Get Cash Keep Control BLOG

By Stefania Aulicino

What is the best economy to get funding and grow your company? A robust, stable economy or an uncertain, weak economy? If you are an innovative entrepreneurial company, the time to strike is now. In today’s economy, it takes an entrepreneur to thrive.

Think about it: entrepreneurs typically build businesses based on innovations which rock the status quo.

Problem is, in good times, customer have no need to try new things. Customers are fat-dumb-and-happy. Their profits are secure and doing what was done yesterday is always more comfortable.

However, nothing shocks a customer out of their comfort zone like an unstable economic environment. At times like that, customers must search out new solutions to protect their top and bottom line, which makes them very receptive to innovations. And where demand goes, investors are sure to follow.

A classic example is the “green revolution”. As long as oil was below $50 a barrel it was hard for any innovative entrepreneurial company with energy efficiency solutions to gain traction. Marvelous innovations including electric cars, transparent photo voltaic window panes that generate energy, and energy saving light fixtures were doomed to unreceptive investor attention; it was all too easy to squander cheap oil. However, as oil now soars above $100 a barrel, the gas pump tips over $4 a gallon and oil wars loom, even the most staid customers have become receptive to new products with energy efficiency.

An unstable petroleum based economy has ushered in “Green” as the new Siren call for both corporate American and the venture capital community. Any entrepreneur that can claim a green aspect to their product or service is greeted with open arms, accelerated buying decisions and even premium prices. Supported by the wave of customer demand, investors open their pocketbooks.

This point is not just about Green innovations. The conclusion is that a rising tide lifts all boats. While you – and everyone else– can grow in good economic times, you- the innovating entrepreneur have an advantage to also grow in a weak economy. Innovation allows you to profit from change, excel under uncertainty and thrive in economic times where others can’t even survive. And that’s catnip for investors who are challenged to put their money to work in the best of times. Weak economic conditions are when your innovative company becomes more valuable so you can get the cash you need without selling your soul.

Now is the time to capitalize on your ability as an innovator to get funding to grow your entrepreneurial company and discover your power to be economically self-sufficient.

Stefania Aulicino is founder president of CapitalLInkUSA. For 20 years Stefania has helped business builders uncover the right capital for their optimum growth strategy so you get cash and keep control to build the business you really want. www.CapitalLinkUSA.com

By Stefania Aulicino

You, the entrepreneur, are the most advanced specs on the planet. Entrepreneurs alone have the ability to create a future that does not exist- until you make it. Yet many take this willingness to change the future for granted. If you don’t share your passion with the world about where you want to go, you don’t have an asset to sell: an unshared future is a lost asset. Confidence to share your future creates your biggest asset. When you share the future you are really passionate about it becomes an asset others can understand and even help you achieve. Your future is an asset of greater value than most entrepreneurs realize. You see, you, the business builder, are the Golden Goose. A franchise is a classic example of turning your future into an asset others (franchisees) are willing to buy. But you don’t have to franchise your business to get credit for the asset of your future.

Credibility turns this asset into your own valuable currency. The more credible your future the more valuable is your currency. The fastest way to build credibility of your future is the mosaic approach. The concept of a mosaic, applied to finance is based on the principle of divide and conquer. Divide your financial needs into small pieces, like so many flecks of color, each with their own risk-taking appetite. Conquer an ever-widening range of funding options, as each piece you put in place lowers the uncertainty and risk to the next. As you assemble those funding sources, like the Italian artisans of old Pompeii, you create your own financial solution- now that’s a valuable work of art! Best of all, with a mosaic approach, no single creditor is responsible for your success and you are hostage to none.

With your own unique currency you can finance the future you want because there is currency in your passion. But not everyone can see your future to give you all the currency in your passion: only those who share your passion. When your future is bigger than your past, you need to make your future tangible enough for others to see. You need a Corporate Resume. Unlike a personal resume which details only past accomplishments leaving the future to the reader’s interpretations, a Corporate Resume uses past accomplishments as credibility of the future you intend to create. A Corporate Resume translates your passion of that future into a language others can understand. To be succinct enough to fit in a 2 pager, a Corporate Resume translates your passion into the universal language of business- dollars and cents using a set of financial projections in which your business strategy dictates your funding strategy. A Corporate Resume converts your passion into a currency you can tap to get credit for your exciting future today. Tapping the currency in your passion makes you economically self sufficient.

Most entrepreneurs think it’s lack of money holding them back, but in reality it’s not sharing your passion that causes them to lose control, which is key to sustainable, profitable growth.

Like a personal resume, a Corporate Resume can be hard to write because you are a fish in water and it’s hard to gain objectivity. Fortunately, a Corporate Resume is 2 tools: a “story” and a “document”. Even before you complete your Corporate Resume, the experience of crafting it gives you prowess at making your future tangible enough for others to give you credit for that future today. That’s ideal because the story is for everyone, while the document contains confidential information designed for selected recipients. As soon as you begin work on your Corporate Resume you build momentum and create an immediately usable result.

When you let your business strategy dictate your funding strategy, fueled with the currency in your passion, you enter a world of abundant resources so you are in control of your own perpetual cash making machine. You become a Golden Goose. Control puts you in the ideal position to capitalize on today’s volatile and changing economy where innovation and passion are the key drivers to build value. Which future you do you really want?- – it’s your Corporate Resume When you make your future tangible enough for others to buy you have cash and control to take your company to successive levels of profitable growth, faster safer than you ever thought possible– your own sustainable engine.

Where are you in the process of converting your passion into a perpetual cash-making machine – your own Golden Goose? Don’t let this be just a fairy tale for you.

Stefania Aulicino is founder president of CapitalLInkUSA. For 20 years Stefania has helped business builders uncover the right capital for their optimum growth strategy so you get cash and keep control to build the business you really want. www.CapitalLinkUSA.com

By Stefania Aulicino

As an innovative Entrepreneur, you have more control over your company’s future than other businesses do in today’s economy- including the ability to access cash for growth.

Today’ economy is challenging many business owners. No, the principles of successful entrepreneurship have not changed, but the game board has:

The size of the playing field has expanded due to globalization

The rate of success, or failure has accelerated because we operate in internet time.

Taken together that has introduced a phenomenal degree of uncertainly and volatility. But there is a positive effect as well; the scope of possibilities has increased exponentionally. Today, innovation is the key driver to build value.

That puts you- the entrepreneur – with your unique skills, in the ideal position to capitalize on today’s economy—IF you are careful to distinguish between traditional growth and proactive growth. Let me define my terms: traditional growth is when you “find” a fast growing market, jump in and then just follow its trajectory. In contrast, proactive growth is when you identify a problem, innovate a solution and design your own optimizing growth strategy. Proactive growth is what differentiates entrepreneurs to investors.

Traditional growth is very risky. You find yourself coping with all kinds of risks factors imposed from the outside and beyond your control. Today’s volatile and uncertain economy makes this reactive mode of traditional growth overwhelming and exhausting. In contrast, proactive growth actually takes advantage of dynamic market changes, as fuel!! Proactive growth is built upon what YOU do best. It leverages all your natural strengths. For an innovative entrepreneur that means your biggest risk is that of opportunity lost. A sure way to lower risk of your next growth stage is to grow proactively.

Let me offer an example. I’ve always been fascinated with what I perceive to be the transformation of the sneaker industry which today we call “athletic footwear”. A couple of decades ago, no one would say that sneakers were a hot growth opportunity. In fact the other day, I saw someone wearing a flat canvass lace up shoe and thought to myself, how uncomfortable that looks.

Well, Nike made the same observation, a few decades ago. They identified the problem of comfort for people active in every day sports. Nike experimented with waffle bottom designs used by the competitive sports professional and Nike introduced cushioned, comfort “sneakers” for the consuming public. But did not stop there with one shoe for all, but one for basket ball, one for tennis, and another for jogging, etc. And Nike continued to innovate within the industry they knew well-
Not one shoe for all, but one for each.

Can you remember how much a pair of sneakers cost back in the ‘80’s? Perhaps $10 bucks. Contrast that to how much Nike’s athletic footwear cost today: over $100.

While Nike capitalized on proactive growth strategies, a brand name in the sneaker marketplace, KEDS succumbed to the risks of traditional growth and lost its dominant position.

Pursuing an ambitious proactive growth strategy was not risky for Nike because Nike knows “sport foot comfort”. Nike has been rewarded with the transformation of a market in which they remain the leader today. Even as new entrants follow, Nike just keeps innovating and profiting from their unique understanding of a market they created.

This kind of proactive growth can position your company to access a new and exponentially higher level of business performance. Let me share the 3 predicable results of proactive growth:

1)
Exponentially higher profit from innovative energy you are already investing,

2)
Dramatically lower risk as you accelerate revenue building upon your unique strengths

3)
Enhanced shareholder wealth as you maintain control over your destiny in the face of a volatile economy.

This is what makes you attractive to cash.

Are you taking full advantage of your innovative entrepreneurial talents to pursue proactive growth to keep control over your company’s future?

Stefania Aulicino is founder president of CapitalLInkUSA. For 20 years Stefania has helped business builders uncover the right capital for their optimum growth strategy so you get cash and keep control to build the business you really want. www.CapitalLinkUSA.com