Inspiring confidence in your start-up

Every big name in business began life as a simple startup, focusing time and resources on a single intention. The aim? To make it big. Even when you’re starting off in a basement with a group of friends sharing a common goal, every start-up wants to get their goods, services and brand out in the public domain. But the question on every startup owner’s mind is how?

Arguably, the start-up phase is one the key make-or-break phases in your business’s development and you can’t afford to get lax on any aspect. You need stamina, determination and sufficient access to funding. However, at such an early stage, securing the funds you’re going to need in order to grow and survive can be a tremendous undertaking.

Alternative Finance

A requirement for some business lenders is that your business needs to either be one or two years old before they will even consider you. This leaves you with only two options: crowdfunding or Peer-to-Peer lending. Although these options work in different ways, both involve encouraging 3rd party investors to see the potential in your business venture and offer you funding.

However, how do you create a pitch that inspires confidence in your startup? Only 20% of startups go on to become a successful business. Investors want to know that their money is not going to waste and you need to impress if you’re to secure anything. So here’s a few useful tips on how:

Clarity

Investors are busy people so they hate having their time unnecessarily eaten away. You need to get into the nitty gritty detail of your business such as: figures, business strategy, motivations and so on. One way some startup owners choose to present all of this information is in a story format and uploaded as a video – keeping the pitch interesting. Just remember to keep it as tight as you possibly can.

Answer questions

Crowdfunding and P2P lending is usually offered through an online platform. It’s also through these online platforms that investors can ask questions directly about your business. This is a good way to see if your business can stand up to scrutiny, so expect tricky questions.

If possible, answer quickly, efficiently and always back up your answers with the relevant data.

Be realistic

Creating a business is without any doubt an ambitious endeavour. However, it’s important that you be realistic about what you aim to achieve. Spouting random numbers that aren’t backed up and pursuing unreasonable goals isn’t going to impress anyone. When declaring your goals, you will need to regularly justify them, along with the sum required to make them achievable. If you can’t justify or back it up, return to the drawing board and re-evaluate.

Momentum

Beginning a campaign to secure funding can be frustrating, especially when trying to achieve the first 10% of your goal. Some investors can be hesitant to offer sums to a fresh campaign unless they can see a clear drive from other investors. One way to get around this issue is by asking friends and family if they could set down a starting sum, just to give other investors a confidence boost.

Maturity

As your business grows and enters maturity, the number of funding options you can apply for expands. Providing that your business is 1 or 2 years old and you’ve got a stable infrastructure, there will, no doubt, be an abundance of lenders willing to offer funds and help secure your future growth and sustainability.

However, finding the best-value funding solution for your business can be demanding and often confusing. This is why many developing and established businesses entrust companies such as Rangewell to source the perfect finance package.
Our values are simple – We’re on your side. At Rangewell, we support a wide range of SME businesses of every shape and size, for finding every type of finance. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for business tips and tricks, and feel free to call us on 0203 637 2340 if you’d like to chat about what we can do for you.