I am currently writing my business plan as my final dissertation. Instead of writing a ‘normal’ 10.000 words dissertation I preferred to actually test the market and understand if there is a potential in selling my own creations one day, through my business. This event, as much as others, arranged by the Centre of Entrepreneurship, are a great way to learn some professional practice, attitude, communication and presentation skills, as well as marketing and other skills that can be applied not only as a business owner but as an employee as well, thanks to this very business approach.
A committee born on the partnership between Cardiff Met, Inspire Wales and Be The Spark. A first time success they all hope to continue in the future. Six business owners were selected among the many that applied with the possibility to pitch in front of 6 investors/business angels for the chance to be financed 50k each. The pitch had to be 5 minutes long with Q&A sessions after each one of them. The investors would then leave the room and deliberate as a group weather to fund the business or not. In the end 2 businesses got the full 50k funding, plus mentoring, Toddle and CanDo Laundry.
For me it was interesting to see not only their business ideas but at this stage, how they presented it, from how they were dressed to the language they used, how they interacted with the public and the investors to the number of slides in their presentation etc. They almost all had around 10 slides. Some were speaking like they memorised the speech, others talked freely, reading more or less from slides or little cards, but all talked about their motivation with confidence, showing the time and energy spend in researching and knowing their market. In the end this is what did the difference.
I’ve learned about Doopoll.co, an easy way to ask questions to a group and provide statistics based on the answers . About more initiatives from the Entrepreneur Team such as Countdown to launch, which is a 5 days workshops developing and learning new skills at the end of which the participants get the chance to pitch their own business for a small funding of some hundred pounds. I am planning to attending this, as long as it doesn’t interfere with my participation for New Designers 2019, since it will also take place in June. I have also learned about a strategy called Brand ambassador to promote one’s brand. Five out of ten proposed a 5% equity asking the full amount of 50k. One, the less experienced asked for 45k with 10% equity. This was also a good reflection point.
Anda Avramescu 