Negotiate Creative Financing & Deals

There is never a right way to do a deal. You can negotiate and find creative ways to finance or fund the deal.

This is not always clear as there are “rules” most follow, but owner financing or financing with others is always flexible. I’ve started to run into more businesses and startups that want to do creative deals. They want to get money because they are bootstrapping. However, I don’t want just to give a dollar amount and hope in 5 to 10 years, something happens to return that money.

Instead, I have started doing deals similar to what Calm Fund offers: shared earning agreements. This is where I give a commitment on money, but a slight difference in the Calm fund, I commit this money to marketing or product development. We also ask for money upfront to confirm how serious a person is about growth. If a company can pay upfront $5,000 for a website and marketing strategy, we are both bought in, and both have skin in the game. Think of it as a downpayment on a house, or, in this case, a downpayment for marketing.

I provide some parameters for how the money will be used and how to grow sustainably. I also provide resources to help with marketing or product work. The deals I have completed recently include two Google Ads deals and one for product development support.

Those Creative Deals examples:

• $5,000 website and setup, then we cover the Google Ad spend at $3,500 a month for 3 months ($10,500 total ad spend).
  • Receive 25% of each deal sold from top-line revenue.
• $2,500 website and setup, then we cover the Google Ad spend at $3,500 a month for 3 months ($10,500 total ad spend).
  • Receive 33% of each deal sold from profits.
• $2,500 website and strategy, then we cover $25,000 on a web3 developer along with resources valued at $10,000 for design, search optimization, and others.
  • Receive 10% equity with a percent of owner pay depending on the amount (range from 5% to 20%).

These types of deals are often looked down upon poorly. However, I’ve found strong success. Often, a founder or CEO doesn’t know the best path to growth. They may be unable to raise VC money or want to take private equity; they are worried about losing total control. We put in the agreements that we won’t interfere with the structure or employees, but we will have control over the parts we know and help fund. Many find this method interesting because it’s not a total take over, instead it’s like hiring a marketing or product person who’s paying to work.

If you want funding with me, go to PJL Marketing Holdings. We are looking for more business to create agreements together.