“When It Comes To Debt or Equity Financing, The Business Owner Seeking Money Has To Not Only Be Patient But Submissive At Times”

One of the most frustrating aspects of trying to locate and secure business financing from private debt or equity sources is that the process hardly follows any type of formula. The people with the money entertain offers from people that want to utilize the money and sometimes deals are worked out.

Sorry, but that’s about as scientific as it gets.

The people that either own or control the gold make the rules, make them up on the fly, or change them whenever they want. If you don’t like their approach, don’t try to work with them. The problem, however, is that most sources of private financing are going to act in a similar fashion.

And as I have been told on more than one occasion when I got into a discussion as to how a financing deal could or should be structured…”Its my money and I’ll do whatever I like with it”.

Obviously if private funding sources were always completely unreasonable and unpredictable they would never lend or invest much of anything. So for the most part, there is a method to their madness. But that doesn’t stop weird and unpredictable things to happen from time to time.

As a business owner seeking capital, you need to be prepared for this type of experience and temper your ego and tolerance level at times to allow for funding opportunities to eventually unfold in your favor. The passive and patient approach isn’t always going to work, but its going to score more results than a frustrated and demanding demeanor will.

Since 2008, there are arguably less active sources of higher risk capital reviewing more potential requests for capital. So for venture capital, angel investing, and hard money lending they basically have their pick of deals and tend to take their time in order to make the best potential choices.

Another challenge with private funding sources is that these are typically not large organizations and usually are operated and controlled by a handful of people. So when they are in the middle of one or more deals, it can be hard to get their attention until some time in the future. They will also have finite resources so its also a case of having a deal they like at a time when they have money available to put out into the market.

And if a better deal comes along when they’re 90% along with your deal and they don’t have enough money for both, guess who’s going to lose out.

Acquiring private capital is both art and science, can require great patience and perseverance, and has a lot to do with timing.

Keep these points in mind before starting on your quest for capital.

Click Here To Speak With Business Financing Specialist Brent Finlay