You don’t have to search very far to find entrepreneurs who have had a tough time raising outside capital to grow their business. More than two-thirds of more than 1,000 entrepreneurs polled in a survey recently released by Ernst & Young found it difficult to gain access to the capital they needed to grow.
Why? I have spent the last 22 years working closely with entrepreneurs and the last 12 years working specifically with high-tech entrepreneurs and have seen many common mistakes. The good news is that they are fixable, especially in this age of unparalleled access to information, networks and capital.
At the most basic level, there are two sources of funding for a growing business: lenders who loan you money for a period of time and look to get repaid with a return, and investors looking to buy a piece of your company in return for long-term capital gains when the price of your stock increases. ... Read more from Globe & Mail