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The term bootstrapping came from the 19th-century expression “to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps,” which meant doing an impossible task. The earliest that idiom appeared was in 1834 in the Working Man’s Advocate. By 1922, bootstrap as a metaphor was found in the James Joyce novel, Ulysses, meaning to better oneself by one’s unaided efforts. The term eventually evolved to mean being self-sustainable or proceeding without external help. In the present day, bootstrapping is a general term and practice associated with creating businesses that rely on their resources and earnings. Startups, for example, take pride in telling that their operations are bootstrapped. Consequently, bootstrapping techniques for startups is a popular and valuable topic of discussion associated with creating and running startups.

When a startup receives investment from outside investors like venture capitalists and angel investors, two equity valuations are essential. These are the pre-money, and post-money valuations that refer to the company’s value before and after an investment are done. These valuations determine how much ownership external investors receive when they make a cash investment into a company. The post-money valuation is always greater than the pre-money valuation as it is the value after a cash injection is made.

Right-hand man or woman. The one always beside the CEO, the president, or the military general. This person is none other than the Chief of Staff (COS) of an organization. In a complex organization, the Chief of Staff serves as the bridge between the chief executive and its direct-report team. The COS serves as a buffer, working behind the scenes making sure that the chief executive’s time is spent where it is most needed – in leading the company towards its goals. The chief of staff responsibilities vary from organization to organization, but they almost always involve linking the chief executive and the leadership team to the rest of the organization.

Mentoring is widely recognized as a tool to promote professional development both in formal and informal settings. Its follow-on effects are reflected in how people are more motivated in the workplace, resulting in increased productivity. Questions for mentors to ask mentees are important in the success of a mentoring programme.

Expansion or scaling is the usual next step when a business is growing. Expanding within the country of operation of the business is already challenging much more when the expansion is done internationally. Before deciding to expand internationally, there are many factors to consider, especially if you are a small business that may not have someone in your team with extensive international expansion. This article will discuss what to consider when expanding a business internationally – from the readiness of the business to financial implications, regulations on employment and taxes, access to talent, brand recognition and many others.

Valuation refers to the process of determining a company’s present value. It is an important figure in finance as it is needed or used in investment analysis, capital budgeting, merger and acquisition transactions, financial reporting, taxable events to determine the proper tax liability. Valuations can be done on assets like investments in marketable securities such as companies’ shares and related rights, business enterprises, or intangible assets such as patents, data, and trademarks or on liabilities such as bonds issued by a company. The valuation described is the company’s enterprise value (EV) which is the value of the entire business without considering its capital structure. It’s important to point out that a company’s enterprise value is unaffected by a round of funding. So while a company’s equity value increases by the amount of cash, its EV remains constant.  At this juncture, it is crucial to differentiate the terms pre-money and post-money valuation, which are often heard concerning startups. Pre-money and post-money valuations used in private equity or venture capital industries are related to the company’s equity value. These figures are used by outside investors such as venture capitalists and angel investors in their investment decisions. In this article we will be looking at pre-money valuation calculators and its related terms.

Why do people invest? Do people invest for the sake of investment? The main reason why people invest should be to earn money from the investment! When considering investing in something – whether it’s real estate or paper assets like stocks and bonds-is fair to ask: What is in it for me? We naturally would want an idea of much money we will make from the investment before actually investing! In simplest terms, the amount of money or the profit made from an investment is called the return on that investment. There are many terms associated with the return of an investment that can be confusing even to seasoned investors. In this article, we are going to explain what is meant by the expected return and show examples of portfolio expected return calculator.

The terms incubator and accelerator are consistently used interchangeably. In reality, many innovation programs are a hybrid of both. Nevertheless, there are significant differences between these two. The main difference between an incubator and an accelerator is in the maturity level of the projects each accepts. Incubators mainly support early-stage startups, whereas accelerators tend to […]

Market penetration strategy examples are ways for brands to increase their market share in existing markets.