For about forty years Tom Niemiec has been working with early stage companies and has developed expertise in the areas of valuation, capital pricing and structure, business plans, private placement memorandums, forecasting, sales and marketing plans and cash flow management. He understands the challenges that entrepreneurs face having gone through his own start up in the mid 80’s and having had to make payroll. He has also worked with companies in distress where his financial planning and cash management skills were invaluable.
- Business Plan – A clean, well-written document that is easy to understand and that incorporates appropriate tables and charts is important. The Business Plan should be the result of a well-defined strategic plan and forecast.
- Forecast – A forecast should not be an afterthought and should really precede the writing of the business plan. Thinking though the assumptions that go into a forecast is the basic process of planning. Forecasted income statements, balance sheets and cash flow will drive your capital requirements plan.
- Valuation/Capital Pricing – When pricing of new capital does not reflect market conditions it can take much longer and much more management time to raise capital. In addition to a delayed capital infusion, management time is diverted from making much needed progress in moving the business forward.
- Investment Structure – In addition to valuation it is important to structure new investments properly to encourage investors to commit precious capital. In this regard it is important to understand what the market is and what investors expect.
- Investor Presentation – The PowerPoint presentation must be well organized and clean. It is important to have a presentation that is comprehensive but as brief as possible and to neither oversell nor undersell your story.
- Capital Requirements Analysis – Once a comprehensive sales and marketing plan has been developed and a detailed forecast has been completed, a capital requirements analysis can be completed. Determining the correct amount of capital to raise is more critical than many entrepreneurs realize.
- Sales and Marketing Plan – Good investors focus on sales and marketing and time spent on a formal sales and marketing plan is time well spent. Determining geographic reach, hire rate of salespeople, direct or indirect sales, sales cycle, individual salesperson ramp and compensation plans are all key factors.
In addition to these areas of assistance, Tom can help with cash management, contract negotiation, business metric development and board formation.