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Integrity & Awareness by Paul Burnstein

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Requesting and Providing Information

I often get e-mails from associates that simply ask, "can you help get funding for my client?" Hopefully I can, but I can't even guess if I do not have more information.

When you request information from someone, ask for what you need. To follow up with my example question, I would expect someone to write me saying that they need US$12 million to consolidate debt and fund the expansion of a widget factory in China. I would then ask that they share some basic financial information for the past few years as well as pro forma figures for the future. I would also like to know if there is equity in the company and if the principals have put in any money themselves.

To put it in more general terms, ask for what you need, why you need it, how you will use it and what you are offering for it.

The awareness for today is to be thorough in our requests for help from others. Let's be specific about our needs and wants and then we can better manage our expectations.
~Paul

1 comment:

Jennie said...

"Let's be specific about our needs and wants and then we can manage better our expectations." This is going on my little office white board first thing tomorrow!

In my job, I am the person that a lot of people come to when they have questions, and often the requests come in with out a lot of the whats, whys, and hows that you describe.