Securing new business investment/funding

[sidekickdmr]

Evening,

Some of you may recall that we have been working away to get our new countryside retreat/treehouse business up and going for over a year now, well last month we finally got the full planning permission so we are now starting to set things in motion.

Part of this is securing funding, the business bank we currently use for our contracting has previously indicated they should be willing to lend on it, but before we just proceed down this route, we want to consider other options.

We need approx 90k of investment, we have good healthy projections and a growth plan, and this is a proven successful business model.

We have and will continue to invest a fairly substantial sum of money ourselves too, so not looking for someone else to take all the risk.

And obviously being a property/land based business there are tangible assets, rather than just stock or a website.

What other avenues should we be exploring for funding?

Any recommendations for an investment advisor service or something to guide us through the options?

Thank you.

[951TSE]

This website may help you with information http://startups.co.uk/thestartupseries/ they also have a seed funding competition although I'm not sure it's running at the moment.

Have you tried your local council for regeneration funding? I know we're leaving the EU but that's still 2 years down the road so funds should still be available until then. Your profile says you're in Devon so these would be your local ones but if they're not correct then I'm sure there are similar schemes in your local area.
https://new.devon.gov.uk/fundingnews/
https://www.investdevon.co.uk
http://drcompany.co.uk/home-2/

[C Lee Farquar]

No idea on finance but congratulations on getting the planning, did you do it youself?

[sidekickdmr]

951TSE said:

This website may help you with information http://startups.co.uk/thestartupseries/ they also have a seed funding competition although I'm not sure it's running at the moment.

Have you tried your local council for regeneration funding? I know we're leaving the EU but that's still 2 years down the road so funds should still be available until then. Your profile says you're in Devon so these would be your local ones but if they're not correct then I'm sure there are similar schemes in your local area.
https://new.devon.gov.uk/fundingnews/
https://www.investdevon.co.uk
http://drcompany.co.uk/home-2/

Thanks, I am indeed in Devon so I will take a look into these.

C Lee Farquar said:

No idea on finance but congratulations on getting the planning, did you do it youself?

Thank you, it was a good day when we heard we got the permission

We did use a planning consultant/architect, but managed/controlled it all ourselves.

[sidekickdmr]

Anyone else any ideas?

Angel investors worth looking into?

[RanchoGrande]

sidekickdmr said:

Anyone else any ideas?

Angel investors worth looking into?

What would be the return for an investor at this level?

[48k]

PH timeshares? :-)

[sidekickdmr]

RanchoGrande said:

What would be the return for an investor at this level?

That depends on how its all worked out, terms, equity/no equity etc, not really the kind of thing you can say they will get back £XXXX

48k said:

PH timeshares? :-)

I did consider crowd funding, giving people various options of funding levels from a thank you for a couple of quid, to a ultimate luxury champagne arrival, defender hire, boat trip, fully catered romantic weekend package.

Not too clued up on the crowd funding side though and it seems messy, But still something to think about.

[sidekickdmr]

Nobody is aware of a business investment advice service?

Happy to pay someone to sit down and talk through options of course, just seems odd that there are IFA's for ISA's, mortgages and insurances, but none for investments.

[loafer123]

If you can't tell them how much they might make, you won't get their attention.

The size is small, so local HNWI might be an idea...try local financial advisors who could hook you up for a fee.

You need to have a clear business case and exit route for them at the end of their investment period.

However, if your bank will lend it, due to the other assets you have, that will almost certainly be the cheapest option.

[ozzuk]

Out of interest (as I'm looking to do something similar) did you fund your original purchase on a residential mortgage? If so, did they raise any concerns when you mentioned running holiday business from the property?

I bought a holiday business many years ago and needed a commercial mortgage. Now I'm thinking of buying a residential farm to run campsite type business (eco aspect) but not sure if I'll be able to get a residential mortgage if I tell them my grand plans...

Wishing you success though, awesome project!

[ReaderScars]

sidekickdmr said:

Not too clued up on the crowd funding side though and it seems messy, But still something to think about.

It's a full time job to prepare, create and maintain a crowdfunding campaign with the intention that it's going to succeed (rather than use the platform to evaluate a project, which some seem to do) and although you might only run it for 30 days, the prep required is substantial. I've read others experiences where they promoted for 12 months prior to launching.

You can pay campaign managers to run them for you but despite their claims of high success rates, they want paid in advance and whether the campaign is successful or not. One quote I received was for something like £28k for three month's management.

No doubt DonkyApple will respond to this google alert for 'crowdfunding pistonheads' before long.

[berlintaxi]

Depends how much equity you have but these people are worth a chat;

https://www.folk2folk.com

[PistonBroker]

I've used Funding Circle a couple of times now and they've been great.

Can't vouch for him as such, but I bumped into a chap call Russell Pawson when visiting a client in Newton Abbot a few months ago. He mentioned property was what they're all about;

http://www.alternativemoneysolutions.co.uk/

Based in Uffculme according to his card.

Best of luck!