Tech Business Plan: Improve Your Chances of Funding for Your Technology Start-up or Business

Developing a Business Plan for a tech start-up or early stage business has specific challenges. You will need to cover the key sections of a business plan and address the 4 key areas an investor or funder will review. But you will also have to go a stage further to convince an investor that you have more than just an idea on paper.

Investors want to de-risk their investments and the more you can help them, the more likely you are going to see the colour of their money. Here are a few tips to help improve your chances of securing funding for a technology start-up or business:

1. Management: Make sure you have the right skill sets and can prove your capability to deliver. Investors like to see that the team in place (including any outsourced suppliers) have proven experience delivering the type of technology proposition you are seeking funding for. Knowledge of the market that you are addressing is also critical.

2. Specification & Costing - your investment proposal will be significantly de-risked if you can provide a functional and/or technical specification that has been validated and costed out for the initial phases of development. Summarise this in a product road map that shows milestones of design, prototyping, development, testing, and launch as well as longer term opportunities for growth. 

3. Execution Control - Investors will pay particular attention to your ability to control the development process. It is all to easy to find technology propositions that go over time and budget. Whatever your proportion of in-house and outsourced development show that you have control of the process of development and retention of any Intellectual Property (IP) during development.

4. Working Model / Illustration - If you don't have a fully functioning prototype then develop a mock-up that illustrates the proposition. Communicating the potential and functionality of your proposition is made a lot easier by visualisation.

6. Customers & Sales - If you have customers and sales you have a proof point that there is interest in your market offering which helps further de-risk the proposition in the eyes of an investor. Where this is not possible then see if you can seek letters of interest, letters of intent to purchase, or can demonstrate a significant following of your product or service via social media or within your specialist area of industry.

7. Investors - Choose them carefully and mind your language. Explore the right type of investors for you (hands on or off) and research them in some detail to try and understand their motivations and investment criteria. Once you have done that be careful not to alienate through the use of highly technical language or concepts that may confuse. Remember, investors are primarily interested in a commercial return for their investment - speak to them in a language they will understand.

Finally, if you are looking for inspiration, take a look at the 2013 Technology Pioneers recognised by the World Economic Forum. There are some well known previous winners (Mozilla, DropBox etc.) and both past and present inspire with their potential to change the way we live life or do business.

Good Luck!

Jon Hunt
Lead Consultant
The Business Plan Team
www.TheBusinessPlanTeam.co.uk

The Business Plan Team specialises in helping entrepreneurs, start-ups and growing businesses translate their vision into a coherent and executable business plan that can help secure funding and guide internal management. It provides a range of services from early feasibility studies through professional business plan development, to introductions to sources of funding. It is based just outside Oxford, UK.

If you are thinking of engaging someone to help you with developing your business plan take a look at our article on how to select a business plan consultant. 

So You Want To Secure Investment?

Well, It all sounds straight forward enough - with an identified and receptive market, well targeted product, sound management team and a plan that conveys a commercially viable proposition who can fail? Well in reality, many people fail to tick all the boxes on the above. This can be through blind faith (someone will see the wonderful opportunity despite the missing bits), understanding (of what a sound management team looks like, for example), or cabin fever (been so long looking at the business that self-delusion has set in).

However, even assuming that a business can avoid these pitfalls, the routes to securing investment at the moment is challenging. There are so many businesses looking for funding that sources of debt or equity funding have a wide choice over which to spread their risk.

So how do you get your business proposition noticed? Well, here are a few ideas.

1. Be realistic and avoid extravagant claims - it may be that you are the next Green, Branson, or whoever but most people are not. Avoid claims you cannot substantiate. Small can be very profitable and attractive. Don't overstate your own position or the claim for your product or service.

2. Show a clear path to profitability and exit - investors like to see measurable milestones against which the progress of the business can be measured and funding drawn down. If you don't have financial or commercial awareness your business will fail without someone with executive authority to work along-side you.

3. Show clearly how you are going to use your funding - investors and banks do not like to see large pots of money allocated randomly across the board. They like to see how, specifically, the funding is going to be used and the anticipated outcomes of that funding.

4. Show a solid cash-flow and a good ROI. Worst case scenario is that the business fails to meet targets, runs out of cash and doesn't deliver anything back to those who have invested time and effort into its growth (p.s. that includes you). Be realistic, don't ask for too little money and if the Return on Investment is not good you should question why you are doing it... and asking others to back you.

5. Keep it Simple - don't claim world domination of a market in 3 years. Instead, make sure the core of the business is deliverable & profitable and also highlight potential upsides once the business is established.

The rest is down to you.  A backer needs to believe in you - and specifically that you can deliver. There is no point over-selling yourself - you will be found out. Tell it how it is and your vision of how you want it to be but make sure it is rooted in reality. Too many people over-promise and under-deliver - don't be one of them. It is easy to lose your credibility and very hard to get it back.

Jon Hunt

The Business Plan Team

http://www.thebusinessplanteam.co.uk/

Why is now a good time to do your business plan ?

Of course every business varies according to the need for a business plan, but for many start-ups or existing businesses looking to raise funds the summer months provides an opportunity to prepare. Why is the holiday season a good time for preparation ? Well, for many businesses the summer period means a tail off in business activity and the taking of annual leave.

For prospective start-ups this provides the opportunity to bring your ideas together outside the pressure of your existing work environment - step back from the day to day grind and plan your way ahead. We have many people coming to us who, under pressure of work, need help in putting a plan together. This is a chance to consider, evaluate and assess the feasibility of your ideas.

For existing businesses this time is also valuable to review an existing business plan, measure progress against it and examine potential future strategies. So often, this is difficult in the heat of "doing business" - take a little time now to gain perspective and re-orientate.

But perhaps the most important reason for developing your plan now is timing. For businesses looking to raise funds this is a quiet time of year. Many potential investors are enjoying the fruits of their labours abroad and are taking time out from reviewing investment opportunities. This applies as much to investor networks, VC funds as well as individual High Net Worth (HNW) investors. In my experience the investment community slows to a crawl before coming to life again in mid September and October.

So, whether you are a start-up or existing business, now is the ideal time to get your business plan and pitch documents together, re-work the presentations and get everything ready for the Autumn.

Good Luck !

Jon Hunt
The Business Plan Team
www.TheBusinessPlanTeam.co.uk