When approaching an investor you have to be clear on your terms. “As an investor, I am looking to understand your future financial logic” says Waceke Nduati, founder of Centonomy, a wealth building training company based in Nairobi, Kenya. She continues, “I need to understand this based on your volumes, this being the amount of sales you are going to make or the number of customers you are going to bring in for the services you provide. I need to understand your ability to price at a premium which can be explained as the highest possible price. I need to understand if your income is recurrent, say by form of retainers, or is it sporadic”.

According to Waceke, an investor wants to invest in your business because of the future, not because of your history. The investor will thus gauge your ‘investability’ based on how many customers you currently have, and how many you will have in the future depending on your current and projected capacity to recruit and serve them.

An investor also needs to know how much money you need and why particularly that amount. What exactly are you going to do with that amount and how much more money are you going to make with that investment? Your past may be impressive but what investors really need to know is what’s in it for them moving forward.

To close it off, Waceke says, “Just keep it simple”.

Waceke Nduati was a guest at Un.thinkable roast (our monthly 10X Growth Challenges Leaders meet-up) in March 2020. Click here to apply for membership in Un.thinkable.