You strongly believe that this map could solve all your problems in retaining your talented key employees, and all you need is unlimited cash to capture bigger market shares.

Why would you not want a map that could tell your investors how much you are worth now and what is in for them after a year investing in you? Because they will be 99% confident in your equity funding mission. How about the 1% left? Well, this all depends on how you consciously pitch to them and handle their doubts.

You are tired of working hard on generating profits on the consumer market, as compared you could easily get funded on the capital market, because of you have the deep knowledge of market know-hows. Capitalism is good, easy and fair to society because your team will gain the rewards of your hard work. But, often people are rich, simply because they inherit wealth or are born into a privileged class.

Dr Jacob, a PhD in Engineering, got the first grant from the government to build a startup. He was stuck on the inability to expand his business, which was mainly due to the People problem – there was no expertise willing to lead the sales and marketing. However, if there is any, it resulted in a high turnover rate. His product was well accepted by the market and it was disruptive to the traditional business. Dr Jacob needed a lot of marketing funds to get the word out to consumers that his product could save more cost and time.

He learned that Equity Funding could solve both of his major problems: attracting talent and cash flow. He did a lot of research on how to pitch for funding and prepared a financial projection and marketing plans for five years in detail. Dr Jacob was still confused on what investors wanted and how the valuation made sense. He had no idea how to structure a clear message about his company's future. Yes, he is an engineering expert and is excellent with Mathematics, but the confusion on share dilution and funding structure did not escape him. He attended seminars and he was still unable to make a plan for raising funds. He heard attendees who use the trainer’s method to raise funds successfully in the 1st stage, and got stuck on the 2nd round of funding. Dr Jacob was greedy to raise more than enough and as a result, the company was overvalued at the 1st stage itself. Due to this, he realised that raising money is so easy, but all he needed was a funding roadmap that was more realistic.

He started to desire the right expertise to plan for him, as he needed a chief marketing officer to boost the business to the market fast. The right person to lay his plan would be a CFO, who was capable of handling investor relationships and providing financial strategic plans to transform business. The CFO coached and consulted on what he wanted to achieve in his future timeline. With mapping done across his business plan into a financial plan with reverse engineering, Dr Jacob had his eyes wide open instantly – that is what I can actually do so easily!

The numbers will tell the story of what you will achieve. What if you failed to reach your target, where unexpected circumstances arise? Investors that trust you would constantly be supporting you if you are genuine; unless you are a con-artist who turns this into an unethical fundraising. As long as it is ecological, I strongly believe leveraging SMART investors’ SMART money with your SMART goals is what every entrepreneur should learn.

There are people learning the FRM who became overwhelmed with their valuation at the 1st miracle stages, but they got stuck and then failed to proceed to the next stage. I see that commonly happening among some education platforms for entrepreneurs, and this will strongly destroy their reputation. I want to emphasise that trustworthy is so, so important, because anyone can get SMART money; but the next thing you need is to make sure you have a strategy to deliver what you promised. Hence, I recommend having a Strategic Road Map (SRM) to bring your people towards the milestones planned.

5 years seem like a long way to go – so, can your FRM be done for a duration of 3 years instead of 5 years? Yes you can, I have coached a boss who has a strong foundation in business, and he could actually achieve that. You might say I am in a traditional business without using technology, I cannot raise funds; investors are more interested in disruptive technology businesses. I can prove you wrong! Just look at SHARK TANK and DRAGON DEN – regardless of technology, investors are more interested in investing in honest people, like you and me.

I know some of you do not dream of raising an IPO, and that is alright. This Cash FundedOn™ formula is for those who are also open to the idea of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). For instance, if someone offers to acquire your business in year 3, you could use V(F3), the Valuation at 3rd funding stage, as a basis for negotiation before a proper due diligence procedure is carried out.

If you still cannot picture your funding road map, this could mean you have limiting beliefs on your future profits, revenues and valuation. Cleaning up any past memories not consistent with what you want, and getting a business coach with the skills in timeline therapy could be helpful for you or refer to my book NEXT LEVEL BOSS - THE SECRETS for more.