Positioning your Business for Funding

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Research has shown that one of the biggest challenges faced by Jamaican businesses today, particularly startups, is the lack of access to funding.  And it’s not that funding is not available but critical to identifying funding is the knowledge on the part of the business owner to what is appropriate funding.

In this blog post, I will provide you with some tips to show how you can use marketing to position your business to attract the financing required to move your business from one level to the next.

But before we delve into positioning the business for funding, it is important to dispel one major myth about business financing.  Financing your business does not automatically mean taking a loan from a commercial bank.  

With entrepreneurship emerging as a more than viable option for many persons today, the financial institutions have had to change their way of financing.  Heck, the world has had to change its ways of thinking.  There is a plethora of funding options available today; venture capital, crowd funding, angel investments and grant funding, among many others.  (In another post, we will look at the different funding options available along with their advantages and disadvantages).

Okay, now that that’s out of the way… let’s get to it!

It is important firstly to recognize the importance of marketing to your business.  No business ever gets anywhere without customers, competitors or financing.  And this is the tenet on which your marketing campaign should be built.

In order to position your business for funding, the first thing you must do is prove that you are serious about your business.  Make a major investment, develop and continuously, improve your product, promote whenever and wherever you can… all these are actions that will show a potential investor that you are serious about your business.  It also shows that you believe in the business, that you are confident that it will work.

Secondly, upgrade and update your business plan.  You prepared a business plan to start the business, now prepare one to grow the business.  Recognize that your business plan is not just a document that you did for show but rather a roadmap to take your business from point A to its ultimate goal.  The upgraded business plan must include your growth strategy.  So for example, you are a farmer.  You plant and reap cash crops regularly.  You supply the local market but there is a glut of produce.  You need to partner with both local and international manufacturers to take care of the glut… what is your strategy? The plan must address this clearly.  It should also include a contingency plan just in case you don’t attract a partner quickly enough.

Another step that you can take to attract funding is to enter (and win) entrepreneurship competitions.  There is no shortage of these competitions in Jamaica.  The financial institutions are doing them, business development agencies are doing them, and even the Government is providing support in this area.  But entering these contests takes some level of readiness.  You must ensure that your business is registered with the Companies Office of Jamaica and that you are also tax compliant! Many businesses can’t access funding opportunities because they are not tax compliant!  Also, certify yourself.  Associate your business and yourself with experts in your field.  My granny told me something when I was younger that I will never forget – ‘show me your company and I’ll tell you who you are’… make your ‘company’ work for you.

Finally, know what your financiers are looking for.  This is what I referred to at the onset when I alluded to ‘appropriate financing’.  Financial institutions and the government through approved financial institutions usually set aside funding for particular industries.  For example, the agriculture and manufacturing industry, will almost always get a larger share of funding as the country seeks to push the ‘eat what you grow, grow what you eat’ campaign.  But increasingly, other industries are also getting attention through other means of funding. 

If you are to attract an investor, in addition to selling him a good idea, he wants to know that he will get back his money… with interest!

The key as an entrepreneur, particularly as a startup, is to do your research. Find out where funding for your business is available and who is investing and go there!

As always, I look forward to your feedback…

Take care.

Why Startups Should Take a Big-Brand Approach to Marketing

For many new entrepreneurs, the idea of marketing a business is an intimidating process which requires exorbitant budgets and a specialist marketer to launch a marketing campaign which rivals that of their larger, more established counterparts.  The truth is however that the only difference between the marketing campaigns of a recognized business versus that of a new business is the scale.  The most important consideration for each campaign though, regardless of scale, is to achieve the desired results from the activities undertaken.

New business owners today are at a major advantage as there are countless elements available for marketing a business.  With new media technologies now firmly established as a bona fide means of disseminating information coupled with tried and trusted traditional marketing components, today’s entrepreneurs have more flexibility in designing better integrated marketing campaigns that gives the sense of a big-brand approach without expending half as much resources as their larger counterparts.

Better designed marketing campaigns target audiences directly and mean more visibility and bigger impact for the business.  New businesses that approach brand marketing with big ideas and out-of-the-box concepts are more likely to get noticed, increase their brand awareness and build a loyal fan base.

The notion that a big budget is required for big impact branding has been dispelled time and time again.  The successful marketing campaign of the 2008 United States election ran by the now President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, was won utilizing an Integrated Marketing Communications approach targeting different groups on multiple platforms.  Obama through his brick-by-brick approach to marketing himself was able to rise from a Chicago Senator to the highest office in the world.

The internet which provides advertising for pennies on the dollar in most cases offers a more targeted approach for campaigns by utilizing demographic and geographic information to maximize on reach.  Likewise, traditional marketing campaigns may be skewed to create big branding impact; the onus is therefore on the entrepreneur to determine the scale and to create marketing campaigns which leverage the product’s benefits and provides the requisite visibility for the targeted audience.

So let’s talk about scale: As a new business, marketing must definitely be part of your business plan however the extent of the marketing activities depends on the needs of your business.  Things such as the size of the business, the industry, where the target audience is and what media outlets they utilize to acquire information are critical in deciding the media mix to use.  Importantly, with multiple media outlets, it is easy to become confused and overspend.  Market research is therefore crucial to making strategic marketing decisions.

The media mix that works best for a restaurant will probably differ from the approach that will work for an agricultural business.  Before implementing any advertising, marketing, public relations or social media campaign, find out what approach will most effectively serve the company’s objectives. Each company’s needs are different, which is why the selected approach must be individualized and tailored to suit your specific business.

There are several approaches to marketing that sometimes work on their own and other times work in conjunction with a Public Relations campaign.  A short marketing list would include:

·         Traditional advertising (including print ads and commercials)

·         Online advertising (including ads, banners, pop ups, etc.)

·         Direct marketing (including flyers, mailers, etc.).

·         Traditional public relations (including print, TV and radio)

·         Social media (including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, etc).

·         Email marketing

·         Seminars

·         Workshops

·         Speaking Engagements

·         Cold Calling

·         Content Marketing

·         Digital Media Apps

·         Mobile Advertising

The important considerations are to know what works for your company, your affordability and the kind of impact desired.