Securing funding for your small business is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. We look at how a personal touch can make the journey that much less stressful.

Looking for funding as a small business might appear to be a complex and overwhelming expedition. Finding an advisory firm that is exactly the right fit is vital.

For many small businesses, a smaller firm provides the personal touch and value for money they need, simplifying the funding process and providing a holistic approach. While larger corporations might have a greater range of expertise, smaller advisories can often provide a more tailored approach to each specific situation.

In this article, we look at the journey towards funding that a small advisory will take with you.

First steps

To begin, your advisor will assist you in preparing to get your business funding ready. This means

• Making sure that your compliance and statutory affairs are in order
• Ensuring that your business results reflect the ability to be funded
• Aligning your projections and business strategy with your plan to win in the market in the future
• A status quo assessment of your small business’s current performance and future expectations.

It is also at this stage that a smaller advisory will spend time getting to know you and your business on a more intimate level.

Strategic Approach

From here, the advisor will assist in devising an appropriate funding strategy guided by what is appropriate for your individual business, bearing in mind your desired outcome. With this funding strategy, your advisory will identify and assist you in approaching an appropriate target of funders for your specific type of funding.

In-depth knowledge of you and your business will allow the advisory to save time and effort by narrowing down the list of prospective funders to those most likely to show an interest in your enterprise.

Managing Destination Expectations

Along the way, a smaller firm will manage your expectations at every turn. While larger corporations might give you an inflated sense of what the outcome of your funding journey might be, smaller firms with a deeper insight into your anticipated outcomes will give you a more realistic view with regards to the cost of funding, the type of funding, and what collateral is required.

“People come in thinking any bank will fund them, any equity partner will buy into their business immediately and at the price that they think it’s worth. It’s our job to give an honest assessment of a client’s current situation and future trajectory, mapping out ideal solutions to help them achieve their plans,” says Ross Smith of Siyakha’s Capital Advisory division.

Overcoming Obstacles

A smaller advisory might be willing to take on challenging transactions and might even work on a successful outcome factor so that their cost varies depending on their ability to help you succeed. After all, why pay a tour operator if you don’t reach your destination?

This approach ensures that your chosen advisory will not only walk the journey with you but will steer you around obstacles and see the journey through to the end, not giving up along the way.

Destination Anywhere

As with any journey, it’s important to choose your travel companion carefully, taking time to research small and large firms to see which will fit your personal and business personality.

If you choose well, the sky really is the limit.

With small and medium enterprises emerging as the backbone of our economy, it is vital that bigger businesses and captains of the industry ensure that entrepreneurs and small business owners are guided, nurtured and mentored.

The handing down of knowledge via storytelling and oral traditions is an age-old custom – one that continues to thrive in the modern era, but in many and varied formats. The digital epoch has catalysed access to shared wisdom like never before. Small businesses that are struggling to find their focus, create strategies, develop talent and hone their offerings can benefit now more than ever from the advice of mentors.

Similar to the way that the youth rely on the sagacity of elders, small business owners rely on the guidance and examples of those that have gone before and succeeded, to find their way in a sea of opportunities. The responsibility to teach and mentor falls squarely on the shoulders of experts in their fields. But how do small businesses gain access to the wealth of information, knowledge and experience of stalwarts in their industry? Digital platforms are perhaps the best way to make content available to those who are thirsty for knowledge.

Gone are the days of having to be physically present to link mentor and mentee. In fact, connectivity is the very essence of digital or virtual mentorship. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations were exploring ways to take mentorship to a broader audience, allowing greater connectivity in various business networks.

While one-on-one, in-person training is certainly engaging, it is, in many ways, restrictive. Time and geographical constraints limit access for both the mentor and the mentee and don’t allow the variety of options that digital mentorship does, options that now even include access to multiple and varied mentors. After all, careers in the present age are multifaceted and mentees may require more than one form of guidance.

There are several ways that digital mentorship can be implemented, from webinars to YouTube videos, apps to emails.

Over the past twenty years, web(semi)nars have become an invaluable device for knowledge-sharing. Whether live or on-demand, webinars allow mentors to teach, advise and share with a multitude of participants from all over the world. According to HubSpot, viewers in 2020 watched triple the number of webinars than they did in 2019 and the global webinar market is estimated to reach 800 million by 2023, strong evidence that webinars are in demand and hugely beneficial to viewers.

Mentors who tap into the potential of webinar tools can inspire, drive and empower entrepreneurs in an engaging and provocative way because they have a captive, interested audience who wants to learn from them and can do so remotely.

Videos that live online allow mentees to access the content at any time. YouTube has become an extremely popular content repository and mentors on the platform even have their own channels. It is important when creating YouTube mentorship content to ensure that your videos remain engaging always keeping the purpose of the video in mind and using tools such as titles and subtitles to underpin messaging. One of the greatest advantages of YouTube is the analytics that it provides. Content creators can measure viewership, click-throughs, time spent viewing, subscriber growth, demographics and audience retention to name but a few.

Statistics show that app downloads shot up by 23.3% during the pandemic. With the advent of remote working and unprecedented mobile engagement, apps are a tool that all businesses can leverage to their advantage and the advantage of their employees. Whether it’s using Zoom to engage with mentees, MicroMentor to connect small business owners with business mentors, WhatsApp to chat or Slack to create shared work environments, making mentorship accessible is easier than ever before.

Mentorship isn’t a one-way street. The most successful mentorship programmes allow for learning and engagement. It’s also not a one size fits all and each mentee is a unique individual with specific needs and wants. Customised email communication, whether following up on a session, checking on progress or presenting new material is one way to make sure that every individual in a mentorship programme feels seen, heard and nurtured.

According to halo.com, 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if they had mentorship programmes in place and 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentorship experience. So, there’s no question that mentorship isn’t merely a nice-to-have, it’s an essential tool that does and will continue to contribute to the success and growth of small businesses.