Something I often get asked is how people can attract investors. And, as someone who’s experienced both bringing investors into her company and also being an investor themselves, I feel like I’ve got a bit of a unique perspective on this subject.
Now, before I start, I just want to stress that you absolutely must be sure that this is the option that you want to pursue.
You might think that you should be willing to lay everything on the line to secure an investment, but what you should always remember is that it needs to work both ways. You need to be comfortable with whoever or whatever you are bringing into your business.
Now, if you are at the point of needing to secure funding in order to take that next step, then brilliant, because you clearly have some plans in place and some steps to get there, right? So if that is where you’re at, let’s take a look at some of the tips that I’ve got for how to start and bring investors onboarding your business.
In an ideal world, investors would just come knocking on your door but the likelihood is that you’re more that you’re going to have to go and put yourself out there so networking is absolutely critical.
There are a number of ways that you can connect with potential investors, the first is to look for and attend networking and industry events as they’re brilliant for speaking to people and meeting potential investors.
There’s also a lot of different angel investor groups online and you can join networks of people who could potentially have an interest in your industry. Don’t overlook platforms like LinkedIn because you can find posts where people are looking to invest and you could also research investors and look to contact them through that platform.
Now, before you agree to meet with any investors, you need to make sure that you’ve developed a solid business plan.
You should have done this already, but if you haven’t, I’ve done a whole video on how to write a great business plan, so go and check that out.
Here’s a very brief summary of what that business plan really needs to look like if you’re trying to attract investors. You want to make sure that your plan is clear, it’s well detailed and very well thought out. It needs to include an overview of your business as well as your mission and vision.
Next, get some good market research, including information on your target market, your competitors, and what the customer needs are. Go through your business model and how you plan on making money so cover your pricing strategy and revenue streams.
Then, you want to go over your product or service overview with a full description of what you’re offering. I want you to detail your go-to-market strategy and how you’re going to find and retain customers and then of course, you must have all your financial projections with income, expenses and profits for the next few years. And, if you’ve got any key team members, pop an overview of them in as well.
Now I know that’s a whistle stop tour of what your business plan should cover, but having a robust plan really is probably the most important thing that you can get done. Then we’re onto the pitch deck.
If you’re looking for an investment, a pitch deck is an absolute must.
It’s basically a visual presentation of your business plan and your vision, but in a really engaging way. This is your opportunity to add any additional information so it should have things like the size and growth potential of your market, any progress you’ve made, such as partnerships, big sales, and then of course, the amount of funding that you will need and how you plan to spend it.
Another thing you should consider when trying to attract investors is whether your online presence is up to scratch.
Like anyone wanting to find out more information nowadays, investors will quite often go online to check you out before deciding whether or not to make that first engagement with you. So, have a look at your website and make sure that it communicates what you sell and what you’re about. And if it doesn’t, start now and look to make those changes.
The same goes for all of your social media channels so any that you use that are customer facing, you need to be aware of. And then for LinkedIn, it’s all about your personal profile. Now it goes without saying that you shouldn’t have anything else on those public facing channels that you wouldn’t be happy for a potential investor to see.
Make sure that you’re completely happy with everything that is out there in the public domain about you and then go and check your most recent posts. They should be really engaging and give anyone looking at your profile a really good idea of who you are and your company.
Now, once you’ve secured that all-important first meeting, it’s down to you so your ability to communicate clearly and confidently is gonna be really, really critical.
If I think about this, something that’s always been a bit of a deal breaker for me personally as an investor, is passion and drive. I want to know that the person I’m investing in is super passionate about their cause and also about their company, because if they aren’t passionate, they don’t really care about it, why should I ever care?
If you’ve launched an entire business centred around a service or product, chances are that you’re going to be super passionate about it, so just make sure that that passion really comes across during your pitch. It doesn’t need to be over the top, it just needs to be a key part of who you are.
You also want to be prepared for anything. The people that you are meeting are potentially going to be parting with big sums of money so it’s only natural they’re going to want to ask you some tricky questions.
You know what I’m going to say, don’t you? You really need to know your numbers.
You need to think about the types of things that you might be asked, such as how you’re going to overcome certain challenges or maybe how you’re going to mitigate certain risks. And it’s really important to be honest because if you’re honest, this can build up trust from the outset and that is no bad thing.
So those are my top tips for attracting investors. The main thing to remember is to make sure that you put the work in so that your business, the way it looks, the way it sounds, the plans that you have for it, completely knock everybody else out of the park. And that is all down to you. Good luck!