at the Union League in Philadelphia. It is sponsored by the

Philadelphia

Private Investors Group. Call 610-225-2437 or visit www.PPIG.com

this fair as a showcase for firms seeking funds under $5 million.

It takes place on Monday and Tuesday, May 13 and 14, in

New Haven, Connecticut.

Tuesday, June 17 and 18, Wilmington, Delaware, this event

specializes

in firms requiring $5 million or more. Visit www.earlystageeast.org.

"The capital is still in our economy," insists Conley,

"but

the nature of the investor is changed. They have been thrice burned

in the dot-com and other fires. Caution is natural. There will be

fewer winners, but those new companies that do win will be funded

good and proper, through rounds A, B, and C, right up through the

back mezzanine."

Conley grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts, "just down the road

from Harvard Yard." At age 18 he began a sojourn which entailed

four years in the Marines, 10 years completing college, and countless

deals along the way. He then began "initiating deal closures"

for GE Investment Corp., Chancellor, and other companies. Finally

in l991, Conley opened the doors of Silicon Garden Angels + Investors

Network. Here, he regards himself as "a Yenta — screening

venture capitalists along with profitable new firms and making

introductions."

Says he: "It’s a contact sport."

"In such a buyers’ market," says Conley, "investors are

looking for a very specific set of standards. At any venture fair,

you’ve got to bring out your fundraising tool kit and give exact

elements,

meeting exact criteria." Among these he includes a well-honed

eight-minute venture plan verbal presentation; a 10-page sell book;

and some passion. The entrepreneur must be able to talk passionately

about his management’s commercial potential. He must reach beyond

the product, and sell the content of his character.

Along with Conley’s 12-step strategy for displaying a business to

investors, he presents 10 deadly sins, which he claims are guaranteed

deal crushers. A few of these errors include:

or anxiety, many entrepreneurs blare out their entire product

information,

sales strategy, management goals, financial plans and market survey

in a single, boggling burst. Not only can your investor not take all

this in, but she will infer justifiably that your sales technique

may not be worthy of her dollars.

or punch any phone button, you had best hold a ream of facts about

your investor in your head. In what kind of firms does he typically

invest? How much money, over how long a period? What are his sports

and what is his bourbon?

Even after this study, don’t descend on him out of the blue.

Introductions

made through business contacts in a business setting tend to set a

better tone than the wrangled social meeting. But the round of begging

cold calls, no matter how persistent, stands nary a snowball’s chance.

can quit his job, start a business with $5,000 in the bank and expect

a backer to pony up the other $100,000 is absolutely dreaming,"

says Conley. Starting virtually any business today demands $200,000.

This level of funding demands at least $50,000 from the entrepreneur

with more revenue proof provided.

business

online could automatically bootstrap into bigness, a great gap

appeared

in which the small businessperson could not find the products that

met his E-commerce needs. With massive expectations, they installed

huge and expensive programs that became insupportable. Today, Bender

suggests that businesses budget their high tech expenditures, like

any other sales tool, strictly according to the realistic sales

potential

they can provide.

out onto what Bender calls "the bleeding edge of technology."

For small items, this can include the use of flashing ads or flow

streamers which while ever-so-clever to install, are merely

distracting

to the buyer’s eye. On the larger scale, beware of anticipating and

adopting new response technology that your clients and vendors may

not as readily purchase and upgrade.

your financial resources on the hopes of grand online returns.

Currently,

E-commerce trade techniques are as fully analyzed and honed as direct

mail methods. The research is out there and deserves examination.

In place of those close-your-eyes and wish-upon-the-Web-only ventures,

Bender, admittedly conservative, outlines a more hybrid approach.

He sees the Internet as one of several well-blended business tools.

The initial step involves pinpointing your marketplace based on your

suppliers’ and customers’ online capabilities. Where and how do your

clients search to buy? On what level do your suppliers operate? A

surprising number of the raw materials manufacturing firms conduct

trade with low tech tools.

Many business managers feel that online operations diminish the

personal

role in business and all its effectiveness. Granted that many problems

can be ironed out more swiftly via a brief chat with that old familiar

supplier, yet how well does he stack up against competitors as a

source?

Says Bender: "If he’s not capable of dealing competently online

with you, he may not be around much longer to be your trusted

supplier."

Finally, before actually leaping onto the Web, analyze and focus your

market. Probably the greatest innovations for the E-businessman are

the new capabilities that can define your niche among specialized

clientele. You no longer need to scatter your snowblower website to

every retiree in Florida. Featured placement using key search words

can personalize your site. While such customizing still is a bit

pricey,

the results frequently justify the outlay.

Prudential,"

says Coulson, "but I knew no one in Red Bank." Commuting and

business travel had left her no time to pick up the contacts a new

business would need. She joined NJAWBO to meet other women business

owners. She says the contacts she made were invaluable in starting

and growing her business. She is still in close contact with NJAWBO

members she met more than a decade ago.

networking group is valuable, there is a point where it is wise to

cut back and put more energy into another group. "Once you’ve

been the president," she says, "it’s time to turn the

organization

over to other people." She gave this advice to Sandy Newman,

a past president of NJAWBO, who owns the Raritan Container Company

and also has a coaching practice. "Organizations are starved for

leadership," she says. She suggested that Newman join the New

Jersey Professional Coaches Association. Newman did so, and soon

became

president of that group.

days at Douglass, the women who taught her all about the field of

corporate training, is still a close friend. Her new company’s first

client was Prudential, her former employer.

faculty member at Georgian Court College, where she teaches marketing,

offered to speak for free in the early days of her business. She also

began teaching courses at Brookdale and Middlesex Community Colleges.

"It got me up and out in the market," she says, "and it

built up my confidence in dealing with strangers."

often gave her time away, prepared Coulson to take her business to

the next level. Where she once took on any client, she began to be

more selective. Now, she says, "I don’t want to work with people

who are stuck." She only accepts coaching clients who are already

successful and want to become more successful. On the consulting side

of her business, she has gone after larger corporations, adding the

likes of Johnson & Johnson, Rutgers, and the Teamsters Union to her

client rolls.

Coulson doesn’t spend a lot of time on wallflowers. "If I see

someone standing alone in a corner, I’ll go over and say hello and

introduce him to someone," she says. She hopes the inept networker

will catch on and start circulating, but she doesn’t spend too much

time with him. Effective networking involves connecting with people

who are in a position to buy what you are selling.

don’t waste too much time on idle chit chat. Cut right to the chase.

Right now, for instance, Coulson is trying to fill up classes in a

course she teaches to show corporate women how to move up the

executive

ladder. The women are sponsored by their companies, so at networking

events Coulson is asking: "What corporations are willing to spend

money on high potential people?"

the surface," says Coulson. Those who are out and have their ears

to the ground, for example, know which New Jersey corporations invest

in their people, and which don’t. No matter what the economy, some

companies are simply better places to work, she says, and networking

often turns up their names.

of life," says Coulson. She works with personality evaluations,

including Myers-Briggs, in her work, and finds teams overloaded with

creative types get little done, while teams made up only of

detail-oriented

people come up with few good ideas. "You need creative people,

and implementers. And you need financial people to manage the

money,"

she says. It’s the same thing with networking. Moving only among

similar

people turns up only part of the picture, and only some of the

opportunities.