#061 - How To Raise Money 101 - Part 3: Preparation for Meeting an Investor

Let's go with Part 3 of our 101 Guide to raising money! And you have got your list of investors and then you have created and tested your presentation so now let's move onto the...  Meeting Preparation Do your homework: Be respectful, curious and thorough about your investors - learn as much as you can about them before your meeting with him or her. Every meeting needs to have a reason: What is the outcome you want (and what is theirs?). The Call-to-Action at the end of the meeting - what is it? People like to know what happens next. Be clear. Can your network give you a warm intro to your investor: Don't approach your (perceived) top prospect first. It may be wise to meet with (less likely) investors first as it may help you learn and refine your presentation and pitch. Refine after every meeting. Feedback is the breakfast of champions! Listen to it and incorporate the feedback (remember to ask for it!!) into your next presentation. Be careful to not do wholesale changes - try incremental adjustments and then see if it makes it better or not. Change too much and you won't know which change made the difference. Follow-up!: Investors will test you, sometimes you may feel it is a bit unfairly, on how and when you follow-up. They may not be interested in the answer, they may simply want to see how quickly you respond. Once you feel happy with your content and presentation: use the warm intros (if you have any) and approach your top investor prospects  Keep investors up to date: Whether it is good news or bad news, use email, phone or whatever channel you prefer to keep people in the know! Ray has a great tip to help you get into the habit! Next time wee have the final part of this 101 guide. Remember to refer to them all when you are doing this to make sure you are hitting all the key elements to help you raise the money you need. Until next time, how about a review? Give us a review and we will give you a shout out on the show!