Why Hire a Senior Financial Business Consultant?

It’s unlikely that these companies raised such large amounts of capital on their own. Raising capital is an extremely involved and complex process, with many steps before, during, and after that require careful planning, review, and due diligence. Missteps can result in anything from the disappointment of not passing investor’s muster because of lack of polish, to soured deals, bankruptcy, or even lawsuits from investors or the SEC.

Hiring a business consultant for strategy and business plans is like hiring a team of six people with years of experience in combined positions – all in one consultant. Consultants often have experience with senior-level marketing and financial advisory and are often experienced CEOs themselves, with a history of successful exits. Consultants are able to offer turnkey solutions to revenue growth, raising capital, sustainability plans, and trade secrets that can boost enterprise-level corporations as well as small and mid-sized companies.

With such high stakes, it’s likely that these and other founders relied on outside advice in preparing their companies for investor scrutiny, structuring their deals, or in compiling the necessary legal and financial documents to do business. When busy founders are rightfully focused on running their company, business consultants can play a critical role behind the scenes to ensure that the company has done the necessary prep work to a) raise capital and b) keep that capital clear of regulatory or other hurdles, and eventually deliver great value. Prolonged capital raises are actually damaging to operations and valuations, so having airtight business plans and certification before beginning is key.

Outside consultants offer deep expertise in specific processes that are key to a business's financial success but are unrelated to the company’s core mission and thus may be outside of the skill set of founders or their full-time employees. Consultants also provide a fresh perspective on the company and its operations, offering objective advice on a company’s business plan, internal structure, marketing materials, or even its basic value proposition. They also have the benefit of being contracted to work on discrete projects, with clear upfront costs and terminability. The cherry on top is that business consultants like those at Venture Plans often have large networks of other founders and investors who can be tapped for support or for a second look at the project.

What Types of Services Should You Look For?

Helpful consulting services commonly include the writing or review of business plans, drafting of legal documents and other legal consulting via a licensed attorney, preparation of financing documents such as budget and projected annual costs/profits, and growth timeline.

Other common services relate to the certification process, which any competent individual investor or VC firm will insist on before making a capital commitment and which must be conducted through a FINRA registered broker. This includes filing necessary forms for capital-raising activities, as well as registration of the company’s stock certificate and filing of annual reports with the Secretary of State where your company is incorporated. Consultants will also conduct thorough due diligence for every aspect of a business, including tax, liability, outstanding debt, accounting, and upcoming growth due diligence.

In a unique value addition, Venture Plans also offers digital consulting. Digital consulting involves evaluating a company’s digital needs and opportunities to incorporate more advanced digital tools into their operations. For example, a digital consultant can help with data analytics implementation, custom software design and build, automation of services through artificial intelligence, custom application development, product prototypes, or backlog feature implementation. These updates are increasingly common across industries and save companies money and time while improving the quality of their services and customer experience.

Business Plans

Companies are often more than meets the eye, and while founders may think they have a “simple” business, once consultants get into the weeds and explore details, it often becomes clear that it’s complex.

With a business plan consultant, expect a smooth and comprehensive experience from start to finish. Consultants are like six employees in one – experienced professionals, often former CEOs, who have led company restructures and bring serious management and financial skills to the table. They can identify turnkey solutions to operational problems, growth challenges, and long and short-term financial forecasting for your company. The final product will be a business plan that is reliable, built for growth, appealing to investors, and uniquely yours.

Certification and Financing

In order to certify a company to raise capital through private placement, a private equity round, or through a merger or acquisition, consultants must conduct a thorough review of the company from top to bottom and prepare certain filings for the government. For instance, a business consultant must backtrack through months or years of the company’s financial records, crunch some serious numbers, and analyze and present this information in harmony with the company’s future goals. They’ll also fix irregularities, anomalies, holes, and other bugs they come across. This process takes two to six months and may spur other auxiliary fixes.