Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Want To Have A Great Entrepreneurial Pitch? Here Are 10 Tips To Remember

By Bernard Bowers


One of the hardest presentations to make is the entrepreneurial pitch. When you have a great idea for your business, you want to make it happen so you need someone to give you money. There's just one problem: all heavily predisposed against you are venture capitalists, angel investors, and rich uncles. Why is that? The answer is that out of all the pitches they hear, about 99% sound like sure-fire prescriptions to lose money.

If you are pitching investors to give you money for a new venture, you should subscribe to the following rules:

Explain exactly what your business is within the first thirty seconds. Many entrepreneurs waste valuable time giving loads of data, background and other info-all the while investors are left scratching their heads thinking "What does this business actually DO?"

Tell your audience who your customers will be. Painting a vivid and specific picture of these people is a good idea.

Explain why your customers arranging to give you there hard-earned money.

Explain who your competitors are. A certain sign that you are unsophisticated and deserve no investment money is if you tell them that you have no competitors.

Convince them that you are the one that can make this happen.

Be confident and enthusiastic when you are giving your presentation. Besides convincing them, the investors would want to see that you can convince the world of your dream as well and they want a founder/CEO to be a chief salesperson.

Explaining what star you can hitch a ride to is also a must. Let them know if Radio Shack or Best Buy has agreed to distribute your new product. If investors know that you have an established player willing to distribute your wares, then they would feel more comfortable.

Asking for a specific amount of money is a good idea. You can't complain if an investor gives you less than what you were expecting if all you do is ask for money.

When you tell the prospects what you are going to spend your money on, make sure it's not for a trip to Maui because this will definitely not impress them.

Dress well, act confident, and put on the air that you don't really need their money, but would be willing to accept it if they bring enough to the table to be a strategic partner for you. If they feel you don't really need it, then people are more likely to give you money and this is the truth regarding human nature.

Serving as a focus group for your next presentation is your pitch presentation and this is an important thing to remember. Write down the series of questions that the group of investors asked you after your pitch and to avoid the next group from asking the same questions, you need to make sure that most of them are answered in your next pitch. Keep pitching and keep improving your pitch and eventually you may get funded.




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