It may seem like equity is cheaper – there’s no interest, right? But you’ll pay your equity partners forever. “Exhaust all sources of funds before giving away equity.

Here are some investment tips from successful entrepreneurs for business owners who need funding so they, too, can swim with the sharks. We’ll explore best practices, advice, and tips from successful entrepreneurs and investors. Securing investments isn’t easy, but it’s possible with the right connections and foresight. The show also offers investment opportunities to contestants who effectively sell the sharks on their business ventures. Wonderful ” and Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban. Entrepreneurs receive advice from prominent investors, or “sharks” – such as Lori Greiner, “The Queen of QVC ” Kevin O’Leary, otherwise known as “Mr. This article is for entrepreneurs seeking investments to grow their small businesses.Įntrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide look to the hit ABC reality show Shark Tank for business ideas and helpful industry tips.You should exhaust all your funds before offering equity to investors, and use your network to facilitate introductions to potential partners.When seeking investment, you should research your market and understand your competitors so you can highlight what sets your business apart.It’s not always easy for entrepreneurs to find investors, but experts offer advice that applies across all industries and situations.She adds, “We have a positive energy culture and a big list of core values-we want people to love their job and want it to enhance their life, not take it away.”Īs it marks its 10 th year, Lazzari is looking to continue national growth, strengthening the online presence, expanding its retail footprint and growing the men’s line, Smooth for Men.Īnd what does her mom have to say about the impressive success of her her company? Gina Lazzari credits her daughter’s approach to many of the strategies that Simple Sugars implements.“Most companies would say, oh wow, that is risky, we shouldn’t do that,” she says. Instead, we jointly set goals and as long goals are met, team members set their own schedule.” “We have a different work policy that is very much focused on goals-we don’t tell our employees when they need to work. She stresses the importance of creating a culture that makes for happy employees and allows for quality of life. To gain press in 2009, Lazzari learned public relations on the fly, putting together her own press kit and national media tour-and gaining national placement in big name magazines such as Lucky, Glamour and Self.īut there’s more to her success story.

Lazzari adds that bootstrapping smartly is important. We created a product that is needed, that is unique, and that people love.” “The market that we fit in is truly underserved. We had to go from two people to 22 in a week-we had to be able to handle scale and we did. There is a reason why we did so well-because of what we did before and what we did after. Three years later, Simple Sugars marks its 10 th year in business and has grown from a local company to an online company that sells internationally and is in 700 retail locations.īut Lazzari notes, “We’re not successful just because of Shark Tank. “We have been one of the most successful companies on the show-no one expected us to do as well as we did,” Lazzari says. Instead, Simple Sugars continued to grow. Simple Sugars scaled this successfully and avoided the other side of the “Shark Tank Effect”-the sales dip after the high.

By the weekend, they hit the $600,000 mark and six weeks after the show, $1 million in sales. They sold that much-before Lazzari’s pitch ended. Lazzari and her team thought they were well-prepared: the show’s producers estimated that they would sell about $20,000 more the night the show aired. The true test was successfully scaling the business to respond to the “Shark Tank Effect”-the steep rise in sales following an appearance on the show. The hardest part was figuring out how much money to ask for.”Īcing the pitch was only the beginning. “I knew my business-I have been running this business for six years and living it everyday. Lazzari agreed to be on the show and successfully pitched her company, securing investment from Mark Cuban-one of the youngest to do so.

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