You should generally use brokers or other introducers to help you arrange your financial needs partly because of outsourcing tasks and partly because of the benefits of specialisation.
But you should learn enough to spot opportunities for yourself, you should be able to call your broker or accountant and ask them about a new option, interest rate or financing technique.
You are the only one that fully understands your goals and objectives on an emotional level, this means you have the highest drive and the most interest how things turn out. No matter how well you know people in the financial industry and how much they have your interests at heart their objectives are being achieved through writing new business and earning fees or commissions.
It is up to you to drive the relationship forward so you need to understand finance & funding to ensure that all options are being investigated so that you make money in the most efficient way.
Set some time each week to look through information on funding products to give you a general awareness of your current options, also try to spend time with people in the financial industry. You know what you want to achieve so have a range of questions ready, test the boundaries of what is generally offered, get your financial contacts to think out of the ‘box’. Be clear about your objectives and communicate them clearly, ask them to do some research for you when you get to know them better.
Try to build a wide range of contacts that work in the financial industry, they will all have their own networks and areas of excellence and you will need different people at various stages of your development. Build contacts & financial relationships when you don’t need to, prime the pump so that when you need help they are already there – it rarely works when you turn up at the last minute for assistance.
Be prepared to look into other sources of financing such as property crowdfunding or Joint Venture investors both of which you can find online and will be the subjects of other eBooks.
Raise finance when you don’t need to