By Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen’s Network

If you had to get up tomorrow, or a week from now, and pitch your idea to an audience, how would you go?

James Stevens, Roses Only, Lindley Edwards, AFG Venture Group and Suzi Dafnis, Australian Businesswomen's Network

Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) recently gave four women the opportunity to pitch in front of a panel of judges (Dragons’ Den style) and an audience of about 60 other business owners.

These four entrepreneurs weren’t pitching for money, but were none-the-less expected to do their best to convey their message and provide enough information (but not too much) about what they were offering. In exchange, they got some business advice to help them improve their pitch and further their ideas.

I was on the panel, along with James Stevens of Roses Only and the delightful Lindley Edwards of AFG Venture Group.

Four courageous women took the stage:

1. Nikki Hills, founder and managing director, Mouths of Mums
2. Michelle Teague, entrepreneur looking for her next venture (Invisible ink name badges!)
3. Angela Elliss, founder and managing director, Australian Home Design Directory Group
4. Julie Ankers, founder and managing director, Statement Pieces

Overall, they all did a great job pitching their ideas.They (obviously) knew their business and were very passionate.

Some of the areas that they could have done better at were clarity of message, succinctness and being specific about what the outcome of the pitch was.

Despite the evening event being a great networking night for a bit of fun, the women did get some great advice from the panel, including these four areas below:

Four Ways to Improve Your Business Pitch

Length of Pitch. How Long Should Your Pitch Be?

Most presenters exceeded the suggested time limit. If you have an audience (whether with your bank manager, investors or a potential business client) and they have allocated a certain amount of time for a meeting – then stay within the boundaries. It shows you respect their time.

It’s easier to speak for a long time than to speak succinctly for a short time. So, practise, practise, practise.

Say what you need to say with the most punch and fewest words.

If you’re compelling, you can ask for extra time to expand, but don’t take it without checking in or you risk losing people’s focus.

A Clear Message Cuts Through

Nikki Hills, Mouths of Mums

It was not always clear what the intentions was behind the pitch each woman gave.

What do you want the audience/panel to do? be very clear in your outcome and state it.

For example:

Today I’d like to tell you enough about our 2012 plans to convince you to share our message with you clients.

or

I’m looking to raise $10,000 for marketing. Over the next 10 minutes, I’ll present our marketing plan and I’ll then ask for your input on our ideas.

Tell Your Story – Set the framework

Your personal story adds colour and life and allows us to see behind the person that is doing the pitch.

When I was a panelist on the Dragons Den TV show, we dragons signed up equally on the likability of the person as well as the message and numbers. People like to do business with those they know and trust, so let the audience know you.

Similar to the clarity of message point above, tell your story, but don’t get carried away. We don’t need to know your history and every detail – just enough to make a decision or follow a call to action.

Know your facts and study your competitors

If you’re going into a new market then learn about that market, your competitors and who your competition is. As much as we like to think sometimes that we have no competition, we always do. It just may not be obvious. If you’re bringing out a new telephone (I know – extreme example) then the iPhone is not your only competition – not is every other phone – it’s actually every other way that there is for people to connect with other people.

Also, the whole market is NOT your market. There’s usually a subset of the big group who you can effectively address. (This is your ‘addressable market’.)

When it comes to the numbers, get really crystal clear about what it will cost to implement a plan. If you’re not good with numbers then it’s difficult for investors to have confidence in you. Run the details past your accountant and, again, practise talking about them so that you’re comfortable if asked questions.

Remember, you may only have one opportunity to pitch in front of a particular person or group. Pitching is an art and a science, so look to improve your skills as a presenter, speaker and do your homework.

And, good luck.

Suzi

P.S. I recently interviewed Lindley Edwards about narrative in business storytelling. You can listen to the interview here on our website or tune in on iTunes.

About DWEN

The DWEN community is an invitation-only, global community established to bring together an influential group of female CEOs, presidents, founders and business leaders to share best practices within the unique and challenging world of running high-growth businesses.

With the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) and other related initiatives, Dell is spotlighting female entrepreneurial success and creating an atmosphere where women can connect with one another, share best practices, build business opportunities and recognise female influence in business and technology.

DWEN Annual Conference: Dehli, India

In 2012, Dell’s annual conference will be at the cultural mecca of Delhi, India from June 17-19. Attendance is by invitation-only.

To learn more join the DWEN “Women Powering Business” Linkedin Community: visit www.dell.com/dwen

Being part of the DWEN community creates unique opportunities to connect, share best practices, build business opportunities and recognise female influence in business and technology. In addition to the annual DWEN Conference, the community holds webinars, Tweetchats and face-to-face networking events throughout Australia.

By Janet Sernack, Compass Learning

We all know that to be successful and profitable business owners we need to manage our businesses effectively. However, what some of us have failed to realise is that success and profitability are also determined by the way we focus on maximising our businesses potential through the way we lead.

This blog aims to explore and introduce simple strategies for focusing on and improving how you manage and lead your business, the inherent differences between them and the importance of doing both effectively. Managing and leading as women being women — and not falling into the trap of behaving like a man!

Clear Vision of Desired Future Results

As business owners, having a clear vision of the results, or the desired future state you want to have is fundamental to success. Most often, we compose some kind of loose or structured plan which outlines what we need to Do to take us there. We then organise and manage our business assets through efficient processes and systems, which we then monitor and control.

Management is about doing things right!

Leadership is about doing the right things!

Whilst being so busy focusing on this, some business owners neglect to consider is who they are Being: how they are impacting, through their mindsets and behaviours, on themselves and their potential to be effective. They pay insufficient attention and lack intention as to what they are doing to impact and interact positively with others to ensure sustainable business success.

It requires a fundamental choice to decide who you are willing to Be as a Leader!

Once you decide who you are willing to Be, it’s easy to always Do the right things to Have what you want!

From my business consulting and executive coaching experience, without exception, those women who have the courage to take the time out to make this kind of choice as a Leader, find it much easier to do the things necessary to be a good Manager.

Sadly, one of the biggest issues facing most women in business is balancing Doing with Being. If you have ever been close to, or actually experienced burn out, you know what it means, to feel somehow, out of balance!

Personal Mission Statement for 2012

So to take the first key step towards establishing or regaining some balance, take some time out to compose your Personal Mission Statement for 2012.

Consider and answer these three questions:

1. What kind of business (or future) do I want to Have?
2. Who do I need to Be to create that kind of business (or future)?
3. What do I have to Do: what are the key strategies and actions plans I need to implement to Have what I want and to Be who I want to Be?

Good luck. It’s a worthwhile exercise to complete at the start of an exciting New Year!

Penny Spencer is the owner of award-winning corporate travel agency Spencer Travel. For 60% of her staff, Spencer Travel has been their only job – and, this team dynamic, Penny tells us, is part of the reason for her success.

In this video interview we discuss:

• How starting off stuffing envelopes was her foot in the door of the travel industry
• Why she focuses on staff training as a way to build business culture
• How also how taking the time to believe in your staff pays off and
• The importance of mentoring

Enjoy this interview with Penny Spencer.

Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website now.

About the In Her Shoes series In Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.

Leona Watson, owner of Cheeky Food Group, a company that uses the fun and interaction of cooking together to provide team building, conference and client entertaining activities across Australia and New Zealand.

In this video interview we discuss:

• How Cheeky Food Group makes team building fun
• How her large-company experience helped her start her business with almost no budget
• How to leverage in business, step back and delegate
• How to manage the mood in your business by managing yourself and more

Enjoy this interview with Leona Watson.

Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website now.

About the In Her Shoes series In Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.

By Yvette Vignando, www.happychild.com.au

A few weeks ago, I was trying to make choices about directions of my business and some decisions about dealing with a challenging issue – nothing new to most people in my position. In situations like this, I turn to trusted friends and mentors, and I always find this to be the most helpful action I can take. And during this period, I also happened to read one of Seth Godin’s blogposts called Your Competitive Advantage.

It reminded me to also look at a few of the business books I most admire and refocus myself on what’s important and refocus on the vision I have for my parenting website.

Seth’s post also reminded me that working faster, doing more and spending more and more time on ‘problems’ is not necessarily going to lead to success. An extract:

“When you increase your discernment, maximize your awareness of the available options and then go ahead and ship work that scares others… that’s when you  succeed.

More time on the problem isn’t the way. More guts is. When you expose yourself to the opportunities that scare you, you create something scarce, something others won’t do.”

So if you are thinking about your own competitive advantage…

Ask yourself, are you spending enough time focusing on doing your very best work, work that is better than your competitors’, work that will differentiate you? Or are you obsessing about your challenges, your obstacles and your shortcomings? Seth Godin calls this our “Lizard Brain” – he says this is the kind of brain that does this:

“We say we want to be thin but we eat too much. We say we want to be smart but we skip class or don’t read that book the boss lent us.”

The Lizard Brain creates resistance in us and that resistance gets in the way of our success:

“The resistance grows in strength as we get closer to shipping, as we get closer to an insight, as we get closer to the truth of what we really want. That’s because the lizard hates change and achievement and risk.

As the year draws to a close, I challenge you to put your lizards out in the sunshine and leave them alone – use 2012 as the year that you put all your passion, energy, ideas and brilliance into being the best you can and doing the best you can – that will make your competitive advantage shine.

MORE GREAT BLOG POSTS BY YVETTE VIGNANDO

• What is an Internship in Australia?
• What are Your Favourite Business Books?
• Starting a Business – What Do You Want to Know?

By Cheryl Hayman, Hayman Strategy

Unless you are a total stranger to blogging, you may already know the importance of comments. If you want to get more engaged and responsive visitors to your blog, blog comment marketing is something you should consider doing.

At the end of the day, comments are the thing that validates a blog’s existence. Comments allow us to see what other people think about our posts, inspire new ideas and validate that a connection is being achieved.

What is blog comment marketing?

It’s basically just that – leaving comments on other people’s blogs. You may already do this, but if not, it is certainly worth doing as part of marketing yourself, your business or your brand differently.

Comments represent the level of activity in a blog and it is a major factor differentiating static websites and blogs.

If you already leave comments, then have you given any thought to the comments that you leave on blogs? Have you considered the impact is has and how it reflects on you, as the writer?

Here are some reasons to consider commenting more often, as part of your marketing strategy:

1. Comments are the first step in forming a relationship with another blogger. Good comments improve the quality of a blog, so you notice the people who are enabling your blog to be better. If you leave comments, over time you’ll start to be recognised.

Consider this real world example

Have you ever gone to a shopping centre and noticed that some stores have many customers, while others are empty? When a new customer enters the centre, will they be attracted to the store with customers or those with none?

The same goes for restaurants. How often have you avoided a restaurant that is empty and gone nearby where there are more customers eating? It is a reflection of the quality and offerings of those stores. Real or perceived, it doesn’t matter.

This is applicable in blogging too. Readers have a tendency to stick with the blogs with comments, while they always avoid the blogs where no discussion is going on. If you actively participate in discussions at other blogs, you too will receive lots of comments in your blog. This is simple blogging etiquette; it will become a reciprocal arrangement.

A busy blog is an attractive blog.

2. You’ll get “pre-qualified” visitors. Be smart about where you comment, leave thoughtful comments and you’ll attract the attention of the blogger as well as the other readers. If you clearly know what you’re talking about and they’re interested in the topic, many of them will click through to your blog as you become deemed an authority figure with something pertinent and interesting to say too.
3. You’ll learn something in the process. If you read other blogs on your industry, topic, market and competing brands, or blogs that are directed to your ideal audience, then you may even pick up some useful knowledge.

The main reason that blog commenting is so useful is because it can potentially lead to more traffic for your website or blog. It can build awareness, loyalty, sales and advocacy for your own brand. At the end of the day, the key ingredient to successful outcomes for your brand will result from applying your blog commentary to those blogs that target the same audience that you are trying to reach.

MORE GREAT POSTS BY CHERYL HAYMAN

• Why isn’t my blog getting any comments?
• Approaching Your Boss – a Mentoring Perspective
• Uncover, communicate and nurture your personal brand

Lynette Mayne has held senior positions in large organisations all over the world. Her achievements are many and her resume extremely impressive. She has a Prime Minister’s Centenary Award for leadership in industry.

Lynette is the owner of Work Wear World, a leading supplier of work apparel to some of Australia’s largest corporations. In this interview she tells us about her transition from big business to a smaller enterprise, the challenges she has faced, skills she has drawn on, and success she has achieved.

We discuss:

• The lessons learned in corporate Australia that armed her with important skills for running her own business.
• What makes a good partnership or joint venture
• Why she’s a champion for women and the empowerment of women as leaders
• The biggest challenges she’s faced in business

Enjoy this interview with Lynette Mayne.

Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website.

About the In Her Shoes series In Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.

By Julie Wise, The Silver Owl

If you ever ask my team when they run for cover, they would immediately say when she starts a sentence with, ‘What if’.

I have to admit, I use this phrase fairly often when I sense there’s more we can be doing or when I really want to challenge the way a business is doing something.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, we come up with so many ideas…

When we do ask that question – What If:

• I stopped producing that report – would anyone notice?
• We opened only 4 days a week?
• I dropped my website?
• We didn’t have an office – could my staff do their jobs?
• We only used Facebook – no email, no paper, or intranet?
• We had a best ‘what-ifs’ of the year competition running?

The trouble isn’t really generating the possibilities. You will end up with a list of ideas, some more plausible than others, because that’s just how it works. The problem will be being paralysed or overwhelmed by the list.

I invented a simple ranking system to help put some order on the list.

The ranking system looks like this…

It’s a good idea to rank the ideas quickly without too much thought by using your first instinctive reaction to the suggestion - you understand your business better than anyone else, so TRUST yourself!

Now start working on the ideas ranked 7 or higher to look at what or where they improve your business and start making the changes.

So if you’re ever wondering how to get some ideas, or looking to resolve a problem, ask yourself: ‘what if’.

What if I called this brainstorming?

MORE GREAT POSTS BY JULIE WISE

• Networking – Beyond the Business Card Shuffle!
• Build your Business: Steve Jobs Style
• Mobile Devices : Is your slip still showing?

I got caught up watching this week’s launch episode of Celebrity Apprentice  —  the first Aussie version of the series made famous by Donald Trump and which Mark Bouris of Yellow Brick Road hosts in Australia.

Like the original The Apprentice, in Celebrity Apprentice participants (celebrities) take part in business challenges, mostly in teams, and someone from the losing team is fired each week.

The cast is a hodgepodge of athletes, business people and other ‘celebrities’. This season has athlete Wendell Sailor, reality ‘star’ Polly Porter, politician Pauline Hanson, ‘dance guru’ Jason Coleman, comedienne Julia Morris, beauty queen Jesinta Campbell, model Didier Cohen, footy ‘legend’ Warwick Capper, AFL’s Shane Crawford, Olympian Lisa Curry, Businessman Max Markson, and entertainer Deni Hines as the contestants.

After an entertaining first episode where teams ran a charity car wash (the team who raised the most money won) the men’s team lost and someone was fired by Bouris last night.

The show, while created for ratings (of course) and obviously heavily edited for viewer value, shows enough about a character to have the viewer decide if they like the contest or not.

As a business owner, I watched the show from the point of view of whom I would want on my business team and who would I definitely not want.

Would it be the savvy, well connected Max Markson, the funny and entertaining Julia Morris or the soft but powerful Lisa Curry? And what about the guys?

The footy players impressed me. Well, two of them. Wendell Sailer and Shane Crawford both behaved like team players. They were willing to take leadership, they worked (really) hard in the roles they were assigned and they were willing to work hard towards the team goal. One black sheep, or is it blonde sheep, Warwick Capper was as useful as (enter your own bit here) – i.e. not very!  (I realise the show is edited but based on what was shown on the show, he’d be first to be fired if he was on my team.)

In many of the contestants I could see the qualities that I value in team members, qualities that I admire regardless if it’s a team I’m leading or whether someone else is leading.

1. Clarity in communication – Jesinta who lead the women’s team was strong but a little harsh in her communication. Her team mates seemed to forgive her for it and to encourage her bravery and leadership.
2. Willingness - Most of the guys jumped in and did whatever it took. Capper stood out as the one not willing to take direction or to participate til the end of the challenge.
3. Courage - While she’s not someone whose politics I’ve been a fan of, Pauline Hanson stole the show for me when she stripped down to some AussieBum gear to wash a car for a $50,000 bounty which all went towards charity
4. Calling it as you see it - Model Didler Cohen not only looked great (he is a model after all) but was willing to call a spade a spade and to put those older than him who disregarded him as just a pretty face, in their place. I hope he shows more of that in coming episodes.
5. Drive - While he comes across as arrogant I had to admire Max Markson’s clarity that he had one job to do – to help the team win and (again, despite not agreeing with his leadership style) he pulled out all stops to raise the money they thought would win them the challenge. He was very focused on the prize and the goal. Unfortunately his treatment of his team wasn’t ideal.

Lessons that I drew from the show:

• Leadership matters. Clear direction and participation from the leader is vital.
  

  Mark Bouris - Suzi Dafnis (Kochie's Business Builders 2011)

• Teamwork – No matter what your role, play it and play it to your best ability
• It ain’t over until it’s over – Until the finish bell rings, the game is still on and you can still steal the leading position if you stay focused.

Last night Bouris fired Warwick Capper . I know who I would’ve voted off. Capper!

You? Who would you have fired? And, why?

Robbie Sefton, MD of Sefton & Associates, discusses the challenges and opportunities encountered by businesswomen in rural Australia. Robbie Sefton is a New South Wales woolgrower and communications expert. Ms Sefton and her husband, Alistair Yencken, own and operate wool, meat and grains properties. She is also the founder and principal of a national public relations and marketing consultancy, Sefton & Associates, based in Tamworth

In this interview we discuss:

• How she manages two lives – that of a farmer and then an executive
• The keys to managing a national business from regional Australia
• What drives her to take on leadership roles within her community
• And, the political issue of Australia and immigration

Enjoy this interview with Robbie Sefton.

Watch this interview on the Australian Businesswomen’s Network website.

About the In Her Shoes series In Her Shoes is a regular video series presented by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and BNet.com.au. Each interview features an inspiring businesswoman and her strategies for success. New episodes are released regularly. Become a Community Member for regular updates. StartUp and Growth Members get updates automatically. Become a Community Member with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.