Preparing for Investment
This is a one-day seminar preceding 'Making an Investment and Exiting', which covers the key areas that should be reviewed prior to making an investment in a small business. Starting with an introduction to terminology: Mentor v Investor v Advisor v Business Angel, you will look at the benefits that small companies are seeking from others: What do business angels / investors have to offer? Why will the business be interested in selling their equity to you? What government encouragement (e.g. grants, tax breaks, etc.) are available? How do you know what the business is looking for and what are you prepared to offer? Why are you doing this? What are the benefits? What are you looking for?
Having established what sort of companies you are looking for, how do you find them? Who can filter the prospects to weed out the poor quality opportunities?
Once a target company has been found, what process can you use to find the rising stars that you wish to be involved with? How to work through a “standard process” and identify the actions required at each stage. We will show you how to complete research and identify issues that must be resolved before you move forwards to invest your money.
During the course you will review some of the liabilities that a company has working in today’s complex business environment. Some of these include: SoGA, NMW, DPA, CSR, FSA, Shadow Directorship, and Corporate Manslaughter.
The day is summarised in three ways: war stories of early warning signs of risky investment opportunities, some example due diligence checklists and key financial ratios.
