How To Pitch Business Ideas Effectively?
2020 was a wild year, the messy end to a wild decade that changed everything. In that mess, the corporate world changed as well – both at the start and end of that decade. Within all the countries where the corporate world changed, Nepal was not an exception. What began as a decade of going abroad ended up with more and more Nepali trying to start something new in Nepal.
With people trying out new ideas in Nepal, over the past decade a lot of startups have come about. As much as we want to say that all of the business that popped up during this time was a lot, the truth is many great ideas still failed to be a formal functioning business. Just taking an estimate, we can guess that many of those failed ideas would have been great business if they turned into businesses? Why did this happen though?
There may have been many reasons for this but one of the most common reasons that we have seen so far is – They fail to pitch their business ideas to investors effectively. This is not a sure-shot thing- of course but this is a hurdle that a lot of startups face. People can have great business ideas but if they fail to convince the inverters, it’s not going to start.
Why do Pitching Business Ideas fail?
Many people fail to pitch because of two main reasons – they either get too nervous or too excited. There are of-course many reasons besides these two things like incorrect format of the pitch, lack of evidence to back their claims, unrealistic expectations, and so on. Regardless of the reasons, the main reason you fail is that either you become too excited or nervous and oversell your idea or fail to prepare well for the pitch.
How can we pitch our business Idea to our investors well then?
The whole issue of failing to pitch our ideas can be separated into two parts. The first part is – what to include and the second part is- how to pitch the ideas.
First Part: What to include?
All you need to include in a business pitch is your business plan. This is a huge area and if we want to see all the components, then this thing will be too long. So we have point out just the basics here.
1. Introduction and the role of your business
The first thing you have to include in your business pitch is of course the introduction but apart from that you also have to say how it changes the business world. Your business can either solve the problems that haven’t been solved before or it can change the way a problem is solved but it needs to do either one of them.
2. Predictions
The next thing you have to include is your predictions for that business. Apparently, you have to be able to predict how it will do a few years after the business begins before the business even begins. While making predictions you have to be as practical as possible and think of both the best-case scenario as well as the worst-case scenario. Thinking back a bit, it kinda does make sense since making both of these predictions will enable you to be flexible when an issue arises.
3. Marketing strategies
Now the final thing- or let’s say the final chunk of things that you must include in your business pitch is the marketing strategies and what you aim to gain. At the end of the day, regardless of how realistic your business and how great your idea is, it all depends on how you plan to market it and what you – as a person – want to achieve through your startup. Whether you aim to solve an issue in the world or just plan to get rich and increase the stocks is all valid reasons, aims and goals. Just be sure to keep it realistic.
4. Proofs and stats
One side note is that you have to sound legit and when you speak about your experience. You can convince this in your speech but the best way is to include stats and proofs while you are pitching. This will not only enable the investors to believe what you speak, but these will also add credibility to what you plan.
Second Part: How to pitch the business idea?
How do you pitch? Well surprisingly, it is not really that hard. All you have to do is be confident in what you say about your business with proof to back it up, take things easy and go with the flow.
1. Tell your story
You need to show your emotions and dedication in your business idea if you want your pitch to reach the investor’s heart. The first step is always the heart it seems. This is basically a trick you can use to get the investors to be more involved in your business pitch through the use of emotions. Tell them a story and tell them why you want your business to happen. Tell the investors how you came up with the idea and how you want it to end up with all of your emotions mixed in.
2. Be realistic
While doing this you should be careful to not exaggerate though as it can be easy to do that while your emotions are involved. Regardless of how huge your aim is, you should be realistic while pitching a business proposal or you will just seem like a mad scientist. Connected with the point is that while pitching your business idea, you have to be neutral and humble.
We understand that after one has spent months developing an idea, it may seem like nothing will go wrong and it is the greatest idea in the world – but in reality, there will be flaws and there will be things you don’t know. So while pitching your business idea, acknowledge this. By acknowledging that there are things you don’t know, the investors will be more likely to be willing to work with you as they will know that it will be easy to guide you in case you need some.
3. Interact
About being humble things, interact with the investors who are judging your business pitch if there is any point where you are unsure about your idea or just want their opinion, do that – but without sounding like a total idiot. They will ask you questions time and again and be prepared to answer them. After all, it is your idea and the chances are that they will have quite a lot of questions regarding them.
But while saying this, if you can’t answer their questions just admit your lack of knowledge in a polite manner. Don’t try to come up with some nonsense to try to cover your lack of knowledge. Remember one thing – if they asked you about something, they probably know enough about it to find flaws related to them within your idea. It’s either this or at the very least they know enough to acknowledge that they don’t understand a part of your idea. In their assumption, you know everything related to your business pitch.
Final words
So this is all about pitching business ideas to investors. As you may have guessed, all of the information that we have given here is from the experiences and suggestions of those who have tried, failed, and succeeded.
The gist is, know everything that you have to know about your business idea that you are going to pitch about, be confident but realistic, and have a flow to it. You do have to practice a lot though. As someone once said –
“You’ve likely told your origin story dozens of times and have it down. Now, get ready to tell it possibly hundreds more. During our capital raise, I told our founding story 200 times. While it’s old news to you, it’s new for the investor, so keep it upbeat and tell it with enthusiasm”
Founder and CEO of a voice.com – David Ciccarelli
If you think that your idea can revolutionize the world and don’t want anyone to steal your idea, you can just patent it. Just be sure to pitch your idea beforehand to someone you trust and know about businesses. Because sometimes while our idea may seem great to us, in reality, it is not really that great and sometimes even trash.
If you are confident however go and patent it so that your idea be it a business idea or any other idea, will be yours. You can also make an attempt to sign a Nondisclosure Agreement with the investors in this case as well. Although the chances are low that they will agree, it is still worth a shot.
Also one last piece of advice – keep your business pitch short, will you? No one wants to hear an hour-long business pitch after all.
One more thing- you have to be updated about business if you want to start a startup and be on the trends so don’t forget to check our list of 7 Best Free Apps for Business News
