Funding can be messy, let’s Spring Clean the process!
Spring has sprung in South Africa and it is the perfect season for business owners to do some spring cleaning. It’s time to clean the books, the business strategy, or even re-assess whether the business is investor-ready.
This is usually the time of year when business owners, project owners, and entrepreneurs come to us and say: “We want to raise capital”, but they don’t necessarily know where on the Capital Raising spectrum they fall. They are usually very passionate about their projects and expect to raise capital or get into the capital raising process a lot sooner than they are actually ready to. The reality is that, no matter how big or small the business is, when they approach us there’s usually still a lot of cleaning up to do before they reach the readiness stage.??
We’ve noted that these are the areas most clients need help with when they get to us:
Uzenzele offers two products to help you unpack where you are on the capital raising spectrum and provide you with the guidance to spring clean your operations in managing the project according to funders’ requirements.
1. Strategise to Capitalise
Strategise to Capitalise is essentially a process where we take the business owner through understanding various elements about what it’s going to take to be able to access specific capital. When establishing a new business, the owners often overlook what needs to be put in place to be appealing to funders.?Strategise to Capitalise?helps new businesses understand what they need to consider to be better positioned to access funding at various stages of the company life cycle. This product is also very valuable for established businesses that are looking to launch a new product or division.?
Through the process, we help structure the development of a capital-raising strategy, taking into account capital markets, technical requirements, the environment, and funder mandates. This product help business owners identify what the best way is to bring on partners, structure their new business development, go to market and structure the project (is it one phase, several phases, broken down, one project or two). In a nutshell, how can they maximise the funding that is available in the market to get their project that much further, that much faster!
The Strategise to Capitalise solution looks at what funding is in the market, what the business owner wants to achieve, and what needs to be done to maximise, take advantage of and unlock the funding that sits within reach of the company.
2. Bankability Due Diligence
Bankability Due Diligence goes into the guts of understanding where within the regulatory framework the project is sitting – have you got the necessary approvals, have you got what’s necessary to do what needs to be done, where are you sitting in terms of the commercial elements of your project, have you got the appropriate markets both from a supply and demand perspective, have you got the appropriate corporate structures in place, have you identified your site and is that site compliant with the relevant environmental requirements and zoning permits, does that site have access to services like power, water, and road access – feeling overwhelmed yet??
We understand how intense it can be and that’s why we offer this service to help you clean up the process. By breaking down all of those questions for our clients it helps us demonstrate to them how far down the road they truly are in terms of being ready to access the funding and gives them specific guidance on what they still need to do to really improve their chances of successfully raising the funds.
We understand that the funding application process can be messy and daunting and that’s why we know that you need some help cleaning it up. Since it is Spring cleaning season – don’t suffer in silence, get in touch and let us help you shine.?