You’re about to go in front of a prominent 投资者 and deliver your pitch deck, but you’re not sure if you have all your ducks in a row. As you will have heard many times before, 90% 所有创业公司都失败了. 听起来很吓人, 如果你无法获得让你的企业更上一层楼所需的资金，你可能会考虑加入那90%. 在一个经济不确定性不断上升的世界里，你的推介平台变得比以往任何时候都更加重要.

不要担心. The fact that you’re even reading this blog is a good start, 因为这表明你注意到了在发表演讲时可能遇到的问题. As Albert Einstein famously 说, “如果我有一个小时来解决一个问题，我会花55分钟思考问题，5分钟思考解决方案。.”

换句话说, 一旦你弄清楚了你在演讲中可能遇到的错误，你就至少成功了一半.

帮助你到达那里, 根据我在融资咨询方面的丰富经验，我整理了一个清单，列出了最容易犯的五大推介错误, 演讲准备, 金融建模, 资本结构, 欧博体育app下载. Within these common mistakes, 我还重点介绍了演示文稿的最佳实践，并向您展示如何编写完美的演示文稿.

1. Failing to anticipate questions or feedback

投资者不可能坐在那里听你的演讲，而不向你提出问题或反馈. 如果你没有准备好回答与你的演讲相关的最基本的问题, then this will not put you in good stead with the potential 投资者.

This is where practice becomes key. 在理想的情况下, you would practice your pitch deck in front of colleagues, 同行, 朋友, and family and seek their critical feedback. If you aren’t able to answer their questions on the spot, 面对投资者的压力，你可能很难回答类似的问题. Bear in mind that an 投资者 will want to see you think on your feet; they won’t want a deferred or delayed answer.

如果投资者问你问题，这意味着他们很可能对这个主题感兴趣. 你可以提出潜在的问题 预计 to hear from the 投资者 include questions about your team and management, as well as questions about the market opportunity, 财务和关键指标, 的风险, 竞争的加剧, how the 投资者’s 钱 will be used, 知识产权, 诸如此类.

Even straightforward questions can trip you up if you aren’t prepared for them. 彭妮·李, 他是公共事务公司Venn Strategies的高级顾问，也是K Street Capital天使投资集团的成员 解释, when her team asks a question as simple as “how can we be helpful to you?” many entrepreneurs end up standing there with a blank stare.

2. Providing unrealistic projections

这是另一个从长远来看，做大量功课可能会有回报的领域. 投资者不希望看到你在三年内预测数百万美元的预测时，看到古怪和不切实际的评估.

对于投资者来说，似乎没有什么比看到没有任何确凿证据的数百万美元的数字被抛在空中更令人沮丧的了.

从长远来看，你还需要考虑到所有可能影响你的数字的因素. 例如, 明智的做法是注意到市场上可识别的风险和竞争(包括现有的和预期的)，这样你就可以向投资者提供更准确的预测.

在一天结束的时候, if you are projecting high-end figures, you will need to justify the numbers with evidence.

3. Not being able to tell a story

You need to sell your product but you need to do so in a clear and logical way. The easiest way to do this is to identify 一个问题. As American inventor Charles Kettering once aptly 说, “A problem well stated is 一个问题 half-solved.”

One of the first things you should be doing is pitching the problem to the 投资者, 不是解决办法. Make the problem specific with the aim of getting the 投资者 to agree that it is, 事实上, 一个问题, and don’t try to solve too many problems at once. Be clear about the size of the problem, why the problem is important, and who you are solving the problem for.

Once the problem is established, you can then pitch your solution.

Thinking of the pitch in these simple terms will ultimately help you boil your 商业计划书 说到基本原理, 这将, 反过来, enable you to clearly and coherently pitch the idea to an 投资者.

4. 没有做作业

The importance of doing your homework cannot be overstated. Your homework strategy must be all-encompassing. You can’t rely on the fact that you have a great business idea, 一个伟大的团队, 一个伟大的建筑, 增长潜力. This will ultimately prove to be worthless if you are expending time, 钱, and energy delivering a pitch deck to a disinterested 投资者.

首先, 你不会想要向投资者推销任何东西，除非你的业务处于他感兴趣的领域. 这家全球最大风险投资公司驻华盛顿的一位合伙人也对《欧博体育app下载》表示 华盛顿邮报》 企业家应该好好研究一下公司或投资者过去投资的类型和规模. 查看我们的 Guide to What Investors Look For in a Startup 想了解更多.

即使是主动向潜在投资者发送执行摘要或商业计划，也通常被视为禁忌. 投资者每天都被不计其数的信件淹没. Having a go-between of high standing (for example, 一个律师, 投资者, (或同事)首先推荐你的工作，可能会比你一个人去做更有吸引力.

5. Not having a professional pitch deck

Your pitch deck presentation needs to look professional. It should not look as though it was done by an amateur. This will entail that you have a strong, 具有专业外观设计, 有组织的内容, 很好的过渡, and presentable charts or graphs. 演示文稿也不应该看起来好像只是将信息插入到模板中. 让它成为你自己的.

Presentation slides should not be text-heavy. In this respect, less will always be more. 演示本身不应该太长，最好少于15张幻灯片. If an 投资者 is interested in the business, there will always be a time and place to provide them with further information.

值得庆幸的是, there are plenty of example templates online which you can refer to, including the pitch deck for 薄荷.com, a startup that eventually sold to Intuit for $170 million. You can also access a Google templateFacebook也是如此 原始 2004年的演讲文稿. 我们还从我们的网络中收集了一些关于如何编写演示文稿的建议: Experts’ Corner: 球场上甲板 Tips for 筹款 Success.

如果需要的话，雇一个 设计师. It may cost 钱 now (perhaps $300-500), 但是，如果它能让你得到你一直在等待的交易，那么在整个计划中，这将是一个很小的数目.

结论

这只是你可能会遇到的五个典型的演讲错误. 然而, 避免这五个关键错误并提前做好准备，会自动让你处于有利地位.