You wouldn’t think the life of a small-business consultant would be all that taxing.
But after the week I’ve had, I’m starting to feel like Simon Cowell after taping too many episodes of American Idol.
It started last Wednesday when I moderated the digital media panel at Richie Hecker’s Bootstrapper Summit in Times Square and listened to four startups pitch the panel of VCs and angel investors. (My favorite was the 22-year-old kid from USC with the comparison shopping/cash-back rebate site.) Then it was off to Baltimore on Friday to judge Johns Hopkins‘ 10th annual business plan contest at my alma mater. (The winner was the company that had reinvented the combustion engine and held the patents to prove it.) Then on Sunday, it was back to New York to coach three business plan finalists at NYU Stern School’s annual competition.
What do judges look for in a business plan?
Now that I’ve recovered, I’ll clue you in.
1. A well-crafted executive summary
Most judges are busy people like VCs, executives and entrepreneurs who may not have time to read your business plan ahead of time. That’s why you need a one-page executive summary that shows that your company has what it takes to be a winner.
2. A killer presentation
When it’s your turn to step up to the podium, you’ve got 15 minutes to sell the judges on your deal, so your pitch had better be perfect. “Your presentation is a TV commercial,” Jay Rubin, a marketing communications consultant and a coach at the NYU contest, told the contestants. “Your job is to persuade [the judges] to like you.”
3. Passion
No matter how sleek your PowerPoint presentation or how cool your video, you’ve got to show the judges how passionate you are about your business and its potential for success. Reading the slides just won’t cut it. “You have to be able to look the judges in the eye and say ‘This is what I want,’ ” said Susan Stehlik, a professor in NYU’s management communication program.
4. A realistic assessment of your competition
One of the NYU teams I coached was a clean-tech company marketing a consumer appliance to monitor home electrical use. Trouble was, the company was competing in a crowded space with VC-backed players who were already signing deals with major utilities. My advice? Re-frame the pitch as a David-and-Goliath battle and get the product to market first.
5. Numbers that add up
Judges like business models that scale quickly and profitably, preferably ones with recurring revenue streams and proprietary technology. Another NYU team that I coached wanted to raise $500,000 to roll out a nationwide network of 30 retail locations in 26 markets. Ambitious? Highly. Realistic? Not very.
Too old to enter a business plan contest? Think again! While most university-sponsored contests require you to be a current or former student, most contests also let you partner with someone who is. Not only will you get some valuable feedback from the judges, but you may walk away with a pocketful of cash that you won’t have to pay back.
As they say in the lotto biz, you gotta be in it to win it!
This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 7:45 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
