A.C.O.D. Advice #2 - Speaking With Potential Investors

Presenting any concept or idea to a potential investor can be a very nerve-wracking and difficult task to accomplish. Providing your colleagues or potential investors with a proposition that not only sounds good, but also really takes care of any gray areas that might leave investors feeling unsure or unsatisfied with the idea takes plenty of time and planning, and attention to details will always be key.

Potential Investors and Business Etiquette

Convincing another individual or group of individuals to join you on any business venture will likely be unsuccessful if your thoughts seem to still be processing. You should have a solid grasp on every aspect of your project, along with a planned method to easily explain these aspects to your potential investors during a presentation.

Presentation Visuals

• Incorporate as many visuals into your business presentation as you feel necessary. Simply explaining your intentions and goals to potential investors is rarely enough. If you want your investors to feel comfortable placing their capital investment into your hands, you have to come prepared with graphs, models, and anything else that might be relevant to your original idea.
• Don't be afraid of formulating a few different creative presentation ideas. You want to grasp the interest and imagination of all of your viewers through dialogue and visuals - the more ingenuity that you put towards your visuals, the likelier it is that your presentation will be a success. 

Choosing the Right Visuals For Your Presentation

Detail Research

Being aware of all aspects of your original idea or proposition is an extremely important part of convincing any potential investor that you are a trustworthy individual. Be prepared with all the basic costs of raw materials or any purchases that will be necessary to run your business, along with information about competition and how you plan to put yourself one step ahead of them.

• Depending on the stature and size of your business concept, some footwork or manual labor might be necessary on your part. If you are unsure of the surrounding competition in your area, you just might have to go out and start looking. Whether you plan to search over the internet, or travel the area by foot and take notes, gather information about their marketing, pricing and any other aspects that might be relevant during your presentation.
• If your presentation involves something closer to an invention or anything else that doesn't currently have a very active market, more primitive versions that perform the same essential task can be used for visual presentation and market research references. If you are unable to come up with realistic profit and expense projections by yourself, use the performance of older products or concepts to help explain to your investors how you'll do. If your invention or idea is genuinely better than the ones that came before it, any positive return on their sales base will be overshadowed by the potential gain that your new company will be able to make.

-- Work in Progress --