Raising Finance Talks
Helping property developers raise finance from private investors so they can grow and scale their property business!
Raising Finance Talks
Attract investment for your property developments without going networking
In this episode we discuss:
- How to find investors without networking
- Nervousness around networking
- How many people are genuinely interested in networking every week
- The importance of network
- The value of having a strong network
- How to raise money from networking
- The importance of building trust with your investors
- No more pitching or being pitched at!
For all of our FREE resources join our Facebook Community:
bit.ly/rfclub
If you have any questions or would like us to cover any subject to do with raising finance then please let us know. You can DM us on:
https://www.instagram.com/raisingfinanceclub/
https://www.facebook.com/raisingfinanceclub
Hey guys, you're listening to raising finance talks with Sam and Al. We are on an absolute mission to help developers raise their first billion from investors. So they can go on and do deals with six figure profits.
Sam:So if you're not moving forward with your property business, or a lack of cash than this podcast is for you, we're going to seek dive into all aspects of raising private finance. So thanks for listening, and let's dive in.
Al:Welcome to this week's episode, everyone, this is all about how to find investors without going networking. And the reason we brought this to you at this moment is a few people have asked us about finding investors and how we go about that. And something we wanted to talk about was, all the money you ever need is in your phonebook. So if you don't like networking, and you don't have time to do it, or you're just pretty shit at talking to someone in a sort of really quick environment, then you don't have to go. And that's what we're trying to get through to you guys as well.
Sam:Yeah, there's plenty of other options out there. So we're gonna get stuck into chat and free, plenty of them.
Al:Sounds good. So, mate, there are quite a few problems sort of we've encountered or we've observed from people we speak to, just generally, that we know are out there. So
Sam:myself very much included in that. Yeah, me
Al:too. Me too, especially in the early days, when you sort of you're new to the whole property world. And you actually think, you know, that is the only place to find someone, and you come across all these sort of problems and issues and you know, just genuinely just not really liking it. So
Sam:yeah, can be a real sticking point. Yeah, I think feeling like you've got limited options. And thinking, you know, I must find someone at a networking event, that's where people are with money, or I need to find an angel investor. So we just want to get old Angel, good old angels. Yeah, only
Al:at networking events. So yeah, let's, let's talk about the problem. So we've got a few on a list, we're just going to fly through them. And just just to sort of get them out there so that you guys know that you're not alone. We've been through these things. And obviously, people we work through or work with go through these things as well. So yeah, you want to start off Sam.
Sam:Yeah, I mean, a big one for me, when I sort of first started in property, was spending a lot of time just feeling really nervous about going to networking events. Sweaty palms, sweaty palms. Yeah. Yeah, I had this idea in my head that everyone who went to them was kind of all suited and booted, had lots of properties, lots of money. And yeah, I just got kind of nervous around that, or I thought everyone was from the corporate world. And I was, you know, still doing building work at that time. And just something I kind of created in my head that I got quite nervous around and didn't really look forward to the events, and quite often didn't really enjoy them when I was at them as well.
Al:Yeah, I've had similar experiences to I guess, you build it up what it might be like, and, you know, it's it is nerve racking, because it's just a room full of people. And if you are new to it, or, well, if you're new to property, or if you're new to networking in general, and it's not your forte, because there's a lot of people that just don't like talking to loads of different people all at the same time. It's definitely something that people can get nervous about. So the other one is time constraints, isn't it? And sort of you you have to sort of go somewhere, you have to be somewhere you have to take time out of your day. I don't know about you. But you know, I know there are lots of networking events in the daytime, but majority of them are in the evenings. I've got two young kids, like you're taking time away from family time. It's, you know, it's it's a constraint, right, and something that people feel like they have to do.
Sam:Yeah, exactly. And if it's if it's something you are sort of taking time away from your family for maybe the evenings or late afternoons, you're not doing maybe school pickups or having that time after school, then you know, that can be a real pain point. And especially if you're not looking forward to it, and then you go and you feel like it was maybe didn't go that well, or you just got stuck speaking to one person for half an hour about rent or rent when you were really trying to look for someone who was interested in developments, but you weren't able to get away. You know, just want to talk to
Al:you about their development. Yeah, instead of the whole idea of being there, which is actually I'm going here to, you know, obviously build out the network. But really, I want to raise some money, like this is obviously where we're coming from, you know, if you want to raise money, there are easier ways to do it and go networking. So I mean, that segues real nicely into the next bit. So the problem is you take all that time out, don't you? And then you spend you know, however many nights a month out networking away from your family away from whatever it is you sort of doing that time and And then when you get in the room, it's not that targeted most of the time. Yeah, there's there aren't. I mean, there is money, don't get me wrong, and people will argue till they're blue in the face. But our sort of position on this and stance is very much that, you know, we're gonna raise money, and is it as targeted as other things that you could be doing? And sometimes it's not right.
Sam:No, exactly. I mean, if you're, if you're going into a networking event, then chances are 90% Plus, I would say, That's my figure. I'll just made up right now. Official stat, let me just no reference for that. But yeah, that's my stat. Yeah, more than, you know, at least 90% of the people there in that room are going to be looking to raise money as well. And they probably aren't going to be too many people in there who are interested in investing with other people. That's just my experience of networking events. Yeah,
Al:well, yeah, it's mine, too. I need to get pitchy, you have to be pitchy, you have to get to the point really quickly, it's very hard to build the relationship before you start getting into all of that, you know, chit chat around, you know, the percentages and returns, which is the opposite way in which we do not to mention that there are so many people in networking events just shouting out about, like, here's, here's my 8%, which we're not even allowed to do, you know, bear with us another episode for another day. But yeah, it's really, really key, that it's just not as targeted as things that we would maybe choose to do.
Sam:Yeah. And I think, a big one, when you're going out and speaking to new people, obviously, they're out, you know, they're just new people, you're speaking to them, no, no knowledge of who you are and what you do. Yeah. So it's gonna take a lot longer to build up that relationship with someone to a point where you think there might be someone who would invest or you know, they're interested in you and vice versa. Whereas you can also do things a little bit differently, where, like you say, it can be just more targeted, speaking to people that you already know,
Al:yeah, no, definitely. But mate, there's no alternative is there? Like, there's nowhere else like I have to go networking, that is also a bit of a bullshit statement as well. I mean, we talked a bit about that, and the other points, but there are so many options, and so much, like quicker options to raise money as well. So that's something that we're going to delve into.
Sam:There's definitely a place for networking, and it can be a good thing to do. But not if you want to raise finance quickly.
Al:Yeah, and that's the whole point, guys here that that's kind of what we're trying to allude to is that, you know, speed is of the essence, we all want to move in to where we want to go relatively quickly. And if that is the case, and you do feel like networking is the only option, then we're here to say that it just isn't. So with that in mind that I mean, like you said, there is a place for networking. But let's delve into like some of the solution based sort of stuff that we can bring to the table to help people sort of, you know, what else is there? What else can I do? What what are the other options? So we can delve into that? We did say at the beginning, there is one thing that I said right at the start of this, which is all the money you need is in your phone book. And this is something when you talk about speed, this is the quickest, easiest, just simplest way to get out there and start raising money.
Sam:I've got a big smile on my face is certainly true for me. And yeah, it works really well. I think we're just we're speaking about this earlier, where when I started raising finance started working with our I thought, No, I don't know, I'm a builder. You know, it's Bob, the roofer and Gary, the plaster in my phone book. And, you know, no one else has got any money that I know. But sure enough, we've spent time delving into that a bit further. And I didn't I think I've been to one networking event in the past few years. But you actually
Al:check that just in case. Yeah. November 2017.
Sam:Wasn't Yeah, they started working together, like a month or two before that. Yeah, and I haven't been that work in since and I raised over 10 million. And within the first eight months, that was like 4 million. Yeah, so just shows you, you know, I spent time going into my phonebook. And I found all the money there and haven't done any networking since.
Al:Yeah. And it just shows and I think that if you think about the lead time of that, you know, it just happened or in a space of, I don't know, not that many months and to be able to go out and just really targeted and raise money from people that you already and this is the thing people you already have built up that know like and trust with and that's what makes it quicker. That's what makes it you know, The speed element of it kicks in because as long as you know, and we've got loads of episodes on this, how to attract investors. So if that is a sticking point, always go back and reference those previous episodes, because there's a lot in there that can help you do that. But once you know how to get that attention, and that interest from someone, you know, you can really start ramping up those conversations and having those chats and, you know, getting to the point of interest really, really quickly. And I think that's really, really key,
Sam:yes, just saves a lot of time from, you can go and start texting people that you already know. And like you say, the trust is already there, they know you, they probably know that you're starting to get involved in property, or you've done a couple of developments, or you already own a couple of bites or lettuce or HMOs. So they've already got a bit of an idea about how you operate and how you do things and probably know your character. So it's a lot easier for them to decide, is there some Is there someone I might want to work with? And then you can get interest, yes or no, and then move forward from there. So, you know, saves a lot of time when when the trust and the relationship is already there. Yeah,
Al:no 100%, and it's low hanging fruit, isn't it? It's people that the, the thing is when because you've built all that up, and you've already got that relationship with them, they already know who you are, like, trust who you are, you are in a position where like you're converting, and I don't want to use the word conversion rate, but it kind of is, you know, you're trying to move them from, okay, I've got your attention. Now we're trying to work out if we're interested. And then we're obviously moving into the transactional side of things, once we've done all the things we need to do regulation wise, it's, it's really like the conversion is much quicker. Whereas in network, and you'd have to talk to hundreds of people just to get a very, very, very small number of them interested in even just having a conversation. You know,
Sam:that's it, I think, as well, like, that can be a bit of a mindset shift as well, you can that will be quite important is to just realise that there's a lot of people out there who wants to invest in property, you know, we live in England, everyone, everyone loves property. Everyone generally wants to be involved in some way. You know, they've heard about the returns, they read the newspaper articles over the years, they've seen how much property goes up on average, every few years, you know, people are interested. It's like a complete cultural thing in this country that
Al:unless you're a landlord, though, and then everyone just hates you. Of course, yeah.
Sam:But I think just based on my experience, you know, I thought when I started there, I'd have to go networking. And it would be, you know, a big angel investor or someone from the corporate world that would, you know, that would invest in me. And it's not, it's just people that I know, that are in my phonebook that are interested in investing. They might have been involved in property before they might not have. But they're just people that are gone out to and they became interested and then obviously invested. Yeah, no, definitely. So it doesn't have to be from angel investors. You can use them obviously. Yeah. But it doesn't have to be this. There's other routes you can use.
Al:Yeah, no, definitely. And I think having I think a lot of it, as well, as is our money and my phone book. First of all, I'm not sure like, trust me, I came from a, you know, a bad background, or, you know, there's someone that I don't know, just, I don't know, anyone, I've got no friends I got, my mom doesn't have any money. I know that for a fact, my dad doesn't have any money, I know that for a fact, all of these things start going through people's heads. And, and that's okay. And that's fine. Because it is a there is a fear around asking for money. And but that's not what you're going out to do when you do delve into your phonebook. And what I wanted to mention at this point is, we do have a free sort of resource, if attracting investors is a sticking point, and it's something that you're not sort of surely have, then we do have a free resource that can help you do that. And it's really, really sort of powerful. So, check in the show notes, the link will be in it. Just for you to delve into that should you need to or want to.
Sam:Yeah, I just wanted to touch on what you mentioned there about, you know, talking about your background and things like that. That was absolutely my position. You know, I grew up single parent family on a council of state money was scarce, you know, definitely got, you know, had some sort of negative views around money, especially when it came to the asking people for money. You know, just remember that, yeah, I wasn't into it, you know, we did plenty of work around that. So it's perfectly normal to have those kind of fears and worries. But it's definitely something that, you know, we work through and was a massive help for me. And it's been the same thing with some of our clients recently as well. Similar kind of issues. I think it's obviously very common for a lot of people to have those kinds of thoughts about money and you know, approaching other people
Al:Yeah, I'm in dangerous territory of like a complete segue into something else by accident here but but it It's true. Like if you're building that opportunity is what creates or what gets rid of that sort of fear, right? Like building the opportunity of you and the value of you and sort of what you bring to the table and why that's important to the investor. This is what we are literally, well, we are actually literally on almost on a rooftop preaching it right now. But that is what we shouting about all of the time, is taking the time to build that. So that when you are going out, you're not asking for money, you're positioning it in a very, very, very different way. And I think that's so vital to think about, and I'm not going to sort of go too far into that, because we've done episodes on how to build your opportunity and stuff like that. But it is it is really vital. So, I mean, let's talk about results, then like what would the result be? We've we obviously know what the problems are, we've been through those, we've talked a little bit about the solution, being people in the phonebook, you know, it's much quicker, there are other options out there to find investors, other than networking events, what would be the result then of going down that road? So you decide, look, there are people that love networking, and that is okay, by the way, we're not saying if you like network, and you have to stop, but there are also equally loads of people that hate it. And that's when we're giving I guess it just a different alternative. And that's what we're trying to share with you today. So yeah, the result of that go on, what are you gonna say,
Sam:Oh, just gonna say, obviously, if you love going network, and then great, I've got loads of great friends for that I've met from networking or different courses. But if you're going there to raise money, I think there's a lot more effective way you can be spending your time.
Al:Yeah. Well, and and also, if you do like it and you are going to raise money, then you know, I don't know, there's there's a there's a way of doing that as well. And being massively targeted in terms of, you know, where you go and what you say when you're there. But I mean, like I said, That's me, again, maybe that's another episode too. But for now, this is for those that just don't really like it, and don't feel it's a time on investment or return on time invested?
Sam:Yeah. So I think in terms of results, when you're going and speaking to people in your phonebook, you know, God knows how many people are in our phonebook. But I'm pretty sure that most of the people in my phonebook if they, if I didn't think they would be a typical investor, then I'm pretty sure that they know someone who who might be. So there's always a different approach you can take with people and, you know, find out if people are interested. And if they're not interested in are you do you know, anyone who might be interested, you know, it's always something we can ask as well. So if you think about all the numbers in your phonebook and all the people, then you've really, you've got a massive amount of investors, you know, on tap, essentially, yeah, you can turn on that tap and start texting people and putting yourself out there a bit more. And, you know, having meetings and just exploring, you know, what you do with other people. So, and by doing that, you'll get to find your ideal investors, when you start opening up conversations and finding out what people are interested in, or they're looking to do what they want to achieve, you know, their why essentially, then you start to connect with people on a bit of a deeper level rather than just percentages, and you'll be able to find the right investors for you. And you'll be able to, if it does, if there's something that works, then you'll be able to match them up with something that's the right investment for them.
Al:Yeah. Yeah. And I think also, around the topic of, you know, the ideal investors, we mentioned about networking being targeted, is it targeted, maybe it's not as targeted as it could be? This is super targeted, because you're able, based on the fact that, you know, these are your close sort of network of people in your phonebook, you're able to really sort of build like a nice profile of that person before you even commit to getting in contact with them. Yeah. And I think that's massive, because you just get quickly into the conversation that you want to get into, and you're not having to do the dance, you're not having to take ages warming people up, because you just know those people really, really well. So there's much like less friction. Getting into those conversations is what I feel as well has certainly been my experience, you know,
Sam:so I've only worked with people that were in my phonebook. Yeah. So all I know about that is it was pretty easy to work with them because they knew who I was. I knew them. Yeah. And not especially well, you know, one of them I hadn't spoken to, I'd only known him for about six or eight months. And I hadn't spoken to him for about I think two or three years before I got back in contact with him. And he became an investor. But yeah, we've worked together a little bit before just on a project to when I was doing building work. And we I just knew a bit about him. He knew a bit about me, he knew how I worked on was the building work. And he knew that I did good work, and I was looking to get involved in property. And then when I went back and had a chat with him, that was the link back. And it was just nice and easy. And, you know, we knew I didn't know him for a particularly long time. But we knew a bit about each other. So when it came to actually working together, it was just quite easy.
Al:Yeah, that's the that's the knock on effect, isn't it is you, when when you have that know, like trust, when it's someone that you already have that connection with, you've built a relationship with, the journey from there becomes a little bit easier as well, there's no, you know, the projects that you do together, they'll certainly be way less issues than there would be if it's a slightly more random relationship that you've built, or someone you don't know as well, is definitely going to have an impact on that.
Sam:And then you can see, then when you're doing the project, you can just focus on spending time on the project and not managing the other person. Yeah, as a big thing. I knew I never had to manage the other person, you know, they were there to help if I needed them on anything. But generally, it was just updating them and, you know, taking them through any any issues or just general progress. And they were always happy with that, though, because they knew me and they knew how it works. And what was what was happening at all times. So yeah, yeah, made it quite easy for the really easy relationship to have during and after the project. Yeah, I
Al:don't think you're giving yourself that much credit there, you're one of the things that you did really well is communicated with investors anyway, throughout projects. But I know exactly what you're saying in terms of that. It's definitely a thing that that comes out of, you know, going to people you already know. So 100% 100%.
Sam:And one of the good things with that as well, when you're meeting up with people that you already know. And I was generally doing that just during the day. So during my kind of normal, if you like, if I have got normal working hours. Do we just Yeah, not really. Yeah. Can be four in the morning can be 10 at night depends on what's going on sandwich kid wakes up? Actually. Yeah. So yeah, with that, I didn't have to spend evenings, spending an hour getting on the tube and going to a networking event in town or just travelling out to maybe somewhere that was like 45 minutes and drive away from my house to go to the networking event. So I wasn't having to spend my kind of valuable time going networking, I was just spending it, you know, having a lunch and maybe a couple of beers with people that I know.
Al:Yeah, and, but this is the thing, right, you're not spending the time going networking, then you're able to use that time for something more valuable. And something that's really going to move you forward. Because raising finance is no different to, you know, finding properties, you have a pipeline of some description, you can't just go out there and find one property and then your life changes, you've got to that that mechanism of finding properties have to has to keep going in the background. And raising finance is no different. Because this is another issue. And and this is another sort of thing that you can do is you use that time to build up the pipeline. So you're constantly having conversations with people that have come out of your phonebook, and you're just because they're already kind of warmed up to you as a person, you're able to warm them up in that sort of raising finance relationship as well. And I think using that time for that is just it would the impact that you can have on your business just by you know, utilising that time for something, you know, really targeted and quick and something that is going to get you that finance that you need. It's so so powerful.
Sam:Yes, a seriously effective way to spend your time isn't.
Al:And a final bit was just no more pitching or being pitched at? Yes.
Sam:Is that how you have lots of over?
Al:And I've got 27 properties? How many do you have? Isn't that weapons? That's my memory of
Sam:no one. No one's sung at me and like the gocompare Man's voice.
Al:I don't know where that came from. Yeah, that was that is something that you do not have to deal with anymore. If you don't want to,
Sam:you won't have to listen to the world. We have a Rottie networking anymore. That is
Al:going to be my nickname the Welsh Pavarotti that is it done. So let's just recap through it. That was a lot of stuff. Obviously, we've gone through the sort of the issues that that might be occurring with it. If you don't like networking, we've gone through some solutions in the middle. And then we've talked about what the result would be of those solutions. So that's the overview. Again, in terms of recap, can't we can't sort of stress this enough. All the money you need is in your phonebook. Like we can say that with total confidence, you know, Sam, raise 10 million by doing this. So this is not bullshit. This is this is how it is. And I think that's really vital too. I just sort of think about,
Sam:yeah, and that's part of the reason why we offer people a guarantee when they work with us because we're, we just know all the money you needs in your phonebook. So we always offer a guarantee to people, they'll raise money. And if they don't raise the money in that time, we'll carry on working with them until they do because we know it's all in the phonebook.
Al:Yeah, unusually, if it's if there is issues, it's more, it's more to do with us as people not not the phonebook, and our fears and concerns around it. And that's what we work with people on anyway. So that's all good. And you're just saving time as well by not having to go networking. And you know, just this parting, sort of line really, of everyone is a potential investor until they're not. So if you view your phonebook like that, then you can have a really, really different outlook on how this whole process look,
Sam:it's gonna open up a whole new world of opportunities. We
Al:really enjoyed sort of sending that one out. So yeah, just thanks for listening. And you know, subscribe, as always, we've picked up some new Listen, listeners. I think
Sam:we have indeed, yeah, had a nice, nice new bunch of new downloads this week, or like, big increase in downloads. So thank you, everyone, for listening.
Al:That's amazing. Yeah, thanks, guys.
Sam:If you want to attract investors without asking for money, check out raising finance club.com for our free resources. And you can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at raising finance club