How to Pitch Your Business & Get Funding

You go in front of investors, you tell them about your business or business concepts, your plans, your current sales (if any) and you tell them about your projected revenue. How hard could it be? Obviously, based on the number of startups and businesses that fail to get funding, pitching in front of investors is a very tricky business. 

Following are tips on how you can elicit the interest from investors, without turning them off with long-winded presentation, over-zealousness and obvious desperation.

• Less is More. When it comes to pitching to investors, less is always more. Lengthy presentations will not impress investors; it may even turn them off. Deliver your pitch in a short and clear manner. You need to convince your investors that you can attract and retain customers. If your presentation is all over the place and investors can’t grasp the overall concept within a short span of time, they’ll presume that your customers won’t get it either.

• Gather facts & proofs, not hypothesis. Base your pitch on facts, not fiction. A company with cash flow and a proven track record is more likely to get funding than a pitch with nothing but forecasts of future revenues. Again, do not try to impress your investors by telling them you are sure you’ll grow from a 50,000 business to a 50 million business in 3 years. 
  
  Before you go in front of investors, find ways to test the viability of your business in a small  market, and on a shoestring budget. 

• Show that you are determined, but patient. Show your investors that you have a good grasp of reality, that you know it will take a lot of effort, determination and patience on your part to make the business grow. 

• Investors don’t trust anyone who seems to bite off more than they can chew. When you go in front of your investors, don't go pitching multiple product lines on several branches, show them instead how well you created a single product and successfully fulfilled the demand for it. Prove that you have mastered your marketing strategies, sales tactics and operating procedures.  Investors will get impressed once you show them that you have a sustainable step-and-repeat business model that can be used to manage an exponentially growing business. We have seen all too well on "Shark Tank" many businesses falling short in this area. 
  
  Show them you have a power team. Investors are not just funding your business or your business ideas; they are funding a great management team as well. The smartest entrepreneurs in the world are the ones who surround themselves with smart people. Know what you don’t know and have smart people do those things for you. Hire your weakness!

If you want to know how to deliver the perfect elevator pitch, join us at the MACsWomen Perfect Pitch Contest. 

Over to you..

Have you ever tried pitching your business to a potential investor or business partner? How did it go? Any takeaways from your experience that you want to share with the MACsWomen community? Please share your thoughts through the comments section below.