You’ve got the idea, the passion and the plan for starting your own small business. You have all the office furniture already picked out, complete with customized mugs for all of your soon-to-be employees. You even have the theme from Rocky playing in your head every time you talk about your business idea to your friends and family. So now what?
Now is the time to don your fanciest suit and get a new haircut. Now is the time to pitch your business to potential investors.
According to smallbusiness.chron.com, whether you make a full presentation pitch, a short “elevator” pitch, in person or via video, your presentation requires practice and knowledge. Don’t know where to start? Think of it as a recipe!
Ingredients:
- 1 Business Plan
- 1 Slideshow Presentation (make both hard copies and digital copies available)
- 1 Five-Year Plan Chart (make both hard copies and digital copies available)
Step 1: Introduce the basics – company name, location, products and/or services, projections for the first year and the company’s mission statement. Present the core elements of your company. Provide your prospective investors with either hard or digital copies of your five-year projections. If you chose to distribute paper copies, use a customized letterhead to give your pitch an extra boost of professionalism.
Step 2: Make a financial pitch presentation and justify all costs. Again, provide your prospective investors with either hard or digital copies of your presentation.
Step 3: Answer any questions you believe your prospective investors may have at this time. For example, the hiring process you intend to implement or how you are planning to attract larger market shares. Assure the investors that you will be able to answer any further questions they may have in a timely manner if you don’t get to it in your presentation.
Step 4: Be confident, stand up straight, make eye contact with each potential investor, use proper voice intonations ……………….. and pause for effect. (See what I did there?)
Step 5: Wrap up your presentation by stating what makes your company stand out from the competition and how it will provide a product and/or service never seen before in that market. Match your projected success with that of other start-up successes.
No matter the nature of the presentation, prepare, prepare, prepare. This pitch may be the most important sale of your entrepreneurial endeavor!
Are you getting ready to pitch your idea for a small business? Let us know by leaving a comment below!
Elevator speeches are effective “stand alone” presentations that allow you to articulate your idea quickly and concisely to prospective investors, employees, partners or associates. An elevator pitch can be critical to your success in moving forward from one stage of starting a business to another. In an elevator pitch, you focus on what is really important — what really matters — about your venture.
Idebenone, I couldn’t agree more! A well-prepared elevator speech has the potential to be one of your sharpest tools in pitching your business idea!
to have investors “sign up” at the end of your presentation. Your goal is actually “negative” goal. It is to prevent “bombs” being lobbed at you in the form of questions from the audience. Your “positive” goal is to motivate investors to contact you subsequently for a more serious discussion.