Start-up capital for a student with a great idea

[robokoder]

Hi all,

[This is quite a long post. Skip to brief summary below if you prefer]

I'm currently looking at launching a new consumer software product. I've identified an appropriate market and have access to an appropriate and well-known sales channel, and have developed a marketing strategy. I'd rather not go into specifics publicly, but this meets a genuine need and I'm confident it has potential to do very well. I'm in the process of writing a professional business plan.

The problem: I'm currently studying part-time, and don't have much spare money. I have limited savings but will be attending university in October this year and want to keep that safety net. There shouldn't be a time issue; the product can be launched within around 6 weeks, and I will be entirely free for 3 months July-Sept inclusive, and I'll be able to work on this full-time then. Ongoing time commitments are low and my university terms are relatively short in any case (and I can still spend some time on it when there). But because of my financial situation, I do not want to commit more than around £500 to this at the present time.

Context: this is actually a relatively inexpensive product to develop. Essentially, a base software system needs to be created, and then it can be easily adapted for distinct versions appealing to different markets (and there are lots of specific markets that can be targeted). Each different version requires different content but I have devised a viable strategy for acquiring this without any upfront costs to the business. Marketing costs are limited and mostly just require time and persistence given the nature of the market, which I will happily provide! The base software should, however, be decent, and I'm budgeting around £1000 to develop it. I might just manage it for £500 but seeing as how it underpins the entire software suite it is most definitely worth doing properly. Ideally I'd hope for a start-up budget of c. £1500-2000

[Summary: I'm a student; have time but not money; genuinely viable software idea with tons of potential, currently writing business plan; need £1500-2000]

My question: does anybody have any advice about where I might go to for help funding. I can't use Princes Trust because I'm in education, and there don't seem to be any other government-funded grants / loans applicable. Are business angels viable? How do I investigate that? Might there be anybody on this forum looking for inexpensive new projects who is interested in an advisory / capital-providing role?

Many, many thanks in advance.

Dom

 

[toneloce]

hi,i might be in the wrong place but do people wear ugg boots all year round?
if so let me know,
and visit my store

thanks

 

[edmondscommerce]

just sneakily get another student account with a big overdraft ;-)

 

[robokoder]

just sneakily get another student account with a big overdraft ;-)

Heh, yeah. But then I may as well just use my savings. I just want to keep business and personal, well, food-eating, distinct.

 

[edmondscommerce]

to me for this amount of cash, you would be better keeping things simple and just having yourself as the only person involved in the business..

maybe see if you can get an interest free loan from a family member or something

or alternatively, think about reducing your initial ambitions and working within the budget you have.

 

[profitxchange]

You will find it impossible to get money. But have a look at J4B and Business Link. Business Angela and VC's provide much bigger funds and their get out fees are very high. For most SME's they are not viable.

Soory to be so down but one needs a reality check to make sure you do not waste a lifetime looking for money that isn't there.

 

[cjd]

Friends, family and fools - as usual.

That sort of money, whilst obviously a lot to you now, is utterly trivial in a business - find a way of scratching it together yourself and DON'T give away any of you company to anyone else at this stage.

 

[Duke Fame]

Hi all,

I might just manage it for £500 but seeing as how it underpins the entire software suite it is most definitely worth doing properly. Ideally I'd hope for a start-up budget of c. £1500-2000

[Summary: I'm a student; have time but not money; genuinely viable software idea with tons of potential, currently writing business plan; need £1500-2000]

My question: does anybody have any advice about where I might go to for help funding. I can't use Princes Trust because I'm in education, and there don't seem to be any other government-funded grants / loans applicable. Are business angels viable? How do I investigate that? Might there be anybody on this forum looking for inexpensive new projects who is interested in an advisory / capital-providing role?

Many, many thanks in advance.

Dom

Try getting a job or two, day job and get a job in a bar / night club, work like a dog for a couple of months and save some money, hey presto, £1,500.

If you aren't prepared to risk your money in your own scheme because you want to impress the boilers at university, it's a bit rich asking someone else to.

 

[robokoder]

Try getting a job or two, day job and get a job in a bar / night club, work like a dog for a couple of months and save some money, hey presto, £1,500.

If you aren't prepared to risk your money in your own scheme because you want to impress the boilers at university, it's a bit rich asking someone else to.

Really? A job, hadn't thought of that. /sarcasm. This is time-sensitive, and, unsurprisingly, working damn hard is how I have what I have. And please don't insult universities just because you don't appreciate the benefits of education. There's a reason we're surprised / impressed when successful businesspeople were school drop-outs. And it's pretty offensive to rubbish somebody's plans for the next three years to their face.

Anyway, the actual substance of your contribution isn't very well thought-out. I am a student. I have a low apetite for risk. Other people are not students; they have money. They have higher apetites for risk. They are happy to invest in projects. And they stand to make a profit from doing so which corresponds in part to the risk they take. If that's not you, fine, but don't project you personal circumstances onto everybody else.

Other contributions have confirmed my suspicions that it is too small a sum of money to be worthwhile. But that's a different (and helpful) contribution.

I'm not trying to be ungrateful, I just really don't think that post needed to be made, and I'm not sure who you were trying to help.

Anyway, I've pretty much decided to try and do it for £500 while seeing if I can raise money from personal links (probably not). Unless anybody has some ideas about how I can raise some money in my situation, probably nothing more needs to be said.

 

[kayak]

You will need thicker skin than that to survive in any business.

The advice wasn't as stupid as it seemed, I have no idea how hard you work but most people can work harder if you truly believe in your business idea.

If you have a low appetite for risk then I really wouldn't come up with business ideas, working for someone else is low risk, working for yourself is generally a much higher risk. Low risk in this situation would be getting a credit card at a fixed rate of say 15%, checking you can afford repayments and doing it. If your business won't give you a return on the loan of that size then it's not worth it.

By the way, you sound rather pompous with your comments about going to uni, you might want to be careful. Some of the most successful people I know barely made it through school, and I'm not surprised with their sucess.

By the way, I'm 24 degree educated and working my way through a masters part time in case you think I'm an old geezer rambling on.

I'll stop ranting now.

 

[Duke Fame]

Really? A job, hadn't thought of that. /sarcasm. This is time-sensitive, and, unsurprisingly, working damn hard is how I have what I have. And please don't insult universities just because you don't appreciate the benefits of education. There's a reason we're surprised / impressed when successful businesspeople were school drop-outs. And it's pretty offensive to rubbish somebody's plans for the next three years to their face.

Anyway, the actual substance of your contribution isn't very well thought-out. I am a student. I have a low apetite for risk. Other people are not students; they have money. They have higher apetites for risk. They are happy to invest in projects. And they stand to make a profit from doing so which corresponds in part to the risk they take. If that's not you, fine, but don't project you personal circumstances onto everybody else.

Other contributions have confirmed my suspicions that it is too small a sum of money to be worthwhile. But that's a different (and helpful) contribution.

I'm not trying to be ungrateful, I just really don't think that post needed to be made, and I'm not sure who you were trying to help.

Anyway, I've pretty much decided to try and do it for £500 while seeing if I can raise money from personal links (probably not). Unless anybody has some ideas about how I can raise some money in my situation, probably nothing more needs to be said.

I'm not down on uni at all, although I was allowed in once, I'll not hold that against them.

You shouldn't be risk averse as you approach uni, what do you have to lose? You have access to loads of cash when yo uget to uni, there is no need to save right now. You also have very little responsibility so make the most of it. Yo are working now, why not get a job in a club as well and you'll find you are not spending at night and earning all the time. You should save that extra grand in a month or so.

The basis of my first post is you can't expect people to invest in something that you will not take a gamble on yourself. Nearly everyone who runs a business has had to save up and make sacrifices, in doing so, it makes the success far more sweeter.

 

[WarbyGK]

Duke's got it spot on OP, £1500 really isn't a lot of money and if you graft between now and July (start of your 3 month break) you only need to pull in £300 a month!

As others have said, don't give any of your business away for such a small amount. Keep it for yourself and reward yourself for not having a social life between now and July!

 

[Duke Fame]

The final point is using your own money and making a sacrifice tends to make sure you work far harder in avoiding failure

 

[gentech5]

as others have said, best way to fund your project at this stage is by getting a student loan, and working a few extra shifts.

since your product is a software, a working demo, even limited, will be really helpful if you wanted someone to invest in you. else I don't think anyone will be really bothered.

Btw, what's your budget going to be used for? development? marketing? admin?

If it's for development, you could just get some mates in to help with the coding. Release a lite version (link some adverts if you want), and build it from there.

There's loads of help available on the net, programming forums for advice and guidance, code snippets for about anything, and loads of tutorials and ebooks.

good luck with that