How to raise money for your business & what needs to be there in your business plan

BANGALORE, INDIA:

The first webinar of the August edition discussed one of the most pertinent topics to the start-up community — How to raise money and what needs to be in your business plan. Paul Shoker, Founder and CEO, benefitsPLUS, gave a few ground rules on how an entrepreneur can assess himself and make himself presentable to investors. Some of them are covered below:-    

• The key question an entrepreneur needs to ask himself is at what stage he and his company is in — whether it is a pre revenue or a post revenue company. Some pre re-revenue companies have compelling ideas which can get investors interested.
• When presenting ideas to the investor, keep a minimum of 15-20 slides and another 5  in case the investor is interested to know more.
• If you are presenting an idea or concept, present a screen shot or demo to the investor. If it is a product, carry a prototype. This will help investors get a clear idea of what you want to do in your business.
• Carry case studies or anything that showcases success on your part in handling businesses earlier. Make sure you validate your data when presenting yourself with real market information.
• Be yourself. People tend to emulate interviews that they see on TV.
• Entice your investors with your value proposition as soon as possible. This will get them hooked to know more.
• Have a clear knowledge on the sector you are diving into. In the enterprise segment figure out the market structure and decide on the sub segments —small, medium or large enterprises — you want to get into. Also, understand your customer segment that you are catering to.

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• Question yourself on whether the business opportunity you have chanced upon is scalable.
• Figure out how you want to position your business. Decide on whether you want to base it on price, service or quality.
• Establish your competitive edge in the market as soon as possible.
• Figure out on how to scale your business through other channels and distribution routes
• Keep an estimate on how much market share you plan to grab
• Make it very clear to the investor on where your money is going to go. Give a break up so that they are in tune with what you are planning to do.
• Also keep an estimate on the no. of customers you wish to acquire in a particular amount of time.
• Your go-to-market strategy should be kept ready — tactics, timelines and resources
• Also keep in mind your core competencies within your core structure
• Always have a risk analysis in place along with mitigation plans and exit strategy.
• Do not get defensive and emotional over your project and try to take in as much independent perspective you can get.

Source: www.dare.co.in