Private investment can be a great way for you to get some much needed cash into your business and it can also help you to get some experience which will help you to reach the levels of success that you are seeking. The key to getting this investment however is making sure that you know the full ins and outs of your business so that you can show an investor exactly why they should invest in you. Sadly so many fail to recognize this and do not come prepared. I have a friend who works for Sertant Capital, a company which lends money to businesses for equipment, she tells me all the time just how underprepared people who are looking for investment are, and that is something which could have a negative impact on your meeting.
If you want that investment, here is what you need to know.
Business Performance
Before you even get into what you are looking for, any investor will want to know the current performance of your business. You should be easily be able to tell them what debt there is in the business, what your venue is and what your costs are. If you are not able to tell an investor this kind of information then you are not exactly selling yourself as a safe investment.
How Much and Why
You will also need to have a clear understanding of how much money you are looking for and most importantly why you are looking for it. this will involve plenty of homework and costings for areas of the business where you believe that you need the money. For example it may be that you want the funds to invest in product development or marketing, whatever you need it for however you should be comfortably able to say how much you will be spending and what on. Think about this as though it was your own money, surely you would want to know exactly where it was going to be spent.
Repayment or Return
And finally, you need to be confident in your projections for the next 5 and 10 years with regards to how the investor will be able to get their money back. Now it may be that you offer up a percentage of the business as part of this deal, yet still, the investor is going to need to know when they can expect to get a return on their investment. For this, you will need to have a smart, conservative, and well thought out plan that will convince them that you are a safe investment and one which they can have confidence in with regards to getting money from their investment.
If you do not meet with investors and have a clear idea as to what you want, why you want it, and how you will use it to get them their money back and improve the business, you cannot expect to find investors willing to say yes.