Prepare Before You Pitch.
Prepare Before You Pitch.
Prepare before you pitch.
Know your numbers.
Recently, my wife and I were watching an episode of the TV show Shark Tank. One of the hopeful entrepreneurs was in the middle of his pitch to the investors. I can’t remember exactly what product he was touting but he was doing fine until the sharks started asking him specific questions. They wanted to know how much he would make in profits at the end of the year. He didn’t know. They asked him how much lower he thought he could get his price down per item to if he scaled his business. Again, he didn’t know the answer.
This happened time after time until finally, the last of the investors “went out.” He left without the deal and he made himself look as if he really didn’t know how to run a business. While this might make for “good television,” it’s often hard to watch and even sadder if it happens to someone about whom you care. As a coach, I am often asking the same questions of entrepreneurs to find out if they really understand what it’s going to take to be successful in business.
If you, or someone you know, is in this situation, here’s a few questions you might want to ask. First of all, do you have a written business plan? If you think the one in your head will suffice, I guarantee you that it won’t because no one else can read it! If it is in your head, have the discipline to sit down and write it out. This helps to make it become real and you’ll be able to see what’s missing from it.
Second, know how much everything costs. I recently sat down with a father and son from Mexico who had just bought an Italian restaurant. I already knew that their prices were too low but I wanted to find out if they knew how to set their prices. I asked them to tell me how much their top three sellers cost to make. They didn’t know, but they figured it out. As it turned out, not only were their prices too low, their food costs were far higher than they should have been. They were spending too much money on what they were buying.
This could be happening to you as well. If you don’t know the crucial numbers in your business, it can put you out of business very quickly. If this is something you need help with, get a business coach or someone who has been in your business longer than you and who has been profitable at doing it. Although this might seem difficult to do, once you get down the formulas on how much you should be charging for your business, you will find yourself succeeding in the same field where many others fail.
"Success is the sum of small efforts — repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier
(This excerpt is taken from my seminar entitled Survive And Thrive IV: Shark-Proof!) I encourage you to click here to register for my exclusive live Survive And Thrive IV: Shark-Proof! Seminar on Thursday, July 14, 2022 from 9 AM to 12 noon Eastern Standard Time at the Comfort Suites in Manheim, PA. The seminar will also be available through live streaming.
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