Hi gang. We’re going to pick up where we left off last week regarding how to obtain financing for your own mighty venture. Rememeber though, if you’re REALLY serious about how to win in the financing process, being at my 7 Figure Business Summit is a MUST.

We talked about getting investors to put money into your business, but if your company  is on the smaller side with fewer (initial) lofty goals and a more organic growth curve, a loan can be a good financing method.  Loans come in three tasty flavors:

–Secured Small Business Administration (SBA)
–Secured Small business bank loans
–Unsecured loans over the net

SBA loans are easier to get if you have assets to secure the loan with, a solid pre-existing banking relationship, and a high tolerance for bureaucracy. The process can be excruciatingly slow, but if you make it through, you can get a six-digit loan on pretty favorable terms.

A small business bank loan also requires a pre-existing banking relationship and high tolerance for bureaucracy, but you’ll get okay-to-pricey terms based on your credit rating.

An unsecured loan requires no collateral (a home or other asset) to secure it. Check out www.prosper.com (their current max $25k). If you demonstrate good will with prompt payments, you’ll be eligible for another, often larger, loan in time.

Now, the first secret about succeeding in the financing process…

Raise money BEFORE you need it, because the financing process always takes longer than anticipated. For institutional investors a realistic expectation is three to six months from the first meeting to the wire-transferred funds. Financings sometimes occur in far less time, but you must be prepared for the long haul.

Start raising money six to nine months before you’re due to run out of cash. Have a strong banking relationship already established in the event that you need a bridge loan to tide you over during an extended financing process.

This week, think about whether a loan is best for your business or if finding investors would be more to your advantage. Begin to outline a business plan that centers around your choice. If you’re REALLY serious about how to win in the financing process, being at my 7 Figure Business Summit is a MUST.

You can also find much more information on this – and all of my business acceleration tips, including needle movers, business model, mentorship, board of advisors, etc., at http://www.ResultsNowWebinar.com – it’s a GREAT opportunity to MOVE your biz (and get my personal mentoring).

To your success and your winning relationships!

Christine Comaford, The 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS:  This is the ONE event you must be at this year: http://www.7FigureBusinessSummit.com

Okay gang, we’re fully into 2010 now, and if you have not taken the time to closely look at your business model and business plan, you’re risking your 7 Figure Success Story – so get on it!  Here’s steps 4 (Company Info) and 5 (Financial Info) to creating a successful Business Plan. 

4) Company Info: List your location, when you founded your company, the number of employees, and provide short bios of key team members (both on staff and board of directors/advisory board if applicable). No one expects you to have a fully fleshed-out team in the early days, but a skeletal team supplemented with advisors is vital. The Mistake: One and two person teams simply don’t demonstrate your ability to enroll others in your vision. As a general rule of thumb, try to have at least five people in this section

5) Financial Info: Describe your funding history, the total amount of money  sought, the source of dollars sought (venture capital, angel investors, loans, grants, etc.), the anticipated use of funds, last year’s revenue, a five-year revenue forecast, monthly burn rate, projected cash flow positive date. Entrepreneurs always ask me why five years of fictitious revenue estimates matter. The answer is because financiers want to know how ambitious you are. The Mistake: Pie-in-the-sky financials. Be sure to back up your projections with how you expect to achieve them.

To your amazing and IMMEDIATE success,
Christine Comaford, 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS: Do not miss my FREE CD on building a 7 Figure Business, there are only a couple hundred left of these, and they’re VITAL to building your 7 Figure Success Story. http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Okay, here’s where we talk about Value Boosting! All too often banks, potential investors, and creditors will determine a company’s value based on financial statements. This is a mistake. Financials don’t come close to telling the true story. Sure, they present the tangible value. But what about the intangible value? Company valuation is emotional – it is FUN! After all, a company is worth what an acquirer will pay, what the market will pay, what the interested parties perceive. We see evidence of this frequently when companies with a trickle of revenue are acquired for gushing millions or even billions of dollars. So you get to be the master of ceremonies here and PRESENT your vision. As you create that vision in a way that you can present it to potential investors, remember the following: 1) Company valuation is emotional; 2) Intangibles often matter more than tangibles; 3) You can’t build value if your business isn’t enticing; and 4) You should always be selling: to financiers, customers, strategic partners, staff, and strangers.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started when it comes to value boosting.

1. A killer team and a killer business plan.

2. A hot board of directors and/or advisory board.

3. Specific strategic alliances. An LOI (Letter of Intent) with a partner ain’t gonna cut it. You need a binding contract spelling out exactly what the terms of your deal are. Clarify how many widgets they will buy/distribute/co-market, the time period, as well as what happens if they default on the agreement.

4. New sales channels. Distributors, value-added resellers, outside sales forces, affiliates, joint venture partners, all boost the value of your company. Of course you’ll track the performance of your sales channels. Use the affiliate tools in your online shopping cart to track the performance of your online sale channels, and your accounting system or sales force management software to track all others.

5. Product line extension. Let’s assume you sell a super cool widget. What’s next? Son of Widget? Platinum Widget? Widget Extraordinaire? Map out your future product lines so financiers, partners, and staff can see where you are headed and how you plan to get there.

6. IP portfolio. Protect your corporate jewels! A patent portfolio can be worth gold. A friend of mine sold his company for $425 million (with about $30 million in trailing revenue) because he had locked in so many patents. That’s what the acquirer bought. They didn’t give a hoot about the business.

7. Compelling demo of your product. This is key when you’re in the zero or near zero revenue range, as you’ll see in the second example below. People need to see/touch/feel what the product will be like. Then they can envision your fabulous future.

I’m excited to share these tools with you and hope that you’ll use them to be in the process of being fully funded at ALL times.  

If you haven’t signed up for my CEO Freedom Summit yet, grab your seat now for only $997 (that’s literally a $2,000 discount from full price). http://www.ceofreedomsummit.com

To your success!  Christine Comaford
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: If you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table. Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Okay, the other side of $$$ is sales and marketing.

Here are the questions to help you determine your sales/marketing plan:

• What are your lead-generation sources and techniques, disqualification processes, and best practices?

• What are your online and offline marketing strategies? Do you have campaigns mapped out six months in advance? These will change and evolve, but putting a stake in the ground is crucial. Marketing campaigns don’t happen in a vacuum—your tech team, operations and administrative team, and sales team will need to both be in the loop and probably contribute their time.

• Do you provide education-based marketing? Be generous. The more free information and resources you provide that are targeted to adding value and guiding prospects into and through your sales funnel, the better.

• What’s your sales-force strategy: direct and indirect sales forces, joint ventures, affiliates, value-added resellers?

• Have you mapped out your sales-force compensation, quotas, accelerators, recoverable vs. nonrecoverable draws?

• Assess your company’s money status. Do you have enough? How much more do you want? When? You can get it through sales, financing or both, so be sure to map out your plans and proceed on parallel paths.

If you can be prepared with the answers to these questions before you begin your sales and marketing effort, your process will go much faster – and be much more likely to succeed.  To shoot the breeze with ME and my AMAZING team from Mighty Ventures, get your seat at my Results Now Summit in San Francisco (THIS week! June 5/6). You’ll also get a million-dollar education in business acceleration from me personally, get to meet with some fantastic angel investors, enjoy endless networking opportunities and learn real strategies for success to help you launch your business into the stratosphere!

To your continued success!

Christine Comaford, Business Accelerator
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

http://www.ResultsNowSummit.com  

For the next few days, I’m going to focus on the MONEY end of things. (Which is a topic that needs FAR more than one blog. So it will be featured in great detail at my Results Now Summit this week in San Francisco.) For new entrepreneurs – or old ones with a new idea or new company, that means fundraising. And fundraising, my friends, is sales. No matter how you look at it, Sales = Seduction. Pure and simple. Today let’s look at the logic, then the promise, involved in seduction. When we’re being seduced, we’re hoping that the payoff is going to be really good. The great news is, when financing and building a company, you have some time before you have to deliver on your promises. To start to determine your financing needs, prepare answers to the following questions:

• What types, terms, timing, and tradeoffs are acceptable? (You’ll need a capital acquisition strategy to determine this.) Perhaps angel investors are most appropriate. If so, you’ll get the money in faster if you focus on a small bridge loan that will convert to equity later. Be sure to offer warrant coverage or a premium on conversion to make investing now compelling.

• Have you prepared for your financing round? Do you have a concise and compelling pitch and list of appropriate targets?

• Do you have your legal act together? You may want a sample term sheet, shareholder or loan agreements, and a confidentiality and proprietary inventions agreement.

• Do you know the dos and don’ts of fundraising?

• Have you prepared a due diligence package? This process will be remarkably fast if you prepare in advance.

• Have you mapped out the long-term effects of dilution? How will you be reporting to your investors, lenders, and board of directors? How will you manage your board of directors?

If you can be prepared with the answers to these questions before you begin your financing journey, your process will go much faster – and be much more likely to succeed.  To shoot the breeze with two amazing angel investors – The Harvard Angels and The Golden Gate Angels, come to my Results Now Summit in San Francisco. You’ll also get a million-dollar education in business acceleration from me personally, and there will huge networking opportunities and amazing strategies for success to help you launch your business into the stratosphere!

To your continued success!

Christine Comaford, Business Accelerator
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

http://www.ResultsNowSummit.com

Remember, the bottom line is this: unless your top priorities are the following, you simply cannot build and keep a successful business.

#1 •Business Plan. Pain and solution; product path; target markets; intellectual property; risk mitigation; and staffing plan.

#2 •Revenue Model. Revenue streams; five-year cost/revenue projections; and break-even/profitability date.

#3 •Execution. Six-month plan; prioritizing and focus; and systematizing processes.

Focus is the key, of course, to building a business. I find that in the business model and business summary stage, keeping one’s focus can be tricky. Note that the areas of your business that are truly important are often not urgent. Sure, you’ll fight your share of fires, but are those fires ever urgent and important in the long term? If it’s someone else’s issue, toss it back. As for the not urgent and not important, well, that’s the stuff to delegate. Definitely.

Remember, you can learn more about how to create these three MUST have keys to success on June 5 and 6 at my Results Now Summit in San Francisco. We’ve scheduled FOUR “hot seats” already and we’ll spend some serious time digesting these businesses together. You’ll also get a million-dollar education in business acceleration, there will financing opportunities, networking opportunities and enough strategies for success to launch your business into the stratosphere! 

To your continued success!

Christine Comaford, Business Accelerator
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

http://www.ResultsNowSummit.com   

There are 10 areas for which you must be able to explain your business in order to navigate the myriad of financiers, advisers, potential and current board members, strategic alliance partners, and key hires. I’ll go over these quickly here, but again, it’s a VITAL building block and strategy for success that we’ll go over in great detail at my Results Now Summit on June 5 and 6.  Okay, very quickly, the 10 areas you MUST have nailed down are:

1. Company Overview. A few sentences describing your company’s purpose/goal.

2. Pain. The specific market pain you will reduce/remove.

3. Solution. What your solution is to the market pain, plus a succinct description of how it works.

4. Company Information Background. Number of employees; short bios of key team members, including staff and board members if applicable.

5. Financial Information. Funding history if any; total money sought; source of dollars sought: venture capital/angel investors/loans/grants; anticipated use of funds; last year’s revenue; five-year revenue forecast; monthly burn rate; projected cash flow-positive date.

6. Product. Short paragraph explaining the status of your product; product path (offerings available now and in the future); and how each product will be segmented by customer.

7. Defensibility. How your intellectual property or market position will be protected from competitors; how you’ll mitigate financial, human resource, product, and product development risk for financiers.

8. Competition. Your competitors, now and in the future.

9. Business Model. How you’ll make money and expand your business.

10. Key Milestones. Deals/achievements that are accelerating/will accelerate your company’s growth—be specific about the status of each.

Spend the time to complete the above—do the best you can, but get them done. Bear in mind that the structure of your business will change over time, too.

Remember, you can learn more about how to ask and answer these questions effectively on June 5 and 6 at my Results Now Summit in San Francisco. We’ve scheduled FOUR “hot seats” already and we’ll spend some serious time digesting these businesses together. You’ll also get a million-dollar education in business acceleration, there will financing opportunities, networking opportunities and enough strategies for success to launch your business into the stratosphere! 

To your continued success!

Christine Comaford, Business Accelerator
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

http://www.ResultsNowSummit.com