Are you in a position where you are looking for investment for your business to help you grow, scale or possibly survive? Today's Start Scale Succeed podcast is with Babs Jamieson founder of Jamieson Law, she joins Nicole to cover what you as a brand need to have in place to be investor ready. Babs has been a guest on the podcast in the past where she spoke about copywriting and trademarking, but today the topic is investments.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Babs set up Jameson Law about three years ago now. Originally in the UK and then expanded into Ireland. They are essentially helping small business owners and startups to get all their legalities in place, speaking in plain English, not legal jargon and telling you what you need to know.
Getting investor ready is making sure that your business is in a position where an investor wants to invest in it, that the process is going to be straightforward, and that they're not going to uncover something that terrifies them and makes them run away.
Due diligence is when investors will ask questions and root around your documentation. The length of that process and what they're going to find are going to be quite different. But regardless of where you are in that stage, they will be looking for certain things and they'll expect you to have taken certain steps.
If they don’t like what they find then they could pull out of the deal or might try and take more equity for less money. They might offer you less money for the same amount of equity or they might pause the investment until you go and fix all the issues.
The things investors will look for in terms of documentation is if you've registered as a company properly. You've registered with the Information Commissioner's Office for GDPR, 99% of businesses need to register with the Information Commissioner's Office. So if you think it doesn't apply to you, it does. You register at ico.org.uk. It should cost you 40 pounds a year.
The second part is about making sure that you've got good client contracts in place, or terms and conditions. So if you're an eCommerce provider or you're selling a kind of downloadable software or something like that, an investor will ask to see your standard terms and conditions.
A UK trademark takes about three to four months. Same for an EU one. A US trademark can take about a year. So they don't expect you to have a registered trademark if you're just starting, but they expect your application to be in and for it all to be going well.
BEST MOMENTS
‘I think sometimes people, they're afraid of that legal side and, afraid of what they don't know or think that they're gonna be bombarded with jargon’
‘If an investor is going to open the car bonnet into your business and dig in, what are they going to find?’
‘The negotiation of the legal documents could take six weeks or it could take six months, you never know’
EPISODE RESOURCES
Babs on LinkedIn
Jamiesonlaw.legal
@babsjamiesonlaw on Instagram
facebook.com/barbara.jamieson.52
Legal Leverage Podcast
VALUABLE RESOURCES
www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.tiktok.com/@thebuyerandretailcoach
https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
ABOUT THE HOST
Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line.
Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM)
Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme: thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist
CONTACT METHOD
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