How to Find Investors and Secure Investment: A step by step guide that can help you in the process.

1 .Defining Your Investment Needs

Hence, it is essential to ascertain the particular necessity of an investment before embarking on the process of trying to find the investors. You have to indicate the amount of capital needed, and the intended application of the capital whether it is for the development of the product, marketing, or the expansion of the business. This will enable one to know the right investors who understand your financial requirements and wants and help in achieving them.

2 . Ways of Protecting Your Business Funds from the People in Your Contacts List.

Networking can be of great use in the identification of the investors mainly in the business field. It is recommended that the first set of participants should be your friends and family or any other acquaintance in your real life or in your workplace. One should go for events, conferences, and meetups where people are on the lookout for investors. One is more likely to get the attention of the target investors especially through the business social networks with the use of LinkedIn where one can develop his/her contacts list of people in the investment fraternity.

3 . Joining Incubators and Accelerators.

Incubators and accelerators can provide a start-up with resources, time and even experienced gurus and the contacts to the investors. Such programs mostly lead to a pitch session where the startups are allowed to showcase their ideas to a large number of investors. These investors are mostly found in incubators and accelerators; therefore, if you join one of them, there is a high probability of getting the investment.

4 . Using Online Investment Platforms

Therefore, the online platforms are useful in communicating with the investors. Consider these options:

AngelList: It assist start-ups in finding angel investors and the job seekers in finding jobs.
SeedInvest: An online application that enables one to transfer funds from investors who qualify to invest in a company of the users’ choice.
Gust: It creates a link between and and investors so that the former may be able to get the needed support and also for managing relations of the latter.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo: For example, crowdfunding which is the act of soliciting for funds from the public with the help of the internet.
A large number of people turn into investors and one can get to many of them and, moreover, one can get to the audience which is willing to invest only in a particular sector.

The following are some tips that can be used in identifying techniques on how to make the presentation to acquire capital.
An effective pitch is an indispensable tool for the process of investor’s attraction and his/her money, naturally. Your pitch should be clear, engaging, and focused on:The following should therefore be your pitch:

Problem: Elaborate on what desire of your company is being met.
Solution: Describe how your product/service will benefit the target market in tackling the problem that they are experiencing.
Market Opportunity: It’s crucial to focus on the target audience to stress the potential for its growth.
Traction: Highlight any advancement s in whatever form, be it in the sales, the number of users or the partnership.
Financials: Identify on the expected costs and the equipment you shall incur in the financial plan.
Team: It is necessary to describe members of your team and their competencies.
It is advised that you rehearse your pitch and ensure that you are articulate when making the pitch and it is convincing to the investors.

5 . Researching Potential Investors .

It is the most important question that bothers mainly start-ups especially when investors are attracted to them and the following process is the due diligence. Every aspect of your business will be scrutinized by the investor; this ranges from the financials, the legal aspect, the market and even the people involved in the business. Check that all the records and files are updated, legal documents are also updated to the latest and you must have all the answers to the questions that may be asked concerning your business.

6 . Regarding the Reasonableness of Investors’ Preparations.

7 . Negotiating Investment Terms .

Indeed, when communicating with investors, it is necessary to focus on not only the amount that has to be negotiated. The factors that surround the investment area include equity, control and the return on the investment. The author also recommended that one should get a legal practitioner to explain the investment agreement and its consequences to the investor and the business.

8 . Building Long-Term Investor Relationships .

This is just half the of the battle, the other half is getting the investors to put their money into the business. It is for this reason that one has to take time and make sure that they are on good terms with their investors because this will be of significance in the future. Investors that can be like-minded and people who can give both advice and support should be chosen. Therefore, good communication will assist in creating a good relationship between the two of you for the purpose of your business.

Conclusion .

Investors and investment are not easily come by and for this reason, there has to be a strategy and the strategy has to be followed. In order to enhance the chances of attracting the right investors, it is necessary to know the needs, to create a business proposal, to ask friends and acquaintances and to use the Internet. Hence, a well developed pitch and a vast amount of research work will go along way in convincing the investors as well as in building a good relationship with them. The following are some of the strategies that may help in an attempt in trying to search for investors and secure the required capital in the accomplishment of business objectives.