Obtaining more than one investor for your business can be a significant help when trying to finance all your endeavors. However, with more investors also comes more opinions, and not all your investors will be on the same page all of the time. This means finding ways to keep your investors happy, even when their opinions differ, is crucial to ensuring your business keeps running smoothly.
But what’s the best way to do this? How can you avoid arguments or bad feelings when disputes occur? Below, 10 members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their insights as business leaders and offer their top tips for ensuring your investors are involved, happy and feel their opinions are being heard.
1. Maintain Transparency To Build Trust
Provide investors with accurate and timely information, such as good financials. By being transparent, you build trust and empower investors to make informed decisions based on the current state of your business. This open sharing of information fosters a collaborative environment where everyone feels involved and helps address any concerns that may arise. – Jennifer A Barnes, Optima Office, Inc.
2. Let Each Investor Contribute From Their Area Of Expertise
Dealing with multiple investors feels like trying to keep everyone happy at a family dinner—there’s always someone mad about something. You might feel the pressure to take advice from everyone, ending up in a whirlwind of contradictory opinions. But remember, not all advice is created equal. A marketer might have struck gold once with stocks, but should they really guide your financial strategy? Stick to this rule: Let each investor contribute from their area of expertise. The secret to a harmonious investor table isn’t appeasing everyone—it’s leveraging their unique superpowers. So, check your investor table today. Are you letting them play to their strengths or are you just playing referee? – Michael Hsu, DeepSky
3. Bring On An Independent Mediator
One helpful tip to keep all your investors happy even when they have different opinions is to involve an independent mediator. This is someone who is neutral and can help with discussions when conflicts arise. The mediator listens to everyone’s ideas, gives unbiased advice and helps find solutions that work for everyone. They make sure everyone feels heard and respected. By having a mediator, you create a positive atmosphere where people can talk openly and work together to find common ground, keeping all the investors satisfied. – Kazi Mamun, CANSOFT
4. Set Clear Expectations From The Start
Navigating differing views among investors can be a complex task. One effective strategy is setting clear expectations from the start. This involves outlining roles, responsibilities, decision-making processes and mechanisms for conflict resolution. By doing so, you create an environment where everyone understands their place and how disputes will be handled. This doesn’t mean disagreements won’t occur, but they can be managed in a predetermined, fair manner, promoting satisfaction and harmony among your investor group. – Kyle Goguen, Pawstruck
5. Show Genuine Interest And Acknowledgement
When investors express their differing views or concerns, actively listen to their perspectives. Show genuine interest in understanding their viewpoints and acknowledge their input. Even if you don’t agree with their suggestions, demonstrating that you value their opinions goes a long way in making them feel heard and respected. Establish clear decision-making processes that outline how final decisions will be made. In situations where investors have conflicting views, act as a mediator and encourage compromise. Look for win-win solutions that can accommodate different perspectives to some extent. Facilitating a collaborative environment where investors feel that their interests are considered can help bridge gaps and maintain harmony. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
6. Treat Them Like People First
Use a customer relationship management system (CRM) and make sure that each of your investors receives monthly and quarterly reports. Also, remember that investors are people, and congratulating them on their birthdays, anniversaries or New Year’s will be very beneficial—plus, it’s free. – Ariel Shahar, 72 PROPERTIES LLC
7. Determine How A Decision Will Benefit Them In At Least One Way
Focus on how the decision benefits or will benefit the shareholder’s interest in the short or long term. When you’re making business decisions that involve more than one investor, it’s hard to have everyone agree, as different individuals see matters from different perspectives, which are not always rational. What makes sense for you doesn’t necessarily make sense for others. Addressing the discussion while having in mind at least one way in which the decision benefits the shareholder will help you have a common ground for a possible win-win solution where the shareholder can feel taken into consideration. Although they may disagree with other points, find at least one strong point they can be on board with. – Riccardo Conte, Virtus Flow
8. Anchor Any Decision Making On Data Rather Than Opinion
When you have a deep understanding of your investors’ individual personalities and individual functioning styles, you can tailor or customize your approach to each of them with the corresponding data. Thus, even if everybody has different stakes and experiences, following an evidence-based decision-making process can help overcome analysis paralysis. It also makes arriving at a consensus a smoother process because, ultimately, everyone involved wants to win based on what works. – Brian David Crane, Spread Great Ideas
9. Create Formal Feedback Channels
Create formal feedback channels, even if the number of investors involved is small. Respond promptly and personally to legitimate feedback. If you can’t resolve the issue on the spot, promise to bring it up at the next investor meeting. Hold those meetings at least quarterly, if not monthly, but make them brief to respect your investors’ time. All in all, you should demonstrate that you take feedback seriously and will make all reasonable efforts to address it in a timely fashion. – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
10. Always Refer Back To The Company’s Goals And Values
Setting a benchmark to assess ideas and considering opinions from the get-go helps you overcome this challenge. You can have multiple investors, and they can all have differing opinions—that’s normal for most ventures out there. The problem occurs when these ideas or opinions contradict one another, which may lead to heated arguments. The key to making everyone happy in this scenario is to establish from the start that the ideas or opinions that coincide with the company’s goals and values will have a high likelihood of being considered. At the end of the day, the investors are interested in the yield or the returns from their investments. So, what’s best for the company will eventually benefit them and make them happy in the long run. – Chris Klosowski, Easy Digital Downloads
