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New title about how start-ups can overcome their funding challenges and fulfil their potential to scale


Now is a perfect time to be starting a business, says Kevin R Smith, author of Start-up to Scale-up, a new book from Novaro Publishing, launched at The Business Show on 24th November 21. ‘Markets and workplaces are changing fundamentally. New businesses are finding space that wasn’t there before or now exists in a different way. Start-ups and early-stage ventures are the ones with the speed and agility to catch that demand’. ‘Vision and determination will only take you so far. The funding is out there to help you scale, but many start-ups struggle to access it. They leave it too late. They tell wrong the story. They rely on themselves too much.’ So how can they can break this destructive cycle? In this book, Kevin R Smith draws on his 40 years’ experience of lining up money for entrepreneurs and founders to grow their businesses. ‘As a founder, you cannot go it alone. You’ll soon find yourself struggling to manage too many moving parts. You have to surround yourself with people who can help you scale the business.’ ‘Help is out there, although you may have to be creative in how you bring it in. You might find a mentor. You might pay someone for a few hours a month. You might give them some equity. However you go about it, investors will expect to see a strong advisory board from anyone with ambitions to scale.’ ‘Similarly, you have to join up the pieces of your story in the right way. There’s no point having a product that you as the founder think is fantastic, but no one else does.’ ‘Too often start-ups end up thinking about raising funds a couple of months before they are required. That’s far too late. It can take at least six months. One start-up recently spoke to 176 venture capitalists before finding the right deal.’ This book takes early-stage ventures through a complete cycle of how they can make themselves fundable and how they can then put themselves on the path to scaling up. For Dr Stefania Zerbinati, director of entrepreneurship at the Bayes Business School, City University, ‘it’s a comprehensive text about how to scale your business and an easy read that makes the entrepreneurial journey more accessible’. As an advisor at the Federation of Small Businesses and a director at The One Network, Emma Maddocks says, ‘this incredible book should be the first thing anyone reads before starting a business or for anyone seriously wanting to scale’. Looking backing at her own business experience, Anna Daniels, chief executive of Involved Investors comments, ‘I wish this book had been around when I first started my business … I couldn't recommend it more highly’. • ‘Start-up to Scale-up: What funders expect at each stage’ by Kevin R Smith is published by Novaro on 24th November 2021 at £13.99, €15.99, $17.99, ISBN: 978-1-8380674-8-9. See here for more details.

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