The first prize of the BSE Academy was awarded on 12 June to Brecht Vanhecke and Jasper Peeters for their novel food project. Brecht and Jasper’s project revolves around insects and aims at transforming them into food that can be commercialize in western Europe.
Unlike other initiatives that we have seen in the past years, a careful and sound market research was performed that enabled to identify to main customers’ pains. It was recognized during this market research phase that the shape matters as much as the content; in other words the two would-be entrepreneurs worked hard to make sure that their product was visually very attractive and ready-to-eat.
They worked with top chefs to prepare and finetune first prototypes and succeeded in presenting, on the evening of 12 June, their first creations.
This was certainly one key factor that made the jury decide in favor of Brecht and Jasper’s project. Yet, it was not the only one and, as a member of the jury, I think future candidates can learn how to increase the odds of winning the BSE Academy prize.
What you should do to win future BSE Academy awards
There are a few key learning points from the 12 June evening that can serve future candidates but also any professional improve his / her communication.
First of all make sure you have great slides and an amazing presentation. Not everyone is a born presenter and that skill needs to be trained. If you want to be convincing you should therefore 1) make sure to work on your personal skills and 2) spend time crafting a visually amazing presentation. Look for instance at how Prezi can help you adopt best-in-class practices and catch your audience’s attention.
Second, start with your financials and show your audience why your project is “bankable” and worth their time. Too seldom were entrepreneurs able to come up with realistic figures of what the financial projections were. Remember the figures must be realistic and you have to be able to prove what you based your assumptions and calculations upon.
Third, you should give confidence to your audience that your product or service will sell. And the only way to do that is to prove it with a market study. Market research techniques had been taught by IntoTheMinds to the participants of the BSE Academy, yet, few of them put forward what they had done and the results obtained.
Fourth, you should have tried to sell your product on the market. Many would-be entrepreneurs think it’s not possible. It is, it just is. Prepare what we cann a “fast-fail prototype” and try to sell it. Whatever happens you will get an amazing amount of information (positive and negative) that will support your continuous improvement process.
Advice for your business project
Whatever the stage of your project you’ll notice that you’ll keep pitching and pitching again. It’s is therefore crucial that you remember the followings key learning points to improve the odds of selling: improve your presenting skills and use visually attractive “slides”; make a sound and pragmatic market research prior to starting investing a lot of money.
Posted in Entrepreneurship, Marketing.
