Business Pitching. What you need to know ?

I recently had 2 experiences for a business pitching. One was JCI CYEA ( Creative Young Entrepreneur Award ) and one was AmBank Bizrace top 100 SME. Both were different types of business pitching, but the main thing is to present your company's journey, in addition to your life's journey. 

In this blog, I would share with you some tips which hopefully will be able to help you in your future business pitches. Before we go into the tips, let me share with you the journey. 

Time :
JCI CYEA : This is a 5 minute pitch, with another 3 - 5 minutes of Q&A by the judges.
Ambank BizRace : This is a 7 minute pitch, with another 3 minutes of Q&A by the judges

Objective :
JCI CYEA : To look MAINLY into your business creativity and CSR project. 
Ambank BizRace : Overall business outlook. 

Tips :
- kindly ask the organizer what they want us to share in the business pitch. It is best if they give you a guideline or framework to work on. Eg : business statistics, leadership element, scalability, why are you unique and etc. With this, you can work on your pitch deck more clearly. Will you want to follow the flow exactly ? This is entirely up to you. 

- share a story. This will be crucial as they want to see your passion and vision. Most judges will "feel" the passion by the presenter. So it is best if you as the owner or founder goes for the pitch instead of sending a representative. What story to share ? A story which is close to your heart and also your WHY in doing the business. Story have to be short and precise, because every seconds count. Your story have to wrap around the "guideline" mentioned above. 

- practice your timing. As every seconds is important, you want to make sure you complete your presentation. Trust me, time flies if you are in a pitch. By the time you realize, you have 1 minute left. So please rehearse your pitch deck and time yourself. 

- arrive early. Settle down quick and calm yourself. The last thing you want is to go there and rush like mad. 

- backup your slides in a thumbdrive and in cloud ( google, email ). The presentation deck you send earlier to the organizer might get lost in transition or corrupted, so please make sure you have a backup. 

- bring a friend or colleague. Your friend will help and assist you in other matters, such as photography. This is important to document your journey. Win or lose, take this as a memory. Afterall, how many times will you do a business pitch in life ? 

- ask the judges to ask you questions during the Q&A. You have to plant in their head to ask you questions. This is to get interest and clear doubts in their heads. If they do not ask you questions, then you will have to be worried. 

- engage the judges. How ? Example : I am in the kids public speaking education. I will ask, "do you think communication skills are important ?" They might not answer verbally, but in their mind, the answer is YES. Think ways to ask them questions. 

- know your products and services inside out. Eg : Johan, how much is your revenue last year ? What is your net profit ? I got these questions during my pitch. Make sure you are well prepared. 

- network with people. Get to know "new" friends during the business pitch. Everyone is as anxious as you. You won't know that your new friends will be a business partner or collaborator in the future. 

- be grateful. Enjoy the journey as this process will make you be a better business person. Why ? Because before the pitch, you will relook at your business from a different perspective. 

- eye contact. Please look at the judges during the pitch. You can refer to your slides, but just a quick glance will do. Afterall, your slides are things you know very well, pay attention to the judges. 

- be enthusiastic. Like yourself, like your business, and like the people in the room during the presentation. How? Be passionate and enthusiastic. You can't fake this, it has to be in you. 

Below are videos of my pitching journey. 

JCI CYEA: http://bit.ly/2mObVCF
Ambank BizRace : http://bit.ly/2Bd3hCN

The journey :

For more information about our program, visit : www.KidsPublicSpeaking.com

Email : JohanSpeakingAcademy@gmail.com
Address : 92B, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 K.Lumpur

About :

Johan Speaking Academy has trained more than 1000 kids to speak on stage since 2014. It was founded by Johan and Cherry. The founder Johan is the 2015 Peninsular Malaysia Public Speaking Champion. In year 2015 itself, he represented Malaysia to the World Championship of Public Speaking held at Las Vegas. He finished as the Semi-Finalist.