The best time to find investors for your company

If you are a prospective business owner you may be wondering if there is a good time to seek out potential investors for your business. You may be surprised to learn that there is a particularly good time-the holiday season. However, many business owners feel that there is no reason to try and gain investors around the holiday season. But the reality is that many investors are still active during the holiday season. They generally do not look at the holiday as a time to take off.Even better, because so many people actually believe this no-hire/no-fund myth, deal flow for investors around the holidays usually drops off dramatically which then means they may actually be looking for businesses to fund. Because of this trend it can lead to some once-a-year opportunities for the savvy entrepreneur who knows how to take advantage of the situation. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your holiday investors:

• Now is the time to do your homework. If you want increase your odds of being successful the first thing you should do is some research and find out which investors are looking for your type of deal. Business experts advise that you should go to your own business plan and read the competition section. Keep in mind that if you are in a "hot" space, surely there have been other companies that have gone before you and received funding. You can also look for PR releases to find out all the investors who are investing in companies in your space and then either send your executive summary to them unsolicited or find a way to network an introduction to them. This extra effort can pay big dividends (especially around the holidays). In addition if you are lucky enough to have a product that can be sent as a sample, now is the time to do so. Even investors receive gifts and these are the packages that get opened first. A word of caution-do not go overboard and send them anything extravagant (like 100 samples of your product) when one would do.
• Focus on networking-The reality is that when a potential investor attends a networking event throughout most of the year, usually two things are true: the real decision-makers are not there and those who do come are not really expecting to find anything. During the holidays, if there's a chance for a reverse of this trend-now is the time. The decision-makers are more likely to attend because they are hoping to find something with potential. Just be careful and treat them like normal people and give them your best pitch along with your card. If they give you one of their cards and/or they ask you to call them for an appointment, do not blow it. You should act as if you get these invitations all the time and then promise you will get back to them as soon as you can.
• This may be the time to try a "blanket" mailing-Keep in mind that investors who would not even think of reading an unsolicited business plan or executive summary may do so now. When deal flow is light, investors will actually resort to reading (or at least skimming) some of the plans that come to them without an introduction. It is important to understand that they are much too busy to do this most of the year, but from December to mid-January is a much slower period for them, making it much more likely that they will have the time to read your business plan. One key to a blanket mailing is to do the little extra research necessary to address your mailing to a "real" person. "To whom it may concern" just will not work. Keep in mind that if you can find the person most likely to have an interest in your sector of the business, they will not only read your plan, they will "get it."