trendpreneur

We had a really informative talk today about the investment process from a lawyer’s point of view, a subject which often seems to be covered via word-of-mouth and coaching from those who’ve been there, rather than laid out in a simple and clear fashion as it was today.

I’ve got plans for the notes that go beyond a blog post, so while the world stays in suspense, I thought I’d share a tip from a more experienced entrepreneur – let’s call him Kevin, as that’s his name – about due diligence and document organisation.

What Kevin does is to scan every important document his company deals with and back them all up to the company’s servers online. Whether it’s incorporation paperwork or grants, loan agreements, supplier and customer letters, etc; everything gets a virtual home. When it comes to due diligence, all he has to do is give them access to this repository of documents, and that’s it. Paperwork made easy.

What sort of stuff should you make copies of, and how should it be organised? A due diligence checklist like this one can help to give some idea of the headings documents can come under. Personally, I’m thinking maybe even a wiki format might work for general information organisation, where important hardcopy PDFs can be attached ready for future due diligence, but more volatile information can simply be edited with an audit trail. Of course, security is really important if you’re storing this stuff online, but that’s another story.