The Modern Entrepreneur

As I explained last week, the art of the pitch is essential to becoming a successful entrepreneur. The modern entrepreneur needs to be versatile and adept to spontaneous situations. The modern entrepreneur needs to be always thinking ahead, creating and evolving their own vision, ideas, and solutions to problems through the developing new products, projects, with a unique insight. Perhaps most of all the modern entrepreneur should be able to seize the moment and take advantage of any opportunity, whether it is by creating an elaborate detailed proposal with formal meeting, or courteously grabbing someone’s attention whom you know will benefit your project.
Opportunities in life present themselves all the time, it is those people that accept the challenge and seize the opportunities. It is those defining moments that can separates the ordinary from the extraordinary and successful, Film directors, Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists, politicians, etc. Meeting a high ranking executive, capital investor, politician, producer, Angel, whoever, is always nice, but being able to grow your network and make that encounter significant and productive is the key. Seize the opportunity by being able to conceptualize your ideas, product and or projects, concisely and effectively, by being and engaging with your “high concept pitch.” The high concept pitch is a relatively new approach to exposing your idea or project and most importantly getting it to right people at an opportune moment. The high concept pitch according to the Waxman Agency
“It’s an idea that is immediately accessible & appealing to a large group of people, that taps into the hive-mind if you will, but with the added spark of feeling new”

The high concept pitch is something which can be applied to many situations and industries, however it is often one of the most effective methods of promoting your idea and wooing investors in the Entertainment industry. Because the entertainment industry is so vast with investors producers, manager and talent, all whom have different busy schedules, agendas, and career goals, making it tough to get your idea heard in a sea of information and other ideas. With this industry being so unpredictable, the ability to seize opportunities becomes more and more valuable. If you are and entrepreneur, young singer, aspiring producer or director, the ability of the high concept pitch becomes even more crucial.
The Pitch should be based on a concept which you have already developed to an extent. Your pitch should be based around a proposal, script, business plan, etc. so that you are not just wasting time it is necessary to have facts, developed ideas, and examples, to create a unique yet identifiable feeling of your concept. Essentially you are “explaining the book without ever revealing the content”. If you can harness the gift of gab and be able to articulate and promote your ideas in a productive manner you can seize such opportunities and increase your ability to facilitate success and even luck.

          Pitching is not just an ability you need to win the World Series, it is a skill that is required by every Entrepreneur. There are many different ways to pitch a project. The more traditional way is to have a formal meeting with investors or business executives to formally present your deliverables promote the reasons that your project or endeavor is worth while and uniquely different from other entrepreneurs’ ideas. The traditional approach is always crucial in modern business
you must always have a good business plan, a solid approach to connect your pitch to you audience, and you must be able to feed on their desires, thus you must know your audience almost as well as your project. There are many important attributes an entrepreneur must have when approaching investors in traditional manner, however there are three crucial steps which are not always recognized but can sometimes be the most important factor in getting the green light for a project

Three crucial Steps:

- Pitch the idea to the right person: Do not pitch to a person who does not show interest or share the interest of you idea. Do not pitch an idea to a No man or someone who is impossible to please
- Pitch to their Pain: You must find the “Pain Point” of the organization or person you are pitching. Find what problems and inefficiencies hinder their performance and play on those inefficiencies by grabbing their attention and elaborating on your solution for their problems
- Play it Safe: Make the investors feel comfortable with the situation, in today’s economy investors are more cautious. Do not pressure a potential investor or client in to an all or nothing situation, make them feel like there are options and offer alternatives, or a detailed contingency plan.

        Understanding traditional Entrepreneurial methods is very important to understand how to do things differently and what methods are crucial regardless. The first to steps are very traditional concepts, and while investors are always looking for some security it is even more important in today’s modern economy to provide transparency and comfort to the investor or boss taking the risk.