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3 Smart Ways of Getting Your Entrepreneurial Grand Narrative and Storytelling Right Don't cook up stories, serve smartness on a platter

By Rahul R

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Entrepreneurship today has been witnessing the advent of smart solutions which could potentially create a positive impact on society. Now, if you are a newbie entrepreneur having developed models for societal impact; these models undoubtedly would require equity investments and mentoring by investors or by a community of closely-knit individuals.

If you are to connect with anybody in order to have your entrepreneurial models funded (and mentored), a key aspect that today's entrepreneurs agree about being the need of the hour is effective communication aka storytelling (not like that in the fictional comic books). Storytelling refers to genuine communication about your ventures and value-addition; while you interact with investors. Today's entrepreneurs also consider value-driven storytelling as an art to complement the right business models and technology-harnessing.

In this regard, Entrepreneur India attempts to demystify entrepreneurial storytelling from the point of view of obtaining investments and mentorship (from anybody generally) for your ventures:

Be genuine, do not disparage competition

"Get your narrative right – what is your story, why is it unique, and why can it fetch the outsized returns that the fund requires," states Viswanathan Ramakrishnan who is CEO and Co-Founder at Magic Crate; a startup that works in the child engagement space.

Now, when it comes to narrative, it is vital to understand that making up stories is a strict no-no if you are to connect with investors; even your English-speaking skills are not evaluated; what matters is your ability to present a virtual model of how you would implement your business idea for the real-world scenario with your consumers serving s the icing. Your actual business serves as the potential icing on the cake.

Hence, taking your investors on a virtual teleportation to your business world should do the trick for you when it comes to establishing bridges between the investors (mentors) and your entrepreneurial pursuits.

Respect competition

Being wise is another important aspect here, accept your competitors; there would not be an essential need to dissect them to find out their weaknesses. Offer solutions and communicate these effectively such that the investors are convinced about you being the "man on a mission".

"Be completely on top of your category and competition information, both in India and abroad," adds Gaurav Gupta who is Founder and Chief Editor at BookBhook.

If your story-telling conveys your venture as a breakthrough, then there is no stopping the investors (quite a few of them nowadays) from voluntarily helping you out in other aspects outside of funding as well.

"The best investors are often those who find the weaknesses in your business model and help you fix them," informs Piyush Jain, Co-Founder and CEO at ImpactGuru.

Here, the takeaway is assessment of your ability to accept weaknesses in your business models and improvise on these smartly. You may receive the desired results after an extended period of time, but the key is to at least lead change.

Your grand narrative

Today, there are venture capitalists who seek information about your entrepreneurial traits; outside of traditional presentations (ppts); here is where your grand narrative comes in. This includes all value-added aspects of your venture wholesomely summarized whilst conveying your potential to be the next driver of change.

In Ideas where there are few precedences, help investors understand the opportunity and the nuances in detail," states Saurabh Tandon who is Co-Founder and COO at BetterPlace.

Once you get your grand narrative grandly, then there should be no stopping your ventures from getting funded and mentored.

Rahul R

Former Staff

Rahul R is a media professional with over 6 years of experience. Prior to Entrepreneur India, Rahul was a Senior Technical Journalist at EFY digital magazine. 
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