One of the fastest ways to scale your business and make a bigger impact is through outside capital. There are many forms of accessing capital in your business, from securing a grant or loan to raising money from a friends and family round, working with angel investors, private equity, and even venture capital.
Understanding the intricacies of the funding process can help you navigate this journey successfully. Here’s a guide to getting the funding you need to grow your business.
Get Clear on Your Business Vision, Plan, and Ask
Whether you are looking for a grant or raising capital with a private equity firm, it’s important to have a clear business vision, plan, and ask. Funders are more likely to fund a business with a clear and compelling long-term vision. They want to know where you see your company in the next five to ten years and that you have a well thought out business model, growth plan, and numbers to back it up.
Below are some of the essentials you’ll want to include in your plan.
Target Market & Market Size
Detailing out your target market, customer segments, and clearly communicating your Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) shows funders that you have a grasp on your market potential and have identified your target market. This analysis helps in demonstrating the scalability of your business and shows that you have a critical part of your marketing and sales plan mapped out.
Current Traction
Funders want to see that your business has traction. This means demonstrating your customer base, revenue growth, and market presence. Getting clear on the numbers behind your business is an essential ingredient here. Any information you can show about your customer bases, sales data, pricing, and marketing metrics are key to highlight here. If your business has any significant milestones you’ve achieved, you can highlight this to show your business’ potential.
Growth Plan
Funders want to know how you plan to grow your business and acquire customers. Outline your growth strategy, including marketing and sales plans. Show that you have a clear path to expanding your customer base and increasing revenue, you’ve thought out your product suite, and key distribution channels for your business.
Team and Expertise
Funders are essentially hiring your team to execute the business plan they are funding. They need to trust that you and your team have the knowledge, skills, and experience to turn the business vision into reality. Demonstrating a strong, cohesive team and showcasing your experience, skills, and achievements will help build credibility and help assure funders that you have the capability to execute your business plan effectively.
Financial Plan & Projections
You will need to know how much you are asking for and the terms of the investment. Some important questions you’ll want to consider are:
What is the ask? How long will that sustain your business and what type of milestones will you achieve?
Will you be asking for debt or equity?
What are the payback terms?
Will there be multiple funders or just one funder?
Funders will want to see your task detailed out in a financial plan. This includes budget allocation for marketing, product development, hiring, and other critical areas. You’ll want to be able to map out these categories of spend and your ask to your growth and operational plan.
Your financial projections should be realistic and based on solid data. Be prepared to back up your projections with evidence and explain your assumptions. This builds trust with investors and demonstrates your business acumen.
If you are raising capital, you’ll want to be able to show the ROI funders will be getting on their investment.
Use a 10 Slide Pitch Deck
A well-crafted pitch deck is crucial for presenting your business to potential investors. Keep it concise, ideally around ten slides, covering key aspects like your value proposition, market opportunity, business model, financial projections, and team. Funders are busy, and a short and concise pitch is the first part of the funding process that starts the deeper conversation to funding.
Embody the Version of You Who has Received Funding
Above all, your mindset and habits through the entire process are going to dictate your success in fundraising. Stepping into the identity of already securing funding for your business, will help you boost your confidence and mentally prepare for the fundraising process. Having a clear plan in place, managing your time and your team, and stepping into your authenticity and leadership are key to scaling your business and going through the fundraising process.