Four Tools To Help Market Your Business Plan to Investors

The lesson in all of this is that it's unlikely a business plan by itself will bring funding in door, unless it is part of an overall marketing strategy. Chances are you already have a book or two on how to write a business plan. If you do, I'm going to guess that, like Gumpert, you already have fixed in your mind certain beliefs.

For example, you might think, "If you're trying to attract investors, raise capital, or sell your business, then you should give your prospects a detailed business plan document." Not so fast. It may be more effective to get their business card, send them an executive summary, and then follow-up with them to check their interest level. Or perhaps you believe, "A business plan document is only way to get investors interested." Again, as Gumpert's experience proves, this is not so. Some businesses attract investors through personal contacts, press releases, or because of pure uniqueness of their market position.

So open your mind; take a thoughtful step or two back, and consider using these four tools to help you achieve your desired results.

First, develop a concise, well written twenty-five page business memorandum. This mini-business-plan should build a case that separates your venture from your competition. You don't need a two-inch thick business plan. Plans this long lack aim; instead of building a case that leads investors to decide whether business is right investment for them, they "fire away" in hopes that some of shots will take effect.

Second, craft an effective elevator pitch - a 60-second, to-the-point verbal pitch for your business - that communicates to your customers and investors what you do in an exciting and engaging way. The ability to separate your business from your competitors and get an investor's interest in short time it takes to ride up an elevator is critical.

Third, put together an investor relation Web page. Of all communications media available, Web is particularly important. It's fast and available 24/7. With it, you can capture leads and automatically keep in touch with those who are interested in your business.

Finally, use press releases to get your word out. A press release is basic tool for gaining attention of media. The public's desire for interesting, relevant news remains strong, as does importance of carefully selecting relevant target audiences. You are dealing with much more skepticism on part of public than there has been in past, which makes evidence and objectivity of your press release paramount.

The process of raising money and attracting investors isn't easy. If it were, every business venture would get funded. You have to use all tools that are available to you, and start looking at this process as a marketing process backed by hard, verifiable evidence. You just don't know when investors will be ready to invest; but you do know that if you do everything you can to optimize your funding process it will bear fruit, and ultimately raise money you need for your business.

Set Goal - Accomplishment = Failure + 3 Lessons Learned

Now, number of lessons learned doesn’t really matter. Does it?

As long as you’re not repeating same mistakes over and over, you’re always gaining a different experience. So let’s eliminate number from formula. The expression "Lessons Learned" is already in plural form so number in front of it is not really needed.

So formula now looks like this:

Set Goal - Accomplishment = Failure + Lessons Learned

OK!

Now.

Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Have you really failed?

You haven't accomplished your goal yet but you've accomplished something else that you would have not accomplished otherwise. What have you accomplished?

You've gained a first hand experience. A very valuable experience. Yes, you haven’t accomplished your goal yet, but you've learned a very valuable lesson or lessons that you would have not learned otherwise.

You know, you can learn from your good experience and teach others what to do, but you can also learn from your bad experience and teach others what not to do.

Have you ever seen books titled: "The 10 deadliest mistakes in ......" or "The 5 things you must not do ...." or "Six Marketing Mistakes" and such?

As long as you're not repeating same mistakes over and over, you're accomplishing a tremendous wealth of badly needed wisdom gained from a first hand experience that you need for a continuous success.

So formula actually looks like this:

Set Goal - Accomplishment = Lessons Learned

You WILL accomplish your goal through a constant persistence. But don't forget your lessons learned from each failure. Each lesson learned is an accomplishment of its own. It's your checkpoint.

You've gained an understanding from your first hand experience that you were going a wrong way. You need to take different roads. If you continue on same road (making same mistake over and over), you might never arrive to your goal.

But when you constantly fine tune yourself after each failed attempt, constantly seek a solution for every problem and apply that solution in your next attempt, you would eventually accomplish your goal.

Each failed attempt is a baby step, an accomplishment and a step closer to your day that you would start walking.

© Steve Dimeck

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