don’t have any credit cards, so you don’t even have the business coach opportunity to get 30 % of your score higher yeah, it’s like going to act like you’re in high school. You don’t take math and you wonder why you don’t have a 4.0, it’s like you, don’t even have the ability and percent of your score is based upon business coach revolving credit.
If you do not have a credit card, you can’t build it. No, you can’t end and here’s the thing I don’t want to go into dad. It also doesn’t matter clay how big your limit is come on now.
So if someone gets a card for the first time, maybe business coach it only has a ,000 limit. They look at the ratio of your balance versus your available credit. So doesn’t matter if you have ,000 available credit.
If you have ,000 available credit, it’s if you have a 21 or balance with a ,000 limit you’re going to have the optimum score cuz. I can. I tell you business coach something Steve that that really gets me going.
We talked about having an Optimum score in a credit card story. When I was 16 years old. I remember I got my first credit card. I could Discover Card still have that card by the way I left right, love that car.
So I had this in business coach my basement is old t-shirts you know, and I move was I realize that the high school made logo apparel. The people didn’t like it said, stupid stuff, like you, know, Charger price in a wax dassel-cokato Chargers, and I know what I did about the school’s consent I made business coach my own shirts and the shirts I went to the game in the shirt would say one of my Rivals with Litchfield you knowing that the wrestler bit, we will be at a wrestling team that did well.
They went to State, they were dominated very well and our coats coats used to say the business coach side like I said I was interested, but he would have died. No one went to wrestling until we went to the state.
You know we go down to Minneapolis to the Metrodome and he’s there and I can wear our teams or was great that you’re he’s it’s just that you just weird like business coach a pig, and so it was like I would.
We need a shirt that says so. I made a squeeze and bleed, and then we had a guy on our team who looked just like the Russian from Rocky, and so I put Ivan Drago space on a shirt and you notice those kind of things.
I tell her shirt, making business coach a lot of money and bring it a lot of money. I bought the shirts like 3 or 4 bucks, the Hanes shirts and I bought a T-shirt maker from a doo doo on the video store and I’m pretty sure to my dad.
Are pulling all-nighters printing shirts selling shirt orders now and I need business coach to get like ,000 of shirts to my dad’s I go. You need to apply for a credit card and I’ll co-sign, so I’m like 16, my dad cosign sweet credit card that Discover card and I just charged that thing Pam. I got my shirt sent to me from Hanes.
I’Ve got the shirt for making. This business coach should be sold. I think we sold close to a thousand shirt and I don’t remember actually I think that we cleared about ,000 of profit that weekend and I made the shirt yes and I feel bad, because my dad worked at a company called Hutchinson Technology where business coach they made a Little arms for disc reader, some of your remember when they were floppy disks and CD-ROMs and my dad work the night shift.
I made him work the day shift with me, making t-shirts sleep, you had life passed away, so I want to say thank you business coach up there. Thank you for pulling me all night or any all-dayer in a row to make that possible, but you make your father.
Where can I sign them that he’s like? I am highly motivated. I can’t believe you just spent all of it, but and then, when I had enough money business coach in the bank and then I started investing in the DJ company and I had to buy, I always had bookings than equipment tried to pre buy the equipment.
Before I had. The shows so I booked the show and I had to buy the equipment. I had to use credit card to do that business coach without credit cards I couldn’t do.
It now has a notable quotable that he likes to be on the show with us each day, but today is not expanding his vast entrepreneurial Empire, but he says You must be the pig at breakfast and not the chicken.
He goes on to say business coach nobody is ever going to care about your business as much as you do. What is he talking about their business coach in the pig at breakfast? If you think about it that the chickens, not that invested, write the chicken and some eggs for breakfast and it doesn’t business coach really care if you come, take the eggs or not it’s just doing his thing.
The pig has to give its life. The pig has to be fully committed and fully invested in breakfast to give you a ham and bacon and all those yummy yummy breakfast, so you ate.
The same mindset has business coach to be towards your business. You got to be the pic. You got to fully commit yourself if you’re going to make this thing successful, and just one thing to talk about on this move number one with credit cards were working with a guy right now, right now office, starting up business coach a new company yep, you got all his Equipment about a month ago and he’s rocking around he had, he didn’t have any funding source.
We had to find him some credit cards and he’s now rock and roll and no arguments for 18 months, and so it’s a business coach real moon he’s. Not there really doing it. 20 years old about 3 years ago, who had no money and got denied for some small business loans couldn’t get a home equity line.
They had so much of their house in debt. They were able to fund their whole business with ,500 and business coach I remember her telling me she goes I’m investing this in the business, but I could only I only have total available has to work, and I said I know – and I remember telling her this just notable Quotable Steve Jobs once said he said Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple business coach in the former CEO of Pixar.
He said the disease treatment how to get over the fear of losing it all. He says remembering that you’re going to die is the best way that I know to avoid the Trap of thinking you have something to lose.
You’Ve got to be all in that’s kind of business coach heavy Andy. When you came over here from England to play basketball at Oral Roberts University, I’m going I’m going across the pond, I’d better, be all in or were you thinking when you, when you decided to move from England, your native country to America, to play business coach basketball Oral Roberts University,
I was thinking that I love the game, but I’m leaving my family, I’m leaving him at the airport leave my two brothers who depend on me behind, and it was a very rough feeling and it and I better go over here on a better business coach represent them.
Well and – and thankfully I was able to do that and now they will leave over here and my whole family in generation, 2 and now here. So do you remember when you decided to buy the way you did he bring eyebrows brother’s over here across the pond? In business coach English, now you got here, Chris is here your Mom and Dad are here.
I completely remember that is 10 minutes. Don’T tell us everything you were thinking, you know if this will work out or were you a hundred percent? What what?
What kind of thoughts were you business coach having pre walking down that aisle? I was before I met the lady of my life. I thought I did not ever think about marriage and, while I’m walking down the aisle and think to myself is, is this what wait a minute? I’M I’m Jurassic Ali Allah bless.
This is not thinking. I try business coach to take a photo of my mind, but I know it’s a big life change and you committed to it absolutely it’s amazing when you have 5 kids, so are you? Are you Amish?
I’M not home. Are you more likes to practice at 5? I must bring it your all and you committed, and if you’re business coach going to have a successful marriage you got to come in, you would have a successful business.
You’Ve got to commit. You want to have an unsuccessful business, don’t commit, you would have been on successful marriage and we come back we’ll talk more about business coach how to fund your startup business, and I encourage, if you want to start a business, go to thrive time, show.com and download the start Here book for free, it’s all the business, the doctors and I know about how to build a successful company.
It’S a 550 page business coach book you can download it for free get it today. It’S drive time. Show. Comments to start here about station sting live from the center of the universe.
It’S business school without the BS featuring optometrist turned entrepreneur. Dr. Robert zoellner with us SBA, entrepreneur business coach of the Year clay Clark, all right right, Nation.
Welcome back to the conversation is that’s right. Talk show radio if you are listening to show for the first time, and you ask yourself what what mistakes have I made, what poor choices have I made to business coach end up here?
What am I even listening to what you’re doing is listening to a show that we host everyday? That’S dr., zoellner and myself clay Clark, we’ve built 13 multimillion-dollar companies between the two of us, and so we thought about saying we business coach thought about asking.
We were thinking about going to take me to what what what should we do now and we thought you know what let’s do a radio show. So we can teach the super moves that we use on a daily basis to to get where we are, and I will just to tell you business coach if your if you’ve never started a successful business, you can do it. I took algebra 3 x and y. U c t 3 times, I’m not that smart he’s an optometrist.
You study mathematics. He is that smart. I just kind of like Batman and Robin I kind of look at it. It’S like kind of Batman business coach and Beavis and I’m I’m I’m I’m beat us, but he still be here with us.
But today is that expanding his vast entrepreneurial Empire and then we started an online program and out in person, workshops and where I want to cancel and Consulting, and we can actually business coach teach you how to grow a business week.
Actually coach, you, through the proven path to build a successful business for less money than you typically spend on hiring even one per hour. Employee we’ve done in the auto auction business coach industry, Optometry men’s haircuts, photography, video ography, carpet, cleaning, entertainment companies, banking, there’s, really, no industry.
We haven’t gone into and in pretty much dominated, and it’s not because we’re Geniuses, it’s cuz, we know the Somerset. Yes, if you’re business coach out there struggling in a business, you can speak to this clay.
It is so much fun when you have a successful business. When there’s a fridge, it is a lot of fun so keep going to set your long-term goal. You can get through this hard point and once you get to that successful business coach spot at the top of the mound, it is a blast when you’re riding down the hill. It’S so much fun, it’s awesome!
They were talking about it specifically how to find your startup business or how to find your business growth. How do you do it will move number to family and business coach friends?
Am I kidding no Sam Walton Walmart Jeff Bezos Amazon? In countless other entrepreneurs have secured funding from people that they know you say you see, Sam Walton’s father-in-law, actually lent him the money to start his first business and the parents of business coach Jeff Bezos pretty much empty out their entire retirement fund.
These guys invested ,000 in his business because nobody else wanted to invest in it and if you 100 percent, believe in your business model and your success,
if you believe in it, then you should business coach absolutely consider consider borrowing, money from family and friends, and I recommend borrowing Smaller amounts of money from a lot of people like ,000 from 10 people, as opposed to ,000 from just one person, because typically one major investor will create business coach problems because they want to dominate each and every move in and each and every business decision that you make.
So now you have a a partner who’s going to kind of control that business, but it do you say what what is it going to ruin the relationship business coach know it improve the relationship.
You realize how many family and friends have been best in my business is over the years who I paid off with interest all of them. I have never ever not one time ever. I meant to think of some business longer.
I built the party business coach perfect. It took a long time, but I’m sure when I paid Stacy Thorn, she got a 20 % return on her money, which is better than the market was going to give her.
You don’t have to pay back people, don’t start a business and borrow money from friends and family if you business coach don’t actually intend to start the business Winnie the pig at breakfast as we mentioned earlier, and I want to get your feedback on this okay.
This is you coach of the clients all across the planet as a business coach in a consultant and does it from George Patton business coach Jr.
He was a member of the US Army who was in charge of the US seventh Army and in many of the battles fought in the European regions versus Adolf, not so awesome Hitler. He says the time to take. Counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle business coach decision. That’S the time to listen to every fear.
You can imagine. We need collected all the facts and figures and you’ve actually made your decision turn off all of your fears and go ahead. What advice would you have to be entrepreneurial listening?
Who actually business coach has you know done the math done the research, and now they do owe money to family and friends, and they feel stuck what advice would you have you got to be proactive with your plan?
You got to think about your strategy. You got to think with the end in mind business coach when you’re doing your plan and then the next thing like we’re just talking about is a full commitment.
You have got to be committed and stop worrying about the things, because you know that you were diligent. You made a proactive plan, you’re going to follow business coach that plan.
So you don’t need to think about what you’re doing now just commit to the planet, keep moving forward and you work with a lot of clients that are very diligent and very consistent.
But can you think of one that really just is committed, really diligent, really business coach focus? The kind of the kind of man – I know These Guys these, ladies, if these people are going to be very successful because of that work ethic.
Yes, actually I’m a guy that I met with on Thursday morning.
