Bearing in mind that most startup will fail within the 1st 5 years, getting the right support often determines whether your business can sustain for another year. There are various ways others around you can help. They can be your family, relatives, friends or even your customers.

a) Help in financial resources

Financial resources is no doubt one of the biggest challenge for most entrepreneurs. Sometimes, we may need to borrow from our family, friends or relatives. You may consider taking a loan or equity. But often, requirements are more stringent. You may also seek investment support from angel investors, venture capitalists. But investors often wants to invest in startups with high investment returns. And often, you need a proper business proposal or business plan. You may also lose significant control and share to these group of investors.

b) Business mentor and advice

Finding the correct path to success takes time, and hardwork. However, the process can be so much simpler when you have a mentor to guide you. The mentor can be someone who has been successful in the business world. Or he can be somebody in your industry, who has the specific technical knowledge you need for your business. A mentor can give you some general advice, or he can advise you specifically on your startup business. These advice can be valuable because they may cut down your loss, lead you to the right path in a much shorter time.

c) Getting customer feedback

We have come across situations whereby we walk into a store, and there is nothing that suits our taste. Getting your friends and customers to provide feedbacks is too important. We may have an ideal business model in our mind. But does it appeal to the customers? Everybody has different needs and taste. Will your customers appreciate your products and services that you personally think is good for them?

d) Reading up

In the information age, "Information is King". Almost anything can be learnt nowadays. We can often find vast amount of information online and online learning has become very common. Its often much faster too. There are support forums and group discussions. Type what you want to find into search engines, and they will be able to fetch you very relevant results. Reading up and self improvement is important for you to strive well in the highly competitive business environment.

There are so many other ways you can get support and assistance. Every bit of support will help you in your startup venture.

Article by Byon Ong, Singapore Business Resources for Entrepreneurs

January 2006

Visitors may use the article for marketing purpose, but please give credit to the author with a backlink included.