Plan & Pitch

I am trying to raise money for a great business idea. How can I put some pizazz in my pitch?

It’s not so much what goes into a pitch that makes it good, but what doesn’t. Whether you’re pitching to friends, investors, angels or venture capitalists, the cardinal rules remain the same: Be brief and be clear.

“A good pitch is a short pitch,” says Wil Schroter, CEO of the Go BIG Network, which matches start-ups with investors and job-seekers online. After the first few sentences, he says, “it’s all downhill, and downhill fast, if the investor gets the sense you’re not getting to the point or you have no point.”

Go BIG Network receives scads of pitches from entrepreneurs every day, says Schroter, but too few clearly say who they are and what their business does. “Investors respond to pragmatic, specific information,” he says. “If you can articulate in two sentences the problem and the solution, you’ve nailed it.”

Patrick Ennis, managing director at early-stage investing firm ARCH Venture Partners, says he often has to skim through 10 or 15 pages before figuring out what a pitch is about. “Tell me what you are doing in the first few minutes–something simple like: ‘We make software that we sell to businesses to improve their inventory management,’” he says. “Even a 13-year-old can understand that.”

Tailor pitches to the occasion, says Ennis. First, there’s the 30-second pitch, where the only goal is to grab someone’s attention with your idea so they will give you five more minutes. The five-minute pitch offers just enough time to rattle off a rough outline of your idea so that you will get an hour. The hour-long pitch is all about details–the business model, the product and the management team.

While brevity is always important, don’t skimp on industry analysis, says Ennis. If your longer presentation doesn’t have a slide or two on what you’re up against, “funders will assume you’re unaware of your competitors.”

Not a good public speaker? Practice. If that doesn’t work and you’re still quaking in your loafers, have someone else give the presentation. “Investors want to see confidence, but not every entrepreneur with a good idea is confident,” warns Schroter.

Finally, pay attention to detail. Contact information should be easy to find–don’t make a potential benefactor root around for a phone number. If you plan to e-mail any Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news - people ) Word or PDF files, use the name of your company in the file name, says Ennis. Something simply called “executive summary” will end up in the trash.

This ultralong and boring blog post was brought to you by Mary Crane from forbes.com

Here they are! The top ten of business plan do’s and don’ts:

TOP TEN DO’S
1. Prepare a complete business plan for any business you are considering.
2. Use the business plan templates furnished in each session.
3. Complete sections of your business plan as you proceed through the course.
4. Research (use search engines) to find business plans that are available on the Internet.
5. Package your business plan in an attractive kit as a selling tool.
6. Submit your business plan to experts in your intended business for their advice.
7. Spell out your strategies on how you intend to handle adversities.
8. Spell out the strengths and weaknesses of your management team.
9. Include a monthly one-year cash flow projection.
10. Freely and frequently modify your business plans to account for changing conditions.

TOP TEN DON’TS
1. Be optimistic (on the high side) in estimating future sales.
2. Be optimistic (on the low side) in estimating future costs.
3. Disregard or discount weaknesses in your plan. Spell them out.
4. Stress long-term projections. Better to focus on projections for your first year.
5. Depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or the success of an invention.
6. Project yourself as someone you’re not. Be brutally realistic.
7. Be everything to everybody. Highly focused specialists usually do best.
8. Proceed without adequate financial and accounting know-how.
9. Base your business plan on a wonderful concept. Test it first.
10. Skip the step of preparing a business plan before starting.

…stolen from myownbusiness.org.

Move over elevator pitch, Richard Branson has just raised the stakes. The Virgin entrepreneur is giving startups the chance to pitch their business to him via Twitter, in 140 characters or less.

It’s the dawn of the Twitter micro pitch! Sir Richard Branson is offering entrepreneurs the chance to promote their business to him via Twitter.

It’s all part of a campaign to promote a new startup business conference in Los Angeles called Perfect Business. The “micro pitch” is the brainchild of Branson; not for nothing has he built a reputation for killer marketing.

The billionaire entrepreneur will decide on the best micro pitch by 8 September. The winner will receive two free tickets to the conference, flights and coaching to “turn your tweet into a full blown business plan”.

To submit an idea, entrepreneurs must send their micro pitch tweet to @perfectbusiness, including the hashtag #micropitch. Problem is, with these two tags, you’ve lost 27 characters.

Entrepreneurs have to keep their pitches extra short.

In a canny, money-making move, Branson and the Perfect Business lot are allowing less Twitter-savvy entrepreneurs to go over the 140 character limit – for $60. You can submit this slightly longer pitch through the Perfect Business website.

The Perfect Business team will then select three finalists from the web entries to get the chance to pitch their business idea to Branson and a host of other venture capitalists including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rustic Canyon Partners and August Capital at the conference to be held on 26 October.

Real Business sends special kudos out to the entrepreneurs who are keeping to the 140-character limit.

Here are some of the pitches so far:

1ideaguy @Perfectbusiness #micropitch -pharmaceutical ads on hospital trays – 15% profits please

 Graham_Horton @PerfectBusiness a lottery whose prize is a space flight with virgin galactic (great for a birthday present!) #micropitchRyPi

@perfectbusiness tablet/app to pay restaurant bill – no wait/paper, tipcalc, user can custom split, free up staff, turnover, ads #micropitchepicflowers

@perfectbusiness #micropitch Consumers will see flowers in real time in a florist’s cooler from anywhere in the world & be able to buy them

 stolen from real business

Scott Berkun shares the process of 8, well… 9 steps you have to go through to deliver the perfect business pitch.

Step 0: Create and refine the idea
Step 1: What is the scope of the idea
Step 2: Who has the power to green light the idea
Step 3: Start with their perspective
Step 4: The structure of the pitch
Step 5: Test the pitch
Step 6: Deliver
Step 7: What to do when the pitch fails
Step 8: Do it yourself

The full article is a pretty f**king long read, I prefer reading a book when it’s more then 3 alineas, but perhaps you’re interested.

Anyway, There’s some good stuff in there:

The classic mistake of would be idea pitchers is to pitch the idea well before it’s ready. When most people find an interesting idea, they’re quickly seduced by their egos into doing silly and non productive things, like annoying the pants off of everyone they come into contact with by telling them how amazing their new idea is. The thrill of being clever is so strong that they forget the fact that there are 100 interesting ideas bouncing around for every single truly good idea.

What’s the optimal process for writing a business plan?

Okay, good question. Fortunately for people like you and myself, business guru Guy Kawasaki gives a fair enough answer on his blog:

Grab whatever part gets your attention first and get going. Understand that it’s not sequential it’s iterative, and a good plan is never done. Some people do the numbers, then the concepts, most people do concepts first, but it doesn’t matter. Planning isn’t a waiting room where you sit until you’re done. Build it in parts, mix and match, choose items from a menu. If you like, do a sales forecast and see where that leads you.

In the same breath, he does share HIS favorite process:

- start with what you want for the business on the long term

- move to establishing a conceptual identify: what are you best at, how do you want the world to distinguish your business from all others.

- go to the marketing: what message, to whom, through what media.

- then go to sales forecast, costs, expenses, and last but frequently most important, cash flow.

That’s it but remember: a good business plan is never done.

1. Concise. Your pitch should take no longer than 30-60 seconds.
2. Clear. Use language that everyone understands. Don’t use fancy words thinking it will make you sound smarter. Your listener won’t understand you and you’ll have lost your opportunity to hook them.
3. Powerful. Use words that are powerful and strong. Deliver the “Sis-Boom-Bang” to grab their attention!
4. Visual. Use words that create a visual image in your listeners mind. This will make your message memorable.
5. Tell a Story. A short story, that is. A good story is essentially this: someone with a problem either finds a solution or faces tragedy. Either type of story can be used to illuminate what you do.
6. Targeted. A great elevator pitch is aimed for a specific audience. If you have target audiences that are vastly different, you might want to have a unique pitch for each.
7. Goal Oriented. A kick-ass elevator pitch is designed with a specific outcome in mind. What is your desired outcome? You may have different pitches depending on different objectives. For instance do you want to: make a sale, gain a prospect, enlist support for an idea, or earn a referral.
8. Has a Hook. This is the element that literally snags your listener’s interest and makes them want to know more. This is the phrase or words that strike a chord in your listener.

Stolen from dumblittleman.com

A PDF-guide for all entrepreneurs who plan to grow their business. It show both the pros and cons of sharing the equity with investors.

Written by some smart guys who did their homework. Contains lots of helpful infographics as well.

Equity Fingerprint is the ultimate business plan resource to learn about a key part of business planning. If you don’t know your venture capital from your bank loans or your dilution from your spending then this business plan resource is the one for you.

Business plans are boring, usually.

David Svet has written a brilliant article on his blog how you can write a compelling business plan that people want to read and will be able to understand as well.

How’s that possible? Write your business plan as a story! As an adventure, a fairy tale, a fable… that’s right.

Give it a shot. Make 15-20 slides and retell your business plan as a story. It will give you a new frame of reference for your work. Embrace storytelling as a way to talk about your organization and you can rise above the competition reaching your full potential. It will make it more fun for your employees to understand what you do. It will inspire you to be bolder with your marketing and sales efforts.

Now go ahead and read his article.

And don’t forget.

Even if you don’t end up with a tidy story in the end, the process of looking through another lens will help you to see your business in a new light.

You can’t overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I’ve made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can’t over-prepare in business!
- Chris Corrigan

Are you pitch ready? Want to get invested? Send your pitch to James Caan, entrepreneur and investor, known from the British Dragon’s Den.

Unfortunately…

“Proposals are assessed by the Investment Team and unfortunately due to the high volume that we receive it is near to impossible to respond to each and everyone and can take several weeks for a response.”

What the hell. What have you got to loose?

http://www.james-caan.com/investments-ideas.php