- A description of the problem your customers have
- Your solution (your product or service)
- Business model (how you make money)
- Target market (who is your customer and how many of them are there)
- Competitive advantage
- Management team
- Financial summary
- Funding required
What to include in your business pitch
Start with your pitch. Save the business plan document for later.
As you think about each of the areas above, don’t think “business plan.” Instead, imagine that you are having a conversation with someone at a cocktail party and you’re explaining your business to them in simple terms.
See Also: 7 Reasons to Create a One Page Pitch Before You Plan
It’s much better to think that you’re “pitching your business.” After all, the idea of ”pitch first, plan second” is a best practice in business and is a much faster and more effective path to success than the traditional business plan.
When you’re writing your pitch, channel Twitter and try and keep each section as short as possible:
- Value proposition: One sentence that describes the value you provide to your customers.
- Market need: What problem does your business solve for your customers?
- Your solution: How do you solve your customer’s problem? What products and services are you offering?
- Competition: What products and services do your customers choose today instead of yours? How are you different?
- Target market: Who is your ideal customer?
- Sales and marketing: How do you market your products and services to your customers?
- Budget and sales goals: How much do you think you will sell and how much is it going to cost you to make your product or deliver your service? What other key expenses will you have when your business is up and running?
- Milestones: What have you achieved so far and what are your major goals for the next few months or years?
- Team: Why are you and your business partners the right people to make your company successful?
- Partners and resources: Do you need to work with other companies or organizations to make your company a success?
- Funding needs: This is optional; if you need to raise money for your business, how much do you need and what will you use it for?
The details
I’ll stay in the spirit of keeping things short and sweet and give you very brief descriptions of what’s needed in each section of your business pitch.
- Value proposition: If you were composing a tweet to tell people about your business, what would you say? With only 140 characters, describe what you do and what makes you unique. Your goal is to communicate the value you are providing to your customers in a way that they will understand.
- Market need: If you aren’t solving a problem for your customers, you are going to have a hard time building your business. If you’re not sure, try talking to your potential customers and ask them what they like about your products or services. Why do they choose you over other alternatives?
- Your solution: Describe your product or service and why it’s better than the alternatives. Essentially, if someone asked you what you sell, what would your answer be?
- Target market: Describe your ideal customer. Who are they? Be as specific as possible—age, gender, shopping habits, and so on. If you target different types of people, create market segments for each group.
- Competition: Every business has competition. Who do your customers buy from if they don’t buy from you? What makes your business and products better than the alternatives that are out there?
- Funding needs: Nearly every business needs some money to get off the ground. Think about how much money you’ll need and how you plan on using it. Even if you’re starting your business with your own savings or using credit card debt, it’s a good idea to plan on how you will use the funds until you start making sales.
- Sales channels: These are the places where you will sell your products. If you’re selling online, your online store is a sales channel. If you also have a physical store, that’s another sales channel.
- Marketing activities: What will you do to market your business? If you plan on buying advertising, list the types of advertising you plan on doing here. Remember, different target markets might need different types of marketing activities to get your product in front of them.
- Budget and sales goals: How much is it going to cost to run your business? What sales goals do you need to reach for your business to be a success? Don’t sweat the details to start and just think in broad strokes to get a rough idea of how your business will work financially. You can refine the details later.
- Milestones: What are the major tasks you need to accomplish to get your business up and running? This will help you stay on track and meet your goals. Make sure to assign milestones to people on your team so you have real responsibility and accountability.
- Team: Even if you’re starting out with just you, write a few quick bullets about why you’re the right person to run this business. If you need to hire key people in the future, list those positions as well, even if you don’t know who specifically will fill those positions right now.
Spend money as efficently as possible to get achive the goals.
Goals:
1. PV Legacy Sale
2. Trillium Software
3. PV Impliments
We develop, market, sell and support, cutting edge, electronics and software.