Small Business Investor - Small Check, Big Headache

I don’t know if there is some sort of mathematical equation you can put to this, but it would certainly appear that the smaller the investor’s check, the bigger the headache they become to an entrepreneur.

You might think the opposite would be true, that smaller investors would only expect to play a minor role in the business while the larger investors would make all of the important calls. What you’ll find in practice, though, is that raising and managing small chunks of capital from small investors is incredibly laborious while the more manageable investments come from much larger investors.

Less Money = More Time

Smaller business investors seem to have disproportionately more time to invest than they have money. These are the guys who are putting $5,000 into your company and think they’re Gordon Gekko, trying to run the company like some big time investor. All this extra time that they have to manage these investments actually sucks the life out of your deal because you have to constantly manage their expectations to the nth degree of detail.

Certainly getting help from a small business investor to grow your business is a nice thing, but not if it involves being micro-managed to death over every decision. A good small business investor will understand that their role is to invest in the company, not run the company. You want their invested capital working for your business, not another pseudo manager to contend with.
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