How to do an Elevator Pitch for your Small Business Startup
An elevator pitch, also sometimes known as an elevator speech although the two are actually not exactly the same thing, is a brief overview of your business, products or services which may come in handy during face-to face networking and other business settings as discussed over at runrex.com. A great elevator pitch is one that is designed to spark interest in your business and will lead to a much more detailed conversion on the same, even helping you get funding for your business. As per discussions on the same over at ppchire.com, while an elevator pitch and an elevator speech are quite similar, they are not the same thing per se. An elevator pitch is delivered to investors in a more formal setting and is more likely accompanied by a pitch deck, with tips on writing an excellent pitch deck to be found over at guttulus.com. An elevator speech on the other hand is basically a speech as its name suggests and as such it is usually reserved for situations where you don’t have time to go into detail about your business and require a brief description of the same, like say at a party or an event. This article will look to help with an elevator pitch, and especially on how you can do one for your small business startup.
The first step when it comes to doing an elevator pitch for your small business startup is to identify a problem or a gap in the market, one that your product or service will look to help as per the gurus over at bitgale.com. When defining the problem you are looking to solve, try to do so in way that is as simple and as easy to understand as possible. Try to see if you can describe this problem in one or two sentences or a few bullet points as per discussions on the same over at runrex.com. After identifying the problem, the next step is to describe how you plan to solve it using your product or service. Make sure that your explanation on how you intend to solve the issue you had described earlier is also brief and easy to understand. Don’t get too complex or wordy as this may just lead to the investors, or whoever you are pitching to, to switch off. When doing an elevator pitch, as covered over at ppchire.com, you should be able to describe the solution your product or service offers in a few sentences or bullet points, while still doing so at a high level so that whoever you are pithing to can be able to grasp clearly what you are talking about.
Another very important component on doing an elevator pitch, as per the gurus over at guttulus.com, is to ensure that you have a clear grasp of who your target market is. This means that you should be able to define the people encountering the problem you had highlighted earlier on as well as how many of these potential customers you will be looking to sell to. The subject matter experts over at bitgale.com recommend that in this stage, you should look to divide your target market into segments, highlighting the segment of the market you intend to target. If you are selling clothes for example, highlight if your target market will be kids, adults, men, women and so forth. You should also do your research so that you can be able to describe the estimated figures on how many people are in each target market segment as discussed in detail over at runrex.com. In addition to the target market and the different segments, you should also look to highlight how much they are currently spending in these segments; which is a key part of your elevator pitch. Next up, you should go into detail of your competition or any alternatives to your product or service. As you highlight your competition or any alternatives to your product or service that are out there, make sure to define the advantages your solution has over them and just why a potential customer would choose you over your competition.
Another important component when doing an elevator pitch is to describe who is on your team as per discussions on the same over at ppchire.com. This is key and you want to show how highly qualified, passionate and skilled your team is and why they are the best team out there to bring your plans to fruition. You need to show that you have the right people around you since most investors look at the team more than they even look at the idea. If you understand that you have gaps in your team you should communicate this as well, letting the investors know that you are looking for the right talent to fill these gaps. Another important component when doing an elevator pitch is including a financial breakdown or summary. As per the gurus over at guttulus.com, this requires you to have a good understanding of your business model, how you intend to make money as well as your expenses. You should have a breakdown of your projected sales as well as projected expenses so that when you do ask for a specific sum in an investment, you have the numbers backing you up. Your elevator pitch should also show traction as far as your business is concerned. This includes showing what you have achieved so far, what you aim to achieve going forward and the timeframe of these milestones and achievements. Remember, the key to a good elevator pitch is keeping it simple and not being to wordy and taking too much time.
If you are looking for professional help on how you can do an elevator pitch for your small business, then check out the highly rated bitgale.com.