“I believe this could work” can start a conversation about a business.
It rarely answers the questions of someone who will share the consequences.
Your spouse may be thinking about household commitments. Your sister may be considering whether to co-fund the idea. A parent may want to help but feel uncomfortable asking how the money could be lost.
Those questions do not automatically mean they lack faith in you. They may be asking for the information they need to make their own decision.
Make the decision smaller and more specific
“Are you supporting my business?” puts the entire idea, the relationship and your ambition into one conversation.
Try defining the actual decision instead. Are you agreeing to investigate an idea? Approving a limited research expense? Considering a supplier commitment? Discussing a full launch?
These are different decisions. Agreement to research should not quietly become agreement to fund everything that follows.
Before the meeting, write a sentence stating what you are asking the other person to decide now.
Bring a short memo and the numbers behind it
The memo does not need to reproduce a long workbook. Its purpose is to explain your recommendation and make the uncertain parts visible.
Describe the customer and offer in ordinary language. Summarise what you have learned, including evidence that challenged the original idea. Then show how the proposed business makes money, the cash it would require and what has not yet been checked.
Attach the detailed calculations separately. Someone should be able to understand your recommendation without searching through twenty spreadsheet tabs, and still examine the workings if they want to.
Show a situation in which the plan disappoints
Suppose you are considering a small product business. Your expected case assumes a certain number of monthly orders and a particular contribution per order.
Also examine a situation with fewer orders, slower repeat purchases or higher delivery costs. State why you chose those assumptions and which parts are particularly uncertain. A neatly labelled “worst case” is not useful if it is simply a slightly smaller version of your preferred forecast.
Ask what those outcomes would mean for the proposed cash commitment. Would you need more money? Could you reduce the scope? Which commitments would be difficult to reverse?
The purpose is to make the trade-off discussable, rather than win agreement through a reassuring projection.
Agree how another spending decision will be made
Consider what would happen if the first allocation runs out and sales have not reached the expected level. Who can approve more spending? What evidence would justify another commitment? What would lead you to pause and review?
Write down the questions and the next review point. Do not let “we will see later” stand in for a shared understanding.
If someone will be an owner, lender or employee, the commercial and legal arrangements need their own proper documentation. A decision memo helps organise the business discussion; it does not replace those agreements.
Leave room for an answer you do not prefer
The other person may be comfortable funding a smaller version. They may need more evidence. They may decide that this particular commitment does not fit their circumstances.
That does not settle your worth as a founder. It tells you where the proposal and the available support currently meet, or do not meet.
A business case gives the people involved something concrete to examine. It also gives you a way to change your recommendation without having to defend every earlier expression of confidence.
When someone else shares the financial risk, a convincing pitch is not enough. In the DECISION Bootcamp, you build your own business case and bring the evidence together in a Decision Memo. With private written feedback along the way, you prepare a recommendation you can explain to the person investing or living with the risk, including when the answer is to adjust or not proceed.
