Dr. Earl R. Smith II

It had been some time since our last meeting. An e-mail showed up indicating that she was ready to sit down and talk. When we began the engagement neither of us was sure where things were going or where they might end up. Our last meeting – some weeks back – had started with some tension in the air. My coaching client had made a successful career as an entrepreneur. She sold her companies and made a lot of money. After a brief ‘vacation’ from business, she began to cast around for her ‘next life’. After some reflection she had decided to become an angel investor.

One of the most frustrating things about getting a business off the ground, up and running, is the money chase. There seems to be no end to the meetings without tangible results or the polite ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ responses to a polished and passionate presentation.

Most entrepreneurs dream of the day that the investor’s check clears and they have the funding to grow their business. It is a day that they struggle to achieve. Most put in long hours of preparation. They polish and re-polish their elevator speech and dog-and-pony show. The slide stack is revised and re-revised. The diligent ones even look to their own performance and appearance during the presentations to find ways to improve results and finally greet that sunrise on funding day.

I recently sat in on a gab fest of entrepreneurs and wannabee entrepreneurs. The subject of investors and how best to approach them came up and I was taken aback by what I heard.

“So what are we going to talk about this time?” The question had a bit of an edge. I could tell that she was apprehensive about the focus of the next hour. Our last session, a week past, had highlighted a basic problem in her approach to investing.

It was one thing to reach an agreement on the focus and goals of the coaching engagement but another to actually kick the process in gear. I could tell by her body language that the CEO was nervous about getting into the thick of things.

Towards the end of my session with the CEO, she asked me to propose an engagement focused on fixing the problems which we had been discussing. “Help me drive the ‘of course’ beast off the field,” was the way she put it.

Many of my engagements begin with a phone call from an investor. Most often they are concerned that the company they funded is in real trouble and/or is teetering on the brink.

When I first started this series of articles I had no idea that it would extend to seven. I also did not anticipate the level of interest in the topic. Many who read the opening article had not thought of the question ‘how does my company stack up against a professional definition of investment grade’.

Very few entrepreneurs take the time to really study their company from the perspective of an investor. Those that do are often initially frustrated by what they see as a heartless and antiseptic assessment of the object of their passion and dedication.