New Entrepreneur Resource Guide

>> Explore The Top Candidate Coaching Club, where conversations with our members provided the insights shared in this blog

Thinking about your new adventure as a business owner. Whether you will be a freelancer, contractor, consultant or building a business with a larger team, you will be a business owner, responsible for establishing a business entity and paying taxes.

This all requires that you establish a business case:

What will you do?
Who will you serve?
How will you make money?
Who are your target customers, the people who are happy to pay you for your services?
How does what you do benefit them?
What is your budget for launch?
How will you spend your investment dollars?
Will you have enough to successfully launch your business?
How long will that investment last?
How long can you go without income?
What is your revenue and profitability model?
Are you ensuring that you make enough to pay yourself, pay your vendors, pay for software, services, events, travel and more to get your business going?
Will you continue to invest in your 401K and other retirement investments?
Do you need to make special arrangements for healthcare insurance?
How much time will be required to achieve the revenue targets you’ve set?
Do you have a plan for how you will take vacation, to truly step away from your business and experience the rest and relaxation you need to come back rejuvenated?

True Story

• Podcast: Listen to our conversation with Jodi Daniels, who shares her story of going from Employee to Entrepreneur

Other Podcasts: Entrepreneur On Fire, Gary Vaynerchuk, How To Start A Startup, The Growth Show, Unemployable Podcast, Youpreneur, HBR IdeaCast, The Pitch, Jocko, The 20-minute VC, Evergreen Profits / Hustle & Flow, Eventual Millionaire

Business Case

• Small Business Administration

Patents & Trademarks

USPTO

Sources Of Revenue

As you launch your business, it’s essential that you’re thinking through where your revenue will be coming from. For those willing to share a portion of your profit in exchange for a company sourcing clients on your behalf, take a look at this list below.

Chief Outsiders – community of fractional C-Suite executives

GigX – community of fractional C-Suite executives

FocusedEnergy – community of financial and business advisors

Upwork – promote your freelancing business

Bark – promote your freelancing business

Startup Week

Startup Weeks are available in cities throughout the US and around the world. Look for them in your local area to discover a wide array of free events geared toward entrepreneurs.

Denver Startup Week – September

Boulder Startup Week – May

Longmont Startup Week – July

Funding

When you’re starting out, you’ll likely need to self-fund as much of your startup costs as much as you possibly can. As you need more, you can look to friends and family. While this can be an extremely awkward ask, if your friends and family don’t believe in you enough to invest in you, how can you expect an angel investor or private equity firm to invest in you? (at least, this is the mindset of why it’s helpful to get friends and family to back you before engaging larger sources of capital) Another source of funding lies in obtaining a small business loan from your bank.

Regardless of what approach you take, it’s always wise to have a financial advisor by your side to help you navigate the pros and cons of each option.

www.coloradocapitalconference.org – opportunity to pitch to investors and observe the pitches of others who are trying to obtain funding to learn from their experience

rockiesventureclub – opportunity to pitch to investors and observe the pitches of others who are trying to obtain funding to learn from their experience

Techstars – investors + mentorship

The world of Entrepreneurship is vast and you’re only limited by your imagination. These resources are designed to give you a small glimpse of what’s available to you. If you know of resources we should be adding to our list, please send them to team@thetopcandidate.com.