Great networking event tonite at Crush for the young, and like yours truly, young at heart entrepreneur. Shout out to Small Business BC’s Jaeger Mah for putting it together and Dean Barbour for his entertaining take on Perfecting your Pitch. Dean made very relevant points on the fact that you are always pitching so have your message ready. Ask questions, don’t just sell.

Another nugget was the importance of listening and information gathering - not to sell the audience something but to try and connect them to someone within your network. Pay it forward as it were! Us old guys know the true value in that. Ok, Dean’s still young but you can take in his well worth it presentation at Small Business BC’s seminar series. And here’s 10 tips on perfecting your pitch from Dean captured earlier on fundfindr.tv.

And, insert shameless plug, if you want to learn more on funding your small business, attend the Funding your Small Business Seminar next week, as well! I know, I will be.

The attendees were placed in groups for a networking game built around coming up with a team pitch for a “product” provided in a secret box. The talents of the students and entrepreneurs was put to full use creating “grey lamps” for eliminating the grey areas of networking events, a happy face bucket for turning housework into a joy and our team’s amazing transformation of an elastic, staple puller, ink stamp and tape into a pair of Jaeger Mah designer blue jeans! And don’t forget you can still enter to win over $20k in prizes for your real business by entering your video pitch in The Pitchies competition!

The event also marked the launch of Enterprize 2009, Canada’s largest student led business plan competition by Boris Remes and the Enterprize team. Look for much more on Enterprize upcoming on fundfindr.tv and for coverage of last year click here. This year’s event includes a very cool pre-event Imagine It as part of Canada Entrepreneurship Week and Global Entrepreneurship Week with shades of the networking game - check out this well done video well worth the watch.

fundfindr was pleased to participate with dynamic seminar leader Dean Barbour at Small Business BC Education Centre’s “Perfecting your Pitch” seminar last Friday. Participants taped before and after videos and received feedback, advice and tips in-between. Dean is an accomplished speaker, the Executive Director of the Maple Ridge Chamber of Commerce, the Self Employment Manager for Westcoast Community Enterprise and Dean also acts as the Director of Business Development for the BC Urban Entrepreneur Development Association.

Hats off to Dean and Jennifer Reid, SBBC Education Centre manager for providing great value to the participants. Here are some nuggets from Dean:

1. Opportunities are Everywhere. Refine your pitch and you can connect and move your business forward almost anywhere - volunteering, shopping for groceries and so on.
2. Show me the money. Have credible financials, clarity on the return you will deliver and make sure it adds up.
3. Add value, don’t discount. Go further, add legitimate value but avoid excess information. Use the “So What!” benchmark.
4. A pitch is not a negotiation. Be mindful of getting shopped. Support your position.
5. Controlling your audience. Avoid looking down, may be taken as “trying to figure out what’s next.” The power of the pause – use them to emphasize key points and make audience reflect. (And if you forgot the next words!)
6. Maintain pace. Know when to stop and listen, adjust on the fly and don’t race through presentation trying to cover everything.
7. Powerpoint. Use strong visuals and tools like flowcharts to articulate message and convey emotion. Do not overuse any tools.
8. Technology. Have a back-up plan! Do a run-through and do not read the slides!
9. Vocalization. Vary your vocal inflections and pauses. Show appropriate emotion or feeling.
10. Mistakes to avoid. Do not rush or speak slow, overuse hand gestures, stare at slides or audience members, or overuse Powerpoint. Get control of your volume and pace early. And remember mistakes happen….move on.

We recommend those in Vancouver take in “Perfect your Pitch” and see Dean in action plus other experts that have been featured on fundfindr.tv like Cori Maedel of Jouta.