Getting Investors for Your Business Idea

Chiu Yen has eight years of experience implementing Projects and Business Initiatives in the financial sector. She also has excellent expertise in getting investors for business ideas. Here are three brilliant moves from the expert that are totally within your control that will help you finally get investors to get your business up and running.

1. Rethink your business plan

Most people don't like dealing with business plans. It's understandable: when you have a brilliant business idea, you only want to get to it and start working on it. However, writing an extremely robust business plan is very important because if you write it on a surface level, it will break at the slightest test.

Investors are very critical, and they will question all your assumptions. Take a conservative approach in your estimations, and also talk about the risks of the project. There's always a certain level of hesitancy on the investor side, especially VC investors who invest in an area they are not familiar with. If you can assertively communicate the risk, it will take away part of their fears.

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Carefully elaborate on why the investor should care. It's not only about you talking about what you're passionate about and your business idea, but you should also tell them all the things they might be passionate about.

2. Prepare and package your presentation in various formats

Pitching your business idea is not an on and off thing. What happens, in reality, is that pitching mostly happens in many stages, consisting of more formal and informal sessions. A standard session could be presented in a big conference room in front of many people. In contrast, an informal session could be the first introduction over the phone or maybe having a coffee with a potential investor. So you have to be prepared with different kinds of formats of your presentation, taking into account the need and the amount of time your investor has. Investors are busy people and usually only have 5 minutes of their time for you. Make sure to have a pdf version of your business idea ready to send by email.

3. Get a mentor or someone you can talk to along your journey

A mentor would be either more experienced in that business area or set up and running a business. This is someone you could call up and be comfortable asking for advice. It is also essential to have someone you can talk to about your struggles and frustrations. This person doesn't need to be necessarily knowledgeable or expert in the business area you are working on. But at least they need to understand what it feels like to persuade something significant to you.

Starting a business itself is complex, and the phase of getting investors and funds to launch your business is one of the hardest ones. However, if you are clever and well prepared, you can write down an impressive business plan and pitch it to potential investors. Many entrepreneurs lose their motivation along the way. But if you are organized and know how to get into the battle as a professional, there's an excellent chance for you to get the money to start your business right away.