Setting the scene
You have set the scene for your business. You have mastered your mindset, assessed your internal financials and cut costs where you can. But your business and you are still in the middle of the storm and the implications of what is ahead of you as a leader can be daunting. You are confronted with the reality of having to manage the investors and key stakeholders who have a vested interest in your business. As much as you have reduced expenses you are still in need of financial assistance and support from your investors. They, much like you, are also under stress and financial pressure. You might be nervous or unsure of how to effectively approach your investors to get the outcome you want: support to survive the storm. You might not know all the debt and equity raising options available to you or what the upsides and downsides are for your business.
What source funding is right for your business now and in the future? And how do you go about managing investors to access that funding?
Do you call all your investors right now to start addressing that you need funding? No! You need: clear plans, scenarios, understanding of your cash reserves, a clear strategy on how you will cover the financial gap and a strong way forward. If you are not structured investors will allocate their funding and attention elsewhere. You want show in a data driven manner that you as CEO want to make it through the storm and you have thought about how. A clear HOW and a clear strategy on where the investor fits into that HOW will give you the best chance to embrace the open ocean. Much like you raising your sails in anticipation for the wind; if your sails are up and strong the gust of investors funding will never carry you forward.
You need to start from a clean sheet. You decide what is critical to business survival. You decide who needs to do what on your ship and how do they do it; is it necessary, can it be consolidated, simplified and speed up? And then, once you know who does what and how they do it you need to convey that to your crew.
If you are concerned about what you should do in managing your investors, then you are in welcome company. Few business owners have gone through a crisis like this before in their career, and it can seem daunting to secure funding especially when your business is struggling.
The video and tools in this module will help you evaluate the WHAT, HOW and WHICH: WHAT is critical in managing investors, HOW do you best approach them and WHICH sources of debt and equity funding are available to you.
