Pitching Your Ideas For Funding - UK Dragon's Den Tips

Make an Impression Quickly

Guidelines:
Appropriate dress - usually formal. If it's not formal have a good reason such as 'we wear these clothes to demonstrate that we will be there on the ground getting the work done.'
Visual Impact

Unintended Consequences:
raises expectations
Getting the wrong idea across

Practice Makes Perfect

Know your presentation
Know how your product works and practice your demonstration
Know your numbers
Know it all inside out and back to front. This will tie back to the first point, it will be part of making your first impression

Keep Your Nerve

Practice will help with this and, again, it will feed into helping you make a great first impression.

Avoid Arrogance

Don't confuse confidence with arrogance.
Don't try to replace knowledge with false bravado.

Be Passionate

This should come across in your attitude, your presentation, and your personal financial and time investment in the business. If you're not passionate about it, if you wouldn't invest in it, why should anyone else?

Get Real

While Passion is good don't lose touch with reality. Passion alone will not sell a product. It must also be marketable, provide a point of difference, and be profitable.

Be Honest

This is similar to getting real, in fact getting real is a subcomponent of this point. Answer everything and answer it honestly. Don't inflate numbers to make things look better than they are. This will have the opposite effect. In fact it is best to take this a step further. Don't just be honest about your business proposition, be honest about yourself. Let the real you shine through.