How to Market Your Business for Funding

First you need a plan…

Obtaining funding for a business or idea can be difficult at best. There have been many great ideas lost down the drain because of the simple lack of money! It’s amazing how many mediocre ideas do make it and how many good ideas do not. Here are a few tips for how to market your business idea, widget, plan or whatever you decide to call it, from a marketing and sales perspective.

Your plan needs to be bullet proof. Go to a local funding event and do some research online. Try to put together a comprehensive list of every reason why your idea DOES NOT work and then figure out the best ways to overcome those hurdles.

Shop the idea around to angels first – that means friends, family and friends of family. This is called the angel funding round.

Second, make sure you stick to the budget as closely as possible. Project out for three months at a time to help you foresee any upcoming issues which may affect your bottom line.

Keep redeveloping the plan as the business begins to mature. There are two good reasons to do this. It will help you stay focused on the plan so you don’t get lost in the details and it will help keep the plan fresh should you need additional funding.

Make the business plan as sexy and slick as possible. This might sound shallow but believe me, when it comes to getting funding, anything goes and the slick plans get looked at first. It is a popularity contest at best.

You need a perfect look and feel. Don’t go light on the logo or marketing collateral because you believe your idea has enough merit to carry its own weight. Investors don’t see that. They want cool, smart, good looking materials so they can brag about their investments. The logo is just as important as the name. The brochure and website are going to be what they judge you by when you are not in the room.

Show them you know how to market and sell the product. Assuming you are ready to go to market, put together a killer sales and marketing plan that shows timelines, metrics and most importantly, ROI (Return on Investment). This is as important as the entire plan itself. If you even THINK you might not know how to write the best marketing plan ever, don’t hesitate. Hire an advertising or marketing agency. It is the best investment you can make, if I do say so myself.

Carnival of Advertising Communications #1

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Stop Thinking. Begin Testing! posted at Rebecca Dean

Carol Bentley presents Brainstorm a result. . . posted at Carol Bentley.

David Cassell presents The Why Behind Select Courses Blog posted at selectcoursesblog.com.

Brian Terry presents 17 essential “big selling” website strategies (Big Selling Website Design) posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Carol Bentley presents How appealing are you posted at Carol Bentley.

Jose DeJesus MD presents Checklists Can Improve Clinical and Business Processes posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

Brian Terry presents Your shortcut to Internet business success starts right here posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Michel Fortin presents An Obvious Truth Quadrupled Our Business posted at The Michel Fortin Blog.

Don D. Morrison presents 10 Superior Methods To Incorporate An Online Marketing Auto-responder! posted at dondmorrison.com.

Joshua C. Karlin presents Powerful Yet Reasonable Goals posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Don D. Morrison presents It Isn?t Human Relations Anymore? Its Out Sourcing! posted at dondmorrison.com.

Carol Bentley presents Yesterday?s blog-post was completely off-track posted at Copywriting Tips for Your Business by Carol Bentley.

Martin Russell presents 5 Keys To Word of Mouth Marketing posted at Word of Mouth Marketing For Small Business.

Stephen Dean presents Top Notch Blog Posts You Almost Missed? posted at Stephen Dean’s Blog.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Remember Your Emotions for Increased Sales Pull posted at Miss Copy’s Blog.

Michel Fortin presents How to Hook More Copywriting Prospeccts posted at Copywriting and Marketing Tips by Michel Fortin.

Jimmy Sansi presents Grow Your List Of Publishers posted at The Kaizen Businesss.

Steve Oliphant presents stop gambling with your future and start making money posted at Steve Oliphant?s Musings.

Brian Terry presents Why you MUST become fanatical at testing and tracking posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Rebecca Dean presents Stop Thinking. Begin Testing! posted at Rebecca Dean.

Joshua C. Karlin presents Powerful Yet Reasonable Goals posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Mark Riffey presents All women think alike, right? posted at Business is Personal.

Aaron Brandon presents Do You Use These Words? posted at Aaron Brandon.

Carol Bentley presents How appealing are you posted at Carol Bentley.

James D. Brausch presents Not Enough Time posted at Internet Business Blog.

Woody Maxim presents The quickest way to more money is through testing posted at Woody Maxim.

Stephen Dean presents Copy Sin: Trying To Be All Things To All People posted at Stephen Dean’s Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog – Copywriter.

Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Remember Your Emotions for Increased Sales Letter Pull posted at Rebecca Dean.

Life. Money. Development. presents Diet Tips for Preventing High Cholesterol Levels posted at Life. Money. Development..

Kenton Newby presents Simple Solutions For the Content Creation Roadblock Nearly All Online Business Owners Face posted at KentonNewby.com.

Carol Bentley presents Normal service is (almost) resumed. . . posted at Carol Bentley.

I am (10) this many years old — 760 Media Celebrates a Major Milestone!

“Whew, that was easy!” was my recent comment back to someone who asked me how I felt about my agency passing the 10 year mark. Looking back, it hasn’t been neccessarily easy really but, it has definitely been a lot of fun. I’ve had the fortune of working and promoting some of the biggest brands in the world in just about every type of media available, covering every major international market on the planet. I am more excited about what we are doing now, integrating new and traditional media campaigns with measured results, than I was when I first started this agency and made the promise that became our mantra at 760 Media, starting with, “Award winning advertising and marketing at reasonable rates.” to “The Ad agency with BIG IDEAS that WORK!” — It has all come true for me and I am proud to be a part of this wonderful company today.    

I still come to work excited every day. Ready for the next creative project, media plan or new business opportunity. I geuss you could say that I am addicted to this business. I never mind working late or on the weekends, I love chasing and landing new client accounts and I look forward to the symbolic pat on the back just as much as a check in the hand. Of course getting paid is always nice too. Don’t get me wrong…

Now that 760 Media is 10 years old, we will take all of our marketing, advertising, public relations and guerrilla marketing knowledge and build a set of streamlined tools and systems which will enable our clients to see exaclty how we maximize their budgets for optimal results and returns on their investment with 760 Media. Look out world, here we go again! 

Our Mantra

At 760 Media, Inc., our mantra  is ‘The Advertising Agency with Big Ideas that Work!’ This mantra is dripping with details that are invisable to the naked eye of the average reader but, from an advertising agency, industry insider perspective, the truth lives deep within the details. For instance, we categorize our identity not only by calling ourselves ”The Advertising Agency’ but also by stating that we have BIG IDEAS… and they are not just any old creative ideas. Any agency can produce creative ideas. The difference here is that our creative ideas WORK! We underscore that by inserting an interjection at the end of the mantra, adding the exclamation point. So, what we are really saying here is that 760 Media is THE ADVERTISING AGENCY with BIG IDEAS that WORK! Now THAT is a MANTRA!