Hello world

Hello world

Isn’t it funny that no matter what programming language you choose, the first example is ‘HELLO WORLD’?

So why Hello world seems to be the hardest thing to say when starting a new business?

Time and time again, the pitch deck or the first line on the website is about HOW you do stuff and not about WHAT you do and most important WHY you are passionate about it.

What you communicate in your first 150 words is crucial for securing your audience’s attention.

So what should you cover? From my experience, I would say:

  • The problem you are solving
  • Who you are solving it for?
  • What is your solution?
  • Why you and not your competition?

This should be your elevator pitch and this matters because you have to setup the scene. Your audience needs an anchor to make sense of what one hears and sees from that point onward. If you don’t do this, they aren’t going to absorb the information because they are going to be busy searching for the first piece of the puzzle. So don’t make them guess.

Also, it’s the only way to fight the information overload. One needs a few seconds to decide if they should continue reading or not. They need a solution and they want to discover it fast.

So how can you write an effective elevator pitch?

My favourite method so far is AD Lib from Strategyzer. And one of the early pitches I wrote sounds like this:

“Our Director-on-demand service help talented entrepreneurs who want to have their shop in order by building a fit-for-purpose management system and by ensuring that the right decisions are made on time unlike traditional consultancy companies that offer one-size-fits-all services and never engage on a long-term commitment with you.”

It is not perfect; however, it was a good start. Practice makes things perfect so I suggest you put pen on paper sooner than later and keep iterating until you are happy with your result.

A good idea is to ask friends and strangers to give you their honest feedback. You should seek to find out if they’ve got your message and what feeling does your words instil?

After multiple iterations, my pitch sounds like this:

“Our mission is to bring peace of mind to talented Entrepreneurs by taking the dull management tasks off their plate and by constantly monitoring the progress of their venture. This gives them more time to work on their product strategy and to talk with their customers.

One last tip….

Start with a hook. This can be a picture of the problem you are solving, a statistic or asking them to remember a previous experience.

For example, Nigel Biggs from Passionate Innovation recommends his mentees to start with “You know when…”. This is a simple, yet powerful hook.

Enough said, now it’s your time to go and give it a try. Feel free to share it with me and others in here, on Twitter or by email.

Have a good day!

Anca

 

Posted on 13th Aug 2017