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I believe that starting your dream project has always been an obsession for you, and I also believe that you were always looking for a practical and fast method that you could use to overcome the obstacles that you usually face; filling up the gap of knowledge and lack of experience. 

Launching your business depends -in the first place- on attracting funds; while pitching your business idea to any certain investor, you need to ensure that it is doable!

Allow me to use the business idea of “Coffee Delivery Service” as an example in this article; where we will make it doable during this weekend. Let me propose a few processes that will make this idea ready to attract investments, using humble financial capabilities and simple technical background. Now, let’s assign a simple timetable for our tasks:



Saturday


Friday


Thursday



9:00am – 9:00pm


9:00am – 9:00pm


4:00pm – 9:00pm


Time period


Making massive cooperation calls.


Working on the pitch presentation.


Creating minimum viable product (MVP).


Task

Thursday, creating minimum viable product (MVP).

You’ve got 5 hours to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for your business idea; in this case, it’s the Coffee Delivery Service.

Remember – it’s not important at all to make your product graphically attractive, and it is not required at an MVP stage to use high and complicated technological tools in order to make it run. Simple is good, the most important thing at an MVP stage is to make the product clean, easy to use, and capable of achieving what’s needed. 

As we’re using humble budgets and basic technical backgrounds; I suggest working with the WordPress platform. You’ll need to buy a responsive WordPress template, which is compatible with smart devices and comes with every feature you need to execute your project so far, also; you’ll need to buy a short and attractive domain name, and a Shared Hosting package to take the website online.

Now, once you get done with purchasing required elements, you need to install WordPress on your website’s cPanel, then you need to upload the WordPress theme that you have purchased earlier, and you have to do all necessary customization to the theme, such as; changing the title, logo, favorite icon, and footer text. Also, you have to create essential information pages on the site, such as ‘About Us’, ‘Why Us’, ‘Our Products’, ‘Terms & Conditions’, ‘Contact Us’…etc. 

Now, your product is online! First task is done successfully.


Friday, working on the pitch presentation.

You’ve got 12 hours to do your research and provide accurate data that can accomplish this task, I’d advise you to keep your coffee maker close to you!

At this task, you are required to create a professional pitch presentation for your project; where the pitch has to carry all convincing facts about the business to the potential investor within 3 to 5 minutes maximum! 

Now, you need to search the internet for a suitable Powerpoint template that you could use for your pitch purpose, then you are going to fill your pitch presentation with the following information:

1. Describe the problem.

You have to ensure that your project, the Coffee Delivery Service, is providing a solution for certain problem(s) that could be faced by the coffee consumer more often than not.

2. The solution is the project.

You need to demonstrate, very briefly, how your project could solve the mentioned problem, and how it can enhance the consumption experience of the customer.

3. The Product.

Now you’ve got your website running smoothly online. You need to have some attractive screenshots of it and post it to this section attached with a business domain name, you also need to create some guidelines that can explain the most important tools and features of the website.

4. Key of power.

Define the top 5 elements that make your business idea unique, valuable, and a long lasting business model. Remember to be realistic, always.

5. Market, customer traction.

At this point, you need to do a little research over the internet. TAM SAM SOM, that are the three different subsets of the market that you are going to deal with at this point; where:

TAM: Total Available Market, which is the total demand at the local market for your product, in your case you could assign the GCC market.

SAM: Serviceable Available Market, which is your targeted geographical reach within TAM, I guess assigning Bahrain here is an excellent choice.

SOM: Serviceable Obtainable Market, and that is the actual segment that you could reach out of SAM.

6. Market research.

You should use your social connections to conduct quick questionnaires or feedback about your business idea. Nowadays, you can find hundreds of instruments that can help you get this done over the internet. Feel free to use your WhatsApp contacts and groups, Facebook, and Twitter to apply your questionnaire or feedback. Now, you need to demonstrate such data as a professional chart.

7. Competition analyses.

Search for other competitors, and remember that having a competitor in the same field of business could be a good sign. That ensures that your business field is active and it is investable, and it gives you the chance to achieve superiority by scoping out the capabilities and lacks of your competitors. You can list your group of competitors and you compare your key features against what they got.

8. Revenue model.

This is where your potential investor will focus on the most, you’ll need to show and explain how you could earn income out of your project. Explain how you could use modern technology to help in accelerating the process of income, such as using BENEFIT point of sale online, or using BENEFITPay’s barcodes. It’s very important to keep the cash flow cycle very short.

9. Milestone.

Show your potential investor all the practical efforts you’ve done so far to keep your business worth being invested in. You may use an infographic layout to explain your process. Make it a short, passionate, attractive and honest story to tell.

10. Road map.

Assume here that you got the fund that you are obtaining to launch your business. You need to explain in phases your strategy, how you’ll start your business, how you are going to upgrade your services, and how you are going to expand in the near future. Try to work upon the year 2021, divide it into 4 quarters, and explain what you are going to do within each quarter. Remember to keep it short and to use professional graphics and charts.

11. The required investment.

You’ve reached the very sensitive point of this pitch. You need to be fully focused and honest as you’re going to show very specific details, such as the required investment amount that will allow you to launch your business. Mention the cost of each requirement alone – development, administrative, staffing, legal & licensing, office spacing, and of course the total needed amount at the end.

12. The team.

It would be wonderful to show the team spirit of your group to the potential investor, you could introduce your team here, display their names under their picture attached with the profession and the role of them in your project.  

After a long day of effective work, now your pitch presentation is ready! Second task is done successfully.

Saturday, making massive partnership calls.

It’s the last day of the weekend, and you have 12 hours to wrap up the last task. Focus on using all your communication skills to be professionally convincing.

COVID-19 has -unfortunately- affected many of SMEs in Bahrain as in the world. Today, as many business owners are in need to be shifted online in order to sustain their activity, your project could be the life vest for them.

By taking our example project, the Coffee Delivery Service to action, you need to give all your energy and start calling as many coffee shop owners in Bahrain as you can. In reality, this is very easy to achieve as their contact information is available online using social media or the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism’s Sijilat.

You need to attract at least 5 coffee shop owners, where you could propose a strategic  partnership with them by offering your business’ tech abilities for free, for the duration of 6 months and up to 1 year.

Congratulations, you have potential partners. This is a very important and encouraging achievement for you, that can upscale your projects average in front of your potential investor.

After 12 hours or less today, you have ended your wonderful weekend with the successful completion of the 3 tasks! Now, you have got your project running online, your presentation ready to be pitched for your potential investors, and you have 5 partners who are interested in going into business with you once you start. 

I’m totally positive that since you got the patience to read my article up to this point, then you definitely will find the correct investor who will share the passion with you. Good luck.