The Science of Securing Investment

If you are planning to grow your business and need additional finance or are reconsidering your current financial package, it is even more important in tough economic times that you have the knowledge to make the right decisions. The ability to secure funding – whether debt, equity, grants, asset finance or a package combining all of these elements – is a fundamental requirement for any company focused on achieving faster growth than organic development allows. Yet today’s unprecedented financial climate make it ever more challenging to put together credible strategies, plans and budgets that are capable of convincing sceptical financiers to back you.

More than 90% of applications for equity funding in Scotland fail to achieve their objective. Around 90% of requests for debt funding are currently being rejected by cash-strapped banks. It’s tough, and getting tougher, to get the finance you need for working capital, for growth – or just to survive.

This dire situation may improve once the Government’s latest measures to unblock the debt pipeline take effect. But the fact will remain that to secure finance, business owners need to gain a new level of insight into the requirements of banks and investors alike. So we have designed this workshop to help managing directors, directors and partners gain that insight and thus improve their prospects of raising finance for their business.

The main elements of this master class are:

• The different types of finance and their relevance to different business situations
• A briefing on the Scottish funding market: the main funders, the number of deals typically done in a year, how the market works and is structured, and the issues that its players face
• Preparing a company for funding - costs and consequences
• When is a company not fundable?
• An insight into how investors and bankers make their decisions
• Typical deal structures and processes
• How to put together a convincing funding strategy
• The primary ‘boxes to tick’ to secure a positive response
• How to present successfully to prospective investors

Master Class Structure
This master class starts at 10am and ends at 4.30 p.m. with a half hour lunch break. During the lunch break a business owner will talk to participants about their company’s fundraising experience. There will be a mix of discussion and interactive activities throughout the day to stimulate thinking and embed learning and messages. These will include case studies requiring investment decisions.

Confidentiality
To ensure that this workshop is effective for all participants everyone will be asked to agree to a confidentiality agreement.

Return on Investment
At the end of this workshop you will understand what prospective funders seek in a business and how they make their decisions. You will know how to construct viable funding packages, budgets and projections, and will appreciate how to pitch them. Your chances of success will be improved.

Facilitators

Elie

Elie is an experienced entrepreneur who has started and grown three multi million pound businesses in Scotland in the last 34 years. He has managed his businesses through previous recessions. He has been involved in textile manufacturing, supplying Marks & Spencer and most of the key UK retailers. He has strong non-executive experience and is on the board of five companies. A past director of Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire and Ayrshire Development Fund he has a strong appreciation of the challenges that are faced by growing companies. As well as advising growth companies on their business and financial strategies and on investment Elie has helped implement a number of acquisitions for clients.

Alastair

A former newspaper business editor and magazine publisher, Alastair has been directly involved in starting seven businesses in the past 24 years, as a co-founder, director and investor. He co-founded the Scottish Business Insider publishing group and achieved a £3m exit in 1999. He has managed businesses through past recessions and helped many businesses with strategic planning and funding projects. He is also a member of the Archangels private investment group. Alastair helped found the Entrepreneurial Exchange in 1993 and was a director for six years. He is a UK Trustee of the African Environmental Film Foundation.

Location
These workshops are taking place in GO Business and Training Centre, George House, 36 North Hanover Street, Glasgow G1 2AD

Buy One Place And Get Another Free
We know how important it is to share new ideas in your business and that two minds are better than one when you are driving your business forward so if you buy one place you can bring a colleague along for FREE. The cost to participate in each workshop is £500 + vat.

Support available
If your business is located in the West of Scotland you may be eligible for a grant of up to 50% of the cost of participating in these courses. There are a number of places available which are reserved for businesses with less than 250 employees and companies must meet certain eligibility criteria.

Click here to see location map

Options

• We can customise this course for you if you have a particular challenge in your company.  One of our specialist advisers will be happy to work on a solution with you.  If you have a group of 12 people who need the same training customised learning is a cost effective way to develop them and costs can be as little as £100 per person. Click here for more information.
• We can also provide one to one coaching in this subject area. Click here for more information