A new television show debuted this past weekend, a show based on a popular UK show, Dragons’ Den.

The US show is called “Shark Tank“.  The “tank” is a panel of highly successful business people with investment money to spend. Each week 4 to 5 entrepreneurs pitch their idea to the panel. There is a monetary amount each entrepreneur needs in exchange for a percentage of the business. They pitch the deal and the panelists are either in or out.

I didn’t watch the show on Sunday when it aired, but I did watch it on Hulu.com this morning in preparation of this post. Generally I am uncomfortable with watching these types of shows, but this one held my attention. Mainly because of the quality of the pitches.  All of the presenters, while obviously nervous, showed a lot of passion about their idea or business. The pitches ranged from uncomfortably personal to a little ridiculously arrogant, and they were all compelling to watch.

I couldn’t help but wonder how many hours of practice went into those pitches.

Working at Palo Alto Software for seven years – I’ve read my share of business plans and have watched more than a few pitches, and let me tell you, I have great respect for the people who get up in front of a bunch of skeptical, would-be investors to describe their business dream and how, through the power of their hard work and good planning, they will make money.   I’ve listened to some really amazing pitches for bad business plans, and some horrible pitches with fantastic business plans.

Watching the show I couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that how you pitch your business idea, and just as importantly, how you pitch yourself, is key to your success in obtaining investment money.

If you missed the show, like I did, the pilot show is embedded below, or you can search for the “Shark Tank” on hulu.com. The next episode is scheduled for 9:00 PM, Sunday, August 16, on ABC.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager

Palo Alto Software Ltd is delighted to announce that we will be running a number of business planning workshops in London, U.K., commencing on 27 January 2009. These business planning workshops will be run in conjunction with Company Partners, a Wokingham-England based business matching service, and will be held at the British Library in Central London. These workshops will be the perfect complement to our best selling Business Plan Pro product and will cover everything from pitching your business to understanding key elements of your business plan such as sales forecasting.

There are a small number of early bird tickets still available for this inaugural business planning workshop.

Alan Gleeson
Palo Alto Software U.K.

Business pitches are growing in popularity here in the UK as well as in the US. However, as this article, The Business Pitch by Alan Gleeson illustrates, business pitches are no substitute for the real thing – a thorough business plan!

This short article describes the concept of pitching in detail, and argues why pitches are not substitutes for business plans, before recommending some tips to ensure that your pitch hits all the right spots. Finally for some further information on what an elevator pitch is, visit Tim Berry’s article series on the Elevator Pitch at BPlans.com.

Alan Gleeson

Palo Alto Software UK