Responses:
Respond to at least two of your classmates. Can you suggest ways to leverage or scale in order to help them reduce costs? (Module intro video, if you have forgotten.) Or maybe you have some other ideas you think could help.
Length: At least 100 words
response 1:The business that I am creating is called the CalmCollar. This collar is to help aid with all anxiety, but specially separation anxiety. This collar will be available in different styles, infused with pheromones, and have a calming technology that acts as someone holding them for comfort.
I think for my business I would need between $50,000-$100,00. I would say I need a number between this range because of the assortment of styles and sizes. I would start with 3 sizes of course and 3 different styles per size. This would mean I would have to pay for materials such as fabric, hardware, and etc.
To get the startup funds, I would have to get a business loan. This would be the easier way to get the funds because of how technical n precise my materials would have to be. They would not be the cheapest and doing a business loan would just be the most effective and quickest way to get the money. I would also possibly do a fundraiser or partner with a big national dog shelter program. This would also help future customers anticipate the product before it even comes out.
Response 2: Good afternoon everyone,
My business idea is a “tour truck” mobile golf fitting operation that pairs golfers with the proper shaft lengths and flexes based on metrics gathered during a short fitting session. Then, I plan to rent golfers their fitted clubs so that they can play a round with them prior to making the decision to purchase a new set.
Based on my research, I believe that I could start this business for $50-75k pretty easily by relying on purchasing a well-used box truck and outfitting it for my business myself. If I wanted to go with a newer, more gently used option, I could bump that to $125k and have my needs covered for equipment and inventory very easily with some room to spare.
There are a few routes that I could go with to raise the starting capital for my business, based on which end of my startup spectrum I decided to go with. If I come in near the bottom of my estimate, I could raise the funds through savings and selling off some personal property. I would just have to convince my wife to liquidate some belongings to make it happen. Since most of the equipment (used) and stock (new) that I’ll be carrying will retain much of its’ purchased value, that will help alleviate some of the risk in putting personal funds into the business.
In the middle or toward the higher end of my range, I would either need to seek investors or borrow money. Many of the financial coaches I follow warn heavily against borrowing money to start a business for liability purposes – so if I went this route I would likely seek to sell a portion of the business to investors. I would not want to give up a significant part of the business or any operational control, so I would likely lean toward seeking investments of a certain percentage of the startup costs for a profit sharing portion of the business with a contracted option to buyout the profit sharing during a predetermined time period. This would allow me to acquire startup capital while spreading some of the risk/reward to my investor(s), but would also allow me to regain 100% ownership of the business down the road while still rewarding the investors for their willingness to gamble on my startup.
