10 Things A Business Pitch Absolutey Does (And Does Not) Need

Each year, I help fellow entrepreneurs and investors judge the MBA business plan competition at Harvard Business School. This year, I noted which pitch approaches seemed to work best and which tactics fell flat. Ironically, some of the best business ideas in this year's competition rated poorly with the judges because they simply weren't pitched well. It's important to understand that pitch tactics can make a huge difference in how well your business plan is received. So be sure to take your good idea, and turn it into a great pitch. This post originally appeared at Inc. To read more, check out: The Best Industries to Start and Grow a Business in 2011 > > Jason Fried: Why I Run a Flat Company > > DO: Bookends

The best pitches started and ended with the same 30-second, crystal clear explanation of what was to come: The customers, their needs, the solution, and the amount of capital sought. That helped the judges process and remember everything in between. DO: Comparables

At some point in most pitches, judges think to themselves, "Will this really work?" The best way to convince them is to show that you're already getting results. If you are just starting out, another powerful approach is to cite real world comparables. For example, if your exit strategy is to sell your company to P&G, tell us how they recently bought companies similar to the one you are planning, for how much, and why. DO: Emotion

Every student used logic. But the winners built on that logic with an appeal to emotions. Winners brought their arguments to life, using examples, stories, or short demonstrations. Judges could sense their passion, and imagine how their customers would feel. See the rest of the story at Business Insider For the latest career news, visit War Room. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.See Also:7 Ways To Get A Salary Boost10 Tools You Need To Land Your Dream Job9 Sure-Fire Ways To Get Canned

Bank Of America Says One Area Of Cleantech Is Ripe For Growth (TSLA, AONE)

The cleantech industry is having another horrible year. Two out of three alternative energy sectors -- renewable electricity and energy efficiency -- appear to be floundering. But the clean transportation sector looks ready to boom according to Bank of America. BoA's Steven Milunovich has eyed the electric vehicle industry as a good investment despite higher prices and public safety concerns. He anticipates that improved motor efficiency and stricter government standards on emissions will help offset high electric car prices. Because the cost of transportation in the U.S. is tied closely with foreign oil prices, the industry has been looking for good alternative energy solutions. Recent news of a Chevy Volt catching fire in a parking lot has raised electric vehicle safety concerns, but it has actually spurred growth in battery companies making newer safer batteries. Two battery companies, Tesla and A123, scrutinized by BoA were both flagged with "Buy" in BoA's latest report on the cleantech industry. Meanwhile, LG Chem who makes the Volt's batteries may be running into trouble thanks to the parking lot fire. Not only is BoA's forecast inspiring, Ernst & Young also reported that energy storage companies, including battery manufacturers, drew the majority of venture capital investments in cleantech during Q3 2011. Now check out ridiculously sexy pictures of Fisker's new electric car > Please follow Money Game on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:The Biggest Conclusions From The IEA's World Energy OutlookExxon Accelerates Its Shift To ShaleA Look At China's Super-Aggressive Nuclear Energy Expansion Plans

An Urgent Letter To Small Businesses Who Don't Understand The Importance Of Yelp

As a frequent user of Yelp and Seamless and other social web apps, I feel compelled to send a message to business owners with a bad rating or no rating at all. Perhaps you've never heard of Yelp or perhaps you think it doesn't matter. Word of mouth and newspaper reviews were enough to bring in customers for the past thousand years. Why change? What I want you to understand is that I and over 50 million other Yelp users like me will never be your customer. Yelp is the first and last thing I check when looking for a restaurant or tailor or dry cleaner. I sort the dozens of local businesses by rating and then choose among the top few. I steer clear of places with only a few ratings. I don't even consider places with bad ratings. And I don't even see places with no ratings (which show up at the bottom of the list if anywhere at all). If you want to get my generation as a customer, there is a simple, obvious way to improve your Yelp presence: Get your customers to write reviews. A few reviews will at least get you on the scoreboard. A large number of reviews will prevent your rating from getting trashed by a few bad reviews. A large number of reviews will also provide valuable feedback that will help you improve. If you invite your regular customers to write reviews, they presumably with have something positive to say. How big a difference can a good rating make? Just ask Prints Charming, a five-star rated framing shop in Brooklyn. When I went there earlier this year, the owner asked me how I had heard of his shop. He nodded when I said Yelp. Every other person who walks into his shop came there because of the rating on Yelp. We can't advocate it, but there's also an illegal way to improve your rating. Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:The Illegal Way To Improve Your Rating On YelpThe 45 Coolest New Businesses In New YorkIndependent Designers Have Found A New Way To Grow Business Despite The Sluggish Economy

20 Quotes That Reveal How Mark Cuban Became Everyone's Favorite Billionaire

Mark Cuban started his working life as a bartender in Dallas. Then he took a job as a computer salesman. Then he was fired. And only then did he start his first company, MicroSolutions. He did well, selling it for $6 million. He did even better with his next company – about a 1,000 times better. He created a company called Broadcast.com, and sold it to Yahoo for almost $6 billion. Almost immediately, Cuban sold all of his Yahoo stock netting $2 billion in cash for himself. His timing was impeccable. Weeks later, the market crashed. Since then, Cuban has continued to work and invest. He's the champion owner of the Dallas Mavericks. He owns HDNet, too. He's a reality TV regular – appearing on shows like Shark Tank and even Dancing With The Stars. All the while, Cuban has had a lot to say. Due to his incredibly impressive career, it's worth listening to him.On the competition “I don’t know, I don’t care, I just hope they suck.” Source. On customer service "Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do." Source. On nepotism "It's not about money or connections — it's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone... And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time." Source. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

The 15 Worst Companies For Customer Service

Some of the industries that Americans depend on most are plagued by bad customer service. Utilities, airlines, and cable companies are among the worst lead, according to the latest results from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. Limited competition and the fact that many customer interactions occur after problems like service interruptions help push those industry's ratings down.  By far the biggest ratings drop was for Northeast Utilities, which left customers fuming due to long storm power outages. The bottom tier also includes LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, which were only recently included in the survey.#15 Bank of America Rated 66/100. Down two points from last year, for BOA's worst rating in over a decade. The worst-rated big bank.  ACSI finds that customers are moving from large banks to smaller ones, and enjoying more personalized service and fewer fees. Bank of America in particular may have seen its reputation suffer from fees; it was forced to drop a proposed debit card fee after widespread customer backlash.  That didn't stop it from testing out other fees earlier this year.   Ratings and commentary from ACSI. #14 CenturyLink Rated 66/100. Four points worse than last year. The lowest-rated fixed line telephone company. More and more customers are getting rid of fixed-line phone service in favor of cell phones alone. Usually that would mean higher ratings, because the most satisfied customers tend to stay.  That's not the case here. The fixed-line telephone business is rapidly shrinking, so companies aren't investing in new infrastructure or services, reducing satisfaction.  Ratings and commentary from ACSI.  #13 Delta Rated 65/100. A nine-point improvement from last year. Complaints about airlines often focus on poor service and mounting fees. However, people are getting smarter about not checking bags to avoid fees. The ACSI survey found that almost 20 percent fewer people are checking bags.  Last year's bad score for Delta came after its merger with Northwestern, but the score improved somewhat after ironing out merger details and bringing more flights in on time. You can see the gain in its stock price.  Rating and commentary from ACSI See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

15 Things You Need To Know About Internet Porn

Cable and satellite television companies are losing revenue and, more importantly, profits, because unsurprisingly people aren't paying for pay-per-view porn anymore now that it's free on the internet, the Journal reports. While this should be obvious, the trend was particularly pronounced this quarter and doesn't show any signs of abating.  For the TV people it's not a big hit in terms of revenues, but it certainly is in terms of profits, because pay-per-view porn is very profitable. Porn is basically a commodity and yet it's being rented at prices closer to $10 versus $5 for a Hollywood film. So even though it's not Earth-shattering, as that business disappears, it's going to hit margins. So what else do you need to know about Internet porn? Last year, Online MBA  put together an amazing series of infographics on just how huge the online porn industry is.There are more than 26 million porn sites.

The online porn industry makes over $3,000 per second

There are 40 million regular consumers of online porn in America

See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.See Also:12 Tumblrs You Absolutely Should Be Following10 Brilliant Google Engineers Facebook Needs To Poach Right NowInternal LivingSocial Survey: Vast Majority Of Businesses Profit Or Break Even On Daily Deals

The Biggest Flash Sale Sites Ranked By Customer Complaints

Dotcom Distribution, an e-commerce logistics and fulfillment company, looked at the 11 biggest flash sale sites — such as Gilt, Fab, RueLaLa, etc. — and ranked them by customer complaints on Facebook. The company found nearly half of Facebook comments about these brands was negative, and of those the biggest complaint was shipping. The good news: Fab.com had the lowest percentage of negative customer comments. The bad: 61% of Zuliliy's Facebook comments were complaints about the company. Here's a detailed breakdown of who's winning and who's losing the flash sales battle on Facebook. (It's also worth bearing mind that some of these brands are clients of Dotcom, and some are not.)The problem for flash sale sites on Facebook is that the companies need the referral traffic that Facebook generates, but customer complaints can be very public. Shipping is the biggest issue. Fab.com has the lowest rate of complaints about shipping. Zulilly, HauteLook and Beyond the Rack have the highest rate of complaints. See the rest of the story at Business Insider    

The 18 Worst Companies In America (T, DTV, C, JPM, BAC, MCD, WLP, AMR, DAL, LCC, TWC, CMCSA, UAUA, CCMM)

Everything a company does comes down to customer satisfaction. Yet there are terrible, aggravating and disappointing companies that flourish and survive. Most of these companies benefit from near-monopolies -- such as the four airlines and four cable companies that make our list. This list is based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which surveys customers every month. "These are not terribly competitive industries, as the switching barriers for most of them are quite high," said David VanAmburg of ACSI. "In other industries, like the food or clothing sector, the competition is huge. They bend over backwards to make customers happy, because they have to." They also tend to be large companies: "When a company grows, there is a tendency to lose customer focus" VanAmburg said.Click here to see the worst companies >Join the conversation about this story »

Ex-Apple Employee Reveals The Biggest Complaints Developers Have About Working With Apple (AAPL)

If you want to know how iOS developers really feel about working with Apple, just ask Mike Lee. Lee has had plenty of interactions with developers, both as a former senior engineer at Apple, where he worked on the company's Worldwide Developer Relations team, and as the head of Appsterdam, a movement to bring together indie developers. He's also worked on his fair share of popular apps including Tap Tap Revenge and the Apple Store app. Along the way, Lee has overheard more than a few developer complaints. Over the course of a couple conversations with Business Insider, Lee opened up about some of the most common complaints he's heard from developers and what Apple should do to address them.Apple has not done enough to crack down on knock-off apps.

"There used to be an epidemic of these fake or knock-off cheap, garbage apps that shouldn't be in the store, not necessarily because they are crap, but because they are fraudulent or harmful to people making them," Lee said. Apple has started removing some of these applications from the App Store, including blatant knockoffs like Temple Jump (a ripoff of Temple Run) and Plant vs. Zombie (a ripoff of Plants vs. Zombies). But many developers feel the company hasn't done enough. "From third-party testimony, I hear Apple has not done a good enough job of policing these, or responding to these complaints," Lee said. "Developers feel like Apple just doesn't care." iOS developers feel completely cut off from their customers.

"A big complaint that developers have is they are cut off from their customers," Lee said. "If I have a customer who is unhappy with my app for any reason, the customer should be able to write me telling me they have a problem. And if somebody doesn't like my app, I should be able to give them their money back." Unfortunately, none of that is possible with Apple's App Store, which likely ends up hurting individual developers more than it hurts Apple. "The App Store takes that away. I can't give them their money back. They have to fight with Apple for it," he said. "Will they get mad at Apple? No. They will get mad at me." There's not nearly enough employees inside Apple offering support for developers.

"The most common complaint I've heard is that there's no pro-level support for developers inside Apple," Lee said. "There's nobody you can call to answer your questions or help you when you're stuck in App Review or some such." However, Lee says Apple does have a Partnership Management program, which is intended to provide this kind of service. The problem, he said, is that this program is a "pure meritocracy." He added, "You don't call them, they call you." See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

The 15 Most Hated Companies In America (DAL, POM, TWC)

The most hated companies in America once again include airlines, utilities and banks, according to the latest cycle of ratings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. These industries score badly because of limited competition and the difficulty of interacting with customers. "Where companies have little or no competition or where customers encounter barriers to switching among competitors in terms of cost and/or convenience, companies may not need to satisfy their customers to the same degree in order to keep them," ACSI's David VanAmburg says. This opens an opportunity for some companies like JetBlue, however, that can excel in unpopular industries. ACSI's customer satisfaction rating has been shown to be strongly related to financial performance. The biggest gainers this year include Pepco rebounding 28% after a significant infrastructure overhaul; and Delta rising 16% after working the kinks out of the Northwest merger. The biggest losers include Northeast Utilities and Long Island Power Authority which plunged after excessive power outages.#15 Bank of America

Rated 68/100. The worst big bank. The bank was a major focus for the Occupy Wall Street movement and had to discontinue its $5 debit fee in November — only after adopting it for two months — following public outrage.  The bank is America's largest mortgage servicer and most of its complaints come from the mortgage division.  One customer wrote: "I completed a loan modification one year ago. However, BOA has botched up their system and does not post my payments. They have no problem collecting the money and reporting late payments to the credit agencies. Attempts to correct this for the past year have been fruitless. No one at BOA bothers to return calls or correct the problem with their electronic systems."  Rating provided by ACSI. #14 DirectTV

Rated 68/100. The most common complaints for DirectTV are related to billing issues. On the Consumer Affairs forum, thousands of customers complain about how the company changes contract details without notifying customers and therefore, hiking prices without authorization.  One customer wrote: "DirectTV raised the price for 30% after one year and said that they told me about this verbally, which is not true. My agreed price with Saha on the phone, a DirecTV employee, was $56.99 including two receivers and one HD/DVR receiver. DirecTV overcharged me on my first bill. When I complained, they said they forgot to give me my 30% discount. So over the next six months, they kept revising my bill but never got it right." Rating provided by ACSI. #13 Aetna

Rated 67/100. The worst health care provider. The most common complaints include prescriptions co-pay being too high, withdrawing funds without authorization from clients and not being organized. One physician called the company "a big mystery" because (s)he can't get anyone to call him(her) back. The consumer wrote: "I can't give up, because if I do, hundreds of my Aetna Patient's will have to find a new physician." Rating provided by ACSI. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.