I take at least a phone call a week from a small outdoor company looking for financing. Sometimes the process drags on because the outdoor company doesn’t have the information Insider needs to evaluate the loan request. Here’s the information you should put together before you approach a lender. By having the information already assembled you will look professional and competent. The most important items are listed first.
- Income Statement and Balance Sheet for your company for the past three years. Financials are the most important item to the lender.
- Income statement and balance sheet for your company for the interim period of the current year together with the interim period of the previous year. This allows a lender to compute trailing 12 months revenues and cashflow for your company.
- An estimate of the value of your company together with references to third party sources which support your estimate. Include a recent letter of intent if you’ve received one or refer to valuation articles at Signvalue or Billboard Insider. Type valuation into the Billboard Insider search box in the top right corner of this page and you’ll see several articles on outdoor company valuations.
- An inventory sheet for your company listing the following: sign locations, sign size, sign type (wood/monopole, digital/trivision/static), landlord, lease expiry, lease amounts, tenants, tenant rents. The inventory sheet allows your lender to compute the weighted average remaining life for your leases.
- Personal financial statement for you.
- A one page management bio for you and key members of your company. Where you’ve worked and what you’ve done.
- 1-2 paragraphs on how much money you want and for what.
