I’m a 20 year veteran of the private equity industry.  I know what works to generate deal flow.  I will always share how the best private equity professionals originate more deal flow.  That’s my focus and passion.

I review at least 1,000 private investment opportunities per year.  I balance deal turn downs with deploying capital.  My days are filled with meeting new prospects, taking care of existing clients, and pushing deals through our pipeline.

So how do I do it?  First, private equity professionals need to be very cognizant of their “highest and best use” of time management when sourcing and executing. As many veterans of PE BD know, the worst use of time is getting bogged down with a laundry list of administrative tasks versus being out trying to find new investment opportunities.

How do you reduce the time you spend on admin tasks and focus more on bringing in more deals for your execution team to review?

Know Your Flaws

Do you get distracted with your inbox or your social media feed? Are you constantly switching between your project management tools, your CRM tools, and your email accounts? If so, you’re killing a lot of time.  My number one recommendation to BD people is to turn off your email alerts.  They are complete distractions.  Stay focused on the task at hand.  Check email 3 times per day.  First thing in the morning.  Midday.  And lastly, at night.

Little tasks that aren’t compartmentalized are sneaky time wasters. In isolation, none of them seem to take up too much time, but they do. But when compounded, it’s difficult to recover from the loss of productivity.

A report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), says small business owners are spending more than 33 hours a month handling internal admin tasks. 55% say this is causing a lag in business growth. As you might expect, accounting tops the list of major time wasters with up to 14 of the 33 hours. Business banking takes 9 hours, taxes 6 hours, and HR and employee care take 5 hours.

Here’s how I maximize my efficiency:

Schedule Your Entire Life on Your Calendar

I worked in a sales role earlier in my career.  One of my bosses used to harp on planning. The mantra was “Plan your Day; and Execute Your Plan.”  Trust me.  This is the best sales advice I’ve ever learned.

Move your to-do list to your calendar.  That’s how you get things done.

Do you still use spreadsheets (or worse yet, a pen and paper) to schedule? In case the schedule changes or someone gets sick, you always have to adjust it manually.

This is a huge amount of work––and it’s unnecessary. It doesn’t have to be like that.  Use the great technology of MS Outlook and learn how to automate and create shortcuts.  Learn the shortcuts available in MS Outlook.  They will make your life easier.

Today anyone can create a robust scheduling solution that ensures you and your staff are working on projects they enjoy instead of wasting time on admin tasks. One way to achieve this is through an enterprise scheduling app. Look for an app that suits your business in terms of size and needs. [Read more…]

We all know the world is increasingly networked and connected.  And businesses realize the importance of using compelling content to attract clients and opportunities.  Yet business development pros working in PE have been slower adopters of social media marketing.  Despite what traditional deal professionals may believe, social media enables private equity firms to more efficiently generate a steady flow of investment opportunities.

Here’s why I think social media is a valuable asset to your investment firm:

Strengthen your deal flow

Researchers have studied how social media can be a valuable tool for deal professionals. In a 2010 study conducted by Harvard Business Review, researchers concluded that social media boosted deal flow because it made investors more aware of others and the types of deals they were seeking. Sharing deals and investment opportunities encouraged others to do the same.  Investors pooled their opportunities which allowed them to access deals that they otherwise would not have been aware of.

Personally, I’ve followed this “give-to-get” mentality and it has helped me become a prolific business developer with a robust referral network.  Our platform expects our deal sourcing machine to uncover 50 to 80 opportunities a month.  My need for reliable and recurring deal flow has never been more important especially given the competitive nature of today’s market.

Improve your new business outreach

Another advantage of social media is that it can be a passive form of outreach. Email blasts can be intrusive and spam filters do a better job than ever keeping salespeople out of your inbox.  However, once you establish your expertise and develop an online presence, the content you develop and curate while help interested parties seek you out, rather than the other way around.

If this sounds too good to be true, it isn’t. Take Chicago-based Parker Gale, a PE firm that produces a great podcast with a cult-like following.  Their PE Funcast (click here for podcast) sees regular updates, sometimes as often as five times a week.  Topics seem to always remain relevant, touching on a range of questions from the value of getting an MBA to evaluating and developing portfolio companies. To date, PE Funcast has more followers than Parker Gale’s own Twitter account.  This is proof that content marketing remains key and should be part of any social media strategy. [Read more…]