The naked business pitcher- PART 1

Let’s try to go back to basics. Business planning is nothing but:

1. something you simply need in order to explain your business footprint, and therefore the links between your startup business goals, organizational units, business functions and services and the degree to which it supports and contributes to make your business strategy feasible.
2. communication! Picthing is sometimes as hard as design your new product or service.

But the it’s strange that the two things are often considered and approached as separate moments.

Therefore here you get a table that tries to connect the 7 crucial topics you shouldn’t give up t in your Business plan, with pitching critical issues on presenting it, time percentage you should invest on it and the ideal number of slides in your pitching presentation.

 

CRUCIAL SUBJECT FOR BP	HINTS ON PITCHING	TIME (100% is total time)	AMOUNT OF SLIDES TO PRESENT IT
Intro: the story begins, tell headquarters, infrastructure, history, start-up plans, previous experiences that led you to this crucial pont. Keep in my mind, in a story of two, you and the firm. It’s like in good moovies: you just have got time to identify with the protagonist that something happens. If audience will identify with you, it’s likely the same will happen also with the following part of your plan & pitch	Always balance “images”, “sounds” and “emotions” when creating the pitch/presentation in order to exploit all the communication channels of your audience and maximize the possibilities to connect with them. VALUE SCALE (when pitching): Written words 8% Voice 38% Body language 55% SHOWING A PROTOTYPE 200 % !!!	10%	1.      “WHO WE ARE”; 2.      “OUR STORY”
The issue and the solution: what you provide, product and/or service, potential customer benefit, competitive advantages, what makes you think you are unique and standing out from you competitors	Eye contact: KEEP EYE CONTACT.   We all see mainly what we want to see nut at least try as much as you can, using images and graphic contents, to orientate your audience point of view exactly where you want. If the just keep on reading, it will be like speaking for yourself…and you, the protagonist, you will disappear from their screens. If something is supposed to remain confidential  don’t expect they will sign an NDA on this stage: mention just the essential keeping the rest for a possible further deepening (with NDA coverage)	25%	1.OUR PRODUCT/SERVICE 2. IT’S UNIQUE BECAUSE …. 3. CUSTOMER BENEFITS 4. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES TOWARDS COMPETITORS
Market Analysis: You need to know your market, its size, estimate time to reach it, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc	When pitching, a TAM SAM SOM approach proves real useful: TAM or Total Available Market is the total market demand for a product or service. TAM ≠your revenues ! SAM or Serviceable Available Market is the target segment of the TAM where you can realistically compete with your products and services. SAM≠ your revenue..you are probably not the only one standing in the target segment SOM or Serviceable Obtainable Market is the portion of SAM that you can realistically capture SOM= your expected revenue!	25%	1. MARKET ANALYSIS CRITERIA  2. TAM/SAM/SOM
Go to market Strategy and Roadmap: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budget. Business model Do you possibly have an MVP? If so, it’s time to introduce it	You are basically talking about time and different time scales: so it’s now that you are using the most precious and scarce resource your audience (and you) have.	15%	1. THE ROADMAP TO MARKET 2 A SHORTCUT: THE MVP
Management Team: Include backgrounds of key members of the team, personnel strategy, and details	GIVE to you and your partners a face and no an organization chart…. In your pitch the main product is you and your staff.  You won’t probably remember an org, chart, but you’ll certainly remember a face.	5%	1. OUR TEAM 2. OUR MAIN SKILLS AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Financial Plan: Include profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, break-even analysis, assumptions, business ratios, etc. key metrics and minimun 3 yrs forecast be realistic!	Mention at least key assumptions and financial results highlights. Mention the break-even magic moment. If something is supposed to remain confidential  don’t expect they will sign an NDA on this stage: mention just the essential keeping the rest for a possible further deepening (with NDA coverage)	15%	1. FINANCIAL PLAN HIGLIGHTS 2. KEY ASSUMPTIONS AND KEY METRICS
Final abstract and conclusions	MAKE YOU SUPPORT AND/OR FUNDRAISING REQUEST!!!! OTHYERWISE WHY YOU WROTE AND PITCH A BP?	5%	1. IN MY DREAMS…

END OF PART ONE…