The last series of blogs has focused on the mistakes entrepreneurs make raising capital. That eliminates the “Don’t's”, but just what should you do?
Lets assume you have properly identfied investors to target (not easy I know). Follow this “3 Step Program” :
Step 1 – Elevator Pitch: Give a killer 3 minute elevator pitch and get a business card. Note that a comfortable speaking speed is around 150 words per minute, so allowing for niceties you need to get this down to 400 words max.
Step 2 – Teaser: Follow this up with a maximum 2 page teaser which basically repeats your pitch and request a meeting. Note you can generally get 400 words on one page so 2 pages gives you room for titles / pictures and just a little more information.
Step 3 – Presentation Deck: At the meeting present your 10 Slide deck, in a maximum of 15 minutes. Studies show that people zone out after 10 – 15 minutes, so this is your window of opportunity. Speaking speed for presentations is around 100 words per minute, so here you have 1,000 – 1,500 words to play with. Note that the slides in your deck should be cues / visuals – you need far fewer words written down.
At each step of this process, you can quickly disqualify leads if they are not interested and save yourself a lot of wasted time. If you get past the third step, you will be able to actively engage with investors and supply whatever follow up information they require.
Note there is no mention of writing a business plan anywhere – quite simply investors don’t read them. Raising capital is a sales process. Try to imagine Steve Jobs taking you through the iphone technical manual.
The next series of blogs will go into more detail on developing the tools you need to start this process.
