Small Business Funding: Business Planning To Attract Investors

Investors will find YOU if your Business Plan is “magnetized”


The process of actively organizing your thoughts on paper in the form of a Business Plan is very important for a number of reasons including the fact that we have a tendency to manifest faster what we can see visually; you can test and validate on paper before investing a lot of time and money on a new project; you begin to develop a roadmap of how you’re going to launch your project; and perhaps one of the most important reasons is with a Business Plan, you can attract the funding and resources you need to fully launch your business. Here are just a few key elements that investors and strategic partners find most appealing:

1. Tell your story. You want to briefly explain how you came to be doing this project to show your connection and the level of passion you have for it. Investors want to see that you’ll be committed to carry it through.

2. Define the problem/solution. The bigger the problem that you are a definitive solution for, the more interest people will have and ultimately the bigger the checks.

3. Identify and quantify your market. The market you are serving has to be big enough to be financially worth the investment in developing it and defined enough to be plausible for investors. The “world” is not your market.

4. Have a great idea. Some ideas are good but not great enough to invest a lot of time and money on. Also, if you can’t properly protect your idea or see it as scalable, it may keep some people away.

5. Understand and state the risks involved. Avoiding this conversation will leave investors and strategic partners questioning the merits of your plan. It’s better to put all the market risks out there and show that you’re dealing with them systematically.

6. Define your business model. Don’t just tell us about your product. Show us how your business model will support the product to get out there in the marketplace.

7. Describe who’s on your team. The more experience you have around you the greater the chance you’ll have for success. Investors look at the people.

8. Define your marketing and sales strategies. The more specific you are about how you will reach your customers, the more attractive you will be to investors.

9. Know your competition. Be realistic here and know what you are up against. Being honest will allow you to work through strategies to create competitive advantages which could include collaborations.

10.Define your Exit Strategies. Investors want to know how and when they will their money back. Strategic partners want to know what the end result will be of working with you. The more you can clearly define the options available, the more attractive you will be.