When having a read through my feeds earlier on today, I came across a post on a US blog College Start up, which discussed the latest venture of billionaire Mark Cuban. He has come up with his own answer to President Obama’s Stimulus plan: create his own.
Taking not only his, but other people’s future in to his own hands, Cuban is offering people the opportunity to upload their business plans and get feedback and advice. It’s a kind of online Dragon’s Den. He has some rules users must follow, but it looks like a great way to open the door for investment and advice:
1. It can be an existing business or a start up
2. It cannot be a business that generates any revenue from advertising because he wants this to be a business where you sell something and get paid for it. That’s the only way to get and stay profitable in such a short period of time
3. It must be profitable within 90 days
5. Funding will be on a monthly basis. If you don’t make your numbers, the funding stops
6. You must demonstrate as part of your plan that you sell your product or service for more than what it costs you to produce, fully encumbered
7. Everyone must work. The organisation is completely flat. There are no employees reporting to managers. There is the founder/owners and everyone else
8. You must post your business plan on his blog, or you can post it on slideshare.com , scribd.com or google docs, all completely public for anyone to see and/or download
9. He makes no promises that if your business is profitable, that he will invest more money. Once you get the initial funding you are on your own
10. He will make no promises that he will be available to offer help. If he wants to, he will. If not, he won’t
11. If you do get money, it goes into a bank that he specifies, and he has the ability to watch the funds flow
12. In your business plan make sure to specify how much equity he will receive or how he will get a return on his money
13. No multi-level marketing programs
Once the company ideas are uploaded, Cuban considers which he is willing to fund and publicises the lucky business plans through his blog. He believes that the generation of new ideas and “the next big thing” is the only way in which the economy and business in general can look to improve.
It is great to see an entrepreneur using the current situation as a route to encourage other individuals with ideas to step forward and create their own business ventures that would boost employment and profitability. I also think it’s a clever way to invest in good strong business ideas.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alena
http://smallbusinessgrant.info
Posted by: Alena | 29 December 2009 at 07:26 AM