Few entrepreneurs have the capital required to grow a startup, and they need investors to finance their endeavours.
In order to maximise the chances of investors believing in you and your business you need to impress them with your business pitch.
This is ultimately a presentation that provides an oral overview of your business plan.
To create a business pitch:
Create A Business Plan
Make sure to prepare for your business pitch well in advance.
The first item on your checklist would be to create a solid business plan that outlines in detail steps you plan to take to grow your company.
This document should answer questions such as, how much funds do you need to operate for the next year, three years and five years.
How much staff you will need, how you will market your business, etc.
Prepare
You may be the best public speaker and know your product inside and out, but when you find yourself in a stressful situation which may determine the future of your company, you may forget what you have to say, find yourself stumped and utterly embarrassed.
For famous business pitch flops, just check our episodes of Shark Tank!
To avoid an uncomfortable situation, prepare every detail of your business pitch in advance.
If possible, bring samples of your product so that the investors can see, feel and try it for themselves.
If not, bring photos or videos to help them understand more about your offering.
Create other visuals, such as flyers, brochures, graphs, or PowerPoint presentations about your plans for the business, and how you plan to make money.
Know Who You Are Investing To
Although your main goal is to educate the investors about your startup, your homework is to study all the information you can find about them.
Finding a hook that can help you relate to an investor can greatly maximise your chances of getting funding.
Find out where the investors are from, where they went to university, what they studied, what their philanthropic interests are and where their passions lie.
Once you have this information, you can try to use it to your advantage during the pitch.
Practice
Recruit a group of people who can pretend to be the investors, and practice presenting your business pitch to them.
Instruct them to ask you tough questions related to your startup so you can practice answering them to be fully prepared for your opportunity with the investors.
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