You need financing for your start-up business. How do you get angels interested in investing in your business venture?

• Show them something they understand, ideally a business from an industry they’ve been associated with.

• Know your business details: potential investors want to know about annual sales, gross profit, profit margin, and expenses.

• Be able to describe your business—what it does and who it sells to—in less than a minute. Limit PowerPoint presentations to 10 slides.

• Angels can always leave their money in the bank or invest in another promising ventures, so an investment is often in a sector that interests them. Timing is also important—knowing when to reach out to an angel can make a huge difference.

• Present a competent management team with a strong, experienced leader who can explain the business and answer questions from potential investors with specifics, and can quickly earn potential investors’ trust and respect.

• Angels prefer something they can bring added value to and may want to be involved with your company—for example, with a seat on your board of directors.

• Emphasize the likely exits for investors and know who the competition is, why your solution is better, and how you are going to gain market share with an infusion of cash.

1. What sources of capital are available to entrepreneurs?

2. What are the associated risks for various sources of capital?