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Angels wanted to help businesses fly
18/09/2009
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The British Business Angels Association (BBAA) and Growth Investment Network East Midlands are launching a programme of events for people interested in angel investing.
The Angel Insight programme, which launches on Wednesday 7th October at Perkins Restaurant, Plumtree, is designed to introduce high net worth individuals to the opportunities involved in becoming a Business Angel.
At the event, speakers, including Anthony Clarke, Chair of the British Business Angels Association and Jeff Moore, Chief Executive of East Midlands Development Agency (emda) will be highlighting the opportunities available for Angel investors and announcing the launch of the Angel Insight events.
In addition, Tony Hillary, founder of Hillary's Blinds and now an angel investor himself, will be providing details of his investments into businesses and will be joined by Chris Scarth, a regional businessman who is the recipient of one of his investments.
Tony Hillary started Hillary's Blinds in Nottingham in 1971. In his first week, he sold £43 of blinds from a £2.50 advert in the local paper, running his business from home and using the kitchen counter as his office.
Thirty years later, in 2001, when he sold the business, Hillarys had a turnover of £64 million, employed 950 people and had a sales force of over 800 self-employed agents. Following the sale, he moved into commercial property, finance and development.
Tony explains that his motivation for becoming an investor is "the satisfaction of investing in enthusiastic, committed people working well crafted business models, and helping them to grow their businesses profitably and safely."
Recent research has shown that angel investors with a portfolio of investments can expect an average return of 22% on their outlay.
Toby Reid, Business Development and Operations Manager for the Growth Investment Network East Midlands explains the thinking behind the Angel Insight programme: "Increased relative volatility, lack of transparency and limited potential returns of more common types of investment are leading wealthy individuals to look at business angel investing in a new light. I also believe that the SME sector will be the source of the long term winners post the financial crisis, and now is the time to be backing them. Angel Insight has been created to help people to do exactly that."
Furthermore Jeff Moore, Chief Executive of emda, which supports the Growth Investment Network, believes that angel investment brings significant benefits to both parties: "There are lots of exciting opportunities for Business Angels to invest in East Midlands businesses. I know that there are many talented entrepreneurs in the region with innovative ideas, who would benefit from the financial support and expertise that investors can bring to their businesses. By the same token, those investors will themselves reap the rewards as those businesses develop and grow."
Following the launch event, a series of Angel Insight breakfast sessions will take place in November to enable investors across the region to find out about the opportunities available to them. These are taking place in Nottingham, Northampton and Leicester.
For more information about the Angel Insight programme, and to register for any of the events, visit the events page on www.ginem.co.uk, telephone 0115 701 0060, or email toby@ginem.co.uk
Submitted by Sarah Crennell