Pitch to the Experts for funding assistance

The Artisan Food Trail has put together a panel of experts that could help you get that ‘leg-up’ with your food business.
Pitch to the Experts is a competition where the winning food business will receive up to a total of £10,000 worth of expert advice and help from the 10 members of the panel.

We’d like to introduce each of the panel members individually to give you a better understanding of their businesses and how they could help you.
There are also details of the prize they are offering to the Pitch to the Experts winner.

Today we introduce Assynt, experts in crowdfunding…

Assynt is a new generation of advisory chartered accountancy practice. One of its main services is to help growing businesses with their funding requirements by finding the most appropriate form of funding whether that is traditional or alternative ways at the least cost.
Traditional bank lending has not disappeared it’s just more difficult to raise the money now, especially if you have no security to offer. So a well-structured business plan is a vital part of the requirements which will help you to raise the funds you require to grow your business.

Some alternative types of funding seek money from the crowd. It’s known as crowdfunding, that’s reward, equity or peer-to-peer funding.

One of the more successful type of businesses, which have been able to raise funds on crowdfunding sites, are food related businesses. All types of site have been successful in raising funds in this sector of the market. So you do stand a good chance of being successful!

The approach has to be different as you have to appeal to the Crowd and not just a bank manager and a credit committee.

With peer-to-peer funding you need to convince someone the money they lend to you is safe in your hands and will be returned to them with interest.

With equity crowdfunding you have to go further by convincing a third party to invest in your business where there is no security to support their investments. So, how are you going to do this if you do not appeal to them? The answer is to look at the fund raising exercise as more of a marketing campaign rather than just a fund-raising exercise.

So, to add to the chances of success you need to create a “following” who will be advocates for the before the fund-raising exercise begins.

It’s important to choose the right site and I know about these and can assess which of the many sites now listed are suitable for your business and is more likely to be successful in raising your funds.

The tasks then fall into three before the equity site will accept the proposal and publicise it on their site:

• A professionally produced video pitch explaining the business and why someone should invest in it
• A well written business plan which can be easily read. Remember most people have a short attention span so you must find the right words to attract and maintain their interest. It is not a plan which would be read by a bank manager but one read by the general public; and
• A set of numbers, that’s a balance sheet, profit and loss account and cash flow statement.

I would not profess to be an expert in making videos; however I do know a good business plan when I see it. I have read several over the years and can tell those that have been well researched and put together. I would not write it for you but would be a critical friend when reviewing it.

Once you have a fair idea of how the plan looks we need to put together some numbers. I can help you as I have been involved in many fund raising exercises and have a template which can be adapted to provide the sites with the information they require.

The Prize

• If a large, growing business wins, we will be offering a full financial health check along with a written report identifying those areas where cost savings could be made along with a written report on the alternative means of funding the growth of the business.
• For a smaller, growing business, it will be a shorter financial health check with a review of the alternative sources of finance available to them for funding the growth of their business.

Web: www.assyntcf.co.uk
Email: Andrew Watkin – awatkin@assyntcf.co.uk
Tel: 07860 898452
LinkedIn Andrew Watkin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrewwatkin
LinkedIn Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/assynt-corporate-finance-limited?trk=top_nav_home

For more information about the Pitch to the Experts competition read our article where you will also find the links to submit your pitch to win up to £10,000 worth of help and advice for your food business.