Top ten tips on how to attract investment

Needless to say you’ve come up with a great idea and all you need is some money to make it happen. Here are my ten top tips on how to attract an investor:

1) Come up with a persuasive elevator pitch that captures the essence of what your idea is and what problem it solves.

2) Demonstrate passion and commitment: an investor wants to know you are going to put all your energies into making your idea a success.

3) Research your market. Make sure you have validated that there is a demand for your product or service and can quantify the market opportunity.

4) Know your competition. You are out to steal their lunch, so make sure you can articulate the benefits of your solution over theirs - and remember no competitors equals no market!

5) Start selling as soon as you can. The quicker you prove your value proposition and can start generating revenues the better – real customers are you best friend when it comes to raising finance.

6) Write a business plan. Your financials projections should be based on realistic assumptions and don’t forget to say what you will use the money you are looking to raise for.

7) Acknowledge your limitations and explain how you intend to overcome them. You may not be the finished item and be honest about the challenges you face.

8) Practice makes perfect, so in developing your investment pitch rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

9) Be persistent: You will have to kiss a number of frogs before you find your prince and typically the process of finding an investor can take six months.

10) Be choosy who you accept investment from. Do they bring anything other than money to the party? And remember you are going to have to work with them, so you need to be able to get along.