10 Tips for a Successful Entrepreneurial Pitch

One of the hardest presentations to make is the entrepreneurial pitch. You have a great idea for a business and you want someone to give you money to make it happen. The problem is that venture capitalists, angel investors, and even rich uncles are heavily predisposed against you. Why? Because 99% of the pitches they hear sound like sure-fire prescriptions to lose money!

If you are pitching investors to give you money for a new venture, you should subscribe to the following rules:

1. Explain exactly what your business is within the first thirty seconds. Many entrepreneurs waste valuable time giving loads of data, background and other info—all the while investors are left scratching their heads thinking “What does this business actually DO?”

2. Tell your audience who your customers will be. Paint a vivid, specific picture of these people.

3.  Explain why your customers going to give you there hard-earned money.

4. Explain who your competitors are. (And if you say you have no competitors, that is a certain sign you are unsophisticated and deserve no investment money!)

5. Explain why you are the ONE to make this happen.

6. Give your presentation with confidence and enthusiasm. Investors want a founder/CEO to be a chief salesperson; they want to see that you can convince the world of your dream—not just them.

7. Explain what star you can hitch a ride to. Has Best Buy or Radio Shack agreed to distribute your new product? Investors feel much more comfortable knowing you have an established player willing to distribute your wares.

8. Ask for a specific amount of money. If all you do is ask for money, then you can’t complain if an investor gives you $3.25 for a cup of Starbucks coffee.

9. Tell prospects exactly what you are going to spend the money on (hint:a trip to Maui for you and your friends will not impress)

10. Dress well, act confident, and put on the air that you don’t really need their money, but would be willing to accept it if they bring enough to the table to be a strategic partner for you. Sad but true regarding human nature, but people are much more likely to give you money if they feel you don’t really need it.

Finally, make each pitch presentation serve as a focus group for your next presentation. When one group of investors asks you a series of questions after you pitch, write down all of those questions and make sure most of them are answered in your next pitch so that the next group doesn’t have to ask them. Keep pitching and keep improving your pitch and eventually you may get funded.

5 Tips to Help You Market When You Think You're Too Busy

 What if you've taken the time to create a marketing plan but now you're so busy servicing your current clients that you're having a hard time keeping on track with your plan?

Is it okay to set the plan aside for awhile? After all you've got enough business to keep you busy. And, you're not sure you could handle additional clients right now anyway.

While marketing may not seem like a necessary activity when your business is going gang-busters, it's only a matter of time before your lack of marketing starts to impact your business. 

Staying on top of your marketing plan, even when you're busy, ensures you always have a pipeline full of prospects and clients into your business.

While you may be busy right now, if you stop marketing for the next three months, you may find yourself high and dry when it comes to clients, because you've stopped the flow.

As an independent professional myself, I can totally relate to being too busy to market. It seems the days are never long enough to get everything on my to-do list done.  But as a marketing professional I know I can't afford to NOT get my marketing done.

So what's a busy gal (or guy) to do?!?

Here are 5 suggestions ... these are things I do and recommend to all my clients in my 10stepmarketing System. 

(1) If you haven't already, create a marketing calendar. Schedule all of your marketing activities in the calendar according to how frequently you planned to do them in your marketing plan.

If you planned to do something monthly, enter it on the calendar once each month. Weekly? Enter it four times per month. Do this for every planned activity.

(2) Hang your marketing calendar over your desk on a bulletin board or on the wall. Make a habit of looking at it every morning. This way you won't have the problem of "out of site out of mind."

I can't tell you how many clients I've had whose marketing plans have ended up in a file folder in a drawer. You're certainly NOT going to grow your business that way!

(3) Try incorporating your marketing activities into your weekly and daily to-do list.  Enter the activities as to-do tasks in your calendar or PDA just like all your appointments and other business activities.

I do this with all my marketing activities. I use Microsoft Outlook and a Pocket PC and it's the only way I know I'll keep myself on track. If something is on my calendar, I treat it like any other meeting or appointment and I do it.

For example, every Wednesday, a little notice pops up to remind me to write my weekly ezine. If that didn't happen I'd either be writing it on Monday's at midnight, or it wouldn't get done.

(4) Pick one day per month to review your marketing calendar in detail and to look three months ahead. What is coming up that you need to prepare for now? What do you need to transfer into your to-do list or PDA to make sure you don't forget to do it?

I usually do this at the end of the month when I'm doing all my month-end work ... things like running sales reports, doing billing, and updating my marketing tracking reports.

Make it a habit to review your marketing at the same time you do these tasks. After a few months you won't even have to think about it anymore, it'll become a habit.

(5) Consider hiring an assistant or support person to help. If they can take some of the tasks off your plate that really don't require your expertise, it will free you up to focus on what I call "revenue producing activities."

These are things like working with clients, creating products and services and marketing. I couldn't believe the difference it made when I hired some help.

I didn't think I could afford it, but now I don't see how I lasted so long without help!

When you find a way to get back on track with your marketing and you do it on regular basis, it really does become a part of the way you do business.

Suddenly it doesn't seem like marketing anymore. It's just what you do to run your business. That's when it becomes effortless.

And, that's when you know your business will be continue to be busy and profitable for the long-haul.

5 Things to Consider Before You Hire a Virtual Assistant

 Understanding What a Virtual Assistant Can Do ?

I hear the term "Virtual Assistant" more and more in business. Did you know that you could possibly hire someone from another continent that works while you sleep and maybe for $8 - $12 Dollars. Mos t of the VA’s I work with have degrees and one an MBA in Business Admin. I pay her a pautry $15.00 per hour and what a bargain that is.

With the growth of virtual assistants has also been a change in what it means to be a virtual assistant.  The leaders and founders of this particular entrepreneurial job have made distinctions between what it means to be a virtual assistant, and what it doesn’t mean.  When you are explaining your business to others, you want to make sure to keep this standard.  

Being a virtual assistant is becoming a distinct definition of a specific home owned business.  It is expected that the standards will be upheld of a virtual assistant for all others who are working in this profession.  This means that a virtual assistant is someone who provides a variety of services to businesses and individuals following the standard that has become formalized in the past decade.

  

The first angle that is taken towards approaching what a virtual assistant is includes the idea of being virtual. If you are not working out of your home, or remotely, then you are not considered a virtual assistant.  Instead, it is considered to be a temporary job or a telecommuting job.  One of the standards for being a virtual assistant is having the freedom to work where you want. 

The second part to being a virtual assistant is the distinction that is made in the job description.  Most virtual assistants will cringe at the idea of being called a secretary or freelance worker.  Technically, a freelance worker is one who only does the job for extra income.  At the same time, a secretary is one who doesn’t do the work continuously with only one client.  A virtual assistant is provided in order to create a substantial and long term relationship with a business. 

 

Here are 5 things you should consider in a Virtual Assistant?

1. Professionalism. Does the VA answer her or his emails, voicemails and other correspondence in a timely and professional manner? It is important if this person is to work for you has the right skills to not keep you or a deadline waitng. Make sure you give a covert task to her or him to pass that shows comittment to deadlines.

2. Project Management. Juggling tasks nowadays is vital. We now tap out feet in front of the microwave so things need to get done. If a person cannot work with a few projects on the go you might want to move on. I guarantee you will only find out that they have a project management problem when you lose "the big deal".

3. Availability. Many of these people work for several people at the same time. It is not uncommon for you as an employer to be in a funnel system for the VA. You slowly move down the funnel as they take on better contracts from new virtual employers. Be aware that you and your project will get dropped at the most time you least need it. You also need to be lining up new VA's. Try to split your work between 2 or more VA's to combat this problem.

4. Test. Give the VA a mini project before going ahead with a contract.  I also give a minimum of 2 tasks that cost no more than $30 -$40 to complete. I need them done correctly and to my total satisfaction before I even consider this person. It is simple to hire one of the first few people to come along but please shortlist at least 10 and give the tasks to 2 of the 10 you shortlisted. Obviously make sure these tasks are something you actually want doe, dont waste any money.

5. Get References. Can the VA give you a list of people whom you can contact who will tell you about working with her or him? 

The main distinction that most virtual assistants will work towards creating is the idea of being in a relationship with a business, and making this their business.  This goes beyond the Expectations of any temporary work or telecommuting job.  It also means that the services a virtual assistant can provide will go outside of job descriptions that are made in the office.  By understanding the standards for being a virtual assistant, you can best approach this in your own relationships with businesses.

2 Ways To Eliminate Your Competition – It’s Easy!

 Eliminating your competition is the easiest way to increase your chances of business success. And I don’t mean literally eliminate them, in the sense of doing something “bad” to them.

 When I say eliminate, I mean ... take them out of your prospect’s consideration set for your product or service category.  Make it so your prospects ONLY think of your business, product or service when they are contemplating making a purchase.  That way you get their business, instead of your competition making the sale.

What this means is if you sell widgets, you want your prospects to only think of your widgets when they are thinking of buying widgets.  This is pretty easy to do if your business is not in a competitive industry. 

But let’s suppose there are all kinds of businesses selling what you are selling, or filling the same consumer or business need you are filling.  

 

How can you make sure your prospects ONLY think of you — and therefore only BUY from you — and not all those other companies? 

Answer:  By thoroughly understanding those competing businesses and then doing one of two things:

(1)  Finding a position in the category you can own. 

This will separate you from all the other businesses and will make you uniquely qualified in the eyes of your prospect to fill their need.  

This usually requires finding a specific market niche you can focus on, or finding a specific product or service attribute or benefit, that is of value to your prospects, that none of your competitors can claim or are currently promoting.  

This puts you in a class of your own and virtually eliminates the competition. No one does exactly what you do. Or in the quite the way you do it. 

(2)  By turning your competitors into “co-opitors.”  

What the heck is a “co-opitor?”  It is a competitor that you turn into a partner or a cooperator. Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with the idea of referring business to each other? 

For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club or a massage therapist. All of these practitioners are selling improved health and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services.

Or, let’s say you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (a market niche). You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to focus on large corporations. 

If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche, and to refer business outside your niche to the partner, you both win. 

You can partner with other businesses in your exact business in this manner, by identifying niches, by geographic area served, or by size or type of clients served. 

And you can partner with businesses in different categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers.

There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two strategies to significantly reduce their competition.  So figure out which strategy fits your business best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year. 

Why Business Credit Is A MUST For Every Business Owner!

 As an entrepreneur, you’re hardwired to enjoy a greater level of risk than the average person. But do you enjoy the thrill of business and investing so much that you’re willing to risk: 

-Being hounded by creditors?

-Declaring bankruptcy?

-Being denied a mortgage?

-Paying more than your fair share of interest on your loans?

-Losing your house?

If you answered “no” to one or more of these questions, this may be the most important report you’ve read in a long time.

Because, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners I’ve met over the past 28 years, you’re in danger of facing all of these horrific problems.

And it’s all because of your business.

You see, entrepreneurs typically make one or more financially devastating mistakes when financing the launch, operation and/or growth of their businesses. In most cases, they don’t realize that they’re making a mistake. 

And to tell the truth, even when they do realize they’re making a mistake … they lull themselves into thinking that the consequences will be a minor annoyance. 

Until, one day, they can’t qualify for a mortgage. Or they can’t get the to-die-for financing offered on the new car they’re buying. Or they’re hounded by creditors and eventually have to declare bankruptcy.

And it is all because they use their personal finances to fund the launch or expansion of their business. They then use personal credit cards to pay for business expenses. If you are in business or thinking about starting a business, business credit is a must. 

Let me explain, most business owner have no idea that they can establish business credit and even fewer know how to how to establish business credit. If owners would take the time necessary to educate themselves about establishing credit they would no longer have to use their personal funds for start up capital or working capital. 

They would also be able to use business credit cards which don’t report to their personal credit reports, therefore, not lowering the personal credit scores.

The most important goal of business credit though is to obtain unsecured business lines of credit, which can be done once the business credit profile is set up properly. Once a business obtains unsecured business lines of credit, they then have the working capital they need to start a business or expand their business. The business owner has check book control to use the business lines of credit as they wish. And best of all, the business lines of credit don’t report to the business owner’s personal credit report.

If you have set up your business profile correctly there are a number of banks that will lend to brand new start up business. That is right, brand new start up business with no track record whatsoever. The banks will extend unsecured business lines of credit so they can have the start up capital they need to finance the business of their dreams. 

Make no mistake about it; business credit is a MUST for every business owner. Don’t put your personal assets at risk finance or fund your business!

'Excellence' Program Assists People With Disabilities

 People with disabilities remain an untapped resource in the nation's work force, facing an unemployment rate of 70 percent.

NISH, a nonprofit organization that helps secure federal contracts for agencies that employ people with disabilities through the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Program, is working to change the status quo. The organization has introduced a new program whereby agencies designated as "Centers of Excellence" serve as mentors to other agencies to help them improve the quality of the service and products they provide to the federal government. 

The Javits-Wagner-O'Day Program is the largest single source of jobs in the U.S. for people with disabilities. Often referred to as the JWOD program, it provides employment opportunities for more than 45,000 people who are blind or have other severe disabilities. 

Through the JWOD program, NISH works with a network of more than 600 nonprofit agencies that employ and train people with disabilities.

The program stems from the Wagner-O'Day Act, passed in 1938, which provided employment opportunities for the blind by allowing them to manufacture mops and brooms to sell to the federal government. In 1971, Congress amended the act to include people with severe disabilities and to allow the agencies to provide services as well as products.

According to a recent Harris Interactive survey, two out of three people with disabilities who are not working want to work, but the lack of opportunities and accessibility issues prevent them from finding employment.