Thinking about raising funds to grow you business?  Well before you do, I want you to think about whether you really need to.  Here’s the thing, raising funds is hard!  You have to prepare reports, documentation, let people know how you are going to spend the money, give them updates on how you are spending money, and generally open yourself up to a whole lot of external scrutiny!

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for it, but my suggestion to you, is focus on making your own business as efficient as possible and use your balance sheet as a measure on that.  Read about how to use the Financial Statements here.  This will give you some insights in to the key elements and future posts on how to maximise the value in your business.

Too often, business owners look for external help when the funds they need may already be sitting inside their own business already.  Save yourself the pain and maximise the easiest funding source available to you – your own business!  You can start by looking at how you might fund your own business internally.