David Morobe

Ten ways to hook investors onto your big idea

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Business Partners Limited

A great many excellent business ideas never get past the spreadsheet stage and into the real world simply because entrepreneurs fail to connect to the people with enough money and risk appetite to help them implement them.

Finding the right investors and pitching your idea effectively is a business skill that can be worked on, says David Morobe, BUSINESS/PARTNERS regional general manager. He offers the following ten tips to get you started:

Get yourself connected and network. Investors are out there, and they are usually only one or two people away from those with whom you do business with anyway. Your accountant or suppliers, for example, can put you in touch with potential investors, or at least someone who knows a potential investor. Emphasize the “work” in “network” – investigate and ask for referrals.

Prepare and sharpen a concise story around your idea that contains no waffle, but only the essential elements that will interest an investor – marketability, sustainability and your own passion for the project. Your value proposition should come through succinctly – what are you offering to whom, and why will they be prepared to buy it.

Make sure that you know all the aspects of your idea, its market and industry. Investors want to know that you are experienced in the industry in which you want them to invest their money. Therefore, the more you have worked on your plan, even to the point of taking your idea to the market on a small scale, the better.

Have a detailed business plan ready. Not only will it help to give you the knowledge mentioned in the previous point, but the fact that you will immediately be able to send or present your plan if someone wants to have a closer look will help to convince potential investors of your readiness. Besides, knowing that you can back up your pitch with a plan will give you confidence.

It helps if your plan has a powerful executive summary, the written equivalent of your verbal pitch mentioned in point 2. It must encapsulate your business plan precisely, without waffle or exaggeration. Chances are that the investors whom you will be targeting have seen many business plans in their lives, and they will not bother to read further if the executive summary does not whet their appetite.

Be prepared for a face-to-face presentation, more detailed than the one in point 2, for when an investor calls you in for a follow-up meeting.

It is almost guaranteed nowadays that an investor who becomes interested in your idea will check up on you on the internet. It helps to have a good website around your idea and a strong presence on social media in which your successes are highlighted, not only in your current business but in previous ventures and jobs. Most astute investors investigate the strength of both the business idea and the prowess of the entrepreneur.

Once you’ve made contact with a potential investor, stay in touch, even if it is just by asking for advice, for example on how an investment of the kind you are looking for can best be structured.

Be open to feedback from potential investors, who would want to see that you are open-minded and adaptable. Besides, chances are that the investors you are pitching to are experienced business people themselves, and can enhance your ideas with their advice whether they decide to invest in your idea or not.

Have a realistic exit strategy for the investor, who unlike you does not necessarily want to remain in the business in the long term. The investor’s thinking is likely to be: “How do I make the best return possible on this investment?” The time frames that most investors work with are between three and seven years.

The ten rules that entrepreneurs live by

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Business Partners Limited

The life of an entrepreneur is different from that of ordinary people in many ways, and one of the main ways in which it differs is that it is more challenging. This is mainly because the entrepreneur sees the world not as it is, but as it can be, and then sets about changing it, says David Morobe, BUSINESS/PARTNERS regional general manager.

How do entrepreneurs manage to thrive even while taking such a difficult approach to the world? Morobe believes that the answer lies in their disciplined attitude which, although it varies in emphasis from entrepreneur to entrepreneur, can generally be described in the following ten rules that they live by:

1. Believe in yourself

Entrepreneurs tend to maintain a strong belief in their ability to achieve their goals, upon which they remain focused. They get out of bed in the mornings believing that they have something meaningful to do and a legacy to leave behind. It is a powerful drive that helps to keep them going even when times are tough.

2. Never stop investing in yourself

Some entrepreneurs are famous for flunking out of school when they get busy with their businesses, but these stories should not give anyone the idea that entrepreneurs are not interested in learning. On the contrary, they are voracious learners, whether by reading, taking courses, listening to coaches, mentors and the experts around them. However unstructured it is, the aim is continual self-improvement and strengthening of their businesses.

3. Pursue your passion relentlessly

The most successful entrepreneurs are those who do what they love to do. It allows for great resilience and staying power. “Even when you are weary and disappointed you keep on at it,” says Morobe. Running a business means having to do lots of things that you may not necessarily like, and that is where the next point comes in.

4. Surround yourself with the right people

Although entrepreneurship is a do-it-yourself project in a certain sense, it is simply too difficult an undertaking to do on your own. That is why one of the most important rules of entrepreneurship is to find the right people, convince them to join your enterprise, and forging them into a team to which you can delegate. They should be chosen for skills that complement yours, and for their values which should align with yours.

5. Grow your network

Just like entrepreneurs continuously build their teams inside their business, they grow their network of investors, advisors, suppliers, associates and customers outside of it.

6. Promote yourself and your business

Entrepreneurs don’t pass up opportunities to promote themselves, their vision and their enterprise, irrespective of whether it is in their business interactions or at social occasions. It need not be tiresome or false. If it is done with sincerity and respect, it can be engaging and inspiring, and can win over not only customers, but also potential investors, employees, partners and suppliers.

7. Learn how to manage risk

For entrepreneurs, risk comes with the territory. They simply cannot avoid it altogether. The rule, however, is to manage risk – to mitigate it where they can and to constantly hedge against it. For example, the greatest risk facing most growing businesses is death by cash-flow crisis. Entrepreneurs who survive are those who remain acutely aware of their cash-flow situation so that they can see the crunch coming. A good example of hedging against risk is where an enterprise cultivates several smaller customers despite the fact that it has one dominant client. When that client goes down, they have others to pull them through.

8. Work hard

In entrepreneurship there are no short cuts or half-measures. Once you start, says Morobe, you have to be all in, even if it means putting in twelve-hour days for many years.

9. Stay innovative

One innovative idea is seldom enough to carry a business for longer than a couple of years. The most resilient businesses are those that adopt innovation as a broad approach to whatever they do, especially when it comes to taking feedback from their customers seriously and trying to incorporate it into their products and services. It is not always comfortable, because the disruption caused by innovation prevents any settling down into cosy routines. It also requires a certain tolerance to making mistakes.

10. Take care of yourself

Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Staying the course means pacing yourself, striking the right balance between exertion and rest, and being aware of the warning signals that your body sends you from time to time. Successful businesses are built on the foundations of healthy bodies and minds.

It’s time to prepare for the second half

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Business Partners Limited

For a spectator of a game of football, the half-time break is merely a chance to stock up on some beer, but for the captains, the coaches and the players, it is a crucial few minutes of reviewing and tweaking their game plan.

In a similar way, businesses that do not use some time in the middle of the year to reflect and plan are running the risk of losing the game, says David Morobe, regional general manager of Business Partners Limited. The questions asked in the locker room at half time are strikingly similar to those that a business has to ask from time to time. “Have things been going as planned? Are we ahead or behind with where we wanted to be? What worked well? What didn’t work well? What impact has the competition had on us? What opportunities did we miss? What competitor weaknesses did we not capitalise on? What do we need to do in the second half? What changes need to take place and in what area do we need to up our game?”

The benefits of such an exercise are hard to overstate. It helps the entrepreneur and his key team to crystallise their strategy for the rest of the year, clarify the challenges that lie ahead, celebrate and strengthen the successes of the past six months, and prompt them to make the necessary changes. The process also tends to unlock ideas, strategies and solutions not previously thought of.

For Morobe, this kind of formal planning session is by no means the preserve of big corporations. In fact, it is a way in which small businesses can “optimise their agility”. It is much quicker for a small business to adapt its strategies in reaction to a market challenge or an opportunity. A half-year planning session is a way of ensuring that it makes use of that advantage.

The time that a business sets aside for a half-year review will differ according to the complexity and size of the company, but it need not be long. “It also depends on how good the systems are. If all the information that you need for such an exercise is up to date, reliable and available, then you’ll save time,” says Morobe, who reckons a half a day to a maximum of a full day is enough for most businesses.

Morobe says there is no prescribed way in which such a half-year review should take place, apart from the principle that the cash-flow forecast, which he calls “the holy grail” of a business, must be central to the process. But it helps to take an “all-encompassing” approach, he says, in which you reflect not only on your sales targets, but also on your staff who may need to be re-motivated and your operations – what is working, what is not, and how can you improve efficiency – are some of the questions you may want to answer.

It helps to work according to some kind of structure such as SWOT analyses where the team considers, in turn, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the business.

Morobe is also not prescriptive over the exact output of such a session. If a whole new strategy or plan is decided upon, it is best to crystallise it in a formal plan, especially if there are a number of team members who have to pull together.

If the half-year review leads to a new finance application or the purchase of a new piece of equipment for example, a formal plan to present to the financier is of course a must. But sometimes all that is needed are a few tweaks to the cash flow forecast and a couple of email circulars. Generally, it does no harm to write down the main points discussed or decisions taken, says Morobe. Rather err on the side of outlining the plan on paper.

A half-year planning exercise is of no use if the business owner is not realistic about what is happening not only in the business but also out in the market. In fact, over-optimistic planning can do harm. Morobe says the over-optimistic estimation of sales is the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make in their planning. It can have disastrous consequences for the cash-flow of the business.

“As the saying goes: there is only one thing worse that singing out of tune, and that is singing out of tune enthusiastically. With a half-year review you want to make sure you’re still in tune with your targets team, and the market,” he concludes.

Ten ways to hook investors onto your big idea

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Business Partners Limited

A great many excellent business ideas never get past the spreadsheet stage and into the real world simply because entrepreneurs fail to connect to the people with enough money and risk appetite to help them implement them.

Get yourself connected and network. Investors are out there, and they are usually only one or two people away from those with whom you do business with anyway. Your accountant or suppliers, for example, can put you in touch with potential investors, or at least someone who knows a potential investor. Emphasize the “work” in “network” – investigate and ask for referrals.
Prepare and sharpen a concise story around your idea that contains no waffle, but only the essential elements that will interest an investor – marketability, sustainability and your own passion for the project. Your value proposition should come through succinctly – what are you offering to whom, and why will they be prepared to buy it.
Make sure that you know all the aspects of your idea, its market and industry. Investors want to know that you are experienced in the industry in which you want them to invest their money. Therefore, the more you have worked on your plan, even to the point of taking your idea to the market on a small scale, the better.
Have a detailed business plan ready. Not only will it help to give you the knowledge mentioned in the previous point, but the fact that you will immediately be able to send or present your plan if someone wants to have a closer look will help to convince potential investors of your readiness. Besides, knowing that you can back up your pitch with a plan will give you confidence.
It helps if your plan has a powerful executive summary, the written equivalent of your verbal pitch mentioned in point 2. It must encapsulate your business plan precisely, without waffle or exaggeration. Chances are that the investors whom you will be targeting have seen many business plans in their lives, and they will not bother to read further if the executive summary does not whet their appetite.
Be prepared for a face-to-face presentation, more detailed than the one in point 2, for when an investor calls you in for a follow-up meeting.
It is almost guaranteed nowadays that an investor who becomes interested in your idea will check up on you on the internet. It helps to have a good website around your idea and a strong presence on social media in which your successes are highlighted, not only in your current business but in previous ventures and jobs. Most astute investors investigate the strength of both the business idea and the prowess of the entrepreneur.
Once you’ve made contact with a potential investor, stay in touch, even if it is just by asking for advice, for example on how an investment of the kind you are looking for can best be structured.
Be open to feedback from potential investors, who would want to see that you are open-minded and adaptable. Besides, chances are that the investors you are pitching to are experienced business people themselves, and can enhance your ideas with their advice whether they decide to invest in your idea or not.
Have a realistic exit strategy for the investor, who unlike you does not necessarily want to remain in the business in the long term. The investor’s thinking is likely to be: “How do I make the best return possible on this investment?” The time frames that most investors work with are between three and seven years.

Five New Year’s resolutions for entrepreneurs

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Business Partners Limited

The number of unused gym contracts and abandoned diets by the first week of February is enough to make anybody cynical about new-year’s resolutions, but David Morobe, Business Partners regional manager, urges entrepreneurs to think differently about it.

The lives of entrepreneurs differ from those of the employed in the sense that the work is never done. There is always that idea that needs to be taken off the back burner, several pitches to prepare, neglected systems to fix and formalise, the next contract to win, and an inbox that never stays clear for long. In such circumstances, it is good to use any opportunity for a pause, no matter how brief, to step back, evaluate, renew and to tighten resolve.

For most entrepreneurs, the new year is an excellent opportunity for such an exercise. It needn’t be a sprawling review of everything in your business. Morobe suggests ordering it into a checklist of five areas into which you can delve as deeply as you need to:

Revisit your business model

All business owners have to rethink their value proposition which, in essence, addresses how they create, capture and deliver value in an ever-changing market. New technologies take hold, new competitors emerge, clients’ preferences and tastes change, demographics shift. The way you do things can very quickly become sub-optimal.

“You don’t need to turn your business model on its head,” says Morobe. Very often, all it needs are small changes and incremental improvements.

Break down your business model into its two key aspects in order to think clearly about it: The value proposition which encompasses your target segments, products and services that your offer your customers, and your pricing structure. The other key aspect is the operating model which addresses the question of how you profitably deliver the offering.

Check your control levers

For Morobe, the question “Are you in control of your business?” is directly related to how well you use your financial statements as a management tool. “Is your cash flow under control? Can you meet your payments when they are due? Do you have a handle on the ageing of your creditors and debtors? Are you getting a return on your investment?” All of these fundamental questions link to your use of financial statements. If you don’t use them, this is the one new-year’s resolution that you can’t afford not to make.

Check your team

In owner-managed businesses, the entrepreneur is the single most important worker, but very often they impede the growth of the business because they try to do too much. It is therefore good for entrepreneurs to review the balance between their own workload and that of their team of workers, says Morobe. “When you start out on your own, for example, just having a receptionist in front to make sure you don’t miss those important calls can make all the difference.”

Ideally, a business owner needs to build a loyal team of talented individuals with whom they can work amicably, but who are also not afraid to challenge the boss and push, when necessary, for ways to do things better. Morobe acknowledges that finding such people – and being able to afford them – are much easier said than done, but it is an aspect of business that requires regular attention. Make sure you select talented people who fit into your team’s personality and character. As team leader, review the extent to which your team members are focused on the goals that you have set them, and check their training and development needs.

Connect and reconnect with your network

The large numbers of contacts that business owners build up even if they don’t network consciously is an enormous store of value that is seldom mined. “Entrepreneurs tend to take for granted all the work they put into networking,” says Morobe.

The secret lies in following up, which can be as easy as picking up the phone to say hello. You don’t need much of an excuse to meet someone for a coffee or breakfast. Birthday calls work, says Morobe, and modern social media can be harnessed to take much of the hassle out of staying in touch.

Get your work-life balance right

It is no secret that entrepreneurs tend to lean over very far towards the work side of the work-life scale. Perhaps less known, but really plain to see, is how an entrepreneur’s neglected home life can come back to bite the business. No review of a business is complete without a careful look at the work-life balance of the entrepreneur. Set a minimum amount of time for family, friends and self-indulgence, and try to stick to it.

Self-management is just as important, says Morobe, and by this he means keeping up energy levels by getting sufficient sleep, eating well and doing enough exercise.

Remember that it’s all about balance, so don’t embark on a hectic diet or exercise programme. It will just make you cynical about New Year’s resolutions.

Morobe says: “I’m certain that all of us have taken various resolutions for 2015. While yours as an entrepreneur may be a little different to those of others, it is worth your while to ensure that they are feasible and reasonably challenging as you embark on the 2015 business journey.”