In a new series of monthly posts, supported by 

https://www.gocardless.com/

, Enterprise Nation is featuring companies that have raised money. We're asking the founders to tell us how they went about it and to share tips for other business owners considering doing the same.

The first profile is Andy Stephenson, founder of 

https://www.weekendboxclub.com/

, a subscription business that delivers activity boxes for children.

Andy Stephenson, Weekend Box Club

Initially none. I used a small amount of savings and bootstrapped myself. After we'd worked out some details about our boxes and subscription elements, I applied for a Start Up Loan to help make our boxes and sell more of them!

Much later down the line, around two years in, Northstar Ventures came to us with a proposal of how they could help us really accelerate our growth with some funding. We took a small seed round from them in April 2015.

The Start Up Loan was to move into production of making our own boxes and to increase sales. The venture capital funding was to accelerate growth once we'd spent a lot of time refining the model.

What was your secret to success in raising the money?

The longer you hold out the better deal you get! Plus investors start coming to you, which is nice!

Raising money for early stage businesses is just about risk and opportunity; the more established you are and the more demonstrable progress you have, the lower risk you are and the higher valuation you can justify (as a general rule of thumb).

What surprised you most about the fundraising process?

Venture capitalists can actually be quite nice! We have a great working relationship with Northstar Ventures. There are lots of stories of nasty investors but our investors are genuinely bought in to the business and understand that sometimes things don't always go to plan but you just need to adapt your plans to succeed.

What one tip would you offer to anyone else looking to raise funds?

Constantly question if there are other ways to exist and grow without raising money. Having investors means you're often taken further away from growing the business because of more management reporting, board meetings etc. I'd advise against doing it in the early days because these are most crucial for getting off the ground and getting your first customers. Don't let anything get in the way of your success!

, a simple way to take recurring payments and to get paid on time, every time.

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Enterprise Nation has helped thousands of people start and grow their businesses. Led by founder, Emma Jones CBE, Enterprise Nation connects you to the resources and expertise to help you succeed.

Show me the money! Weekend Box Club

As Enterprise Nation's small business community manager, my role is to guide our members through every stage of their user journey, developing and improving their experience within the Enterprise Nation community, and arming them with the knowledge and resources they need to start and grow their business.&nbsp;&nbsp;

I have over 20 years of experience working in customer and B2B support. Having also managed a small business for many years, I understand the struggles that they face am passionate about helping them grow. I love to hear member success stories, particularly those in the food and drink sector.&nbsp;

Small Business Community Manager

Yum Yum Sushi Desserts founder John Hines talks through his truly remarkable start-up story

The former TV cooking show host has overcome real personal tragedy.

&lt;p&gt;I'm Emily, Retail Supply Chain Consultant and owner of The Retailer Clinic. I help small retailers to optimise their supply chains, focusing on the areas of procurement, production, inventory management, forecasting, cash flow and strategy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have over 10 years experience in retail having worked in head offices in buying, sales and production roles and on the shop floor in sales advisor and account management positions.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Working for small retailers opened my eyes to the challenges small retailers face when it comes to supply chain. Forecasting and inventory management software is eye-wateringly expensive, production planning is more complex due to smaller order quantities, and deciding on a procurement strategy can be difficult without buying power.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I went in search of solutions to these problems and spent the next few years studying supply chain analytics, fundamentals, dynamics and design. Armed with 10 years of experience navigating retail supply chains and a stack of models and knowledge, I am ready to help you optimise your supply chain!&lt;/p&gt;

Retail Supply Chain Consultant

Small Retailers Network

This is a networking and support group for small retailers. The aim of this group is to create a space for small retailers to network, troubleshoot and collaborate. 

I am here to help all members with any retail operations and supply chain questions.

&lt;p&gt;Hey there!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a fashion business strategy consultant, coach and mentor. I help entrepreneurs looking to change career and enter the fashion industry to develop their idea into a solid product or service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also assist and work with&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs who already have a business but feel like something is missing, that the brand/business&amp;nbsp;is not growing the way they thought it would, making the money and profits they should or wondering how to scale it bigger.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After graduating with a Fashion degree many moons ago, I worked for some 15years within British&amp;nbsp;luxury brands small and large (you can see my resume on Linked In here:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/"&gt;https://www.linkedin.com/in/dessytsolova/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;) across apparel and&amp;nbsp;accessories. There isn&amp;#39;t much as a product that I haven&amp;#39;t at some point worked on.&amp;nbsp; For most of this time, I managed the creative teams and oversaw the process from Idea to Finished product and more often than not I then took that knowledge to the PR, marketing and retail shop floor.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After leaving the last company I was employed by, I set up an online fashion manufacturing portal with the mission to demystify and simplify the fashion manufacturing process. Whilst growing the platform and working on the development of software to automate a largely hands-on process I came to the realisation that while so many competitors were jumping on this &amp;quot;trend&amp;quot; to create what they saw as just a &amp;quot;directory&amp;quot; the industry was not getting any more transparent or functional. The problem I saw&amp;nbsp;was hiding in&amp;nbsp;the lack of proper practical and honest educational support to the new influx of entrepreneurs in the industry AND support for independent brand overlooked by the governmental trade bodies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This determination to share my experience and knowledge with fashion entrepreneurs worldwide led me to exit the platform I spent over 6 years creating and launch Fashion Insiders &amp;amp; Co. An online education and support platform and community for fashion entrepreneurs looking to launch, grow or scale their businesses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Through our platform, we offer many FREE resources as well as online courses, in-person (via the magic of online meetings) consulting and coaching packages and soon to launch community coaching and accountability incubator.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://fashioninsi&lt;p&gt;Online fashion educational and mentoring platform helping&amp;nbsp;fashion entrepreneurs build and grow profitable fashion brands.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We specialise in helping entrepreneurs:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- strategise how to launch new product or service based fashion business;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- idea development from initial development and sourcing&amp;nbsp;stages to bulk manufacturing;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- business strategy, pricing and target setting&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;- growth mindset&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Support is offered via 1:1 work, tailored to your project needs as well as offering online courses and masterclasses to consume at your own pace and time.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Business support for fashion brands - 1-2-1 mentoring

Real transformation happens over a longer period of time... 
Over the course of&nbsp;a 6-month period I will give you personalised 1 to 1 fashion business mentoring (that just happens to come with lots of great training as well). Whilst the statistic that 90% of fashion startups will fail is very true... it doesn't have to be true for you and your business!

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing is super-transparent and you only pay for what you need at each service level.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm Steve, CEO - but more commonly known as 'The Mechanic' as I am often building automations to make busines easier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Steven Case

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing i

Show me the money! Weekend Box Club

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