I have been a member of LinkedIn the global professional networking hub that is accessed by millions of professionals. There are various interest groups on the site and members are able to ‘Follow’ people whom they believe have some value to add through their various missives. I don’t make a habit of ‘Following” anyone, or at least I haven’t until recently when I came across a guy named Hal Spice. Hal is a renowned investment adviser, Private Equity Investment Manager and founder of a company Aquao3 focused on providing mobile ‘clean drinking water’ for impoverished nations.
Now you might be asking what any of this has to do with my current topic. Well one of the main issues that is vexing my clients today is that of access to capital for business growth. Traditional banks on the one hand are making much of their eagerness to lend yet on the other making it very difficult and in some case nearly impossible for customers to meet the banks lending criteria under the ‘new world order’. So what does a small business owner do when they need more capital for growth?
The need for more investment should not come as a surprise to you the business owner or and probably especially your Bank. Not probably but most surely, because Bankers are by nature fragile given some the customers they have to deal with and ‘shell shock’ is not well managed if you lob in a surprise financial grenade! In previous letters, I mentioned the need to keep your Banker informed on an ongoing basis, however in the current environment and I that think for some time to come, you will need to consider other avenues to finance you business. These options include, Invoice discounting or Factoring, micro-financiers, Fund Managers specializing in Small Business opportunities (very challenging) and High Net-Worth individuals know as Angel Investors. In order to make this Capital Connection you need to prepare and this is where we at Thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com and Hal Spice come together. In addition to our programmes and templates for strategy, marketing, sales and finance plans and Hal is kindly providing readers with access to great templates to Create Killer Presentations, What Investors Want to See in a Business Plan, 21 Golden Rules to Secure Funding and more. If you would like to access Hal’s templates and lessons they are available FREE via his blog www.halspice.com or if you registered on linkedin visit Hal at www.linkedin.com/in/halspice . The importance of being ‘investor ready’ is vital take it not just from me but Hal.
For now you every ready capital coach,
Neville@thesmallbusinesstoolbox.com
Tags: angel investor, bankers, capital, investor, linkedin, strategy
