How to kick-start your dream

“I won’t ever forget the agony of waiting for the first sale - it was excruciating,” says University of Melbourne business and economics alumna, Naomi Simson. As Founding Director of online gift experience retailer, RedBalloon, Naomi is no stranger to the nail biting hours, weeks, months or even years, spent struggling to grow a business from a single innovative idea.

After two months and four days, Naomi watched excitedly as RedBalloon’s first order came through. A mere fourteen years later, the company boasts sales of over two and a half million experiences and, earlier this year, became the first Australian company to make it into the 2015 WorldBlu list of most democratic workplaces in the world

Between business development and investment, public speaking, authoring her own book and being a mother, Naomi is helping other entrepreneurs make their dreams come true on Network TEN’s business reality program, Shark Tank Australia.

But, in this fast paced business environment, how can so many entrepreneurs survive?

According to Naomi, “whether we run our own business or work in a corporate or community service environment, we need to present our ideas in a way that inspires those around us.”

Here, Naomi shares her top tips for getting the right investor on board and getting your business off the ground.

1. if you want someone’s money, research who you’re pitching to

Every potential investor has a different reason for investing. Do the work and find out as much as you can about the people behind the ‘investor’ label. What do they believe in? What is their background? What is their expertise? People do business with people, and investors invest in people.

2. understand your customers

An idea is only an idea until someone is prepared to pay money for it—then it has the potential to be a commercial product. Asking friends and family is not research (although it’s a good start). In the tech world, we have what is called minimum viable product—we ship ‘beta’ product to get customer feedback.

3. discover everything possible about the industry

It is unlikely an investor will know as much as you about the industry and market you’re in (putting a Facebook page together to ‘test’ the industry is not what I mean here). How big is the industry? How many competitors are there? Is it a new market or existing? Know your market and know its potential.

4. deeply understand your numbers and cash flow

If you’re not a numbers person, practise and work out tools to remember them. There is no room for rounding! Key numbers to know are the cost of acquisition of a customer, the cost to serve a customer, the number of unique customers, conversion rates, and of course the obvious ones— cash burn and time to profit at current run rates pre and post investment.

5. deal with the details

If necessary, get trademarks, patents, registrations, licences and approvals. No investor will be interested in taking on a business that has any potential litigation; so make sure you have tied up every loose end before seeking investment. Never underestimate prospective customers—they will do their due diligence too. It is about building trust.

6. understand different valuation models

If you are pitching an equity deal based on future potential sales, then you need to be clear on why this is so and have a demonstrable track record. If you’re valuing your business based on current top-line revenue, know and show similar valuations in your industry. Too many times we saw people pitch with a valuation that was all about ‘hope’—investors don’t buy hope as a sustainable strategy.

7. take your customers and potential investors on a journey

I’ve been known to say, “It’s just business”, but what I’m really saying is, “It’s not just my money: it is my time, my reputation and my commitment that you are asking for.” Make sure your pitch is filled with facts and numbers. More than anything, you should be someone they can believe in.

8. tell us about the team

I have seen investments made, dependent on a founder finding a co-founder. Often we can see that a founder brings certain skills but might well need some others to be able to scale the business. The reality is that without a team around them, and a proven record of his or her ability to attract, lead and inspire a team, the investment can be vulnerable. I like to know how they recruit, how they reward, and how engaged the team is. I look at the tools that they are using (so many are cloud-based) such as redii.com.

9. don’t give up!

Some of the best advice I was given was simply, “Don’t give up; if it was easy everyone would do it.” However, it is important to know the difference between persistence and pig pig-headedness.