By Murray Indick and Kate Tyler

Starting a business is incredibly hard. You need a great idea—ideally one that is disruptive and will scale and that you care about passionately. You need to recruit an amazing team, and ideally, have co-founders you trust and respect. And for those not blessed with inherited wealth, you need money.

Many entrepreneurs confide that raising capital is their hardest task. They delay and delay any approach to the capital markets for as long as possible. We understand. Most investors reject the opportunity to invest and being told “no” hurts.