Heck of a year, to say the least. In the interest in brevity, let me keep it short n’ sweet. Here’s my 2021 predictions.

The Plague
The very obvious question is if there will be a negative impact on real estate because of the Covid-19/Coronavirus. Short answer, Yes. Long answer, Yes again. This especially so in the shopping center retail space. Restaurants are dependent on the residual income of an affluent society. America is an affluent society. The per capita for nearly every societal accoutrement is off the charts. The overabundance of restaurants, gyms, spas, grocery stores, and even tire repair shops pale in comparison to other societies, and even Western Democracies. Ergo, America has suddenly realized it doesn’t need as many restaurants as it thinks it needs, when you consider eating at home is more economically sane – in a time of uncertainty.

My informational sources, such as quarterly reports from Deloitte & Touché and the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Managers), all indicate that office space (for very obvious reasons), retail, multi-family are in for a rough patch the next 18 months to mid-2022. But for industrial and warehouse space, life is exceptional great. The need to stockpile resources and provisions for consumers is fairly apparent.

On a miscellaneous note, home sales – which is not connected to commercial real estate, but is residential real estate, is doing exceptionally well. This robust disposition is a result of many Americans with abundant resources (and job stability), that enables the purchase of homes and/or an upgraded home. This is also part-and-parcel in a fear of raising interest rates; the need for ownership, personal space and solitude; and likely a bunker mentality – wherein existentially some fear that hordes of people will desperately roam for food in a Dawn of the Dead fake realism (and from the overload of cable news) – but superficially there is no threat, but only in one’s own psyche. It’s important to keep in mind, that despite the chaos, the unemployment rate is still only 6.7% as of November 2020.

Interest Rates
As I correctly predicted last year, rates hit a new low, spurring an increase in market activity. Based on the economists’ predictions I’ve read for 2021 – because there is some dissension within their mindsets, interest rates will fluctuate back and forth, but should be about a fifth of a point lower then where they were at year end 2020. That calculates to about 2.90% for the 30 year fixed rate.

Sellers’ Market
In most localities in the US, it will be a Sellers’ market, which has an inverse relationship with demand. Meaning, when you have higher buyer demand, it will result in an increase in house prices, which will result in a Sellers’ market.

Broker Productivity
This revelation is actually dear and near to my heart, given I was previously a commercial real estate broker dating back twenty years ago before I started to buy homes on my own account. The fusion of technology for residential brokerage has been in the making for a long time and will see a more efficient – perhaps proficient as well, number of brokers emerge as the number of closed transactions is expected to increase in 2021. This is due in part as a result of technology advances. As a contrast, in 2019 the average number of sold homes per residential brokerage was 50.7 homes. In 2021, there is expected to be marked improvement on that number, with in addition the average broker taking less time to close transactions.

A small talk with a potential investor could lead to your dream investment. But how do you approach such a conversation? You are working day and night on your startup. You got a winning team and are doing your best to develop a great product. Now all you need is to find investors. You know that what separates you from your life’s dream is one phone call. Well, there are some good news and some bad news. Starting with the good – it’s possible! The bad news is that it’s going to take, apparently, a lot of time and effort to succeed. If it took Churchill one hour to write every minute of his speech, than writing yours, which presents your startup, generates impact and willingness to hear more, will be a much difficult task. By combining several tools and one simple solution, you too can transform the most complex product or service to be exciting, simple and valuable. Let’s get started:

Set a goal for your Pitch

Before you sit down to write your pitch, set your self a clear and defined goal. This goal should include a timeframe, clarity and quantity.

What’s your end goal? Getting funded? Another meeting? Cooperation? Advice?

It needs to be even more focused. For example, you would like to get funded: how much cash do you need? When will you need it? In stages or all at once? You need to know exactly what you are going to ask for. If you don’t have a clear goal, the chance of reaching it becomes a product of luck.

After you are clear about the goal of your pitch, you can sit down to write it.

Teaser: stimulate the investor

So you got a great opportunity and you are a sitting alone in a room with your potential investor. That doesn’t necessarily mean his brain and attention is given solely to you. Your mission, right from the beginning, would be to capture his full attention and have him completely focused on you.

There are several ways to generate attention in a very short time. One of them, is to present a big fact that is relevant to your product or market. This will generates curiosity and the listener will likely try to understand what is it about. The teaser could also be a personal story, an interesting article from a newspaper, a breakthrough research, anything that will skyrocket his attention. Your teaser will work best if the value in it will be “flooded”.

“Value flooding”: what’s in it for him?

As a way to turn your product or service to fascinating, you have to ensure, that the person sitting in front of you, understands the value relevant for him. Once we can connect between the teaser and the value, we are creating a “mental shortcut” and the level of attention grows significantly.

For example, when we walk down the street and see a scratch card Ad saying “scratch now and win 1,000,000$” – the Ad both grabs our immediate attention and floods the value – we want to win those 1,000,000$.

So even if our chances of winning goes against all statistical and logical calculations, our attention was already caught because we were immediately presented (“flooded”) with the value, even before explaining the general idea or logic behind it.

Make it Simple

After we managed to grab attention, it is time to tell the story of our product or service. Here comes the real challenging part: can you really explain, sometimes in a single sentence, what does your company\product\service does? The true greatness of really good or complex products is the ability to make them simple and tangible.

Make sure not to use extremely high or too complex language, which usually creates opacity and covers the inability to generate a clear definition. If you managed to do so, in a minimized form, it will leave you with more time to invest in the other parts of your pitch.

Why you?

Towards the end of your pitch, it’s time to explain why you. Why you are the one who can turn this vision into reality. This is a critical point as you ask your potential investor for his trust (… and money).

Here is the point to emphasize your unique background in the field, winning team combination or previous successes. It is important to remember that most decisions we do are irrational, so it is imperative to use your attitude and presentation methods to strengthen your message, no less than the list of your titles or achievements.

Tip: we tend to associate self-confidence – and hence trust – when the shoulders are straight up. So straighten up!

Combining these ingredients, which builds a winning pitch, will require your time and efforts in order to sharpen your messaging. Sometime, using external consultants as well as using new technologies could upgrade your performance.

Note: apart from using the old PowerPoint, I can highly recommend Prezi and Bunkr.

Each year there are hundreds of new startups being founded, and with them grows the competition for investors. The first impression and effect you project at the beginning could be that critical point that would separate you from the rest, and will cause the investor to invest in you, over the other sea of startups.

Sometimes, this small conversation could make your life dream come true – don’t let it slip away.

For More Information On Start-Up Funding Click Here!

We understand that completely; nobody likes paying interest, neither do we. It’s an emotional hot button for any business person when financing equipment or acquiring working capital. They feel it’s like money thrown away into thin air… or is it? Interest is the price you pay when using someone else’s money to finance something. So why not pay cash and eliminate interest? When business folks say that to me I respond with, “if you have unlimited cash or if you have enough resources that paying cash won’t jeopardize your business cash flow then go right ahead”. I never argue that point because it’s an emotional one. But the warning should be clear; paying cash for something which cripples your ability to have capital for emergencies, market changes, market opportunities or expansion is not wise. If your market changes and sales slowdown, going to your bank and borrowing capital may prove difficult; it’s not going to be easy because traditional lenders are not risk takers and lending to a downward trending business is “risky”.

Financing assets along with paying interest allows you to preserve your capital and the longevity of your business. Of course the finance payment has to make sense; it has to fit within your monthly budget and the asset should contribute in one way or another to your bottom profit line. It should make you money or save you money. The third contribution is harder to measure which can be image and goodwill; if you’re a custom interior kitchen retailer then investing in a modern showroom for your clients to see your products can be invaluable and give you a high return on your investment but again that’s a little harder to put an exact number on. In any case, the finance investment still has to be manageable within your budget.

Though nobody likes paying interest, it has to be looked upon as simply part of your return-on-investment calculation to assure you are making the best use of your new equipment addition. How to get the lowest rate? Maintain your personal FICO as high as possible and get it repaired by a service if you get into trouble, review your D&B business profile and make sure it’s accurate, if any tax liens exist then establish a payment plan and have it documented and in place which shows you’ve taken the right steps to resolve them and finally have your financial statements prepared by a service, bookkeeper or accountant which will indicate you are organized and manage your business seriously. In the long run if managed properly, the finance interest you pay will actually pay you back.

AnalytIQ Group helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance technology related equipment and special projects nationwide. Get More Infomation: Here!