We have helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build successful business, secure business funding and scale their business to achieve entrepreneurial success.
We understand the excitement every entrepreneur go through while launching and scaling their business. Your role involves developing the long-term vision and mission of the company, creating and improving products, securing funding, hiring key team members, establishing connections with stakeholders, promoting the business, acquiring customers and ensuring smooth day-to-day business operations.
Among all these activities, securing funding to achieve your entrepreneurial dream is vital for business success. In this guide, we will help you understand the nuances of business funding and the choices you have and provide you with solid guidelines and templates to help you secure business funding. You will also find the link to editable Google Sheets for financial projections and a pitch deck template to guide you in preparing yourself to attract right investors and get in front of them to secure your business funding.
Step 1: Prepare Revenue, Cost and 12-month Cash Flow Statement to Secure Business Funding
You should start your fundraising initiative by preparing a financial statement to determine your funding source, revenue, business expenses, and three-year cash flow so that you do not face financial adversity and surprises later.
The referenced template includes all essential aspects of assessing your business costs, projected revenues, and expenses.
Your fixed costs, such as rent, utilities, and salaries, as well as valuable costs, like inventory and marketing expenses.
You should consider revenue from product sales, subscriptions charged and services offered to your customers.
Instead of filling in the cost based on your assumptions, we advise you to conduct market research to estimate potential sales and pricing. You can take insights from the industry analysis you carried out in the earlier step. Accurate information will help you forecast your cash flow more realistically and help you determine whether your business idea is financially viable. You should also consider sources of business funding options such as loans, government business incubation funds, self-funding, angel funding, etc.
Click here to view and copy the financial projection template for securing funding.
Step 2: Create a Pitch Deck to present your business in front of potential investors to secure business funding
Skip this step if you plan to bootstrap your company or fund your business from your own savings.
A pitch deck is important for fundraising because it helps you effectively communicate your business idea, strategy and potential to investors. Beyond fundraising, you can use the pitch deck to demonstrate your idea, strategy and plan to potential partners, employees, mentors and other stakeholders to win their confidence and develop shared understanding.
The linked document contains the pitch deck outline and is self-explanatory. You can quickly create your pitch deck if you have followed through the earlier steps. Follow the below points in mind when creating a pitch deck:
Keep the pitch deck focused and concise. Tell your story and present your key points in a clear and compelling way. Do not overwhelm or provide an overdose of information in slides.
Highlight the problems you are solving and how your solution addresses them. Within 15 minutes of the meeting, make sure you have clearly described the problem and your secret sauce to solving it uniquely.
You should have a solid understanding of your financials and be able to explain the key metrics and assumptions behind your business.
While making a presentation, pay attention to what investors are looking for and their priorities. Traction is important if you are presenting an e-commerce business, whereas enterprise software businesses may face different risks. Tailor your pitch to highlight what’s important for your investor to know your business and help you secure business funding.
It would help you greatly if you research funded companies’ pitch decks and align them accordingly.
Click here to view and copy the pitch deck template for securing funding.
Step 3: Learn the available options to secure business funding and select the most suitable investors
You have several funding options: bootstrapping, grants, incubators and accelerators, bank loans, government loans, crowdfunding, angel funding, VC funding, etc.
However, to secure funding, you must compete with other founders who are also eyeing the same pool of funds. This means that your business idea and presentation must be of high quality to stand out among others.
If you have followed the steps and guidelines and prepared your pitch deck as described in step 018, you are better prepared than others to attract funding and advance further to start building your business. Here are different ways to secure business funding in India:
Bootstrapping: You can use your own money and resources to fund your business. Many business founders also secure advance orders and retainers from their customers and use the advance to fund their business.
Grants: Several grants from governments and private entities are available for businesses in India. However, these grants are primarily available for innovative social impact projects that can enrich people’s lives.
Government Loans: You can apply for government loans such as the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGMSE) and the MUDRA Yojna. These schemes are friendly and provide access to affordable credit.
Bank Loans: Both Public and Private banks offer secured and unsecured loans for businesses depending on the viability of your project and creditworthiness.
Crowd Funding: You can use crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter, Milaap, Impactguru, Fundable, Ketto, etc., to raise money from many people through online platforms.
Incubators and Accelerators: Several incubators and accelerators provide funding, office space, mentorship and other resources in exchange for equity to help you start and grow your business.
Angel Funding: You can find High Network Individuals(HNIs) who invest their money in business in exchange for equity. They typically look for the sectors they know well, feel comfortable with the founders and team and see high growth potential.
Venture Capitalists: They typically invest large sums of money in businesses where they find the opportunity for disruption and substantial market size. VCs are not a perfect fit for early-stage ventures.
Institutional Investors: Large established companies also invest in businesses where they see complimenting opportunities and high growth potentials.
Choose the investors based on the stage and status of your business to take steps in the direction that help you secure business funding.
Step 4: Understand the approach and steps involved to secure business funding
Securing funding involves following a step-by-step process that begins with creating the pitch deck and then networking and building relationships with people who have funds or know about the fundraising.
Here are steps to guide you:
Start by understanding your business stage, funding requirements, and the investors most suited to your specific business scenario. You can check their past funding deals, sector focus, and interests. You can visit the potential investor’s website and LinkedIn profile and read news related to their funding.
Create a tracker sheet to accumulate the list of potential investors you want to contact and track the steps and stages.
Evaluate investors based on their industry expertise, sector focus, network, resources, and whether you can build a trusting and open relationship.
Negotiate terms while considering your expectations, future funding plans, board representation, control, and exit strategy. Consider involving lawyers, financial advisors or investment bankers in negotiating terms.
It would help you greatly if you network with other founders who have successfully secured funding and learn from their experiences.
The entire process can take a long time, and sometimes you will feel frustrated. Allow time to reach out to the right investors, build valuable partnerships, and choose the investors who are the best fit for your business’s growth and success.
If this guide helped you in your journey to secure business funding, we would be happy to get your feedback and comments.
Do you want to discuss it further? Contact us to get in 15 minutes call to discuss how we can help you in your journey to become a successful entrepreneur, build market-ready digital products and grow your business with growth consulting.
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