The KoiGroup

Looking for funding? Many of you in the Group write to me about getting funding, so I thought I'd do a post just on this. Here are some approaches:

LOCAL INVESTOR:

If you are a small SME, try getting a successful businessperson in your community, who ideally knows your industry, to invest in your company as a way of "paying it forward". Look for someone who is prepared to also mentor you - as this help can be even more valuable than their funding. Mentoring you will also help them ensure that you can repay their investment!

FINFIND:

Looking further out, use FinFind's great free service to help you find ways of funding. You complete a short online questionnaire and FinFind then suggests funding that matches your specific needs. More at FinFind.

SEDA and Black Umbrellas:

Both these organisations work directly with entrepreneurs to help them get funding - make an appointment with someone in your nearest branch and they will give you good guidance. SEDA is the government's Small Enterprise Dev Agency, and Black Umbrellasis supported by the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation and works with 100% black owned businesses. More at SEDA and Black Umbrellas.

FUNDING POSTS in the KOIGROUP:

We have many posts in the KoiGroup about specific funding opportunities for entrepreneurs. Browse through these to see if something is a match for you.

Be INVESTMENT READY:

Finding funding opportunities is not enough (or even the hard part). Most funders will require you to be “investment-ready” - meaning that your company already has a number of things in place. These include being properly registered, having a realistic business plan in place, and having proper systems in place for accounting etc. This is a lot of work. One of the best ways to get investment ready is to get into a PROGRAMME that will help you with this:

Get into a PROGRAMME:

One of the best ways to find funding (and to make sure that your business is acceptable for funding, ie investment-ready) is to get into a good Programme with an organisation that supports entrepreneurs. Browse through the group to find a suitable programme.

Black Umbrellas, mentioned above, also runs programmes, and runs regular free "orientation" sessions across the country to tell you about their programmes - look for these on their Facebook page.

Pitch at a PITCHING SESSION:

SEDA and other organisations often run Pitching events across the country, where you stand up and give a five minute "pitch" about your company. Don't worry if you've never pitched or stood up and talked about your business before, the event usually starts with a training session to teach you how to pitch (Koi has run many of these across South Africa). The judges are usually from banks and other funding organisations, and if they like your business will help you get funding. You can also win prizes in Pitching competitions (eg a lady running a clothing manufacturing company in Cape Town won R600k for new machinery in a SEDA competition I helped run).

You can find posts about Pitching events in the KoiGroup.