Capital for business startups often comes through Angel Investors when we have the right business plan in place with reasonable projections and a great presentation.
While our numbers have to be accurate and reasonable, our pitch is critical to our success because investors know we don’t have a track record to base numbers on.
Right from the start, we know that smart investors will cut our numbers in half. If our business works with the numbers cut in half, then our investors will continue to listen to our presentation.
We shouldn’t inflate our numbers because we know investors will cut them in half. Investors need to believe that we believe in our numbers as we represent them.
When investors ask us questions, we need to be able to answer them. If we can’t answer, we need to tell them that we don’t know the answer, but we’ll find out and quickly get back to them. Whatever we do, we never want to fudge the answer.
Investors will often ask us questions that they know the answer to. They want us to tell them that we know what we’re talking about, and if we don’t, we’re smart enough to get the correct answer instead of faking it.
We may have to pitch to hundreds of potential angel investors to get the money we need for our business. We need to review and adjust after each pitch. Doing so allows us to better prepare for future pitches and may identify weaknesses in our plan and business models.
Watching other entrepreneurs pitch gives us the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. Watching shows like Shark Tank can be extremely helpful to see how the Angel Investors react to different pitches.
Finding capital for business startups requires practice. We need to strengthen our confidence and take each pitch as a workout. We need to do it over and over until we are the absolute best at it and get the job done.
We have to be tenacious and we will succeed. I’ve done this many times and you can too!