Last Updated on Mar 11, 2020 by James W
There you are with your business plan under your arm and a nervous half-smile plastered over your face as you wait outside your bank manager’s office. It’ll all be fine, you think to yourself. This proposal is dynamite. Just relax.
But then, after you’ve stepped into the office, you’re met with nothing more than a disinterested stare when the words “construction finance” leave your lips. Your bank manager checks his watch, stifles a yawn, looks out the window for a bit, then rejects your offer without so much as half a thought.
Tough break. Indeed, if you ask for any kind of capital for a building project, most lenders won’t even consider it. They’re simply deemed too risky.
Slouching home on the grey streets, all that carousels around your head is, What could I have done differently?
Well, here are some answers to that very question.
Look away from the banks
Where construction finance is thriving is in the realms of alternative finance. Essentially, alternative finance is an umbrella term consisting of crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, invoice discounting and, more to the point, construction finance.
It’s a world that’s grown into a multi-billion dollar industry as of late, making these companies less reticent than banks to part with cash for your business.
There are a host of different options for those interested in escaping a loan from the banks and trying something different.
Make a hard sell
When you’re making a business proposal, it’s not the time to become a fading wallflower.
Instead, you have to storm into proceedings like you’re Don Draper on an aspirational speech binge. Most of what a decent proposal amounts to is that initial ability to talk the talk and force your ideas into sounding energetic.
Extroverts always get one foot forward in life, so shed your shyness and present like a champ.
Make that plan bulletproof
Most business plans fail because, in a fit of excitement, they’ll move about five steps ahead of their initial outline. It’s easy to have pie in the sky dreams and, by all means, you shouldn’t be frightened of thinking about your business writ large.
But the financial backers you’ll be speaking to don’t need to hear about your wild, fantastical plans. They need to know that your finances will be anchored in some form of reality, not pioneered by someone revelling in their own phantasmagoria.
Your bank manager will be waiting with a figurative loaded gun when you start your proposal, ready to shoot holes in it at the first opportunity. Make sure that it’s robust enough to bear scrutiny and you’ll find it a whole lot easier to raise finance.
