Learn how to do a Great Elevator Pitch

What do you say when someone at a party asks you what you do?  Your response is your ‘elevator pitch’.  Everyone has one.  You hear them all the time. At a party, you want the person you’re talking with to want to know more.  In a business setting, you want an order or an investment or at least an invitation to continue speaking.

You may have heard of the MIT Elevator pitch contest or seen ‘Dragon’s Den’ on TV.  If so, you have an idea of what an elevator pitch is all about.  Everyone should be able to describe their business in a minute or less.  Having a great elevator pitch is a different story.  It involves creativity, practice and a focus on the audience.  Sound simple?  Well it may be harder than you think to have a great elevator pitch.

Originally, the idea was to have a prepared set of statements about who you are, why you are relevant, and why you should get the business (or money in the case of fundraising), that could be delivered in the time the elevator went from reception to the meeting room floor.  Now, we use these pitches everywhere, from cocktail parties, to sales pitches, to fundraising.

BizTech wants you to be great.  We will first give you an opportunity to design your pitch and practice and then present the pitch to judges.  At the practice session you will learn:

• Pitch Goals
  • Get them to want to know more
  • Get them to give you the money
  • Get them to give you the order
  • Plant an ‘idea virus’
• Pitch Elements
  • Introduction
  • Who you are
  • Who you serve
  • Why you are important
  • What you want
• Delivery Techniques
  • Opener
  • Memorable phrase
  • The Ask

 A week later we will host a contest for the best elevator pitch judged by investors, economic developers, and entrepreneurs.  The winners get cash prizes and free rent at BizTech.

Please join us on February 16^th at noon at BizTech for the practice session and a week later on February 23^rd at 6pm at BizTech for the contest.  It is not often you get a chance to earn $1000 in a minute!

“When you think about new jobs in the future,” he said, “think three things: mobile, social and cloud. These three trends – namely, everything going mobile, social media as an integral part of your daily life and cloud computing – will become employment drivers later in this decade. Job creation follows a pattern that begins with investment and, if you ask venture investors today where they are putting their money, they will mostly name these trends. That investment leads to company creation.”

Though many of those companies will fail, Tauss said, a few will survive to become the big employment opportunities of the future.

Tauss said no one dreamed of Web advertising in 1998, the year Google was formed. And, “no one would have dreamed eight years ago that companies like Disney and ESPN would employ hundreds of people just focused on their social media presence, but they do.

“As social media expands, so will the jobs. We haven’t even scratched the surface of social media uses for everyday small businesses. Just like the Web, where you need Web designers, site administrators and Web sales people, we will need social media designers, administrators and people to sell those products and services.”

For the whole article: http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2012/02/huntsville_officials_look_to_p.html

RULES:  Entity does not have to be a formed company but cannot have received more than $50k in funding from any source. No props or power point presentations are allowed and The CEO or Founder must pitch.

Contact: Gary Tauss
BizTech
Phone 256 704 6000
www.biztech.org

515 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35763
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Press Release

BizTech Announces 2012 Programs

Year of the Entrepreneur

Fifteen years ago, BizTech opened for clients.  Since then we have met with hundreds of entrepreneurs, incubated more than 50 companies, seen many grow and graduate on to thriving businesses, seen some shut down, and some move away.  We have moved locations, changed staff and directors, and even changed our business model.  The constant, however, has been the entrepreneurs themselves.  Almost every day we hear a new idea from someone who thinks they just might have a business.  Never once has someone walked in with a perfect plan.  It is only through talking with customers, investors, potential employees, partners, and even competitors that the entrepreneur learns what will work.  This year we want to have as many of those interactions happen as we can possibly promote.

To encourage and celebrate those brave souls who follow their dreams, we are making 2012 our year of the entrepreneur.  To encourage new businesses we are hosting 5 separate events which focus on a different critical aspect of getting a company off the ground.  First, on January 26^th at 6pm, we are hosting a discussion of what it takes to be an entrepreneur and if the time is right for you.  Some people are born to be entrepreneurs and the time is always right.  Some people can be entrepreneurs when their life circumstances make it the right time (like you just go laid off and don’t have a great idea where the next job is coming from).  Some people will just be frustrated and unhappy at any time if they become an entrepreneur.  We will be hearing from several successful entrepreneurs on how they did it as well as discussing some of the key personal traits entrepreneurs seem to have.  It probably will not surprise you that patience is not one of those traits.  Finally, we will award the most promising idea as chosen by the participants with 2 free months at BizTech to further develop the business.

Each month through May we will follow up with another seminar or contest focused around something you have to have to get a business going.  On February 23rd, we will do our always popular one minute elevator pitch contest where the top presenter wins cash.  On March 15th, we will host a seminar on how to flesh out an idea into a business (they are different things) and award the best one page plan with an IPAD.  On April 10th, we will be helping you put together your investor presentation.  Everyone needs money and you need a great presentation to get some.  Finally, on May 17th, we will have our business plan competition where the winners get cash prizes and present their plans to local funders.

We will repeat these events again in the second half of the year, culminating with the winners from each of the events competing for “BizTech Entrepreneur of the Year” in December.

Call Today and Register (No Cost) : 256-704-6000

Jan. 26, 2012, 6pm: Are You Ready to be an Entrepreneur?

Feb. 16, 2012, 12pm: Elevator Pitch Practice

Feb 23, 2012, 6pm: Elevator Pitch Contest

March 15, 2012, 6pm: Your Business Plan on One Page

April 10, 2012, 6pm: Funding Pitch

May 17, 2012, 6pm: Business Plan Templates

All Workshops are located in the Main Conference Room of BizTech.

While Alabama may have the strength of its university system and the two-year colleges to draw on, what it is lacking is access to venture capital and angel capital to get upstarts going and see them through the early stages, experts say.

Tauss said in the fourth quarter of last year, there were 744 venture capital investments made across the United States. Alabama’s total? Just one.

 He said for every 60 new products or ideas that are commercially viable, only 25 will have a business plan to make them fundable. Of those 25, only 10 will make it to the business incubator stage. Of those 10, only about two will become companies that continue on and live apart from the incubator.

Tauss said Alabama is doing a number of things right. There are 21 incubators in the state, though he suggested too many of them are general incubators rather than having a more narrow focus on a particular industry. Efforts like Alabama Launchpad, a business competition, and a new statewide angel capital network organization are useful, he said.”

By Michael Tomberlin — The Birmingham News

To read the full article: http://www.edpa.org/docs/news/BN081311.pdf

Consider Google.  The original ‘Page Rank’ patent was unique because it sorted things based on popularity instead of other metrics.  That, in itself, is a really good idea and certainly solved some problems librarian’s faced.  When kids want a book, they don’t know the author or the title but they do know their friends are reading it.  The Google method of search takes care of that.  What made Google a big company was the business model which has nothing to do with search.  Google figured out that if enough people searched on a certain topic, then businesses would pay to have their names at the top of the list.  This required them to build a pretty complex business model, providing free search to consumers, receiving large payments from advertisers, and making smaller payments to website owners.

For every company with a great idea to start, there comes a point where they have to adapt to fit into the market (aka, the pivot).  This is usually about the way the company sells and supports their product or service and not about the core attributes of the product itself.  The sum of who make up the target customers, how the company interfaces with them, how awareness, evaluation and purchase is done, the core value proposition, the key resources and partners along with the major revenue and cost streams make up the ‘business model’.  The business model differentiates the truly successful from the also rans.  Few companies pay enough attention to this part of their business.

Early this summer, BizTech will host a one day ‘Business Model Boot Camp’ at our facilities in Huntsville.  If this is something of interest to you, let us know at 256-704-6000 and we will reserve a spot for your company.  Participation is free, of course!

TEDx has come to Huntsville.  Last November they held their first event and got about 350 people.  A great success for this size community.  The group is completely volunteer.  Amy Robinson (amy@tedxhuntsville.com) is the coordinator and  chief cheerleader for the group.

At a meeting last night, I saw a private school headmaster, a custom furniture maker, a robotics programmer, a photographer and a host of others.  The mix is a key ingredient to making these meetings interesting.  Even if you are really a technologist, seeing new things from other disciplines is really thought provoking.

If nothing else, plan to attend the next TEDx Huntsville.  I can pretty much guarantee it will blow your mind.