Vision, Determination and Intent Will Open all Doors

In the last 12 months I went through the process of getting one of my business ready for investors. Needless to say it was task.

I believed I had a great idea and had put much time and money into building the foundations of the business to a stage I believed an investor might be interested.

I’d reached a point where I needed extra cash to continue on the path I’d planned and so I went about creating a business and marketing plan, cash flow predictions and staffing needs. Of course having never done this before I looked online for guidelines and even templates to create all this data.

Well I can’t even begin to tell you how much time it took not only to prepare but to research first and then estimate how much this venture might be likely to make. It was dare I say near on impossible to predict and therefore to plan, document and then present.

Then I had to decide whether I look for angel investors or venture capital and what was the difference? That in itself was an education.

It seems Angels, or private investors, invest more money in more companies at an earlier stage than venture capitalists. They are the lifeblood for seed and start-up businesses according to Dee Power in her article on EzineMark.com. They also invest smaller amounts of capital in earlier stage companies than venture capitalists do. They also take more of an interest in the day-to-day management of companies they invest in.

She also points out that investors aren’t usually interested in investing in life style companies, i.e., companies that provide a comfortable life style for the owner, but don’t have expansive growth opportunities. They want to see a company that can reach significant earnings in a short amount of time.

So my dilemma was how to I demonstrate and predict expansive growth opportunities in the shortest amount of time, and to be honest I was stumped. I knew my business wasn’t going to have expansive growth because there was still an enormous amount of base content required (web based business) before I could even start charging for what I was providing, so it wasn’t looking very good.

I also knew I wasn’t going to be able to continue funding the development for much longer, I’d exhausted my pennies yet there were tons still to be done.

The other set back I faced was finding an investor who…

Understood online business market
Believed in its potential
Knew the amount of work required to build a successful online business and market it
Was prepared to invest in it while still in the growth stage

Fortunately, through absolutely unrelated coincidences, I managed to meet someone who was on the same page as me and who knew a CEO who met all the above criteria and so I managed to snavel a short meeting.

I was told I only had 40 minutes with this extremely busy man so make sure I had all my data together and be able to succinctly present it. Wow, how do you condense years’ worth of blood sweat and tears into 20 minutes which would be about all I had to actually state my case? But getting the meeting with a possible interested investor was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Armed with my laptop, examples of existing and future planned content I sat in front of this guy and began my spiel. It’s amazing how time flies when you’re waffling away about your passion. The meeting went well and by the time I looked at my watch 3 hours had passed, so much for my 40 minutes. Apparently, he had cancelled his other meetings and was enthralled by what I had created. He was interested.

But of course these things take time and as I was in need of the funding fairly quickly, unfortunately they never came to the party in a timely time frame, but the whole experience taught me a very big lesson and the main message of this post.

When you focus on what it is that you want, despite the obstacles you may encounter to get it, you will achieve your goal and opportunities will present themselves to enable you to do that, and they may not be in the form you envisaged but the message is to keep an open mind and be open to all possibilities.

What eventually transpired which gave me the funds to grow my business was that same CEO engaged me to create similar content for one of his businesses (different subject area) which has provided enough cash flow to also fund my business and I’ve done it without having to give away equity.

Vision, Determination And Intent Will Open Doors, Providing You Are Open To All Possibilities.

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