I have an idea for a yoga studio in LA, but I don’t have much cash. I was thinking of escorting on the side to pay my bills while doing this. I was wondering should I do this? I’ve always been open minded. Have you ever participated in the sex industry, or tempted to?
I’m about to found a business that gives users full control over their personal data. We just need some 200k to start.
We don’t have the funds to bridge the 4 months to the launch. If we don’t get the funding by the end of the year, we will have to work in our day jobs again. And watch as someone else puts something similar on
the market. Are we doing something wrong? How can we get funding?
I have a couple of questions regarding and online start-up idea…
If you have an idea for an online start-up, where should you go to see if others (influential people not just friends) think it is a viable (money making) option too?
Where would you begin to look for investors if this is your first idea you would like to bring to fruition?
How do you draw in investors in order to fund this idea while it is in infancy?
Are there steps that you recommend taking when beginning a freelance career in the middle of the recession that perhaps wouldn’t be done if the economy wasn’t such an unknown? I’d like to know if there are any specific precautionary steps that one should take, such as having 6 months of expenses covered, etc. etc.
Thank you for your help. It’s very scary to think about going freelance. I’m procrastinating, but I know I need to start pitching for work.
I’ve been with a social media marketing start-up for a little over a year now. Our founder has made a lot of bad choices. Partly because he doesn’t know social media and also because he put his faith into a poor sales team.
We are now at a make it or break it point. I feel like I know what it would take to make a successful social media marketing company, but it would be entirely different from our current company, which may not fall into the vision of the founder.
Also, I currently do all the social media fulfillment for our clients. Everything. I’ve invested a lot of my own money in reading business books, seeing Seth Godin speak, and spend most nights blogging and reading articles on Hacker News. Yet, as long as the CEO/owner is in charge, I lack faith in the direction of the company.
Is it worth rebuilding the company or better to just start my own? How do you know when you should leave a start-up as an employee?
I have a startup and sometimes I am struck with extreme panic and worry. Do you have this? What do you do about it?
I´m an ex creative director. I worked in advertising for many years and then had to leave the agency life because I was unable to combine it with parenting.
Now that I go to playdates I´m quite horrified of the lack of creativity that I find in most homes. I strongly believe that creativity thinking should be a compulsory subject in any school, specially nowadays. We know that academic results won´t translate into success and our kids will have to invent their careers, and yet we put them in front of the tv or give them toys that are all but inspiring or challenging.
I want to start a business to teach creativity thinking in schools. I also would like to teach directly to families ( I would visit them, talk about their values etc, play with the kids for a while to understand their personalities and then give them a bunch of tools and info they could use to improve their creativity skills).
What do you think about it? Any advice, ideas…? I´ve never started a business so I´m quite clueless of where to start.
I am trying to get a startup funded, but high tech seems a lot easier to get funding for. I am interested in the fashion industry and I think it is harder to get funding.
I am a huge fan of your work, and I recently started to consider starting my own business. I was wondering if you have ever published a list of your favorite books for starting a company?
I wish I could read about more in your blog about how to find an investor for a start-up company. This is a forte for you correct? Why don’t we hear more about it?!
Let me tell you something, getting into the retail industry is difficult and kind of stupid, unless you have a lot of money or a great idea. My friend has a great idea, but not enough money to grow it beyond a craft fair thing. She started a mitten business about 4 years ago — she even created the entire mitten design.
This year is her fourth year in business and she has been accepted to a major, national crafts show. She wants to go to more of these large craft shows, but she can’t find a way to invest into the company to keep up with a high demand and streamline her process for these socks. I’ve told her she needs to create an online store, but she’s nervous about the amount of money it will cost and if she can keep up with demand.
So, what are the next steps here? How do we find an investor without going on some stupid TV show? Any thoughts or cares in the world for a little start-up that has huge possibilities?
Contact
penelope@penelopetrunk.com