If you are considering getting an investment then the first thing you should ask yourself should you even raise money? Is this something that even makes sense for you?

I know you find that article because you are all interested in raising money for your startup… And you are in the right place…

But have you ever questioned yourself whether you should ever raise money… I guess there are lots of people among you…

In my personal experiences with entrepreneurs especially, I got several answers to that question…

Consider the resposibility

The most common answer if you ever questioned yourself whether you should raise money or not is… Accountability, people know when you raise the money you will have a bigger responsibility, especially to your investors…

It’s difficult because you have got to explain things that you don’t already know about what are you going to be using for and in many instances if you don’t know those things how can you answer the questions…

What about the ownership of the company invested?

One other reason is people afraid to lose ownership of the company… Both in equity sense and control sense… Leverage is very important when you start bargaining with investors… You should know the way investors think…

Another common answer is feeling in debt to somebody… You may not choose the debt type financing however still even if you received, let’s say, VC money for your startup, you may have the notion that you have taken money from somebody leaves you feeling in debt…

How to handle rejections?

Being rejected is a big one… I hear this a lot… People don’t like the idea of getting turned down… It’s not only difficult personally but then it’s difficult that words get out and then other people think that you are an unsuccessful entrepreneur…

But let me give you good news on the idea of getting rejected right away… Some of the best businesses got rejected all over the Venture Community… Google, Amazon, and I could go on…

Entrepreneurs are rejected many many times so you have to get used to it…

The answer!

Okay, to answer the question, in short, if you don’t know then you are not ready in other words, it’s worth you taking the time to get yourself comfortable with these issues about accountability, or who is going to have control or whether you really feel like you are going to be in debt to the people you have really got to get through this both emotional and other levels…

There are some things you can encourage yourself to get over these things…

For example, if you are on the verge of raising money for your startup. Start asking yourself do you really want to go big or if having control over your operation is better for your personality… Which one would you make happier…

Then maybe you can know the right capital to take…

And sometimes it’s just the customer capital which means that your revenue is created through your customers…

However, most of the time you will need investment to scale up your idea because it is the nature of the startups…

Competition is very tough out there if you don’t act fast and hire people or spend money on marketing you will lose the race…

Just understand the founders and try to tell them there is nothing to be afraid of, tell them they need to jump off the cliff because they may lose some control of their startup but there will be bigger things ahead…

If you have investment-related questions please do not hesitate to contact me…