New businesses are popping up like mushrooms lately, which means if you are an entrepreneur who has just launched a company, the competition is pretty steep. This is why most small businesses are working so hard to make sure they are able to get the right marketing messages across, even resorting to creating memes to appeal to the Millenial and Gen Z generations (the biggest buying market). But even if your marketing materials or indeed your articles go viral, that is not enough to be top-of-mind.
This is where investor help comes in. They can help fund your business to reach more customers and equip you with the right tools and skills to improve, not just its profitability, but the products and services you are selling. So how are you going to appeal to investors? Here are some tips.
Have solid branding
Let us divide branding to story and identity.
Branding story is your way to connect with your audience, or in this case, your investors. It tells them how you conceived of the idea, the steps you took to start a business out of it, and the efforts you are currently doing to make sure it is able to solve a gap in the market. Remember that while investors will look at your finances since the business started, most of them invest because of how they feelabout your brand.
Branding identity on the other hand concerns itself with how you present our company to other people. If you have a good representation of what your company is, whether through your logo design or your website, then that is one item off the list of things the investor needs to worry about.
For website, make sure your domain name matches your business name or is at least related to it. You can do a domain price check in Australian registrars like Crazy Domains to see if it is available for purchase. If not, use the WHOIS lookup feature to find out who owns your desired domain name.
For logo designs, make sure your chosen colour and typefaces matches the personality of your business. There is nothing more vexing to see than a brand whose visual representation is completely disconnected to the company it is supposed to personify.
Ensure good performance
This may put a lot of pressure on you if you are a business who has only a couple of years to show for. But good business performance is often owed to targeting the right market. So from the start, make sure that you know which demographics are your biggest spending market and focus on them. One of the biggest pitfalls of new businesses is wanting to sell to everyone for more gains, which is not very realistic. Choose a target market, study their spending behaviour, determine the best marketing message, and then continue pushing efforts that will get their attention effectively. Do this constantly and you will be a profitable investment soon.
Determine who is the right investor for you
More often than not, the biggest reason small businesses fail to secure an investor is because they have chosen to appeal to someone who does not share their business model and values. There will be a clashing of ideas that may have a detrimental effect to your company in the future if you push through with that partnership.
Do your research, find out who shares the same values as you and who is willing to contribute their knowledge in helping you grow. Remember that an investor is not just someone who puts money into your company, they must be someone you can collaborate with to ensure success.
Right now you might be thinking, maybe you can just choose funding platform like the popular crowdfunding sites we have today. But the danger is that you are basically pitching your business to a lot of people, and that is just too wide a net to cast and runs the risk of failing, especially if there is a disconnect between your business model and the funding platform.
Consider these tips first before exploring other options. An investor may only be waiting for the right business with the right mindset to partner with, and that could be you.
