Being featured at a trade-show is an invaluable investment and one that requires funds to be available to do so. But just having a booth at a trade show with some information about your company is not enough to grab peoples attention. You want to offer them something exciting and market your booth in a way that draws people around you in to check you out! But what if you haven’t got the finances to successfully market your business at your trade show?

Rather than stifle growth and down sizing your presence at a trade show event, you could consider taking on a Business Angel Investor. Normally this is an already successful entrepreneur, who can not only bring investment into your company, but also their experience and contacts. They do so in exchange for a negotiated equity share of the business.

Angel Investors fill an important role in helping fast growing companies develop. They are investing their own money and so long as the market area is one that they have experience of, they are able to take more risk than banks or venture capital firms that have to be cautious because they invest other people’s funds.

The start to attracting these investors is, if you haven’t already, to put together a written business plan. Yes it’s a bother to do so, when there are so many other activities demanding your time, but a business angel has to filter the opportunities that are available to them by first looking at a business plan’s executive summary.

Then if it is interesting to the investor they will either ask for the full business plan, or to meet up for more information.

So far, so good, but where do you find a business angel investor? They tend to work through angel networks and you could look for a local angel network near you that is run by the angels themselves, they may see a few potential businesses a month, but to get broader visibility, you should look at a national network.

These are often on-line and all charge for their services, sometimes the fees can add up to quite a bit, so check the small print. One way of getting good visibility for your business angel investment is using a member’s site like Company Partners ( http://www.companypartners.com/ ), where a small monthly membership is all that is paid and there is help also in drawing up a business plan.

The advantage of using a business angel investor is that they take the same risk as you. If it goes well you both make money, but if unfortunately the business doesn’t then they lose their money. You don’t end up still owing the money as you would with a bank loan.

About the author:

Lawrence Gilbert founded Company Partners in answer to a need for a low-cost way to bring Business Partners, Mentors and Angel Investors together. He also writes a blog on how to gain finding and grow a business http://www.companypartners.com/blog/ .