Pitching Tips
So many first time entrepreneurs get this all wrong. You should avoid a 45 minute bullet pointed snore-fest at all costs. Keep it simple. Use plenty of pictures and graphs. Avoid reading out bullet points. Also, you should remember that your communication skills are being judged as well as your business.
Here are some rules of thumb that will help you.
- Keep it to 20 minutes maximum.
- Use as little text as possible.
- When using text make sure it’s big enough to read.
- Use pictures to support what you are saying.
- Use graphs to illustrate facts and figures.
- Emphasis your traction.
- Tell a story.
- Rehearse rehearse rehearse…
It’s critically important that you have all angles covered. You need to be prepared for all possible questions that investors may ask. Remember, it’s just as much about the questions asked than the actual presentation. Do not underestimate the amount of work that you need to do in order to be properly prepared. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
View it as a theatrical performance and practice it enough times that you can go on auto pilot. This will help you add sheen to your presentation and will impress your potential investors. Professionalism in this regard is key.
Make sure that you arrive early and try to get into the room 20 minutes before the meeting starts. This will ensure that start time is start time, and not set-up for a bit then start time. It’s also very important that you carry back up presentations on different formats. Make sure that you have prepared for the worst case scenario of a computer failure and bring enough print outs of your presentation in case this occurs.
I would also suggest that you should only pitch to investors that know your business sector, be it through experience or that they have done significant research into it. Therefore, engage them on a knowledgeable level and don’t try to explain the basics of your sector to them.
Some people would disagree with me on this, but if an investor does not know the basics of your sector before a meeting then they either have no experience in the sector or they didn’t do their homework . As a result, you are better off finding investors that have either experience (ideal) or are prepared to research and investigate from their end to make up for any gaps in industry experience.
There are some good free resources that you can use. Open Office or Google docs for the presentation. You also have the obvious PowerPoint or Keynote for Mac. I believe that Keynote is a cut above the rest, however any presentation slideshow package will be adequate as long as you put enough though into your message.
Also, you can use Flikr Creative Commons pictures but make sure you give credit. iStockPhoto is where you can buy royalty free pictures for use in your presentations. They are worth checking out.
In summary, be concise and polished and make sure your presentation skills add to your business, not take away from it.
