Essential Preparations Before Seeking Venture Capital

Essential Preparations Before Seeking Venture Capital

The line in the sand has been drawn. You’ve vowed to never step foot back into that office alive again after working the same dead end job for ten years. It’s time to start that business you know for sure will succeed. All you need is to dedicate those sixty hours a week to your own bottom line. There’s only one roadblock. You have no money and the bank has already denied you for several other loans. All is not lost. Seek the help you need from those venture capital firms or angel investors you have heard so much about at meetings.

A venture capital firm is a collection of investors looking to throw their money into the next great idea that will grant them generous returns. With their money, your restaurant, retail store, or latest invention transforms from a day dream into a reality. Several options of repayment, ownership, and terms are discussed between you and your angel investors on how you will reward them for believing in your idea. First, you have to win their confidence.

The most important part of your business is your business plan. Before you approach a venture capital firm, do your homework. Transfer it from your brain to paper. Your goal is to create a business plan that will motivate investors to write your company name on that blank check. Also, in writing your business plan, you will discover how much you know or don’t know about the adventure in which you will embark. Or you may find the concept is not as fabulous as you imagined.

Start with research. Intense study uncovers little known nuances about your new chosen industry and fills holes in your concept. Identify your competitors. Dissect their company products, services and policies. What don’t they offer that you can implement into your business concept? Find a niche in the market that will set you apart from others who may be seeking the same clients, customers and investors you want to attract.

Next, examine the industry trends. Analyze the data. Find out when sales and profits are at their lowest. Are you merging into the gift basket business that suffers during the summer, after mother’s day? Brainstorm ideas you can include in your plan to overcome those industry wide obstacles.

Use your data to make logical predictions of future industry trends. Can you predict a disaster like the “dotcom” failure at the end of the twentieth century? Your potential investor friends will want to be shown the money. Show it to them in standard financial and cash flow statements.

Now, come back to the beginning and write a two-page summary of the company. This will serve as the introduction to your business plan. Some experts call it the Executive Summary. I call it the sales pitch.

Your summary will be the first section investors read about your business. If it doesn’t sell them, then it becomes the last thing they read about your business.

Take your time, do your research and make sure your business plan sells, sells, sells!