Tag Archives: Rose Coaching

How can I manage multiple web projects with a deadline without outsourcing?

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A busy professional has this question regarding project management:

How can I manage multiple web projects with a deadline without outsourcing? 

I don’t have money to invest in outsourcing. Beside outsourcing, what is the most effective way of complete 20 website design projects that are fully monetized and traffic generation optimized on or before December 2017? I fell into the folly of pursuing many site projects at the same time and I don’t want to give up. I strongly believe nothing is impossible to him who believes. I’m in dire need of an expert’s advice please. 

Without understanding the full scope of each project, there are a few things to consider and try.

Be realistic and transparent

In order to keep your clients – you need to be realistic and transparent about your talents and delivery schedule.  Tell your clients your current situation and give them a chance to either work with you or find another website developer.  This is the only way to keep your clients welfare and business in good standing.

At best – it would be selfish and unprofessional to jeopardize your clients’ business and income – because your mismanaged your business. At worst, knowingly taking money for projects that you cannot deliver is fraud.

Please, share your plans with your clients and give them the opportunity to decide what they want to do.

Have a list of other website developers that you can refer them to – as an option.  Work with affiliated referral partners to create a referral program – for cases such as this (more information on this below).

Minimize the requirements

Work with each client to minimize the requirements and delivery timeline.  By this I mean, identify exactly what needs to be delivered and when.  This may allow you to interlace your deliverables in phases to each of your clients.  Although this may extend the delivery to the entire projects past December 2017 – it may allow a working version of all the sites by December 2017.  This may allow all your clients to accomplish their goals, even though the full contract hasn’t been delivered in the original time schedule.

 

In either way – please be transparent to your clients regarding your schedule dilemma.

Re-usable routines

Investigate using routings or pre-tested functions/packages that do the required tasks (versus coding manually yourself).  This is different from outsourcing because you are doing a one-time purchase of the features or functions that you are interested in.  Your task would be to successfully integrate them into your various websites.  You can often purchase functionality at low costs or even free on open source sites.

The negative is the maintenance of such routines.  It might take you longer to fix any issues found in that code. 

Deliver in phases

Although your contract may promise a December 2017 delivery date, some of your clients may agree to extend the deadline.  Offer discounts or additional free months of maintenance to their contract in order to extend the deadline.  Create a new contract that outlines exactly what will be delivered in each phases, what the clients will be able to do with their website and when it will be finalized.  These changes in the statement of work needs to be documented and signed to afford problems in the future.

Release some projects to other website developers

Actually give away some of the projects to other website developers that you hold in high regards.  This allows you to keep your promises to your clients and refer business to other website developers. This also opens the door for those same website developers to hand-off business to your when they are over-loaded.  Discuss some type of referral fee when you and your referral partners exchange business as a way to motivate referrals.

As you mentioned earlier – this is your folly to schedule so many website projects in the same project schedule.  Don’t let your clients suffer for your mismanagement.  Your foremost goals is to keep your client’s welfare in mind at all time – even if that means you not making the profit.

Sometimes you can best serve your clients by referring them to someone else.

 If you need additional help on this, just let me know.

What is the best way to advertise a forum on a niche topic?

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A busy professional has this question regarding branding and marketing:

What is the best way to advertise a forum on a niche topic?

I have a forum on a niche topic. I am advertising the forum via ads (Although some of the keywords have low quality scores, they are all very specific to this niche).

Now, do I directly link the ad to the forum home page, or add some high quality article/posts around the ads? Does this matter?

Thanks in advance for any help. I didn’t find the right answer from searching the internet.

 

Whether you are marketing your forum, book, website, product or service, you can use similar marketing strategies.  But a successful marketing strategy has lots of moving parts and tools.  I recommend doing a combination of things:

  • make sure your “ads” are on brand with a consistent message
  • create engaging and compelling content (blogs, articles, posts, videos, vlogs, etc)
  • opt-in offers (valuable information through eBooks, white papers, webinars) to collect contact information of the people that you are attracting with your offers
  • create a Facebook around your forum – to start engaging and creating your followers
  • give speaking engagements about your topic with door-prizes to collect the contact information of the people that you are attracting with your topic
  • keep your CRM (customer relationship management) up to date personally contact them with emails or newsletters
  • with everything that you post or release – include links back to your forum

Find similar forums that share your target market

It will take time to create a following from scratch.  Therefore, investigate or go where your target marketing is already.  For instance, if your target market is parents, you might want to visit or guest speak at forums for single parents, divorced dads, and other topics that interest your same target group.

 

  • investigate what your competitors are doing.
  • reach out to complimentary forums and engage with those groups that share your target market/followers
  • invite guest speakers to your forums that have already have their own followers. This will introduce you to their followers.

As you can see – there’s no 1 thing that you do. There’s a never-ending list of things you can do to market and expose your forum.

To help narrow your focus, clearly describe your target audience or personas.  By deciding the age group, interests, income, hobbies, and lifestyle – you can better focus your marketing strategies to get the bigger bang for your time and budget.

 

Do you need a logo and brand before selling?

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A busy professional has this question regarding branding and marketing:

Do I have to have a logo and brand before I start selling my product?

I have a limited budget and am eager to start selling my products to get some revenue. Should I allocate my budget towards advertising/sales right away or do I need a logo first? I’ve read that a logo and brand is really important, but I’m not sure if it’s important enough to put it before sales.

No, you do not need a brand/logo designed prior to selling products.  In fact, there are many cases of businesses starting up without logos. It takes time to actually figure out what your brand and message will ultimately be.  While you are figuring out your brand, start selling your product; continue to research which message works best; and figure out  what your brand will actually stand for.

The simple truth is that branding in the start-up stage can be counter-productive. It’s at this stage that you’re learning the ropes, making mistakes and as much as you might strive to do the opposite, making customers unhappy. In cases like this, it’s best that your brand is not strong so that you can ride through it and develop your processes, before developing your brand and locking your logo into people’s psyche.

Once you’ve got a good handle on your business, find someone whose experience and sensibility match your vision to help you.  Hiring an expert in branding will save you much rework and issues in the future.

A strong identity is an important factor in establishing brand recognition and lending credibility. A well-designed identity also helps in attracting the prospective audience you wish to engage.  Investing in brand experts is a good step.  But until you figure out who you are, what you do, who you do it for and why, you are simply wasting your resources.
Hopefully this helps

How do you craft a polite email to customers who haven’t responded to your previous emails?

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A busy professional asks a question regarding customer sales.

How do you craft a polite email to customers who haven’t responded to your previous emails?

I’m an international trading clerk, I have some customers who used to talk to me smoothly, but once I give them the price, they don’t reply me or even a comment on the price. So how should I contact them in a polite and comfortable way as a follow up?

Well, email isn’t the only tool in your toolbox.  Also email isn’t actually “talking to you smoothly”.  My recommendation is to use email:

  • as a “record” of your more intimate phone conversations
  • as a summary of your last phone conversation
  • to remind the client of the next step in the buyer’s journey (which may be another phone or in-person meeting)

One recommendation is don’t craft a polite email, call them. Calling them shows that you’re serious about winning their business, as you actually took time out of your day to follow up in a more personal manner. Attempting to speak with them directly shows initiative on your part, and a desire to do what is necessary to not only wins their business, but to retain it.

With an actual phone conversation, you can provide additional information, demonstrations, and charm them with your personality and sense of humor.  You can also discuss next steps and get verbal agreements throughout the conversation.  Verbal agreements lead to sales.

As far as price: price is never the biggest sticking point in the prospect decision making process.  It’s usually that

  • they have questions you have not answered (you need to know what those questions are, they are not going to tell you),
  • you have not asked the RIGHT questions (to find their pain) or
  • they don’t like/trust you

Bantering through email doesn’t really resolve any of these things.

Consider a more personal approach:

  • Visit the at their site
  • Invite them to your site
  • Make personal phone calls

Bottom line:  If one method of communication isn’t working, do not continue with that method.  Switch it up and make your next method more personal with a sense of urgency.

See what you think about those ideas.

At what staff number is it worth to provide daily “free” lunch or dinner for your employees?

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A busy professional asks a question regarding Company Culture:

At what staff number is it worth to provide daily “free” lunch or dinner for your employees?

I am the Recreation and Events Golf Manager for a course in Orlando. Part of my responsibility is overseeing the Clubhouse’s food and beverage team. We have always offered our staff 50% off a meal if they are working that day, and 20% off a meal if they come in to eat on their own time. We only staff about 20 people (including both back of the house and front of the house) in the clubhouse. With the spotlight on “company culture”, should we be providing additional benefits like free meals to our employees?

 

I think it’s very generous that you offer your staff discounts on meals.  In regards to “what staff number”, I think it should be directly proportional with your revenue/income.  You are still in the business to make money.  My recommendation is to continue your current method as long as it feels good to you and is still profitable to do so.

Additional benefits

As for “additional benefits” – consider rewarding performance versus just being “present”.

Some ideas are:

  • When salaried employees work “over-time” (evenings during the week, or weekend hours over lunch) – the company provides free meals to the employees during those “over and above” hours. This was in recognition for helping out in a moment of crisis or in a critical client situation.
  • Thank you card and restaurant gift certificates (or meal gift certificates to their entire family) can also be given as a performance award to celebrate outstanding accomplishments or outstanding performances. This provides a nice thank-you to their entire family. We often need to acknowledge that there’s an entire family involved that allows the employee to work those extra hours and/or provide that excellent performance. Thanking their entire family is also a nice show of overall appreciation.
  • Providing additional vacation days to compensate for extra/long hours is another option.
  • Some companies provide continuing education reimbursement to support their employee’s career growth and development.
  • Some companies reimburse for professional organizations or professional association fees. These are professional groups associated with the company’s industry.  When employees business network in these group, it’s a Win/Win for both the employee and the company.
  • Some companies reimburse for attendance to industry conferences, seminars and tradeshows. It’s another Win/Win for both the employee and the company.

 

Whatever you decide, keep in mind your employee’s advancement and career goals.  Then continue to provide additional assistance to help your employees develop and advance in their chosen career.

See what you think about those ideas.

Best way to break bad news to employees

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – the The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.

 

Today’s discussion is regarding how to break bad news to employees.

 

A busy professional asks:

How do I break bad news to employees?  It might be staffing changes, a lost contract or even the death of someone close to the business.  When should I:

  • Break the news?
  • To whom (or everyone at once)?
  • Appropriate ways to communicate?
  • Tips for doing it right?

 

 

Giving bad news is never comfortable, but necessary.  The way you do it can influence the way people accept the news.

Some tips:

  • For those that are directly affected with the news, you talk to them directly (one-on-one).  Those that are not directly affected, it can be a group discussion.
  • Depending upon the type of news, be prepared with answers and follow-up counseling (grief counseling, further training, next steps life coaching, etc.)
  • Focus on them versus yourself.
    1. Avoid the temptation to fill in awkward pauses with “This is the most difficult thing I have had to report.”  or “I’m really broken up about telling you this”.  “This is a shock to me as well.”
    2. You might think you are helping by showing them how badly you feel — but — in actuality – they don’t really care how it’s affecting you (especially if you are not really affected by the layoff, structure change, etc).
    3. Silence is okay.  It gives them the space needed to absorb the information.  Continued talking doesn’t help them.  Wait patiently for them to end the silence, after the initial reveal.
  • Realize that they might want to immediately leave your presence after the news. But don’t assume that your job is done when they leave the room.
  • Schedule a follow-up meeting.  Recognize that people might need time to absorb the information.  Acknowledge that they will have more questions later and need to time to process what has been said.  Actually schedule a follow-up meeting before they leave.  That next meeting will have answers to the questions they asked today, as well as an opportunity for any more questions.
  • Know your audience.  If it’s a particular tough topic and you suspect your employee will be emotional or even volatile – have security (or muscles) ready (but out of sight).  You don’t want to show that you expect trouble (because then you will get it).  But you want to be prepared for it – just in case.

 
See what you think about those ideas.
I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

Small Business Saturday: How can I take full advantage?

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Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur the same week of Small Business Saturday:

Small Business Saturday: How can I take full advantage?

I have a small business on the side and I want to take full advantage of small business Saturday. My business is a retail mom and pop type store, but I do have budget for advertising.

I applaud that you want to take the most advantage of the Small Business Saturday event.  The mistake that most small business owners make is to look at each event (such as the Small Business Saturday) as a “single entity” or single opportunity.  Unfortunately, by taking each event as they come (as in this question arriving the week of Small Business Saturday) – you are actually too late to actually do something meaningful for and with it.

The key to taking full advantage of Small Business Saturday – is to recognize that it’s just one of many business opportunities to take advantage and leverage.

Here are some ideas to implement in your current marketing plan:

  • If you haven’t already, take the time to create your “attracting Client marketing plan” and use the Small Business Saturday as one type of campaign in your marketing strategy.
    • Outline your entire marketing calendar of business opportunities
    • Proactively plan for each opportunity months in advance (versus just days)
  • Design a well thought out brand, vision, mission statement and tag line for your business. Then carry that consistent message throughout your different seasonal campaigns.
    • Use these consistent message in all your campaigns
    • This enables you to re-use templates and methods for the same categories of events
  • Categorize different types of marketing assets such as:
    • Logos, digital graphics, banners and letterheads
    • Flyer and brochures
    • Local radio and cable spots
    • Streaming video spots
    • Promotional offers
    • Up-sale offers, discounts, coupons
    • Charity events and sponsorships
    • Affiliated partner events and advertisements
    • Retail Block Party events – where your business neighbors collaborate to provide bundle packages of cross-promotional products and services.
  • Taking the best advantage of Small Business Saturday is leveraging all your marketing strategies forward.
    • Use Black Friday to position for a more successful Small Business Saturday. Position your SBS event to setup a successful Christmas etc.
    • Don’t see your Small Business Saturday as a single entity, but as a piece in your progressive and aggressive business and marketing strategy.
    • Investigate leveraging complementary small businesses to both your advantages – creating more with few staff.
  • Take the time to make all the pieces fit in a cohesive and consistent marketing and branding message (which starts with your vision and mission statements).
  • Then you can continually leverage toward your next up-sale or promotion.

 

Conclusion:

As you can see, to take full advantage of anything – you need up-front planning.  For example – creating a Retail Block Party Sale for Small Business Saturday will take lots of time and collaboration.  Defining cross-promotional service bundles or packages (to lure more people to your block)  takes planning.  This is not something you can turn around in few days.  But is you mapped out all your business opportunities a year in advance – you would have the time to take full advantage of these single dates.

If you need more information on this or help, just let me know.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

Working with teams across the world?

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Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

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Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

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The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

 

Today we are very fortunate to have a TV program to emulate regarding the perfect pitch deck. If you haven’t already watched ABC’s the Shark Tank, make the time to watch and take notes.

 

It gives you a very good illustration of pitching to investors. Even though the ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” is available for all to learn from, I am always surprised when an entrepreneur shows up unprepared.

If you are interested, I have a list of the most frequently asked Shark Tank questions in a separate article Things we can learn from Shark Tank

 

For now, below is a list of 6 big pitch deck mistakes that you may be making:

 

  1. Not knowing your audience
  2. Not getting to the important stuff quickly
  3. Not including a summary
  4. Not knowing your numbers
  5. Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience
  6. Having one pitch deck for everyone

We will cover each mistake separately.

 

1.     Not knowing your audience

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on their own product, their own needs, and their own wants – that they forget the true goal of this presentation. Your goal is to adequately interest the investors such that they will want to do business with you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. And the quickest way to earn trust is to show the investors that you already know them, what their needs and wants are, and how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

In other words, why should they care about you and your products or services?

Use Stephen Covey’s 5 Habit from his top-selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood”

Spend time researching your investors. Find out what excites them. Find out how they make their investment money back.

2.     Not getting to the important stuff quickly

 

Your prepared pitch should be no longer than 5-8 minute in length. So you really need to get your investor’s attention quickly. If they are interested, they will ask additional questions and will get to know you better. Your pitch needs to interest them quickly.

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, make sure you get to the important stuff as quickly and succinctly as possible. What is the “important stuff”? The important stuff is the stuff that the investors care about (and not necessarily what you care about).

This is where watching the Shark Tank will help. Here are some of the typical questions you need to cover, and a fuller list is available at: Things we can learn from Shark Tank

  • What problem are you solving?
  • How prevalent is this problem? (size of the market)
  • What you need financially to make that much money?
  • Who are you competing against?
  • How are you going to grow? How are you going to use their money?

 

3.     Not including a summary

A pitch presentation falls into the category of a training presentation: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you have told them”. But many forget the summary or “tell them what you have told them” part. Your summary should end with a CALL TO ACTION.

4.     Not knowing your numbers

Investors are interested in a quick return on their investment; therefore, make sure you understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out.

5.     Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience

You won’t have much time; therefore, make the best use of that time. Incorporating the investor’s terminology and experience into your pitch will not only eliminate miscommunication but lead them to feel that you already speak the same language. That you are connected.

6.     One pitch deck for everyone

Don’t fall into the trap of creating 1-perfect-pitch-deck. Consider having a “perfect-pitch-deck template”. By understanding your audience, their terminology, and their unique interest in your products or services, you can tweak and quickly customize your single-perfect-pitch-deck template to win-over each unique investor.

Added Bonus

Now that we’ve discussed mistakes to avoid, below is a quick list of things to think about when preparing your “pitch”.

Things to think about when preparing your “pitch.”

  1. What your business makes or does?
  2. What market you serve?
  3. How will this business make money?
  4. How your business compares to similar businesses?
  5. Why you will succeed?
  6. Your ultimate goals for your business?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are various Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind. The best recommendation is to run your pitch deck past a “mock Shark Tank”. One such “mock Shark Tank” panel are the experts at Crowdsourcia. You can’t go wrong with this set of experts.