Tag: Startup Investments

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Webinar

How To Create Wealth Using Asset Allocation?

How To Create Wealth Using Asset Allocation?
How To Create Wealth Using Asset Allocation?

Simran has just landed her first job. She is excited about her new job, but also keen to save and invest in her future. However, just like many others, she is confused about where she should start.

Some of her friends are trading in the stock market while others are thinking about invest in PPF. But, Simran is way too worried and is pondering over her investment options as she does not want to take too much risk with her hard-earned money.

Though bank deposits are a safer option, the fixed return is not appealing to her. When it comes to investing in a mutual fund, she is not sure which mutual fund she should buy and invest in, as there are plenty of choices.

So how should she make her investment choices, so that over a while she can save and build wealth too?

Does Simran`s story sound familiar to your own? Don`t worry! You are not alone!

Only 4% of Indians prefer to invest in stocks, and exchanges along with many scams are to be blamed for keeping them away from equity markets.

“We have a market that is not safe for investors to a large extent”, says Ashish Kumar Chauhan, CEO & Managing Director of Bombay Stock Exchange.

And with thousands of bonds, stocks, and mutual funds to choose from, making the right decision to invest can confuse even the most seasoned investor. However, if you do not take the leverage of it, you will undermine your own ability to build wealth and secure financial life for retirement.

So what is the first step towards building wealth? Instead of selecting stocks, begin by deciding what percentage of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds you want to hold. This process is known as asset allocation.

What Is Asset Allocation?

Asset Allocation is a brilliant investment technique. It involves creating a portfolio that aims to balance risk by dividing assets into major categories like bonds, cash, real estate, stocks, and derivatives.

Each asset class has distinct levels of return and risk. Hence, each will behave differently over time. Where one asset category can increase in value, the other might not give that much return. Though some see this technique to get mediocre returns, it is the best protection plan for people like Simran, who don’t want to take much risk.

However, there is no single or set formula for asset allocation that guarantees good returns. And if there were, it would be difficult for us to explain it here.

We have outlined 3 essential points that you must consider when thinking about asset allocation:

  1. Risk against Return

Asset allocation is all about the risk-return tradeoff. It forms the basis of the entire technique. Everyone wants the highest possible return, but it is more than just choosing high-potential assets.  Moreover, it isn`t always the best answer!

The financial crisis of 1929, 1981, 1987, and 2007 to 2009 are the best examples of how investing only in stocks with the highest potential returns is not the most prudent plan of action. Every year your returns are going to be beaten by another investor, pension plan, and mutual fund, etc.

The ability to weigh the relationship between risk and return is what makes an investor successful.

  1. Timing is Crucial

For every 10 years, you delay saving for your long-term future goals, you have to save three times as much every month to catch up. Starting early like Simran allows you to take advantage of compounding and the time value of money. It also gives you a buffer for making high-risk investments, namely stocks.

  1. Know your Goals!

Whether it is Simran or any one of us who is working, we all have goals! Goals that we want to pursue and fulfill. Be it owing to an apartment, a car, international vacation, or building a startup, you must think about an asset allocation plan with the right mix.

For long-term goals, you do not have to worry about fluctuations in the short market. However, for short-term goals, you may need to tilt your asset allocation to fixed-income investments that have less risk.

Once you determine the right mix of bonds, stocks, and other investments, it is time to implement it. Categorize your stocks or bonds according to their maturity- short, mid, or long term.

On the last note, there is no single solution for allocating assets. Just like Simran and her friends, individual investors require individual solutions. Asset allocation is not a one-time event. You can modify it according to your future goals and requirement. It is a life-long process of progression and fine-tuning.

To join our free Webinar on Asset Allocation,

Click here: www.facebook.com/badabusinesspvtltd.

Date & Time: Sunday 23rd May 2021 | 7 PM-8PM

To gain in-depth knowledge about the stock market, watch https://youtu.be/L_iJCNzDe-s.

Categories
Angel Investor

Top 3 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Pitch an Idea to Investors with Total Confidence

Simple ideas to make entrepreneurs` life easy

Pitching your idea to your potential investor seems incredibly nerve-wracking. It is like the feeling of giving a presentation in front of the entire class. The only difference between the two is that the former one is more challenging!

Do you wonder if your potential investor is interested enough? Will they like your idea? And most of all you wonder if this potential investor is going to fund your project or not?

According to the INC.com report, 42% of the startups fail due to lack of initial cash funding along with other reasons like legal challenges, poor marketing, lack of innovation, or disharmony within the team.

Then how can you ensure that you get investors for your startup business? By not doing mistakes that most of the entrepreneurs commit unknowingly and end up shutting down their business. Also, they practiced the best ways to approach their investors.

Here are top tips for pitching your great ideas or products to investors:

  1. Nail your Elevator Pitch

Your elevator pitch is a teaser of your startup business idea. These 30 seconds of elevator pitch should explain everything that someone would need to know when they meet you for the first time.

Your elevator speech should tell your investors everything if they have no background knowledge about your startup.

It should be crisp, direct, and clear. And simply describe your product or idea. It should cover the 3W`s- ‘What you do,’ ‘What problem you solve,’ and ‘Why you are different?’

After your pitch, make sure to connect with the person listening. Ask them questions and resolve their queries.

  1. Research about your Potential Investors

If you come prepared, the battle is half won! So before doing your pitch, do some research on who you will be presenting to.

You can search for the list of Angel Investors network that focuses on your region. Some of the investors may be a popular figure. So you can research well about them online. Study about their patterns, as some investors like to be involved in the company they are investing in. Others would rather be hands-off and would rather like to receive quarterly reports on profitability.

  1. Talk on Facts & Figures

Provide solid data reports when you are pitching your idea to a potential investor. Investors are always interested in what you have already accomplished. Also, how much profit they will make post-investment in your company.

The value of a startup is often built even before they have made profits. The numbers behind it are often driven by speculation of how good the company could perform shortly.

However, you must also be well-prepared to back up the numbers you provide to your investors. Investors would want to hear the reasoning behind your numbers.

Do not just give a random figure of new customers your company is acquiring every month. Say the exact number because it does not matter if you are attracting 20 or 20,000 customers. Your transparency and honesty are what matters the most!

Always remember that an investor is not just investing money into your company, they are giving it to you. And they are investing because they believe in you.  Hence, give them confidence by providing the real data.

Are you trying to find investors for your startup, but could not despite having an innovative idea that could make huge profits in the long run? Worry not! With our ‘Problem Solving Courses,’ you can learn how to raise funds for your business even without an investor. For more information, click here:

 

 

 

 

Categories
Startup

Startups in India Bagged $9.3Bn Investments in 2020 Despite COVID-19 Challenges: Report

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the startups have been hit hard but have managed to emerge successful in attracting investments this year. According to data from consultancy firm Tracxn, Indian startups received investments to the tune of $9.3 billion in 2020 despite the coronavirus challenges. The report reveals that fortunes for the Indian startups turned significantly in the second half of the year. The study reveals that startups raised just $4.2 billion in the first half of the year from about 461 deals while the year saw 11 Indian startups including RazorPay, Glance and Unacademy becoming a unicorn.

According to a report by IANS, the figure is much lower than the record $14.5 billion raised by Indian startups last year as the number of deals this year reached 1,088 from 1,185 last year, TechCrunch reported on Monday. Reports inform that there were 20 funding rounds with dealsize $100 million or larger in 2020 compared to 26 in 2019. Similarly, rounds with dealsize $50 million to $100 million fell to 13 in 2020 from 27 last year. Moreover, the figures exclude the funds rasied by Jio Platforms, which alone bagged over $20 billion investments this year.

The Tracxn report further adds that global technology giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook wrote checks for Indian startups, while Chinese giants such as Alibaba and Tencent made fewer investments amid border tensions with India.

Categories
Startup

What is a Startup? How Do Investors Add Value To Startups? All You Need To Know

Startups | Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pexels)

India is now becoming the world’s fastest growing startup ecosystem. In order to understand a startup ecosystem, one needs to know what a startup means! A startup is a young company that is usually founded by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a new and unique product. These entrepreneurs launch a service and bring it to market for people to use and benefit out of it. Startup, as the name suggests, begins with initial funding from the founders, their friends, families, relatives, among others.

Startups are becoming very popular in India. A start-up is basically a company or project begun by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. Startups face high uncertainty but some of them do go on to be successful and influential and become unicorns. The startup process can take a really long period of time and can go up to years to be successful. Hence, sustaining effort is required.

Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. One needs to understand the basic concept that an entrepreneur is an individual while startup is an entrepreneurial team, and needs to work accordingly to achieve the desired goals.

How do Investors add value to Startups?

According to Startup India Portal, which is India’s largest online entrepreneurship, the investors, particularly venture capitalists (VCs) add value to startups in a number of ways. The Startup India Portal platform allows startups to network, access free tools & resources and participate in programs & challenges.

  1. Stakeholder Management: Investors play a key role in building up the startup. They help by managing the company board and leadership to facilitate smooth operations of the newly started firm. In addition, their functional experience and domain knowledge of working and investing with startups imparts vision and direction to the company.
  2. Raising Funds: Investors are best guides for the startup to raise subsequent rounds of funding on the basis of stage, maturity, sector focus etc. and aid in networking and connection for the founders to pitch their business to other investors.
  3. Recruiting Right set of people: Sourcing high-quality and best-fit human capital is critical for startups, especially when it comes to recruiting senior executives to manage and drive business goals. The venture capitalists, with their extensive network can help bridge the talent gap by recruiting the right set of people at the right time.
  4. Proper Marketing of the Product: VCs assist with marketing strategy for your product/service.
  5. Merger and acquisition opportunities: The venture capitalists should be alert about the merger and acquisition opportunities in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to enable greater value addition to the business through inorganic growth.
  6. Organizational Restructuring: As a young startup matures into an full-fledged established company, the venture capitalists help with the right organizational structuring and introduce processes to increase capital efficiency, lower costs and scale efficiently.

In India, the Government, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, has started and promoted Startup India initiative to recognize and promote startups. This initiate is aimed to develop Indian economy and attract talented entrepreneurs.