Wait, Don't Leave! I'm Not Done Yet!

Today was chock full of events for the small business owner. In the morning I attended the Make Mine a Million $ Business in Newark, NJ and in the afternoon I went to the NY NJ Minority Supplier Development Council Expo (NY, NY) - and here are my takes on these events:

MMM $ Business was a very empowering event for women, but the thing that I saw with which the program could have really helped us budding entrepreneurs is in the deliveries of our messages. As you recall in an earlier post, I attended the VANJ Pitch Olympics where they had a format of allowing the speaker 2 minutes to present their business, and they stuck to that limit - often cutting the speaker off in mid-sentence. In the MMM $ Business event, the women had 2 minutes, with a 30-second warning. The moderator would hold up a STOP sign at the completion of 2 minutes - and the speakers just kept going! It is so important to get that pitch so that it is powerfully delivered in as little time as possible. What amazed me was that these women were briefly coached - yet they still disregarded the rule.

I see that as women we tend to want to give everyone a little story about ourselves to validate our requests. Most women don't come right out and say "I need $1 million to properly execute my well-developed marketing plan". We tend to say, "My name is Mary, and after my divorce I found that I had this dream in me......" I attended a Ladies Who Launch meeting on Sunday at which there were about 20 entrepreneurs. The moderator instructed us to tell a little about our companies and state what we NEED. I was the last presenter. It took about 1-1/2 hours to get to my turn! I gave my business and need pitches in 3-1/2 minutes (I timed myself) - and I believe that was too long! So, with all the programs that we have to support women entrepreneurs, the key skill that we just need to hone is that succinct PITCH!

The NYNJMSDC event was great for reinforcing our sales strategy of providing services to and forming partnerships with other suppliers in lieu of expending lots of energy going after the really large corporations. As we grow, more energies will be placed in going after the big guys, but I am proud of the business relationships that we have formed and I really enjoy helping promote my supplier alliances because if they get more work then we get more work! I also heard that they, too, held a pitch event but the time limit was longer. Since I didn't attend I cannot say much about it, but I hope that the time limit was no longer than 2 minutes for the same reasons I stated above.

I belong to a few entrepreneur-focused organizations, and I recognize that each take different approaches to providing services. All encourage development and growth, and the organizations have to work with members to make them realize that the pitch is the most important aspect of the company. Although people are nice, no one is going to wait in the elevator after the doors open if you don’t say something to catch their attention. So, to all the organizations out there for the entrepreneur, the main thing that we need with our memberships is the skill to tell our stories EFFECTIVELY in 2 minutes or less – so that we see those desired results!