Are you a woman small-business owner who doesn’t know where to begin with finding funding and investors for her company? This week on our Live, we hosted Juliana Uto who shared her expertise on how to build your pitch and find investors for women-owned startups.

How can small businesses start with seeking investors in their company?

1. Start and build your professional network:

As a small business owner, you might not know how to seek investors which might prevent you from finding great opportunities. One of the greatest ways to get started is to get yourself close proximity to these investors by joining programs and seeking resources. Juliana suggests reaching out to angel investing accelerator programs such as OnDeck that can get you in the door of networking with investors and potentially closing an investment deal as they provide you resources and tools that expose you to the investing world and investors. To get into these accelerator programs you most likely will need to send an application and pitch your business, which is similar to applying to any other business or funding program.

In addition to On Deck, The Council is another network of women investors that pitch investing deals to startups in council meetings. Founders can pitch their business and talk to investors about investment opportunities and secure deals that can significantly scale your business.

 

2. Your network is your net worth

After seeking resources to find investors, you should network with each investor to find more investing circles that might provide bigger opportunities. Networking with investors is essential for you to meet with more investors and investor circles. As you join investing programs and network with investors, you also extend your chances of finding funding for your business.

If you are a women business owner, you are crucial to building the economy. The research shows that women investors as women tend to hire women more compared to men.  Women face increased barriers to accessing funding as compared to businesses led by men.

 

What steps can women take to be more successful in finding investors?

1. Ask for funding and overcome your fear of negative feedback:

One of the biggest barriers to women’s success is their lack of confidence and their reluctance to ask for funding for their business. If you are thinking your business isn’t ready to launch yet when it is due to a lack of confidence, you might miss out on opportunities to grow your business from individuals who might be interested in investing.
Another internal barrier women business owners face is the fear of rejection. Founders might often feel too sensitive about their business idea get criticized, however, feedback in any form is always a way to improve your business to be better. Founders might often feel too sensitive about having their business idea criticized, however, feedback in any form is always a way to improve your business to be better. If you are a business owner that is preventing pitching your idea to investors to avoid hearing feedback you might not like, this mindset may be getting in the way of greater success for your business.

2. Find mentors and advisors:

If you want to prepare your pitching and your business idea for investors, you can find mentors and advisors who have experience in building a business. You can seek other business owners who have received funding, professional business advisors or programs that provide resources such as business incubator programs.

3. Know your numbers:

If you are pitching your business to investors, you have to know your numbers to provide important information to your potential investors. If you are pitching your business to investors, you must know your numbers to provide valuable information to your potential investors. In addition to letting the investors know what to expect, this can also help you to understand if your business is profitable, what your projections are and how much you need from investors to reach specific goals.

4. Form a pitch deck:

If you are doing your startup as a side hustle, you may have neglected to identify key steps to take for your business to succeed. If you are doing your Startup as a side hustle, you may have neglected to identify key steps to take for your business to succeed. While preparing your business pitch, make sure to cover essential information investors will want to know such as acquisition costs, profitability and more. By working on this vital information, you can also understand the path of success for the benefit of your business. If you are finding gaps in your business plan, get feedback from your mentors and business advisors.

5. Be aware of biases:

Women are still a minority onin investor boards which can lead to blind spots on the part of the investor boards in deciding to invest. This leads to further obstacles in obtaining fundingform some bias for female businesses that createoffer products and services geared to the female market.to solve women-focused problems. Also, some male-dominated industries like tech might also be favoured by investors compared to product and services female business owners may be pitching for.others most women might not be pitching for.

 

Takeaway:

If you are a female start-up owner looking for investors: Find investor groups, network to find greater opportunities, and build your pitch to close your next investing pitch. If you are looking to get started with investor groups, here are some organizations you can check out:

1. The 51
2. The Council
3. On Deck
4. Keiretsu

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