What are Securities

There are a number of options for your company to raise money from investors without going public. But, before going down this road, it is important to know the BC laws that apply to any company or other entity that raises money from investors.

What are Securities Laws?

If someone is looking to invest in your business, with an expectation to make a profit, what the investor receives in return for that investment is a security. This could include shares in your business.

 

There are two basic requirements of British Columbia’s securities legislation: registration and disclosure.

Registration Requirements

If you are in the business of selling securities, you must be registered (licensed) with the British Columbia Securities Commission (the Commission). However, if you’re looking to sell securities in your own business only, this is probably not required. If you’re unsure, whether this registration applies to you or not, contact the Commission for clarification.

Disclosure Requirements

As a rule of thumb, if you are selling your own securities (shares in your company), you are required to file a comprehensive disclosure document called a prospectus with the Commission. On filing the prospectus, your business will become a public company.

 

However, there are some exemptions to this rule. For example, if you are issuing securities

• as a private issuer,
• to employees, directors, officers and consultants,
• to family, friends, and business associates,
• under a minimum amount,
• to an accredited investor, or
• under an offering memorandum.

What is OpportunitiesBC?

Are you looking for investors for your business? Or are you looking to sell a property with an already established business?

Then OpportunitiesBC is the tool for you.

What is OpportunitiesBC?

Launched in late September 2012, OpportunitiesBC was created by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Development (JTST), and the Economic Development Association of BC (EDABC), to help attract more foreign investors to British Columbia.

The benefit to you? This online database provides you with a chance to publish business opportunities, which will be viewable by investors interested in doing business in BC.

The types of opportunities you can post are varied:

• You could be requesting additional financial backing to grow your services.
• You could be looking to expand your operations into a new location.
• You could be looking to sell a property, which houses an existing and established business.

The list is endless.

Types of Investors

The OpportunitiesBC website is linked to BC’s foreign language sites in China, Japan, Korea, India, Europe and the USA. It is also used by BC’s in-country International Trade and Investment Representatives who will use the tool to provide opportunities to investors they are in contact with.

How to List an Opportunity

How to List an Opportunity

Listing an opportunity couldn’t be easier.

Click on “Submit an Opportunity” at www.opportunitiesbc.ca. You must then login with your BCeID or register for one. You will probably already have one of these if you have registered your business through OneStop or any other of the government’s online services.

Once you have an account you will need to complete an OpportunitiesBC submission form. This form will be reviewed by an Economic Development Officer who will then either publish the opportunity on the site, or come back to you with any questions of clarification.

Once the opportunity is published on the site, it will be viewable by potential investors.
Should you want your opportunity to be viewed only by ministry staff and the Economic Development Officers to pass on to their contacts, you have the option to mark the opportunity ‘private’.

Information You Will Need to Provide

When listing your opportunity, you will be asked to provide:

• A list of the key features of the project, company or property
• The location of the business or property
• Photos, text and documentation to describe the opportunity
• Contact information

It is critical that you showcase your business in the best possible light to attract a potential investor.  Do you have good photographs and a clear description of what you’re asking for?  Is your company investor-ready?  What problem does your business management team address, and, the bottom line – what’s in it for the investor?  Each opportunity is also linked to a ‘Community Profile’. These profiles provide investors with information on the region where your business is located.

The Opportunities BC website also has a nifty feature which collects all the information you have provided and allows any interested investors to print a booklet of your opportunity.

Criteria for Opportunities

There are two types of investment available through OpportunitiesBC. 

The first is a General Foreign Investment, where the investor resides either domestically or in a country outside Canada. For this type of investment, your ‘opportunity’ must:

• Be a minimum of $100,000 investment
• Provide economic benefit to your local community

The second is through the Provincial Nominee Program. This will mean that the investor is looking to immigrate to BC to invest and have some part in actively managing your business. For this type of investment, your opportunity must:

• Be a minimum of $400,000 investment
• Offer the investor at least 1/3 equity in your business
• Offer the investor an active role in the day-to-day management of your business

See criteria details for more information.

Borrow from loved

Borrow from loved ones or friends without a legal agreement

Sometimes getting money from family and friends is easiest. Perhaps it’s because you can tug on the old heart strings, or maybe they just really want to believe in you. Either way, it can get really sticky, very quick and I don’t advise it. However, if you’re intent on doing so, make sure you get something in writing. Have a lawyer draw up a simple contract so you don’t end up on “The People’s Court.”

4. Overwhelming potential investors with too much information

When it comes time to do your pitch, it’s going to be hard to control your passion – and that’s okay. Your investors need to see how much you believe in your idea. However, make sure you don’t throw so much out there all at once that they have difficulty digesting it. Like a good meal, you need to break it up into chunks. Any good pitch will have materials prepared for each stage of the selling process.

For example, you need to give an executive summary before you try and get someone to read your entire business plan. And never underestimate the usefulness of a well-made PowerPoint presentation.

5. Being too careful

Scared someone is going to steal your idea? It’s a valid fear. However, when you’re trying to get someone to back you with cash, you need to throw that fear to the wind. Otherwise, you’re plan isn’t going to seem clear and your potential investors won’t have enough information to work with.

Getting start-up funding isn’t easy. But by avoiding the above mistakes, you could be on your way to turning your business idea into reality. What’s your plan for obtaining funding for your business idea? Talk about it in the comments. 

Ask practically

Ask practically anyone you meet and you’ll find out that they have “the next big” business idea. We all think we do. So if that’s the case, how come there aren’t more entrepreneurs out there? How come people aren’t leaving their day jobs in a mass exodus, following their dreams of entrepreneurship?  

It takes money.

An idea will only get you so far. But unless you have the financial backing to turn that idea into a reality, you don’t have much of anything. That said, the average person often doesn’t have the funding to give their idea a go, and the fear of leaving a steady paycheck is enough to keep that dream stuck inside their head, where it will never amount to anything. 

But not you. You’re an entrepreneur at heart. It’s in your blood, and you’re not going to rest until you give it a go. So you’re on the prowl for start-up capital. All you need is to land the right investor and you’ll be on your way. 

It sounds good, right? The problem is that it isn’t easy. Let’s face it – to someone who has the money, you pose a big risk. After all, they’ve probably heard all the statistics on the large percentage of start-ups that fail. So how can you overcome the doubt and convince a potential investor to fund you the cash you need to get moving on the idea? 

You’re going to have to avoid these 5 common mistakes...

1. Underestimate how much funding you need

One of the biggest reasons start-ups fail is not accurately calculating start-up funding. And it’s not necessarily that the entrepreneur didn’t get what they asked for in the beginning—it’s that they didn’t ask for enough.

It may sound silly, but a lot of people simply do not do the due diligence necessary to truly understand how much money they’ll need. This is often because the starry eyed new business owner expects things to go his way, so he’s unrealistic about needs. Rather than calculating costs if things don’t go well, he often will figure out how much money he’ll require assuming everything goes right. Big mistake. Assume that everything will go as bad as possible and plan accordingly. Then if you have more capital than necessary…well, no harm, no foul!

2. Don’t have a solid business plan

Let’s face it. Potential investors are going to be skeptical when you present them with your idea. So you need to do everything you can to try and show them that you’re not going to blow their money. Simply presenting a creative idea won’t accomplish this goal. You need to show them that you have a well-developed plan. That means a complete business plan. Consider getting help from a business plan writer here if you don’t have experience writing them.

This is a great

This is a great app for those just starting out or looking at developing their business. It lets you store, organize and share text, photos and voice notes. This app will let you gather all those inspiring ideas for products, branding, customer service, or for what your office or retail space will look like. 

 

It can be accessed through any internet connection and with your cell phone, meaning that you can capture your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see, at any time. Whether it’s a great bottle of wine, which you want to remember and send as a thank you to clients, a web page design that you want keep for inspiration, or stats you want to include in your business plan, this app can capture it and save it for you to come back to later.

Pricing

Evernote is a free app; however, if you want to upload very large files (over 1GB), work together with a colleague, or be able to lock your app for extra security, there is a premium version of the app, which costs US$5 per month or US$45 per year.

4. Google Drive

The Google Drive is a cloud based storage system; perfect to use for additional back-up of your important business files. The Drive is available for PC, Mac, Chrome OS, iPhone, iPad and of course Android devices.

 

The Drive allows you to create new documents, spreadsheets and presentations directly in the drive or upload documents to it. 

 

One great feature of the Drive is that more than one person can work on a document at once, so if you have a pressing deadline and you’ve allocated different people to complete different sections of a pitch, they can all work on it at the same time. Not only that, but the app tracks every change that you make, so when you hit the save button, it saves the document as a new revision. You can then look back as far as 30 days worth of revisions and save the one that you need.

 

As an added bonus, Google is currently giving away 5GB of free storage space.

 

Although we don't recommend using Google Drive as your only backup - it’s always safer to keep copies of important files in multiple locations - it is a good place to work on files in collaboration with others.

Pricing

As mentioned there is a special deal of getting your first 5 GB for free. 

 

If you want to upgrade and get up to 25 BG of space, this will cost you around $2.50 per month.

5. Skype

Skype is one of the best-known online apps in the world, with nearly 30 million users globally. This inexpensive tool allows you to communicate Skype-to-Skype for free or Skype to landline or cell phone for a small fee.

 

It is simple, and easy to install and start using. Regardless of your level of tech knowledge, the uncomplicated interface is easy to navigate and understand.

 

You can install it on your desktop, on your phone and on your tablet. As long as you have a connection to the internet (via wireless or 3G), you can be speaking to the world in no-time.

Pricing

The app is free for both your phone and your computer and calls from Skype to Skype are free.

 

There are number of pricing plans for calls to non-Skype numbers including monthly subscriptions starting at $1.09 per month, or per minute charges at 2.3 cents per minute.

6. Tripit

When you travel a lot for business, it’s essential that you’re organised. If you need three connecting flights and a rental car to get to that all-important investment meeting, the last thing you need is to be messing around with different emails or printouts of plans.

 

This app creates simple and comprehensive travel itineraries. All you need to do is forward your travel confirmation emails toplans@tripit.com with your email in the subject line and the app will make a personal itinerary, just for you. It will then monitor flights to alert you of any delays or cancellations, track your points for any travel schemes, and automatically share your travel plans with those who would like to know exactly where you are. The app also gathers weather updates, maps and directions, making your trip so much simpler.

Pricing

Tripit is a free app, however, if you want to upgrade the Pro versions to receive mobile alerts, flight refund processing and to use the auto sharing function there is a fee of $49 per year (following a 30-day free trial). 

7. Scanner Pro

If you have a habit of losing important receipts, business cards or documents, this last app is for you. 

 

Currently only available on iPhone and iPad this app lets you scan just about anything you need, converting it to a PDF and saving it to your iCloud account. 

 

The app identifies the page size automatically when scanning, and converts it to a standard pdf. Have a multi-page document you need to send to a colleague in a meeting fast? You can use this app to scan the document and email it directly to them. You can even password protect the document.

 

The app also works well with other apps such as Dropbox and the previously mentioned Evernote. 

Pricing

A one-time only fee of $6.99.