At some point during the life cycle of a business venture, most entrepreneurs will seek an infusion of investment capital. The venture may be at start-up stage or ready to scale and money is needed to carry out the plan. The prospect of obtaining additional funding for your venture is intimidating, but it’s part of an entrepreneur’s experience. Know there is way forward and with some planning, a happy outcome can be yours.

Once you’ve decided the growth or expansion strategy you intend to follow, contact your banker, your accountant and a business attorney and get their input on this very impactful decision. Your accountant is intimately familiar with the business finances and can weigh in on the expected revenue potential of the way you plan to grow or expand. Your banker has a good idea of how much credit you’re qualified to receive. Also, s/he has listened to dozens (an possibly hundreds) of ideas that business customers would like to fund and can recognize which appear to be promising and which seem like pie-in-the-sky. The business attorney can advise you on the legal ramifications of your proposed funding strategy, especially if you decide to fund by forming a partnership of some sort.

Whatever option emerges as your preferred course of action, before you make the appeal for money, work closely with your accountant and bookkeeper to confirm that all financial statements are in order and paint a good picture of you and the enterprise. Investors want to see you and your company as a good risk with sufficient money-making potential. Along with your Income and Cash-flow Statements and the Balance Sheet, include a Break-Even Analysis so that investors will know when the company will be positioned to achieve a desirable level of profitability.

Regarding the type of funding your plan and your financial history recommend—bank loan via the Small Business Association, soliciting investors, taking on a money business partner, or seeking venture capital for a start-up—entrepreneurs should do their research to find out what companies the partners, investors, or VC firms currently or previously have invested in. If business has been done with a competitor, that’s a red flag. Ideally, those who invest in your business will be able to create good relationships for you and can recommend good prospects who will become customers. Below are four factors that VC investors, accountants and business bankers feel are what investors want to see from those who need funding.

Include the right numbers

Investors are interested in the financial track record of ventures that are operating and they are especially interested in the financial projections of start-ups (where all the financials are projections) and currently operating businesses that seek funding. They closely scrutinize the Income Statement because it contains much relevant information: gross sales revenue, cost of goods sold and expenses fixed and variable are recorded there, as is net profit. Investors want Income Statements, actual and projected, to demonstrate that a currently operating venture has a history of consistently generating solid revenues and profits and that the plans of either start-ups or existing companies present a strong financial case for success.

Investors will next parse the Cash-flow Statement to get an overview of the flow of money in and out of the business—gross sales revenue, accounts receivable, accounts payable and the like—to see what the projected cash-flow will be once the growth or expansion strategy plan has been implemented. Because start-ups are not profitable at first, it’s important for investors to analyze their cash-flow forecast to understand whether there will be sufficient funding to continue operating until the cash-flow and net profit goals are achieved. Including quarterly, and if necessary, monthly projections for various scenarios, such as a slower pace of revenues or other marketplace difficulties, is advisable.

Investors want to be confident that their investment capital will result in a certain level of revenue and profit and when that can be expected to occur and for that reason, your financial documents must include a Break-even Analysis, a financial calculation used to determine a company’s break-even point and reveal when investment is returned dollar for dollar. One the venture reaches the break-even point, it is theoretically positioned to become profitable.

While business owners typically base their financials on what their research shows as the most plausible scenario for cash-flow, investors also want to know what you’ll do in a worst case scenario. For example, what would happen if your revenue gets delayed by six months or a year? When would you run out of cash? Investors want to see contingency plans, evidence of risk management.

Never inflate revenue projections

Different types of industries have unique profit margin ranges, so as you compile your financials, research the economic parameters of your industry sector so that you’ll create accurate and reasonable financial projections. For example, in-person yoga studios may generate profit margins of 15% – 25 %. Conversely, restaurants typically have net income profit margins between 2% and 8%.

If your start-up must fund research and development and other expenses, for example, significant gross sales revenue, supported by economies of scale that will control cost of goods sold, will be necessary to both generate cash-flow to allow the business to continue to operate as well as generate a net profit. If a founder is projecting profit that doesn’t mirror the reality of their industry, will indicate they haven’t done their homework or don’t understand their business, which can make an investor wonder whether they can trust any of the company’s projections. Either way, it will do your credibility no favors.

The story of how your business plan will work

Tell potential investors, including your banker if you’ll apply for a loan, a credible and engaging story of how and why your business strategy has great potential, will generate a healthy return on investment and deserves funding. Consider structuring your pitch as a journey, a concept that will likely resonate with your audiences. Make the story of your journey clear and uncomplicated. Be a teacher with a relatable (and never a know-it-all) communication style and avoid coming across as a sales person, which is bound to be a turn-off. Be sure to include in your story:

• That your plan has a clear destination, you’ve defined success
• That your plan has the first steps of your growth strategy mapped out
• You’ve considered the obstacles you might face and developed contingencies
• You’ve built in milestones that will measure progress

Build flexibility into your strategy

Your business will operate in real life, in real time, and anything that can happen, will. The possibilities for unexpected adverse events are numerous, up to and including a spell of bad weather. It is therefore essential to discuss a contingency plan in your financial projections and also in the marketing plan. As noted above, if the unthinkable happens, what adaptations will you make in terms of say, product acquisition or staffing to cut costs? Alternatively, what will you do if other factors contribute to a slowdown in sales revenue? Might a pivot to a related product or service be possible and what might that look like? In sum, when making an appeal for investment capital in whatever form, potential investors will be reassured when you show that you’ve prepared for a rainy day as you work to satisfy customers and ensure the company’s survival.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images 2011