10 Entrepreneurs Hope to Wow and Woo Investors at Forum
Jim Foley would like $1.5 million--and he soon will get his chance to ask for it.
Foley, owner of The Marketing Works, a five-person direct-mail operation in Simi Valley, is one of 10 entrepreneurs scheduled to present their business plans at an upcoming Investor Forum sponsored by the Enterprise Development Center at Cal Lutheran University.
More than 100 potential investors are expected to attend the May 1 dinner/forum to be held at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake. Presenters, from Ventura and Los Angeles counties, were selected last week by the Investor Forum advisory panel made up of community business owners, bankers and investors.
The Employment Development Center, operating since last fall, provides business classes and seminars, management training, focus groups, networking opportunities and other assistance for start-up operations. The Investor Forum is a joint venture with Southern California Edison.
Foley, whose business designs and implements direct-mail marketing campaigns for small and medium-size businesses, considers the forum a golden opportunity to drum up financial backing.
“What we have is a prototype operation. We have our sales, marketing and operations down pat,” said Foley, who opened his business in 1994. “Now we want to expand to other areas geographically. We want to open five different stores in different parts of the country.”
He thinks that $1.5 million ought to do the trick.
“We started looking for investors about six months ago and we’ve gotten a few nibbles,” he said. “We have a great business plan. It’s just a matter of finding the people with the money. Up to now it’s been just sort of shooting darts.”
Jerry Knotts, a member of the Investor Forum advisory panel, is helping Foley prepare his forum presentation. He said there are potential investors for just about any business venture. But before investors inject money into a business, he said, they generally want assurance that their funds will be put to good use.
“Investors want to make sure the business coming forward has the people that can do the job and have a passion for what they are doing, and that there’s a likelihood it will actually succeed,” Knotts said. “They also want to know if the market exists.”
Neville Hanchett, owner of Mobolazer, a Thousand Oaks-based manufacturer of laser light-show equipment, knows that a market exists for his enterprise.
“We sell to nightclubs,” he said, “and we are beginning to go after theme [parks], cruise ships and performance venues such as concerts, operas, plays and other live performances.”
Hanchett will pitch his 4-year-old business at the Investor Forum in hopes of raising about $200,000.
“Most of our product development is done. I’ve self-funded everything up to this point and now we want to expand it. A good portion of the money would be split between increasing the stock on hand and expanding our marketing,” he said. “I need funding to really get it going. I don’t want to be a one-man operation for the rest of my life.”
Like Hanchett, the folks at TechnoConcepts are ready to expand their business. The 4 1/2-year-old Newbury Park operation develops and markets integrated circuits for the wireless communications industry.
“Integrated circuits are a trillion-dollar industry and we want our share,” said John Valdez, director of marketing for the six-person company.
“We have been a profitable company; we just want to go to the next level,” he said. “That means we have to hire more people and develop our internal and external [operations]. We have to upgrade and come up to speed in a number of areas. It’s not like we’re desperate, but investors are very important to us.”
