Financial "guardian angel". How and where to look for sponsors for a business? How to look for sponsors to start a business Find a sponsor to start a business

Finding a philanthropist or sponsor, as they are also called in business, financial guardian angels, is accessible to everyone, regardless of their occupation. An athlete, an artist, a lawyer or an entrepreneur - financial patronage today is available to anyone, the main thing here is to interest the sponsor...

At first glance, the process of interaction with sponsors is quite simple. For the provided equipment, money for start-up capital or other benefits provided by the sponsor, the user of such services gives the right to use his talents together with opportunities in a type of activity that is profitable or promising for the sponsoring company.

However, do not forget that with a lucrative contract, the user of sponsorship services also has a lot of additional obligations.

The main goal of such relationships is to obtain a stable and profitable return. In particular, while investment consumers dream of developing their own business, investors...

First of all, the main goal of sponsors who agree to finance a business idea is dividends. Moreover, they are by no means always expressed as a monetary equivalent.

In turn, almost always an entrepreneur who wants to have sponsorship support should be prepared for the possible sale of his interests to another company that would be willing to finance the project.

The main condition for providing sponsorship support is the attractiveness of the project directly to the target audience, and therefore to the investor too. You can find a sponsor or a project for investment here:

Sponsor information

A sponsor is attracted by presenting a business plan or a company that requires additional investment in order to develop its own project. However, this is not enough. To carry out successful interactions with an investor, first of all, it is necessary to have information about him.

Experienced businessmen believe that if you know where to turn for financial support, then 50% of business success is already guaranteed. It is better to look for a sponsor directly at the place where you are implementing your own business ideas. In this case, the choice of sponsor will be entirely up to the applicant for financial support.

It is unlikely that third parties will be able to make the right decision. Only the manager or founder of a business understands what exactly is required for its successful further development. Having chosen a particular company, it is worth clarifying what other sponsorship support it provides.

If the sponsor has no previous experience of interacting with similar projects, it should be assumed that this company has a complete lack of experience in this field of activity. Specialized websites are considered an excellent assistant in finding a potential sponsor for a business and collecting information about them.

Such resources not only provide offers, but also allow the sponsorship applicant to develop a personal profile in order to attract financial partners to support the business or its organizations.

Start of negotiations with the sponsor

Once a company has been selected, negotiations should begin. This should be done directly with the head of the selected sponsoring company, or with the marketing director, of course, if the enterprise structure has such a position.

A number of companies specializing in the provision of sponsorship services employ managers specifically for sponsorship support, whose task is to resolve such issues.

Stages of negotiations

After establishing contact, you should justify the goals of your own company, demonstrate your capabilities and plans for the near future. At the end of the presentation, attention should be focused on the benefits the sponsor received as a result of supporting your project.

If after this the investor continues to be interested in cooperation with you, it is worth indicating the benefits that will be received directly by the applicant for the support provided by the sponsor - financing, equipment, technical devices, and so on.

In addition, do not forget to stipulate the special capabilities and advantages of both parties. It is important to understand that all sponsors have their own interests and goals for interacting with other companies, based on what kind of support they provide (services, finance, equipment).

Traditionally, this is manifested by the presence of joint interests with companies providing sponsorship. In addition, sponsors usually want one thing - to receive additional profit from the business idea they are investing in.

Therefore, when demonstrating a business plan in order to obtain sponsorship, it is worth paying attention to the specifics of this project. This is the only way to talk about long-term agreements with them.

conclusions

Based on the above, the conclusion suggests itself that by receiving sponsorship you automatically accept the conditions put forward by the investor. At the same time, in return for the money or other assistance given to him, you will also have to provide him with something in the future.

Perhaps they will be cash dividends, or advertising the brand of a company that acts as an investor. Only understanding this point will allow you to find a sponsor. Otherwise, most investors will simply refuse you.
You can find out where to find a sponsor by reading.


Finding a sponsor among relatives and friends is the first thing that comes to mind. Indeed, this option is one of the simplest. In addition, your loved ones can support your enterprise at the stage of its inception - serious investors are unlikely to be interested in bare ideas. At the same time, it is much easier to come to an agreement with friends and relatives than with strangers, and the investment conditions that can ultimately be obtained will be much more lenient and convenient for a novice entrepreneur.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that if the business fails and it is not possible to immediately return their money to loved ones, the relationship will be hopelessly damaged. And if the enterprise, on the contrary, turns out to be successful, investors may be unhappy with the too small percentage that they will receive from your business.

Entrepreneurs

Potential business sponsors are other entrepreneurs. When starting a business from scratch, it is worth analyzing the market and identifying enterprises operating in related fields. For example, if you are going to start producing cinder blocks or bricks, you can contact the owners of construction businesses - many of them will probably be interested in the opportunity to buy material at a reduced price in exchange for a small investment.

Banks

Contrary to popular belief, banks are engaged not only in lending, but also in investing, so it is quite possible to look for a sponsor in this area. However, it is worth keeping in mind that in most cases banks will not consider a project at its inception stage– financial and credit organizations prefer to invest in reliable, stable projects, and refuse to invest in risky enterprises, which, in fact, are any businesses at the stage of preliminary preparation.

Venture funds

Venture funds are investment funds that specialize in working with start-ups and risky enterprises. This makes them an ideal option for finding a sponsor at the start-up stage of a business. If your business plan is interesting to them, you may well receive good funding. However, it is worth keeping in mind that venture funds often offer quite strict conditions - they are forced to do this precisely because they participate in high-risk projects, some of which do not pay off.

State

State can also act as an investor in an enterprise if the business you are planning to start somehow affects the interests of the authorities. For example, if your future enterprise will engage in activities that are a priority for the region, or if it will supply such an enterprise with any resources. Also, authorities often invest in enterprises that provide certain services to the population.

Private investors

Private investors- these are people who have money and earn money by managing this capital. Many of them may be interested in your project for one reason or another, so it makes sense to offer them a business plan. The easiest way to do this is as part of the business program of a conference, exhibition, congress, convention or other major event. By the way, within the framework of such events, you can establish connections with other potential sponsors - they are visited by representatives of venture funds, and representatives of banks, and businessmen, and government officials. officials.

Business incubators

Business incubators are special organizations that specialize in supporting startups of novice entrepreneurs at all stages of enterprise development, from the formation of an idea to its commercialization. As a rule, business incubators attract investments from large investors and reinvest these funds in promising small businesses.


In the Internet

You can also look for a sponsor on the Internet: there are many specialized resources, bringing together potential investors, where you can find a sponsor for almost any project. Here are a few of the most popular ones:

  • http://vse-investory.ru
  • http://www.investclub.ru
  • http://www.investor.ru

It is worth keeping in mind that there are many such portals on the Internet, and no one can vouch for the honesty of these resources, and even more so for the individual people who work there, so you should be careful and beware of scammers.

As you can see, finding money for a business is not as difficult as it seems. The main thing is a well-thought-out business plan, confidence, and willingness to work hard.

No matter how promising your business idea is, sponsors themselves will never come running. They need to be found, interested, and convinced of the need to work with you. It turns out that almost anyone who knows about the rules of communication with investors can do this.

First of all, the owner of a start-up company must analyze the specific needs of his brainchild. Do we need money or services, advertising or equipment?.. Depending on the answer, we determine the search area for the investor. Often the sponsor is found in our field of activity or a related field. For example, searching for premises to rent for a store may well lead us to an owner who sees prospects in this business and wants to invest in it.


There are specialized sites on the Internet that help investors and applicants meet. On such web sites you can create a profile for your project, as well as receive ready-made support offers.


We are looking closely at a financial backer. Is he 100% passionate about the idea and willing to do his best for us? Do we have a personal relationship and can we interact productively? Incorrect cooperation can have a negative impact on our business.


It is important to understand that sponsorship is not free. By accepting support, we undertake to fulfill certain conditions of the investor. This could be free advertising for his organization, payment of dividends on investments, and so on.


When presenting your company, indicate goals, opportunities and prospects. Separately indicate the benefits that the investor will receive from cooperation. Specific motivation is the path to concluding an agreement.


Look for an investor in advance even before the need arises. Even if investments are needed at a later stage of development, it is worth taking care of connections today.


Don't involve too many sponsors in your project. A board of directors consisting of 5-6 people is much less likely to quickly reach a compromise than a group of 3-4 investors.


The described steps for finding an investor are almost universal. The main thing is an interesting idea and a willingness not only to take, but also to give in return. These whales maintain favorable relations with any sponsor.

Decide what you are looking for. Before you start looking for a rich man, you must know what you are looking for. This will help you narrow your search and determine your requirements from the very beginning. You can make a list of the qualities that you would like to see in your man, and a second list in which you indicate what he should pay. There is no shame in this - after all, he is a “sponsor”.

  • Decide what kind of “sponsor” you are looking for. Someone under forty or over fifty? Should he be divorced, dating many girls, or married? Do you want to be with someone who will spend a lot of time with you, or just a man who will take you somewhere for the weekend?
  • Decide what you want from your daddy. Some girls only want rent - a few hundred dollars a week in exchange for their company, fun and lovemaking. Or do you want to be taken to expensive restaurants, taken on vacation to exotic countries and invited to fashionable and exclusive events?
  • Browse websites to find “sponsors.” Don't be shy - if you are looking for a "sponsor", you will need to register on the site for daddies. The most popular English-language sites for finding a “sponsor” are SeekingArrangement.com, WhatsYourPrice.com, Sugardaddie.com, and mutualarrangements.com. Such sites will help you communicate your expectations and easily find men who are looking for similar relationships. You can also use the services of marriage agencies.

    • Be clear about your intentions. Let men know what kind of relationship you are looking for.
    • Post photos that will attract attention without being too provocative. Men should find you sexy, but take you seriously.
    • Talk about what you have to offer. Don't focus on what you need, but let men know that you are fun, interesting, mysterious, or like to have a good time.
  • Browse regular dating sites. If you're hesitant to sign up on traditional dating sites to look for a "sponsor" or don't want to be explicit about your goals, you can browse a few sites to find a man who will give you money and send you gifts.

    • You can use filters to find the right man, for example, by asking for his salary or profession.
    • You can also research a man's profile to see if he is right for you - if he talks about expensive hobbies, for example, yachts or travel, is well and expensively dressed, has excellent taste, he can become your “sponsor”.
    • You also need to know what a man is looking for - whether he sees a woman as his equal or whether he wants to give her gifts in exchange for her company.
  • Ask your friends. Don't be afraid to ask your friends if they have anyone in mind who is rich. You can ask this in other words so it won't be so awkward. It is quite possible that at least one of your friends will know a rich person who wants to take care of someone. If you let them know who you are looking for, the perfect man will soon be found.

    • Ask your friends to set you up on a date and be honest about your requirements. You don't need a date with someone who is looking for a soul mate if you are looking for a sponsor.
  • Visit places where you can find rich men. If you are embarrassed to look for a man online or ask your friends for a date with a sponsor, you can go out and hunt for him. Take your friends to a bar or restaurant in an upscale area and attract the attention of an older, rich man.

    • You can go to places where rich men gather alone. You can go with the girls to one of those resorts where rich men spend their holidays, and take a closer look at them there.
    • When you're looking for a man, dress nicely, but not too provocatively. You want men to take you seriously and not see you as a one-night stand. Your relationship with your sugar daddy should last much longer - long enough for you to get everything you want.
    • Visit cultural places that rich men frequent, such as museums, the opera, or art galleries. If a gallery or museum is hosting a special event, such as a cocktail party, go there and don't go unnoticed.
  • Whoever you are: an athlete, a scientist or a startup entrepreneur, no matter what level in the social hierarchy you stand at, finding a sponsor who can bring you significantly closer to your goal is available to absolutely everyone. It's no secret that in the capitalist world nothing happens for nothing. In order to find a sponsor, your guardian angel in the business world, you need to offer him something in return. However, this process is labor-intensive, requires special dedication from those in need of investment, and the search itself has a number of pitfalls. For all people starting their own business, the answer to the question of how to find sponsors will soon become less mysterious.

    Relationship between sponsor and sponsored

    At the first stages, all this looks simple, you just need to provide your services to the company in exchange for some benefits, but this only at first glance seems so trivial. In exchange for the starting capital received, you give your patron the right to use the fruits of your thinking, your capabilities in the most promising type of activity, in his opinion. In addition, having received a lucrative contract, the user of capital will be forced to fulfill a number of additional obligations. The goal of this approach is a kind of symbiosis - mutually beneficial coexistence based on receiving from each subject what the opposite subject wants, and vice versa. For example, you receive various products, necessary software, various types of insurance, and the business sponsor you have found expects a return from you, its dividends, interest on the money invested in you, but this is not always expressed in monetary terms. In most cases, these are your ideas, talents, the fruits of your human capital formed over the years of your life. In any case, you need to sell part of yourself based on the company’s marketing demand, and if you have nothing to offer, then the target audience is chosen incorrectly.

    Sponsor information

    Demonstrating your abilities in a specific area will help solve the problem of how to find sponsors, as well as partners in this project as an additional source of ideas that can adjust your project for modern business. It is worth remembering that patrons always pursue their own goals, and it does not matter what you ask from him in return. Sponsors want to know that the group of people they support have common ideas and directions of movement, so knowing this, they can adapt to the selection criteria. In the modern world, time is much more important than money, because even the GDP value is subject to a period of time equal to one year, which indicates the importance of this parameter in economics and business. Knowing early who to contact and who not to contact will save a lot of this precious resource. It is most logical to start your search with local investors, which can reduce transaction costs. If the company has not worked with projects like yours before, then the possibility of financing is minimal. And there is no need to go around in roundabout ways, trying to establish connections; you must clearly define the vision of your future patron of the arts.

    Start of negotiations

    Once the company has been selected, or you already know where to find a sponsor, try to start negotiations. It’s best to start by contacting the marketing director, and if there is no such position in the company, then try to establish contact with the manager himself.

    Patrons

    It is worth remembering that philanthropic companies sometimes have sponsorship managers, and there are also entire product development departments that promote the company’s products to the market through advertising. If you have the opportunity to appear on television, then these departments will be interested in sponsorship injections into you, and you thereby provide them with a passive demonstration of the company's products or services, which is what famous football players do when they appear at press conferences with aluminum cans from Coca -Cola", then from Pepsi.

    Correct presentation is the key to success

    Once the investor phase has passed, the potential project sponsor should be aware of the main goals of your idea, plans for the future, an idea of ​​\u200b\u200byour own capabilities, as well as the benefit the patron will receive in the future as they support your startup. But more details a little later, and now we’ll talk about the performance process itself. The presentation should follow the "10-20-30" rule. This means showing 10 slides in 30 fonts for a 20 minute presentation, of which only 5 are allocated to your presentation and the remaining 15 minutes to answer questions. Remember that the time it takes to prepare a presentation speech is inversely proportional to the time it takes to present your idea to an investor. You will need to demonstrate your public speaking skills to the best of your ability. Competent half ensures the passage of the idea into the sponsorship basket.

    Project presentation plan

    Now about what should be in the presentation. Attracting sponsors begins with justification for the project. At this stage, it is most logical to provide a description of your capabilities and abilities, including a resume. If there is, then you can provide your previous successes, as well as plans for the future with a possible demonstration of a video file, which will help you save nerves in the office of a potential partner, because no matter who you are, the excitement will be present. Then you need to justify the benefits that the sponsor will receive from your cooperation with him. Let's imagine that you are the founder of a large video hosting site, which is visited by millions of network users every day, so the company from which you want to receive funding will begin to promote its products on your site with the help of advertising, and you will begin to receive your margin from this. Next, you can present existing alternatives for obtaining benefits for you. This could include insurance, cash, transportation costs, labor costs, etc. If in your project the patron has additional opportunities ripening in his head from a deal with you, then this is the basis for further fruitful cooperation. Let's imagine that your volleyball team is so successful that it goes to the World Championship, which is a sin for an investor not to take advantage of, so the more your project can attract viewers, the higher the likelihood of funding your idea.

    What and how to ask

    Another help in finding a sponsor for a business is asking correctly formulated questions, so you need to know what to ask. Never use the “punch the bull in the head” tactic. Try to take an agile approach using real data. In this case, the expression “cunning as a fox” comes in handy. Expecting millions of dollars from a patron is foolish, especially when you don’t know whether your offer meets your own needs. In this regard, carefully study the history of the company's sponsorship activities so that you know what to ask for in return. It is best to ask for something that costs the company nothing, and this depends on the specialization of the organization itself.

    Possibility of loss of funding

    Don't forget that you can either find sponsors or lose them. Every patron is different. Everyone has their own goals and expectations that you will need to meet. You should have some common interests in a joint business with him. Accordingly, you need to constantly adjust your actions if you really need an investor. If you are a very famous and influential person, then relationships with sponsors rest on your authority, because this allows them to have additional income, but as soon as your fame begins to fade into oblivion, then the NVP from your cooperation with investors will approach zero, which can destroy your contacts with them. Remember, after the deal is concluded, you are the personification of their company, so you need to live up to the image in which the money was invested. It is also worth remembering that if your project, which was initially social in nature, suddenly turns into a commercial project, then the image that corresponds to the views of society will also be shaken. You shouldn’t refuse the company’s offers to participate in various promotions; it’s beneficial for both of you.

    Mistakes in the relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored

    It’s good if the cooperation between you and the sponsor is mutually beneficial. However, finding sponsorship to make this equality a reality is very difficult. In most cases, the advantage of one side will be greater than the other. At the moment, there are no ways to accurately assess the effectiveness of the project for both parties, so it is extremely difficult to calculate losses and benefits. Let's consider the specific reasons for non-receipt of investments. Firstly, when drawing up a business plan, all the requirements of the philanthropist were not taken into account, which may cause termination of cooperation. Secondly, if during the presentation it turns out that you are considering various forms of financing, this indicates that you do not know what you want. Thirdly, your actions must be interconnected with all subjects of your project activities. And there are a lot of such examples, so it’s enough to be a responsible person.

    conclusions

    In conclusion, it is worth recalling that sponsorship is not advertising, since it is only an engine of trade. By concluding an agreement, you will begin to advertise the company's trademark. Remember how to properly enter into a dialogue with your future partner, how to negotiate, and also do not forget what place the presentation has at this stage. If you ask a patron for something, then let it be something that he can easily say goodbye to, and this requires good prior knowledge. Always look for a way to find a compromise and meet the expectations placed on you. If you follow the guidelines listed here, the question of how to find sponsors becomes less cloudy.