We are pleased to advise that The Pitchies competition is being extended. We will be announcing some exciting news over the next week or so. In our rounds, we determined that pitch competitions of all sorts (live, taped, screencasts, mock and live again) were being held at many events. So rather than just holding another distinct competition, we will be integrating The Pitchies with another event to make it bigger and better.

The wind-up date had originally been scheduled for early November but the new date will be announced soon. Don’t miss your chance to enter for over $20k in great start-up prizes today!

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.

Busy week with September ramping business up again.  Monday was Small Business BC funding your small business presentation and Thursday and Friday we are covering two hot events both coming soon to fundfindr.tv!  Got an upcoming hot event, let us know at news@fundfindr.tv.

The Internet Marketing Conference is being held Thursday and Friday at the Coast Plaza Hotel and fundfindr is pleased to be a Bronze sponsor.  I think there are still some tickets available if you act fast.   Nice job by IIMA president John Hossack and team helping bring an event of this calibre to Vancouver as it has previously been offered in Helsinki, Barcelona and Stockholm.   Should be a great line-up of experts including keynote Eric. T. Peterson on Web Analytics, Yahoo’s Bob Page (I trust this is the right Bob Page not this one, Social Media Marketing Success Stories with Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo, and our favourite Victoria Secret’s Jonghee Jo on Making Testing Sexy! Look for upcoming webcasts of the conference and maybe a few tweets during (follow fundfindr on Twitter) at fundfindr.tv!

Simultaneously, our fundfindr Media Services team is covering the excitement of the Start Up Rock Stars - Top 10 finalists competing in the Oral presentation of the New Ventures BC (NVBC) competition.  The finalists include Echoflex Solutions, Pure Lignin, Sound of Motion Technologies (way to go Vlad) and GR Building Materials who we videotaped at VANTEC (congrats to Geoff).   Video profiles of the Top 10 are coming to fundfindr.tv so stay tuned.  For more info, check ou the NVBC blog.

One of the many partnerships we are pleased to have have developed these past months is with Small Business BC- BC’s leading resource for small business education, seminars, events and services like business plan reviews. fundfindr CEO, Bret Conkin, will present tips on funding your small business to a Vancouver audience and up to 40 additional videoconferenced locations across the Province of BC. Topics will include equity, social lending and social media.

fundfindr was pleased to be selected to present along with Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Coast Capital Savings (a must see is their online greeter Julie), Canadian Youth Business Foundation and the Women’s Enterprise Centre.

Details on the seminar are below with the next event scheduled for Monday Sept. 8th at 1 pm. Register here. Plus, check out fundfindr.tv’s feature on Small Business BC’s (SBBC) Business Plan competition - Do I need a business plan here. Small Business BC’s team is first-class and we recommend them highly. SBBC, including the Resource Centre in downtown Vancouver pictured here, was co-founded by the BC Government’s Ministry of Small Business and Revenue and Western Economic Diversification Canada.

Financial Resources for Your Business Seminar - overview

Do you need money to finance your new small business venture? Want to know more about finance opportunities out there? This workshop will describe opportunities from loans to venture capital that could help you and your business get started and grow. Presented by Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada), CYBF (Canada Youth Business Foundation), WEC (Women’s Enterprise Centre), and FundFindr.com. Learn from the financers what you need to sell your business idea and get the funding you need to get started and grow your business venture.

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.