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Startups Archieven - Startupboot

mrt 31
4

Pros and Cons of Business Grants

By | Finance

The realisation of a fresh business idea or an impressive development plan always comes along with financial and planning difficulties. However, as a real entrepreneur, you know about the support that the government provides to young and developing businesses. Subsidies and grants are considered as one of the best ways of funding. It might be a case that you are still deciding about your willingness to apply for the governmental grant. We would love to help you and provide some pros and cons of the business grants.

Advantages of grants:

Complimentary money

Grants are attractive for businesses because they do not have to be repaid. Not only that, but some grants offer a large amount of money, depending on the company’s idea or purposes of investment. 

Available information

Description and information about the subsidies conditions or deadlines is freely available to everyone. It can be found on official government sources or related blog posts. This aspect is essential for entrepreneurs as it is crucial to make qualitative research and find the grant suitable for you.

Waterfall effect

Once you have been awarded the grant, you become a reliable candidate. Therefore, you have better chances to receive other governmental subsidies or grants from other organisations.

Increased visibility

Winning one of the acclaimed grants shows that your work is of notice. Thus, it can perform as a way of promotion. It helps you to gain credibility not only from organisations and investors but also from potential leads or clients.

Disadvantages of grants:

Time-consuming

You have to do a lot of research and paperwork if you decide to apply for a grant. Once you have found a grant that suits you the best, you have to write a good proposal. The proposal is the most important step in the application process. A creative idea cannot receive a grant without a convincing proposal. However, the companies that specialise on subsidies can help you with the proposal and all the application steps. For example, the WBSO Software Specialist has been active in the market for 12 years and is experienced in obtaining software subsidies. Their advisors have handled and successfully submitted thousands of applications. Therefore, they can help you to write a successful proposal.

Big competition

Many of the businesses with bright and creative ideas hope to receive governmental support. Thus, the competition for one grant is high. Be prepared for the difficulties but do not let them inhibit you. From statistics, 99% of the WBSO Software Specialist applicants are approved for grants. Thus, in case they find your project suitable, the chance that the subsidy provider will also find it suitable is 99%.

Conditions and restrictions

Although grants are complementary money, they come with restrictions. When applying for a grant you have to be very specific about the ways you are planning to spend this money. After receiving the grant, you have to stick to the plan.

Overall, the pros of the decision to apply for a grant outweigh the cons. The advantages and disadvantages of governmental grants still point to the idea of complimentary money for the development of your business. In the end, the most important thing is your own belief in the future of the idea and willingness to risk.

jan 17
0

6 Tips on how to become successful while avoiding unnecessary stress

By | Geen categorie

Last week’s event was all about our fresh goals for 2018! Have you set them yet? Our speaker Rob Lacroix definitely talked us through how to be successful while avoiding unnecessary stress.

Now, success is a term which keeps coming back to us at Startup Boot and we have thrown its meaning at you more than ones. Rob has added a new aspect: when trying to become successful, one must acknowledge whether they thrive success because our parents, our schools, our friends or our social system experts us to, or because we feel a passionate drive ourselves. The last one is the valid drive to feel successful. And that is what success is all about right? A certain feeling. if you want to be successful, you stop trying to meet up to standards you’ve been put up with, instead you follow your passion and the sky is the limit. 

When starting a business or setting goals for the new year, rob figured a three- boxed check list to come in handy named RAC:

Recognize there is a challenge
Acknowledge you play a passionate Role in the change
Commit to the change

Make sure you are doing things for the right reasons and success will follow. When putting in the right amount of effort of course! The following 6 tips on a healthy mind-set towards success might help you achieve your success while avoiding stress:

  1. Make careful choices about whom you want to reach your success with. Whether you need a co-founder, employee, freelancer or investor, know what kind of person the company Needs and take the right pick. To find the right person, always keep your eyes open! He might just sit next to you while you’re reading these tips!
  2. Do not do everything yourself. A big percentage of entrepreneurs is suffering from a burn-out. Avoid this by delegating certain tasks. Know your strengths and Make sure people around can you fill in the gaps where you lack.
  3. Make sure your goals are realistic. Unrealistic goals Will only gain you stress. Not the output you had in mind. Plan realistic and smart
  4. Be an athlete!! Not by becoming a sportsman in the world cup nut by copying their habits to success. Eat healthy, exercise and take breaks! This Will bring you the energy you need
  5. Be flexible. Like Darwin said:” it is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent one. It’s the species that responses best to change”. So be open to change! Does your strategy not fit the present circumstances? No worries, adapt!
  6. Do not give up! Do things not work out? Do not blame factors as competition or the economy. Find the real problem and work on it. Check the RAC again and commit! YOU can Make it happen.

Interested in the subject or do you want to learn more on how to reduce stress? Check out Rob’s website!

Best of wishes to all of you for a successful 2018! 

 

dec 20
1

Fuckup night

By | Geen categorie

This year almost comes to an end, and so it is time for a good old throwback. This year, we have spoken a lot about successes and all of those times, we concluded that to become successful, you have to make mistakes to learn a thing or two. With this in mind we have decided to make ‘FUCKUPS’ the subject of our last event of the year. A very interesting subject as the turnup was great! So.. what have we learned?

First of all, know what the company needs. When you know what the company needs, it is easier to make the hard decisions. You need to be realistic about this from the beginning. A lot of startups start as friends. Either someone from your close group of friends, a colleague, a family member or even your boyfriend or girlfriend. It always seems like a good idea because when you are good with someone, you can run a business with them right? WRONG! Do not try to force such relationships into a business relationship! Two of our speakers also lost their friends because they started a company together. What you do need, is someone to strengthen you. Know what you are good at and what you suck at. Then find someone to fill in the gap.

Same goes for employees. Of course the worst thing about a hiring process is that EVERYBODY lies on their resume, so try to make the process as flawless as possible. Make sure you know what kind of employees you need. Not only in skills, but also in contract. Sometimes it is great to work with a freelancer. They build something amazing for your company and afterwords, they are just done. Other times, you really need a loyal employee. But than again: consider whether you need an entrepreneur who prefers to work alone or someone who really fits in the team culture. You might also think about hiring more experienced employees rather than cutting costs by hiring a less experienced employee. This saves you some fuckups.

Now of course, hiring an employee costs money which we do not always have. Another thing we have learned is to be a bit creative. You do not always have to put them on the payroll. For example: You could reward them with a promise. When the company becomes valid, they earn their share in the company. It may seem to you that when you do not have the money to pay someone, you should not hire an employee. This could be so, but as a startup, you probably need investors to set up the business. As you know, a startup is build from a problem to which an entrepreneur finds a solution. To get investors on board, you need to show them that people are willing to spend time on your solution with you. Also the problem which you solve should be a serious pain to which the investors actually want a solution.

The next fuckup of the evening, which I think it is fair to say almost everybody can relay to, is that you need to keep ‘Ego’ outside the door. Of course, you are proud of what you have done and you want to scream it of the rooftops, but do not exaggerate. It will annoy your team and it does definitely not give you a head start with customers. Be aware of your ego and keep it in check. People do not buy your product or invest in you because you show off, they do so when you deliver the promise.

Last but not least: Do not bother to keep thinking about your regrets and do not let them guide you. Keep in mind that you need to go through things to value them. When the value turns out to be low, at least you know!

We called it the night at the successes. The speakers all are very successful so do not be afraid, be bold, take a risk, make some FUCKUPS and become successful.

Thanks to:
Renske de Bruine of Winkler
Erwin van der Vlist of Speakap
Wybo Wijnbergen of WeWork
Matthijs van Schendelen of Endeavour Group

nov 22
1

6 Tips and tricks you should know before scaling internationally

By | Geen categorie

Are you planning on going internationally and could you still use some good tips and tricks? And were you not able to join our event last Thursday? Than you missed out on a lot! Isabel Brouwer of DutchBasecamp gave us great advise on how to successfully scale internationally. Fortunately, we took notes to share the info!

First of all, scaling internationally is no exact science. But guess what: entrepreneurship is no exact science. However you have to make choices.
Entrepreneurs often fail because they do not know how to make the right choices, like the right market to fit and the timing to go abroad. They also do not tend to keep in mind that they have to fail first, to become successful afterwards.
That is why it is so important to do the research and find a good fit, starting by creating a top 5 of markets which might be interesting to scale your company to. These 5 markets are the ones to be researched further. When choosing one out of 5, it is very important to keep some things in mind:

– What is the market attractiveness of those 5 markets. It is very important that your attractiveness fits with the crowd, if not, scaling makes no sense.

-What is your business attractiveness? What makes your product stand out amongst the competition if there is any?

-Are you able to create a product/ market fit?

-What is your affordable loss? How much money and time are you willing to lose in the process? If you are not willing to lose a lot, do not pick the biggest markets. Don’t make it as if you’re going backpacking, it does not make sense to go abroad when you do not have the money to do proper follow ups.

Those bullets should be validated. Off course, you can start from home, but is very important to physically visit the market. Do your research and talk to local people. Find the right entrepreneur to share their experience with you and just as important, find your customers and ask what their needs are. Reality is that finding the right locals to talk to can be a challenge. That does not make it less important though.

The bullets will not only be indicators to pick the market, they are also the base of your strategy when you scale to your new market. After you chose your market, it is time to create a strategy fitting to the market. With that comes the budget. Again, the budget will not be exact science, but it is what will get you there.

DutchBasecamp can help you through this process. The coaches are all very experienced with the subject and will coach you through the process, starting with a free master class. There is no recipe for internationalisation, so it is very important to keep talking to other people and learn from each other. Make sure you keep networking.

One other thing you should definitely keep in mind are the cultural differences when you go abroad. Not to worry though: there’s always the books. A good book to read to prepare you before going abroad is ‘The culture map’ of Erin Meyer. As the book says, she had mapped out all the cultural differences you need to keep in mind.

jun 02
0

How to get funding

By | News

For a lot of start-ups, creating an innovative idea is not the problem: it is collecting money to execute the idea. Fortunately, there are a lot of creative ways to do so. Sander Waterval has got a lot of experience in the matter, since he executed a lot of his expansive ideas.

Right now, Sander is working on one of his dream projects, the Wikkelboat, on which we have actually organized a barbeque last night after a cruise with Ronald Scholtus on one of the boats of Rotterdamishot. The Wikkelboat project is due in two weeks from now. It’s the first Wikkelboat ever to be made and will be located at the also to be expanded harbour ‘ The Red Apple Marina’ in Rotterdam. This project costs a lot of money as you can imagine and so, you need to be a bit creative funding it:

  • By involving your suppliers and partly paying them after delivery. When the project is done, the Wikkelboat will create turnover because it will be rented out. This money can be used to pay off the suppliers;
  • By involving your clients and let them pay on forehand with an interesting discount;
  • Get some extra cash by leveraging this by the bank;
  • Check for possibilities to get some subsidies.

When going on board with investors, there are some things to keep in mind. The most important lesson of today if you ask me, was to make sure that you are still the chief of your company after the investments. If the investor pays for most of your company, they have a lot of rights to make big decisions as well. Because of this and because quite a few investors do not like to take risks on their own in an early stage startup, it’s a good idea to match investors to fund the company.

After finding the right investor(s) for your company, always make sure you do your research on them and make sure that when they do research on you, which they will, your story will be good! Your story should be the one that makes them go on board with you and the idea of your company should be clear and unique. Doing research about them might seem a bit out of the ordinary, but when you promise someone to spend the rest of your life with them, you want to know them first right? Well guess what… when you choose your investors, you will spend your business life with them! You can ask around for information about the investor in your own network or find someone the investor has worked with or invested in already. Make sure the ideas and goals your investor has, are the same as yours.

Most (angel)investors know each other and are willing to invest in your company together. Know this: they will nog arrange this for you! Be on top of it and make sure to find the right mix of investors for your company.

mei 04
4

What will the future bring us?

By | News

The event of today got us thinking: ‘what will the future bring us?’. Over the years, human beings have evolved a lot and we can take for certain that we’ll continue to evolve. Way back in time, we lived only on basic instinct. We were happy when we had food, a good health, shelter, water and love. Having these things made you a rich person, it was a luxury.

Now, we entered a time where these luxuries became our basic needs. We don’t hunt for food anymore, we don’t settle for shelter and love, we always want more! In the current business model of the world, people are controlled by money, power and rules. When we have a problem, a lot of people solve the issue with two solutions. Either by adding money or adding rules. What if more money and more rules don’t get us any further in our even faster changing world, what if we got more flow and trust? More creativity comes to the table, that’s for sure!

Who would have thought that today we would be able to talk to someone who’s on the other side of the world, that we could print toys and drive cars on electricity. Who would have thought we would be looking at a future where we will be able to buy a flying car and talk to your computer via a chip in your brain.

These thoughts were the subject of our Startup Boot event, where Peter Ros of Permanent Beta took the lead in an open discussion about the impact of technology on human behavior.

Now back to the question. ‘What will the future bring us?’. Together we thought of multiple outcomes as:

‘We will go back to basic. Be happy, not by striving for more but by loving and caring.’

‘We will become one big community. Everyone will take care of each other and we’ll develop the worlds possibilities together.’

‘People will work less, but have more. Technology will make sure of that by providing us with our basic needs.’

Regarding to Peter Ros, the future will probably be a mix of all possible outcomes and hopefully bring us to a next level in wellbeing by caring for each other and our planet. But to be totally honest, we ended the event without a clear answer about the future. We were only certain about one thing: we need to stop thinking in the two basic business models for the world where we either live by basics or strive for more with money and power.

So to answer the question, how about this:

How about we don’t know what the future will bring us. How about we settle for the not knowing and open ourselves up for a new mindset. What if we acknowledge that one person cannot create the future, but we will ease in to it step by step, together. It is human nature to want to know how everything works, this is what makes us develop and even evolve. What if, we stop waiting for the government to guide us to the future but take matters in our ‘own’ hands. We work together, share thoughts and create our future together. We want to know your thoughts!

How about that?

~Permanent Beta is a community about technology and social innovation. Do you have a vision about these subject and do you want to share? You are more than welcome to join!~