Maria Simone, Founder of Dream Scout, LLC has outlined the following steps to attract investors and find sponsors. Here they are:
1) Determine your overall vision/business milestone that you would like to attain
2) Create a budget that includes every resource you will need to reach that milestone
3) Include operating expenses and salaries
4) Create a funding strategy:
a) Self-fund without jeopardizing your personal financial well being
b) For resources or ‘human capital’, barter or offer revenue share or equity
c) Consider employing pre-selling strategies
d) Purchase order financing to help defray manufacturing costs
5) Establish business credit
-Business credit is independent of your personal credit score
-Paydex: Start the process immediately
-Begin building Trade Credit by signing up for D-U-N-S # @ http://dnb.com
-Contact John Brown @ jbrown@thefundinghouse.biz, he can assist you in getting bank lines ($5K-$250K)
6) Consider attracting corporate sponsors if you are offering significant exposure to a market
-$16 Billion has been spent in corporate sponsorships
-Best bets: Heavily trafficked website, events and launches, TV/Radio Show, partnering with a non-profit
-This is a time intensive strategy-no payback to sponsors (you can ask for $5K-100K/yr)
7) Short term ‘seed’ or ‘bridge’ financing from friends and family
-You can offer them attractive returns on 1-2 year notes
8) Private stock offering for equity in the company
-ROI comes at sale of company or at IPO or if/when you pay dividends
