How to “Hook” Investors in Seconds

If you’re looking to raise capital, then you need a business plan.

If you haven’t finished your business plan, then stop what you’re doing and watch this free presentation to discover how to finish your business plan in 8 hours (or less)!

But you don’t JUST need a business plan…

You need to know how to “HOOK” investors in seconds.

So how do you do that?

The first section of your business plan is the executive summary.

Your executive summary must do exactly one thing: Make a targeted investor scramble to read the rest of your business plan.

This one objective is best achieved in three parts:
1. Explain what the business does
2. Paint a picture of the market
3. Show why your business is the one to serve that market.

First, “summarize the summary” – in the form of very short sentences or bullet points:

• Quickly and smoothly tell investors what your business does. Make them understand in the first sentence or two. Think of this first impression as flipping a light switch: instant comprehension, on the part of the investor. Get right to the point and make them “get it”. You will further explain your business in a subsequent paragraph, but for now move right to the market description. Tip: Consider deriving that first sentence or two from your “high-concept pitch”, which is a phrase comprised of two parts: a familiar brand, followed by a twist. For instance, the movie Aliens was promoted as “Jaws in space!”
• Reveal the size of your target market. State the number and dollar value of prospective customers, and how fast those figures are poised to climb in the future.
• Explain why your company is uniquely qualified to fill the needs of your target market. You might have secured a management team that has prior success growing similar businesses; technology that increases efficiencies over existing industry best practices; or quick access to underserved markets.

Now that you have written the “lede”, expand on your business description. Here you can reveal a little more about how your company does what you said it does. Assert a few more of the major bones of the skeleton of your business; you will lay it all out later in the Company Analysis section of your business plan.

Then provide a few more details about your target market. Explain who they are and what they need. Sketch out their demographics (age, martial status, number of children, income, location, ethnicities) and psychographics (what they crave, what motivates them.) Show the investor what that target market lacks and needs that you will give them.

Finally, present your company’s “unfair competitive advantages”. “Examples of unfair advantages, says a report by Growthink, a business development consulting firm which has helped entrepreneurs to raise $1 trillion in capital since 1999, “could include a world-class management team, proprietary technology, proven operational systems, key partnerships, long-term contracts with major customers, as well as other successes-to-date.”

The executive summary is the first crucial step towards landing the cash infusion you need. Therefore your executive summary must cut right to the heart of the investor without wasting a single word. Remember, you do not need to explain everything in this one-page section; just say enough to whet the appetite of the investor. This maximizes the odds that he will read the rest of your business plan.

Watch this free presentation to discover how to finish your business plan in 8 hours (or less)!