Risk Capital: Raising External Investment
Bank Loans vs. Angel Investment
By Rishi Anand
Venture Giant Special report on Risk Capital

Question: What is Risk Capital?

Definition: Risk Capital is classed as investment capital placed into a speculative activity to fund high-risk, high-reward investments.

As an entrepreneur looking to raise start-up funds for your business or seeking to raise funding for expanding your business it is important to understand that Angel Investment is classed as Risk Capital because the initial outlay in your business is very risky - no matter how sound you think your investment proposal may be.

Most entrepreneurs get far too involved with what they are selling or what or who their business is or does. Remember you are not selling your product to an Investor. You don’t want him to buy your product in your pitch. In fact you don’t even need him to love your product. What you actually need is for the investor to invest in you, so you must focus on what an angel investor can expect to earn from you and that is what you are selling.

The Angel investor, spoken or otherwise, will always understand that there is a risk that his capital may dwindle to a fraction of the initial amount invested if the venture proves unsuccessful but it is always the job of the entrepreneur to convince an angel investor that the initial investment will return such a spectacular amount of money that it will justify any and all fear of losing all or part of the investment. 

This is a good reason why your business plan and all supporting documents must project a minimum 30% return on investment no matter what the product or service is if you are serious about raising investment.

Angel Investors, like all of us, are consumers; they go out and buy toys for their families at Xmas - but this does not mean that they would invest in them. They would buy them - but they would not invest in them, and this is important to understand when you are pitching for investment for your product - there are no no-brainers for investors - just businesses and entrepreneurs that they believe will make them money and it is important to always pitch and emphasise this point to an investor.

Venture Giant is all about finding angel investors for your business that will be able to give you the funds for your business so this article mainly intends to focus on Risk Capital and the getting of money into your business from business Angel Investors. The Banks are primarily about lending and being paid back interest, fees, and capital. Risk capital however is about investors placing money into your business to profit share from the future growth prospects of your business. Raising start-up capital from a bank and how easy this is for an entrepreneur can change drastically depending on the current economic cycle you find yourself in.

It is not news that the current recession, as well as economic issues across the world, are creating problems with businesses both established and budding – now would not be an ideal time for a start-up entrepreneur to approach the banks in order to raise start-up capital.

It can, perhaps, seem unfair that banks are sitting on vast sums of money – what difference would £40,000 matter in the long run when assisting an entrepreneur that has a recommendable business plan? Banks must always factor in risk however, and with a business loan, this will not be able to secure the bank against the worst-case scenario of an entrepreneur failing in their efforts.

After an analysis of your business plan, unless you have significant connections, in all likelihood you will be meeting with up to three different representatives of the bank, over a period of time, before they can approve the loan to you or your business. It is imperative to understand this, as it will ensure you allow yourself a generous mental time frame from the very first meeting, continuing on through the (often-lengthy) process.

There are several things a bank will take into account when deciding to often money to a serious entrepreneur: 

• Do you have any collateral to secure against their bank loan? If you are not willing to put your assets up as collateral – then as a start-up entrepreneur are you really serious about your business?

• If you do not have any assets yet, why? Have you failed or lost money before?

• Is your idea a good one with a proven business model? Having a totally unique business idea that no one has thought of (worse still is creating a new sector or a new way of doing things) is a massive red flag for a bank, as you will have to educate the consumer on your new way of doing something – a costly affair.

• What is your credit worthiness? On your Experian credit report, is it all Greens? Any CCJ’s (County Court Judgements) Be ready to explain and disclose all discrepancies.

• What is the experience, in your chosen field, of your management and executive team. It matters to banks, and you must highlight all of your team's experience in your industry.

• Image matters! You have to demonstrate to the Bank Manager and others, that you are a stable, persistent, hard working entrepreneur, that is willing to do what is takes to make your company work – with or without the bank loan. This can go a long way to building and establishing your credibility.

On the flip side of this, it is important to understand that Banks are fearful when they see an individual that is credit worthy and has the potential to raise this money but might just take their business elsewhere. So demonstrating that you CAN take your business elsewhere and that you do not really need them, can be very powerful during the initial meeting with your bank manager.

If you do get approved for a bank loan – do not celebrate just yet! As an entrepreneur, understand that the bank is in it to make money too, and you will most likely see a host of arrangement fees, balloon payments, early repayment charges, and so on (and please always bear in mind that these fees can be negotiated). I myself have negotiated 0.25% from the interest rate on a £2m loan over a 5 year period just from flashing my pretty eyes at a bank manager and saying that we would go elsewhere if it wasn’t secured at 0.5% off the rate they offered. They offered 0.25% which is worth £50k by the way – not bad for ten minutes work.

A couple of final notes on raising external finance from Banks:

Do not take out lots of credit cards before applying for your loan. Credit cards paid off in full are good for your credit worthiness – however, applying for lots of credit cards in clusters at one go is terrible! I have seen a credit rating drop from the high 900’s on Experian to the low 600’s only because two credit cards were taken out at the same time. Creditors may look at this at a personal bail out on your side – does the applicant believe that he/she will require more credit which is why he/she has taken these credit cards out? Etc. Even with rock solid bank statements, banks do assume a lot and always err on the side of caution.

Be careful about going to other banks checks AFTER credit checks have been carried out on you. It IS a small World – but more importantly – every credit check leaves footprints on your credit report making you less attractive to other banks. So not taking up the loan may indirectly adversely affect your credit rating even if you had not been declined for the loan. Banks do assume a lot, so one assumption could also be – was he declined this bank, which is why he is now coming to us?

What happens if the money you get from a bank covers everything you need and you don't need to get funding from an investor?

The problem is that the bank's investment is not necessarily all you need. More than money, you need expertise on how to run a business. Banks will not have the experience of starting up and running the business you are involved with, and will neither be able to give specific advice or experience, or help with challenges related to this set up.

This is, however, what a business Angel can bring to the table and is where the real value can come into play.

Always try to look at the value of what is being offered, over purely the monetary aspect. Whilst the money itself of an Angel Investor is the same as what would be received from a bank, it is important to remember that an Angel investor’s success, experience, career history, and network of contacts can make a huge difference of the likelihood of success to your venture.

If you are not used to starting and running a business, a business angel who has had that previous experience will be able to help – most business angels are people that have had experience in running their own company or service before and certainly have had a lot of experience - they just don’t want to do the day to day stuff. An angel investor with this experience will prove very valuable in both capital growth and preserving the bottom line.

The reason why it is important to talk about these distinctions, is that a business or start-up capable of raising external investment from angel investors will always get financial institutions interested as banks do not care whether it is your investment in the business or an angel investor’s, as they will always have first charge over your business - which means that in essence they will always be paid back.

As an entrepreneur, if you are serious about raising investment capital for your business, you must be prepared to present and communicate your business plan to investors with their terminology. You are going to have to learn how investors think and how to present the business in the right way - no matter how amazing or revolutionary your product or service is. You will have to meet sceptics, and you are going to have to convince investors that your product is capable of making money and paying back their investment.

This is where Venture Giant can assist you in raising investment. Not only do we solve the problem on how your investment proposal must be presented to an investor, we also send it out to hundreds of investors that we feel would be interested in it. From there, if we are able to find you an interested investor we charge a one-off fee of £99 for all investors that we find you. Once you have paid your fee to us, you meet and present your proposal to the investor. If you are successful in raising investment we do not charge any further fees for this. If you are unsuccessful, we continue to promote your proposal for a further 6 months by featuring it on the Venture Giant network and also sending it to all new investor signups. Best of all, is that Venture Giant operates a pay on performance business model, which means that if we are unsuccessful in six months of finding you an interested investor, we do not charge you any fees.

By Rishi Anand
For and behalf of Venture Giant enterprises Ltd


 

  
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