Angels, angels everywhere

Key words for this post:
Angel investors
Business plans for angel investors

Keep hearing about these "angels"? the ones with money? the ones who invest in startup companies when no one else will?

Can't find them?

Not to worry. Check out the new listings on BusinessPlanMaster.com . Dozens of angel groups are listed by geographical area. Remember that angels tend to invest nearby. If your business isn't in the geographical area of the angel, be prepared to re-locate it before approaching the angel at all.

Bonus: Piedmont Angel Network in North Carolina has closed on its first angel fund, BUT is now seeking $4-5 million more for a second fund. This is a great, active group. If your business plan isn't quite ready, that's ok. By the time you have your plan, they will have your funding!

$50,000 for green startup companies

Keywords for this post:
Business plans for angel investors

Got an idea that combines environmental innovation and profitability?

Could you use $50,000?

Then go visit the DowJones/GE site. GE/DowJones doesn't even want an equity position (i.e., the company is ALL yours).

Details:

When
Contest Begins: Saturday, October 15, 2005 12:01 AM (ET)Deadline for Entries: Thursday, December 15, 2005 11:59 PM (ET)

Where
It's ECOnomics, don't waste paper! All entries must be submitted online.

What
Your original "ECOnomics" business idea. Good for business. Good for the environment. Tell us what it is concisely. Entries can not exceed 3,000 characters including spaces. That's about 500 words.

How
Your business plan will be judged in four phases by a group of highly regarded business and environmental leaders. For details on the judging phases, go to the Official Rules on the navigation bar at the left.

Who
Open to residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia who are 21 years of age or older. For complete eligibility requirements, go to the Official Rules on the navigation bar at the left.

CAVEAT. There is one caveat, and it's a big one: YOUR ENTRY IS NOT CONFIDENTIAL, and your idea may be used by DowJones/GE, whether or not you are a winner.

If this all sounds great to you, draft the snazziest 500 words you can and mosey on over for your entry.

Comments

Use sticky notes and post-its in your business plan

Key words for this post:
Business plans
Writing a business plan

I just discovered the most wonderful book store. I'm a real softie for book stores anyhow. I figure if I walk into a book store, I'm leaving at least two volumes richer.

This particular bookstore didn't follow the rules. The aisles were too narrow. There weren't enough seats. There was no coffee bar, for heaven's sake. There wasn't even a computer section. Yeeesh.

But it was a good size store. Had great dark wood shelving. Stuff all over the floor. People crammed everywhere. And sticky notes. Everywhere were sticky notes recommending certain books, and saying why the book was recommended.

This reminded me of a book store I found years ago tucked away in a corner in San Diego. But this book store was in South Coast Plaza, a very upscale shopping mall.

It was obviously hugely successful. Why?

As I lugged my new treasures home, I pondered this book store's success. It competes against the real biggies in the business and appears to do just fine, thank you. There's a message there.

It's the sticky notes. The store made me feel like it was really concerned about my getting books that I really liked, and since they couldn't talk with everyone, they left sticky notes all over the place.

The light went off -- this is the feeling that business plans need to convey as well. "I want you, the lender/investor to get the very best deal that you can, and I'm here to help you get it." The sticky notes are like a writer stepping aside and in a stage whisper saying, "Psssst! Here's one you can't miss."

A well-written business plan does that, too. It points out those items that the reader just shouldn't miss, whether it's the bios or the background of the company or the industry. It says in a stage whisper, "Pssst! We're going places. Want to come along?"

So go pepper your plan with sticky notes.

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Behind the scenes angel investors

Key words for this post:
Business plans for angel investors
Locate your investor

Burton Partnership operates out of Florida, investing in both public and private companies. Like many other angel investors, most of the investments made by Burton Partnerships is never announced or reported.

"The national surveys don't really tell you what's happening," Burton said recently. " A lot of deals don't get reported."

So why wouldn't an angel investor or a beneficiary company want to announce the investment? Well, there are several possible reasons.

One is that the investment isn't large enough to warrant publicity.

Another is that the investment is out of the ordinary for the investor in some respect, and the investor doesn't want to see a lot of business plans that are similar. Perhaps an investor put money into a retail operation, when every other investment was in high tech. Odds are that he doesn't want the retail investment publicized.

Perhaps the company is too small, reflecting poorly on the investor. Investors like bragging rights about the Big Deals that they are involved in. When a company is very small, or just beginning, it loses those bragging rights, so it isn't publicized.

Perhaps the investment is a "sweetheart" deal of some sort, a payback to a related company, a co-investment from a long time associate investor, or even to a relative. Those are not the kind of transactions that get press.

Somewhere is these niches there is wiggle room for all kinds of companies. I would not -- and do not -- remotely suggest that a company send out a business plan to every single angel investor or venture capital firm. That would be absurd. But it would behoove the company seeking funding to talk with every single person/investor/entity that it can stand in front of. You just never know who knows who, or who has a connection, or when a spark will be lit.

Corporate venture capital funds looking for new technologies

Keywords for this post:
Business plans for venture capital
Make Your Business Plan Soar

Place: Digital Sandbox Conference Center, New York
Date: November 8, 2005

What: The 2005 Corporate Venture Capital Summit

Why to go: Moe than 20 active corporate investors will share their strategies, criteria and perspectives, including those from Dupont Ventures, Intel Capital, Kodak Venture Group, Verizon, Siemens Venture Capital

What it is: "Corporate venture capital" means funds created by large corporations to fund emerging technologies in a specific field. The goal is typically to buy out the young company as the technology grows. This is without question the largest pool of funding available to startup companies, and one of the least recognized.

If you haven't tapped this amazing source of funding yet, now may be the time to do it. Go. Learn. Get funded.

Comments

Angel Investors have Lots of Money to Invest

Key words for this post:
Business plans for angel investors

Weighing down a truck so it can get traction in snow doesn't sound very high tech. But it was high tech enough for the Ohio TechAngel Fund, Queen City Angels of Cincinnati and Core Network, another angel fund in Toledo, Ohio, as well as Fifth Third Bank. Financing totaled over $1.3 million for this year-old company.

So what in heaven's name possessed high tech funds to invest in something so low tech?

Speculation is that these angel funds don't have enough high quality high tech projects to choose from, so many are looking to low tech investments.

This isn't the first such report I've seen lately. While it's not yet a widespread phenomenon, it is an investment edge well worth pursuing.

Successful Business Plans: Finding Your "Voice"

Keywords for this post:
Writing Your Business Plan

That sizzling language. The one line zinger. And, oh, the rhapsody of that prose. Ah, that we could all write a business plan with even one of these qualities!

But we can't. Even I can't, and I've been doing it for many, many years.

So what makes a business plan "sell"? It's the "voice". The "voice" is the tone, the energy, the glue that holds the whole thing together.

I saw a notice recently from a web site looking for writers "with an attitude". What's your attitude? There are few really bad attitudes, and many really great ones. Yours might be:

• as an evangelist in spreading the news about new technology;
• as a joyful gardener ready to spread greenery throughout your county; or
• as a contented dentist aiming to straighten the teeth of the younger generation.

Note the similarity in all of these: they all depend on something else (new tech, greenery, the younger generation). The attitude isn't a "me" attitude. None of them say, "I want this business so I can be rich." Each of them looks outward.

Your attitude, your voice tells the world how you want to run your business. A "me" business plan isn't terrifically interesting to investors, or to anyone else for that matter. Everyone would like to be rich. So what?

The voice that reaches out to define itself by outside success is, without question, the strongest of the bunch.

So ask yourself again: What's my attitude?

When you have a satisfactory response, you will have your successful business plan.

Bootstrapping as a small business financing alternative

Key words for this post:
Small business loans - sources

Get an idea, get some money, and go. Sadly, that is what too many entrepreneurs plan for. In fact, most of the time, entrepreneurs end up bootstrapping the business, some for a few months, some for a few years. Eventually most businesses need outside financial assistance, but it is anyone's guess on when that will happen.

Bootstrapping has become a very popular topic. The basic rule is to bootstrap the company for as long as possible. The earlier that outside funding is brought in, the more equity you will have to give up to get the funding.

I ran across an interesting blog by a venture capitalist who talked about bootstrapping. Also saw an article the other day that claimed that over 90% of all new businesses are self-funded (i.e., bootstrapped).

The moral of the story? Plan for alternative financing for as long as possible. Bootstrapping impresses most financiers -- they figure that if you can creatively bootstrap your company, you may be worth investing in.

Minorities Join Forces

Key words for this post:
Minority Entrepreneurs

By any measure, Sacramento, California is one of the most culturally diverse areas in the country. It boasts strong Hispanic, Asian/Pacific and Black communities, each of which has established its own chamber of commerce.

Each of these communities faces similar issues: How can we help entrepreneurs willing to risk capital to start new businesses or expand successful ones? How do we ensure a work force that's ready for work, and advance policies that promote opportunity and innovation? How can we best work together as a rich and varied ethnic community?

Solving the problems isn't easy. It involves addressing complex economic issues and long hard hours playing political games.

So the Multi-Cultural Business Forum came into being. The Forum, Valley Vision and the Sacramento Business Journal are hosting a half-day gathering to bring people from small businesses and large corporations from all across the region to learn about ways to leverage their diversity.

By leveraging the diversity of the region, the entire region can prosper.

Congratulations to the Multi-Cultural Business Forum for taking this immense step.

The Secret Behind Successful Business Plans

There is a real honest-to-goodness reason why some business plans are successful, and some aren't. Simply put, it's the passion, my dear. (Somehow I imagine Tallulah Bankhead whispering that line.)

Forget the money. That's not it. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you are looking for ten dollars or ten million dollars -- you won't get a dime of it without the passion.

Nearly all business plans focus on the financials. The projections. The charts. The profit. The IPO. The scads of money that everyone is going to make.

That's just not It.

"It" is that slow smile from Marilyn Monroe, that walk down the aisle by Miss America, the soulful note from Ella Fitzgerald. "It" invites the viewer into It's world to feel the joy, the success, the soul.

Yes, the financials have to back up that passion. But that comes later. First comes the passion.

Take another look at your business plan. Try to read it as a stranger would. What is the overall feeling that is presented? Better yet, give it to a friend to read, and ask that friend if the overall feeling is: (a) this company will be financially successful, or (b) this is an exciting concept, with energy behind it.

Ideally, it will do both. But if you have to choose, choose door (b).

Cheers.

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Hispanic resource for business plans

Key words for this post:
Business plans for hispanic entrepreneurs
Business plans for minorities

I find it hugely annoying to have to "register" for a site, just to see their information. It was with reluctance that I did so on HispanSource.

But once in the site, I found a wealth of valuable information. There are demographic reports, marketing reports, and all manner of facts and figures for any company developing a company targeted to the Hispanic market. The information is all free. I gather that there will be mailings, which I haven't seen yet.

All in all, it is an excellent one stop shop for really great information.

As an aside, when I register for unknown sites, I use the name of the site as my name. At least I will be able to tell if I get unwanted email from it. Also, I never use my real phone number (I also passionately dislike telephone solicitation). But that's just my own personal hang up. If you do plan on using the information presented here, you may want to let them know who you are.

Organic Ventures finds funding for green companies

Key words for this post:
Business plans for angel investors
Custom business plans

There's a mother/daughter team in Scottsdale, Arizona, that is capitalizing on a unique niche: finding financing for socially responsible companies.

Rochelle and Stephanie Lebhar, the owners of Organic Ventures, specialize in in seeking out companies and investors interested in sustainable industries, such as solar power, the "green" building industry, organic food and body products, and wind energy.

Once a viable company has been located, Organic Ventures writes the business plan, and then submits it to their investor base. Organic Ventures takes a cut when the company is funded.

What more could a new company ask for?

The women come with strong credentials. Stephanie Lebhar has worked in the financial industry for 15 years. She traded commodities, equities, and fixed income securities for international brokerage firms in New York and Arizona.

While people have been surprised by the "green company" focus, the Lebhars know this is an exploding market. According to the Organic Trade Association, the U.S. organic market alone is projected to reach $30.7 billion by 2007 -- a compound growth rate of 21.4 percent from 2002.

Rochelle and Stephanie say that their only regret is that so few companies that they focus on actually come from Arizona. Their client base now stretches across the country.

Organic Ventures is on the outlook for new companies to sponsor. If yours is a "green" company, this is your target.

Doing Business with China

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Online sources for marketing plans

Any company that can do business with China is way ahead in the venture capital/ angel investor game. This is typically a massive market.

To assist in creating your marketing plan, take a look at the China Business--
Research Guide #30 . The site was created by Teresa Terry, a reference librarian at the University of Pennsylvania's Lippincott Library, and is free for everyone to use.

Triple whammies in the South

Businesses hurt by hurricane Katrina, especially minority businesses, are facing triple whammies:

• Contracts for repair and reconstruction have been given almost exclusively to large companies that are not minority owned.
• Relief business loans have been very slow in coming. Of the 950,000 applications for disaster loans handed out and over 26,000 applications returned to the SBA, only 142 checks have been written so far.
• Even those companies that do get loans are going to have a miserable time paying them back. These are not grants. They are loans.

And to all of that, add the fact that the government has so many contractors busy with "government" work that individual businesses are finding it very difficult to find workers, at any price.

There has to be a better way.

Shame on you, President Bush.

Shame on FEMA and the SBA.

And shame on us for not causing enough of a fuss to make it right.

Angel investors in Seattle form unique incubator

Key words for this post:
Business plan for angel investors

Needed:

• 
  Internet ideas, preferably brilliant ideas, focused on consumers;
• 
  Funding needed (from $10,000 to $250,000);
• 
  West coast presence preferred (office will be provided free at an incubator in Seattle).

How closely does that definition fit your business? If it’s close enough, you have an investor in Curious Office Partners, an angel investment company/incubator owned by Kelly Smith and Adrian Hanauer.

With two successes already on its roster, Curious Office Partners is on the hunt for the next innovative internet business.

"We don't care how young they are, we don't care what their resumes are, we don't care where they worked, we don't care where they went to college. ... We just want to help smart developers with good ideas get started with their projects," said Smith.

In order to help out with these "micro investments," former MSNBC.com editor in chief Merrill Brown has agreed to serve as an adviser. Smith said other advisers will be named in the future.
With about 3,000 square feet of office space in Pioneer Square in Seattle, Curious Office plans to help these emerging developers overcome some of the hurdles typically associated with a startup business. Those could include recruiting management, finding capital, attracting partners, securing office space and other business issues that might not be recognizable to first time entrepreneurs.

"We think that we will be an important catalyst for these early-stage companies to graduate into the venture capital realm," said Smith, who came up with the idea after realizing that popular Internet offerings such as Flickr and del.icio.us bookmarks were created by individuals or small teams.

This new fund is really great news for all small, young entrepreneurial internet companies. And, since the internet is one of the most color-blind and un-sexist venues for success, it should be on the top of the list for minorities and women looking for funding for internet companies.