Seeking out investors can be a daunting task. Approaching venture capitalists requires the confidence of a lion and the chops to back it up. But securing financing for your business doesn’t have to be all hard work. Spending the time before approaching investors to hone your business and presence is a great way to convert potential capital into real partnerships. Here are some steps to take to impress investors and maximize your financing opportunities.
Begin with your digital presence.
The internet is possibly the best way to find information on just about anything, so hiring a professional firm to shore up your digital presence is a great way to go into your next meeting with confidence in your product. Web design has become a major industry, and anyone can hire designers remotely now. If you’re looking for a web design company to help you develop an SEO friendly page and begin drawing in a higher volume of traffic every day, you can search for web design in Denver or anywhere else — you can get the best web designers regardless of their physical location. With excellent web design, you’ll increase sales to beef up your pitch before scheduling any investor meetings.
Digital marketing is the new frontier on growing a business, so a WordPress or other site is crucial to selling investors on your viability. Finding a graphic designer to round out space with a logo and vector images that make your content pop is also a great idea for a small business looking to expand beyond its current capacity.
Know your market.
Whether you are seeking Franchise Lenders to get into a chain business that hands profit to you on a silver platter or you are looking for funding for your tech startup that promises the next great software innovation, knowing your facts and figures is essential to success in the pitch meeting. This is especially important for franchisees. Looking for startup money in this space requires your ability to display knowledge of a franchise business that you haven’t yet participated in. It’s harder for lenders to judge your viability as a good applicant in this space, so knowing the ins and outs of the business model is essential to winning over prospective investors.
Curate your image carefully.
It only takes a few seconds for a person to size someone up. This is true both for you and the people you will be meeting. Making a great first impression in-person with tasteful magnetic eyelashes, a professional dress, or classy shoes is an essential part of the overall package that you are presenting to investors. Remember, when you ask someone for money for your company, you are also asking them to invest in you personally, so you want to make sure you’re looking your best. Keep In mind that eyelash extensions don’t have to look fake. Many fake lashes look very natural — especially magnetic lashes — and will just take your look to the next level. It’s impossible to divorce a small business from the entrepreneur that runs it. If you don’t look your best you can, you’ll run the risk of turning investors off, no matter how great the business you have built is.
Looking great also translates into confidence. Wearing your favorite suit or comfortable and classy dress shoes can spark that confidence in the most unexpected of ways. Confidence is a powerful factor in a pitch meeting and can be the difference between walking away empty-handed or with a check and a smile on your face. Always do whatever you can to increase your confidence in yourself and your product before going into an investment meeting in order to sell yourself and your business to the best of your ability each time you present new potential investors with the opportunity that you hope they will take.
Meeting with investors can be rattling, but doing the legwork before the pitch meeting takes place will take some of the pressure off, letting you stay calm and in control throughout the pitch and walk away with the funds you need to grow your business to new heights.
