KACHARAGADLA

Lending isn’t quite as tight as it was after the recent economic downturn, but it’s still a delicate process. Many small- and medium-sized businesses find it difficult to obtain bank financing because they don't know how to navigate the process. But, if you’re persistent enough, however, raising the necessary capital is still possible. At Blank Label, we were offered over $500,000 in debt financing. To help you secure the financing you need, we’re going to share the four important lessons we learned about getting bank financing. 1. You might not need financing. The most important step in the process is figuring out if you even need financing. Moreover, make sure debt financing is right for you. If you don't have the cash-flow to support interest payments, but anticipate high future growth, equity financing might make more sense for you. At Blank Label, before we raised our debt, we first   raised a $1 million equity   round. Some reasonable things to take out a bank

These four companies manifest their brands in a way that is indistinguishable from their products or business activities. We are seeing a shift in what it means to be a brand and how to build your brand. From about 2007 or 2008 -- alongside the rise of social media as a mainstream technology -- we cultivated a mindset around building our  personal brands  (where the winners were the ones shouting the loudest). This in turn led us to reimagine business brands where the focus was on humanizing those brands. Brands evolved beyond the words and visuals to describe them and manifested more as “what we do, is our brand.” In recent times, this evolution has continued as brand building has focused on greater authenticity, transparency and empathy. This evolution has been  inspired   by consumers who have become more demanding of the businesses that supply them of products and services. Gone are the days where branding was considered a marketing activity purely for the benefit of th

Reach your audience effectively without compromising quality. If you're an entrepreneur just getting started, you know the meaning of a budget. You also probably know that in order to get your business idea off the ground, you have to reach your chosen audience at the right time. To help you do this cheaply, without compromising the quality of your marketing efforts, I've put together a list of the top 10 free marketing tools every entrepreneur should know. 1. Chattypeople Chatbots  have made their mark in the marketing world this year. Despite many still believing that the chatbot is just a customer care tool, others are seeing it as a must-have in their marketing strategies. Chatbot technology has improved significantly in the past decade, allowing marketers to create bots without any coding knowledge.  Chattypeople  is the perfect tool for those wanting to quickly create a Messenger chatbot. The platform allows entrepreneurs to create a bot that not only works s

  It may be a bit of a generalization, but I don’t think that I’m out of line when I say that entrepreneurs, on balance, are an impatient bunch. In order to build a successful business, you have to hustle and be somewhat of a hard-charger. Impatience, unsurprisingly, is a common byproduct of the entrepreneurial mindset. I know that I certainly used to fall into this category. It was only after several years of running  BodeTree  that I came to realize that in business, patience truly is a virtue. Avoid “ready, fire, aim” syndrome I have a tendency to rapidly evaluate situations as I encounter them, which is both a blessing and a curse. In the best cases, this rapid assessment enables me to quickly grasp a situation and plot a path forward. In the worst cases, however, this rapid-fire though process creates a chasm between me and the people I’m working with. When this happens, I find myself jumping forward to a conclusion while others are still processing the informa

I’m so tired of seeing young entrepreneurs get screwed by their angel investors on convertible notes and I know I can’t convince you not to do it so I’d like to offer one simple bit of advice to help you avoid getting screwed (at least on one part of your note). When you do a convertible note with a cap that converts into the next round of funding one of the unintended consequences is that if you’re successful and raise at a larger price than your cap the early angels often get “multiple liquidation preferences” on their dollars in. Here’s how it works: Angel gives you $500,000 at a $5 million cap (thus they will own at least 9% of your company if it converts at a price higher than the cap). If you raise at a lower price they will own more than 9%. [This is called a “full ratchet,” which is also historically a term that VCs would be crucified for trying to get away with but I’ll avoid talking about that in this post.] With a normal 1x liquidation preference this investor woul

Now that we’re well into the fourth quarter of 2016, time is beginning to run out for sales organizations looking to hit their year-end goals. During this October/November crunch, it is all-too-easy for business owners and sales professionals alike to grow frustrated and impatient while waiting for clients to sign. I’m currently experiencing this firsthand. As of writing this, I have well over 20 large contracts that are pending final signature. Playing the waiting game can be excruciating, but I’ve found that it is possible to stay productive and positive throughout the process. Define the experience for your customers When you’re forced to wait for customers and partners, it’s easy to become paralyzed when making decisions. After all, you don’t know precisely how they will react to a situation, so the temptation to simply postpone important decisions can be strong. Unfortunately, this decision paralysis is often incredibly damaging for two reasons. First, it causes your