THE PROCESS

Blog 40
​​The Process

I have noticed throughout the many years I have been engaged as a financial consultant, either for a financing firm, for whom I worked or for my own consulting firm, that most folks are either dubious of the process or just not enlightened to the process.

Therefore, I would like to just simplify our approach to what we will call the free thirty-minute compulsory assessment interview, taking place on site or on the phone in chronological order, while restating my above premise that "FINANCING IS NOT MAGIC, IT IS A SCIENCE".

I say this because what we contribute to a client's needs in the form of financial consulting is based on decades of "TRIAL & ERROR" approaches as to what works and what does not work, from creating an effective business plan to actually launching financing probes/options; such as, the ones recited below, beginning with a chronology of "ACTION PLANS".

1. INITIAL INTERVIEW-we listen to the entrepreneur’s developing history of the project, sometimes with a non- professionally written business plan usually taken from an internet template with no direction as to the audience intended (huge error); nevertheless, it is a start. This will also typically include our signing an NDA (non-disclosure agreement to protect the prospects intellectual property). 

FYI: A Prospect is an applicant not yet booked vs a Client, who was a prospect but after a contract is signed becomes a Client. 

Now whether we have a business plan or not we will take notes and assess the project and its merits or lack thereof based on our own research (due-diligence including value analysis) and industry trends which will eventually lead to an assessment and the feasibility of the project and report back to the prospect, SO WE DO NOT WASTE HIS/HER TIME OR OURS.

2. REPORT-we will contact the prospect and either express our interest to move forward by sending our consulting agreement to them and discuss the terms of our initial recommendations or pass on the prospect’s project with some friendly advice for him/her to move forward on their own, if applicable.

3. FOLLOW UP/EXECUTION-once the prospect receives our agreement and the terms are explained, which is fairly clear in the language of the agreement itself and the prospect signs the agreement, we go to work to achieve our mutual goals, which range from our rebuilding their business plan to suit the interest of our network audience and advice on raising working capital, much of which depends on the Client’s stage of development..
 
 
4. ADVICE RANGES FROM:

A. Structuring or re-structuring management and/or the company to make the business more appealing (like staging a house for a maximum gain) to our contacts. 

B. Capital Raise exploration and recommendations from a variety of sources beginning with 

• Friends and family insiders
• Conventional Bank loans with or without SBA involvement and contingent upon acceptable support collateral and/or personal guarantees.
• Non-conventional loans, sometimes called “Hard Money” Lenders not requiring item “B” above but very high interest in lieu thereof.
• Synergy partner interest which has a high interest level from existing related businesses looking for new products or services and could either buy or license our client’s IP.
• Asset Based Lending for those Clients who have an ongoing business with company owned assets, such as, accounts receivable, inventory, M & E and even R/E that qualify as collateral.
• Purchase Order financing (known as “PO” financing) based on the quality our client’s future accounts receivable billing. This option can include inventory financing as well. 

Naturally, we strongly suggest that our client work with either one of our recommended attorneys or their own and this recommendation usually results in both attorneys exchanging their thoughts on whatever financing choice their (our) client wishes to pursue. We do provide templates, (just like attorneys have or what can be downloaded on the net) if applicable, to our client’s financing choice as a model of what would ultimately be the legal document used in any transaction our client's and their attorney would ultimately chose. 

Once the legal documents are prepared by the applicable attorneys and are ready to be presented to perspective investors or lenders then we give our client a list of possible entities (Institutions, Equity Investment Firms or Individuals interested in their “IP”) and the founder calls these entities after we introduce our client’s project to the possible participants and our client usually carries the ball from there, which may include group or individual meetings.

FYI: The above is only a representation of what transpires between a possible
​client (prospect) and to what happens, as each transaction has its own unique characteristics.