Tips from the top – the ‘how to’ guide

While My Food Bag nowadays comes knockin’ on our customers door, it’s rare for an opportunity to do just that, so when we first saw the dinner kit concept overseas we jumped at the thought of introducing this to New Zealand.

The timing was arguably the worst for our family, I was just about to give birth to our son Tom and our other business was going through a raft of changes. However two years on and delivering over 9 million meals we are proud to be a home-grown kiwi success story.

So what does it take to pitch a great concept? Well these are the things you should consider:

1. Select the right people
   1. Understand their drivers and their willingness to invest
   2. Will they be capital (provide funding) or labour (provide sweat equity) or will they be a combination of both?
2. The pitch
   1. Refine your pitch to the people in the room
   2. Most business people are time poor and therefore uninterested in a 50 page case study. You need to be concise and deliver your key messages in a succinct way – it’s unlikely that you get a second chance to impress!
3. Close the deal
   1. Identify your interested parties and put time frames in place to accelerate the process – the longer it takes to negotiate – the less likely you are to strike a deal!

Most importantly, when delivering your pitch you need to ensure that your passion and idea for the business is transferable and that the people in the room believe that your idea has a sustainable future.