Communicating Effectively - You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

You’ve been selected as a guest on the Donnie Deutsch show to pitch “The Big Idea”. You have thirty seconds to describe your business and how it can benefit others.

What will you say? What do you want people to walk away with? How many people are watching the show and can benefit from your “Big Idea” or even provide funding?

There was one particular episode of “The Big Idea” that stood out to me. There was a panel of expert entrepreneurs there to provide constructive feedback to the entrepreneur on their “Big Idea”. Donnie introduced the guest and asked them to describe their business in thirty seconds. The business owner started to describe their business and began to fumble while explaining their product. I started to become unclear on the purpose of the business and how it could benefit me. Were they nervous from all the lights and cameras in the studio? Was it the panel of experts?

Well, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. With more people out of work today, starting your own business is more of an appealing option to create income. In a survey conducted by a Fortune Small Business/Zogby International online survey of 755 small business owners, 40% of entrepreneurs said they feel more secure having their own business as they would if they worked for a large firm (27% just as secure, 22% less and 8% not sure). Entrepreneurs may have a great business, but when it comes to communicating the product and vision, the message sometimes seems to get lost in translation. Why is that? We are not all experts when it comes to presenting ideas, let alone speaking to a group of people. People fear public speaking, but let’s focus on an exercise that helps you confidently present your business to one or many future clients and investors.

Exercise 1. Keep these key questions in mind as they will come up during conversations about your business:

- Why was this business created?
- Who does it benefit and how?
- How can we purchase your products and services and what is the cost?

Exercise 2. To help you answer these questions, do a brain dump of everything you know about your business. If you have a business plan, pull some information from there as well. If you don’t have one, maybe it’s time to start creating one. I would even include the S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.) from the business plan.

Strengths: What does your business offer that your competitor’s may not offer?
- Better distribution channels
- Niche market

Weaknesses: What are some of the objections a customer may have to not select your business?
- New to the market place
- Limited product and service offering

Opportunities: What external factors will allow your business to prosper?
- Political
- Demographic
- Technology

Threats: What threats would impact your business?
- Pricing
- Substitutes in the market place

Exercise 3. Now that you have your thoughts on paper, start putting some structure around your responses to the questions above. You only have thirty seconds to make your pitch and you want it to count.

Write out your main points on what you want to say. Create variations, some may be short and some may be long. Have a business partner, mentor, family member or friend ask you questions about your business and practice giving responses to the questions so you feel comfortable when it’s time. Your network does not want to see you fail, so ask them for honest and constructive feedback. In fact, have several different people from your trusted network ask you different questions about your business, so you get used to the different styles. Have some in a formal and informal setting. If you have a camcorder, record yourself so you can see how you look when you’re giving your responses.

Some questions to ask yourself and the person working with you on your responses:

Do you seem confident and natural about what you’re discussing?
Does it look like you’re thinking about what you want to say?
Do you “um” and “uh” when responding?

Make sure your responses feel and sound natural like you are having a conversation with the other person. You want to look very knowledgeable when talking about your business. Repeat this exercise as much as possible until you become comfortable. It will be valuable for you as you begin to speak to more people about your business. Make it easy for people to understand what you do, so they can easily promote your business to their network.

You got the call from Donnie Deutsch to pitch your “Big Idea”. Who knows how many people may be watching the show that evening. With the exercise that you completed, you will now feel more comfortable and confident talking about your business, not just to Donnie, but future clients and investors as well.

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Reggie Waller is the president of RWJ Consulting Group a provider of business and personal coaching, consulting and training services to individuals and businesses. For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit RWJ Consulting Group

Entrepreneurs Need Social Networking

Dan Schawbel, a leading expert in social networking and a Gen-Y branding expert, explains what business owners need to know about the trend.

Entrepreneurs are busy spending time trying to run the various components of their businesses. Some may not have the knowledge to run a successful social networking campaign, that's why you should look to take on a social networking expert to fill this gap.

In my article Social Networking: Five benefits for businesses, I discuss the importance of positioning your company and being involved in one social network.

Read the full article "Entrepreneurs Need Social Networking".

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Reggie Waller is president of RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, which provides business and personal coaching, consulting and training services to individuals and businesses. For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit RWJ Consulting Group

Social Networking: Five benefits for businesses

Mention the word Social networking and the first thing that comes to mind for most people is teens using Myspace and YouTube. Social networking has evolved beyond these two websites making sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook and XING common places. Social Networking is no longer a teen phenomenon.

- LinkedIn states that its site includes profiles of more than 25 million professionals, with 25 new members joining every minute every day.

- comScore Video Metrix conducted research and found that in December 2007, YouTube had 77.6 million viewers who watched 3.2 billion videos.

“Like traditional networking, the most effective networking centers on building relationships, engaging others, and developing solid word-of-mouth marketing” said Patrice-Anne Rutledge author of Profiting from Social Networking.

Here are some of the benefits of implementing social networking for your business:

Advertise products and services: Don’t have a large marketing budget. Social Networking is a cost-effective approach for businesses operating on a tight budget or even looking to use another medium. The NFL used Myspace during the 2007 and 2008 Superbowl to showcase the commercials. Viewers were able to post comments on their favorite or not so favorite commercial. This type of medium can be a great spring board for you to showcase new products and services that you might be contemplating.

Market research: Companies study customer behaviors and purchasing patterns. Social networking lets you conduct your own market research with existing and potential customers. A great website to track what customers are saying is Yelp! (www.yelp.com) “Real Reviews, Real People.” Customers have a chance to provide views on services rendered from various industries which include spas, hotels and travel, restaurants, real estate and professional services.

Recruiting: Social networking allows you to reach out to individuals you may have never had access to before. Businesses are utilizing sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to recruit employees. This is an outstanding and cost-effective tool to not only recruit employees, but also engage potential partner’s investors and distributors.

Information sharing with fellow contacts: Are you an expert in your field or industry? Sites like LinkedIn enable you to ask and answer questions related to your industry and just share information with professional contacts.

Video and Audio Podcasts: Share video and audio broadcasts and make them available to customers, employees and your network. If you own an interior design or landscaping business, why not take video footage of your work to share with the social network! Maybe a video podcast will not work for your topic of discussion. Audio podcasts are an excellent way to delivery topics related to health issues, business, education and technology.

Helpful Resources Include:

How to Say it: Marketing with New Media by Lena Claxton and Alison Woo
Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting by Michael W. Geoghegan and Dan Klass
The Truth about Profiting from Social Networking by Patrice-Anne Ruledge
YouTube for Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business by Michael Miller

Social networking can be profitable to your business in many ways. Just like any marketing campaign, there’s a potential for an increase in revenue, reach into new markets but most of all name recognition. You don’t need to incorporate all of the social networks out there, but find the one that fits your business environment and work with that until you are comfortable and then add another.

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Reggie Waller is president of RWJ Consulting Group, LLC, which provides business and personal coaching, consulting and training services to individuals and businesses. For additional information call 267-254-6800 or visit RWJ Consulting Group