Business Development for Startups

Business Development for Startups

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 59 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, I wanted to talk about business development for startups. Hopefully today we can give you guys some information to make you a little bit more successful and hopefully get your product or service on path to be an incredibly successful and beneficial product for the world.

Stay tuned.

Intro: The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world, you'll get expert business development advice, tips, and experiences, and you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, and business development reps.

You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business brought to you by capital business development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome. To the business development podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 59 of the business development podcast, man. It's crazy. I still find it hard to believe that we are already at 59 episodes.

Like this time is absolutely just flying by. It's August 29th. We're seven days away from our seven month anniversary of the business development podcast. And I can't tell you guys, I am ecstatic about the progress that we have made with this show. The feedback we get from the show, the way that it helps all of our entrepreneurs, business owners, business development people, basically anybody in entrepreneurship is finding benefit from this show.

And I absolutely love it. I love the feedback. I love everything that you guys have sent me. I love hearing the success stories. If you are having success stories, I love to hear them. Please send them through. Let me know how this show is helping you, because it just warms my heart, guys. It really does. It just brings me to that space with you where I can really just feel the benefit that this show is bringing.

So once again, if that is you and you are sending the information through, thank you immensely. I love hearing the stories. I'm getting an absolute ton of stories of people just getting into business development for the first time, finding this show and it helping them immensely. And that's amazing. Shows like this didn't exist when I started in business development.

There was just nothing like this. There was nothing out there. To just give us that head start to give us the path, the guiding light that the business development podcast is working to bring you. And yeah, I really, really am thankful to see that it is actually doing what I hoped it would do from the very beginning.

So once again, if you're sending me feedback on the show, you let me know how it's helping you. If this is just, if this is just your first foray into business development and you found this show and you shot me a line, I appreciate it greatly. And I'm very thankful that this show is helping you. I wanted to start this episode out by just giving a gigantic thank you to Cole Rosentreter.

Episode 58, The Next Generation of Aviation is Autonomous. Cole is the founder and owner of Pegasus UAV Systems. They do absolutely amazing things right here in Villeneuve, right in our backyard, in the backyard of Edmonton. And Cole, it was an absolute... Pleasure having you on the show. I appreciated it immensely.

I loved your take on the future of drones and aviation, and I'm really excited to see what you do with regards to wildfires and finding ways to slow them down in the future. So thanks again, Cole. I appreciated it immensely. Pegasus Imagery. They do absolutely amazing things. All right. So

I wanted to do a show today that really highlights the amazing Edmonton tech sector. We are fortunate enough, and I am fortunate enough, to live in the fastest growing tech center in North America, and that is absolutely something to be proud of. I am incredibly proud of the work being done right here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, right here in my backyard, new technologies coming to play.

It's absolutely amazing to see some of the stuff that's coming out of the tech sector. I have even been fortunate enough to work with some of these companies and help them to expand their robotics programs and everything else. And it's an absolute pleasure. And I truly am honored. To be able to do that to be able to work in such an amazing sector with such amazing founders with such amazing entrepreneur experts and people in there to really help them with accelerator programs right here in Edmonton to we are so fortunate to have some amazing resources for tech founders.

You know, we have Edmonton Unlimited. We have ERIN Edmonton Regional Innovation Network. We have Global 500 working here with some of our founders with Alberta accelerators. We have Alberta Innovates, and we have just absolutely amazing, amazing programs to just jump out and help these founders, you know, build the technology of tomorrow.

And I just, I truly find it amazing, and I wanted to speak to some of my favorite people, my startup founders. I wanted to speak to you today. Because... When you found a startup, you likely have a really amazing idea. And in Alberta, we are fortunate enough to have many great programs to assist those ideas.

But while you may have an amazing technology or product, it's critical that you think about the application of that technology and make sure that you have a solution. For a problem instead of a product in search of a solution. This was something that me and Tash Jeffries actually chatted about. And it's, it's one of the challenges you get when you get some really smart people in a room that, you know, may have have a new technology or may have just invented something, or they have a product and what ends up happening is, is they focus so hard on that product or service that they kind of don't focus on the end goal of that product or service and really.

Most of the time it is to sell it to solve some type of problem that does tend to be the application of innovation, right? Is that we create and we build technological solutions for problems, but you have to remember as a startup or a founder. You may have this absolutely brilliant idea, but there may not be a space for that idea yet.

You may be solving a problem that isn't yet a perceived problem. And while, yes, maybe down the line it will become a perceived problem, if you are competing against traditional solutions that do, at least for the time being, solve that problem, you can end up in a really challenging place. What that means is you might have this amazing product, but there's no market for it yet.

And so it is really critical that when you are creating your technology, when you are building this next great product or service, that you are doing a little bit of market research to make sure that there's actually a need to be filled because I know that that can definitely happen. We can be, you know, miles ahead.

And, you know, you, you technology people, you usually are, you know, you're thinking five steps ahead in a chess game, but you have to let the rest of the world catch up because if the rest of the world doesn't catch up and there's already other solutions that maybe can do it much cheaper than your brand new novel technology.

It can be a tough sell sometimes to kind of get it into the market. So just one of those things that I want you to think about, if you're a tech startup, you're listening to this show, really make sure that there is a problem needing to be solved and that your solution will be the best solution and can be a cost effective solution against other solutions in the market.

At the moment, it is really critical because when it comes down to. The business development side, which I get is a side that we don't always think about. We need to be able to build a very compelling case for your product or service. That's not just ideological. It's not just it makes them feel good.

There has to be a commercial benefit to your customer. There has to be a tangible benefit to your customer. That tangible benefit may not be financial. It may not be about the lowest dollar or the cheapest technology. However, It still has to compete in the market and it still has to be able to, we still have to be able to build value that it solves a problem that they have.

So always think when you're building a new technology, you're building a new product, you're building a new service, who is going to buy it and will they buy it against all the other competition in the market? Can I price this thing comparable? And competitively that even if it is close and it is about a feel good thing, or it is about, you know, saving the environment or whatever you want, it still has to make commercial sense.

And it's important. I know I'm talking to my university students right now. Commercial viability is very, very critical. It can't just be about. The benefit it will do to the world. And I know some of the stuff you guys are making is going to have absolutely massive benefits to the world. And I am thankful.

I am immensely thankful, but also being on the business side and understanding how that works, you have to make sure that it has a commercial application and that it will financially make sense to adopt it because if it does not, you can still run into some problems. Okay. So I have had the pleasure of chatting with amazing startup mentors on this show.

Guests such as Colin Christensen, Tash Jefferies, Dale Schaub. Always providing amazing startup advice on how to test feasibility, fail early. They are rock stars, and if you were a founder right now, and you guys need some help, those are great people to reach out to you. You can go back, like I said, I think I have two shows with Colin Christensen, two shows with Tash Jefferies, and at least one with Dale, so feel free to go back, check them out.

The information they provide in those shows for founders is amazing, it's next level, you need to check it out. Today's show is on the business development side. I really wanted to take a business development angle to startups because I want to help you. I genuinely do. I want you to be successful because you guys are part of the Edmonton business community.

And even if you're not part of it yet, you're gonna be. And I want to help our founders in any way I can. And, you know, through collaborations or any kind of things that we can do. But ultimately, with this show, I think I can potentially help you today. So I wanted to chat a little bit about the business development side and how you can be more effective in marketing your new tech startup or marketing your new invention or marketing your new service.

Okay? I know that, like I said, when we're building these things, we're not always thinking about the end goal. We're so focused on this technology and what it's going to do and how to refine it and perfect it and make it absolutely amazing. And you guys do that and you do an amazing job, but there does come a point when we have to stop focusing so hard on that product or service and we start taking in what is it going to take to market this product or service?

How are we going to do this? And I understand that you were doing this with limited budgets. Which is why I wanted to have this conversation with you today. You're doing it with limited budgets, which means you don't necessarily have the money for a business development expert, such as myself, you may, you may be marketing your own product or service, which is tends to be the case.

Right. It tends to be the case. So I'm hoping that I can not only give you some blurbs today to really. Think about and apply to your product or service when you get to that marketing stage. But also understand that if you are coming to the show for the first time and you're a tech startup, there's absolutely tons of information in this podcast.

You go back, we have 59 episodes as of this one. 59 episodes on business development, entrepreneurship, how to do better, how to market better, how to do business development better, how to create a plan, a strategy, right? I have it all here. So if this is your first time to the business development podcast, thank you for coming.

Go back. There's absolutely tons of great information. This is just one show. Okay. So let's chat. If you are just getting to the marketing stage, how do we How do we make our money go the furthest? Okay. How do we make our money go the furthest? I get it. We're probably working off grants. We're probably working off maybe some investment, but the reality is you need to start making your own money and you need to start making it quickly.

So what are the things that you 100% need when we get started into startup marketing? Okay. One excitement and image is absolutely critical. We have to build excitement and you have to have a beautiful image for your product or service. It has to stand out. Okay, it has to stand out. How can we kind of do this?

First off, the most important thing. In the in the value in the perception value of your product or service is you need to build an absolutely beautiful website and I mean a stunning website and especially if you're a tech startup because the reality is people are going to perceive your product of as as incredibly high value and they should it probably is incredibly high value.

However. If you do a poor website, if you do not set up your website correctly, it's going to bite you in the butt. It's going to hurt when it comes down to looking for more investment. It's going to hurt when you're looking for partners. You need to spend the money up front. And if you are amazing at web design, great.

Use that application. Take those extra, take an extra month before you go live. Take the time to really build an absolutely stunning website. Remember, in the 21st century, your website is your 30 story skyscraper. It is. And you have the ability, whether you're small or big, to build an absolutely stunning website that makes you look like you stand 100 miles high.

Okay. And if you're a tech startup, this has never been more critical. You 100% need a visually appealing, beautiful website, not full of every technical detail of your service. Okay. I get it. I know I'm talking to my engineers. I know that you guys are brilliant. Okay. You have to remember. The rest of the people that you're talking to, the business experts that you're talking to, we didn't go to engineering school.

We went to business school. We understand communication. We understand, we understand the bare minimum. We need to be communicated to in a way that in layman's terms, in a way that we can understand and your websites need to be designed this way as well. You're going to have every single opportunity to pitch every technical and engineering marvel that you've put into that technology.

Okay. You're going to have that opportunity. Do that in person, do that in the meetings. When you guys are building your websites, lay them out in layman's terms. Make it make sense. Make it very easy to understand for someone who is not an engineering master's degree. Okay. We need, we need it in a way that we can understand, but if you do this, right.

And you're gonna have the opportunity to talk tech with the other people at the tech in the business companies when you guys are having that meeting when you're having that that product meeting where you're really going over, you know, the technical application, you're gonna have the opportunity to really lay down your knowledge.

It's not in your website. That's not where you need to do it. What you need to do with your website is make it as beautiful as possible. Make it as visually appealing as possible. Have the information laid out in short and sweet, really easy to understand. Remember, you're marketing to millennials. Yeah.

Okay. In 2023, 2024, you are marketing to millennials and it is critical, critical that you were laying it out in a visual, visually appealing way, and that you were wording it in an easy to understand. This means for all technical features, you don't need a crazy busy website with every technical feature.

You need just enough. To create interest. That's what your website should do. And it should create interest. Like you're a 20 story skyscraper. Okay. And it's going to do that by being beautiful. It's going to do that by being well laid out, not too busy. And just really explaining the problem that your product or service solves.

Okay. And you can really get into the technical details in those face to face meetings down the line. Okay. The other thing you need to spend some time on now is socials. Okay. Socials are more important than ever. It's more important than ever and if you have a beautiful website and you are trying to get the word out on your brand new product or service or technology, it is important that you are posting about it on at least a weekly basis.

I want at least one post a week as to what your product or service can do. This also includes updates. Show your progress. I get it, you're not done. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to know about it, okay? You don't have to be done to show the products to build interest. Interest can be built. The whole way you can build interest the entire way, and you should, because likely you have investors, likely you have grants that want to know where their money is going, that want to know, want to see how this technology is advancing and and where the where the commercial feasibilities are.

So make sure that we are. Being active on socials that we are posting at least once a week about our progress. And heck, well, even once you launch it, I want, I wanna post a week about the problems it solves and the good you're doing in the world with this technology. Okay? There's no such thing as too much good news about your product.

Okay? So put it out there, get into a habit post once a week on socials. Really, really build that interest. Have an absolutely beautiful website. Okay? So that's one you want, you wanna excitement. And your image, excitement and image. It's absolutely critical to the success of your product. Number two is advertising materials.

Okay, you need advertising materials. And this is where I see startups fall flat on their face. Okay, I've been in plenty of meetings where we're pitching business development and I'm saying, look, I'm excited. I love what you're doing. Show me. Show me what you got. Show me, show me what type of advertising materials and they give me nothing.

Okay, they give me nothing or they give me something that's a pamphlet. Okay. No, don't do this. Don't make this mistake right from the beginning. Build a beautiful brochure. Okay, I get it. The product might not even be done. I get it. That doesn't matter because you're making, you know what features it's gonna have.

You know what capabilities, you know what problem you want to solve, you know potentially what the future could hold, or at least you can visualize it, right? Build an absolutely beautiful, compelling brochure that tells me why I want to buy this product. What good are you planning to do for the world with this thing?

I want to be, I want to be impressed when I see a brochure, okay? Brochures are one of those things where... They can be done perfectly or they can be done completely wrong, okay? They can be done very poorly. And what I really want you to do with your brochures is, once again, just like your website, I want it to be beautiful.

That front page should blow me away, okay? That front page should be absolutely next level. I should just, I should just melt when I see the front page of your brochure. It should be an absolutely gorgeous picture of maybe a problem you want to solve, or your technology doing what it's designed to do, or...

But it doesn't need to be busy. Just have like your logo, have like a little one liner, make me interested. Okay. When you're building a brochure, once again, what's the point? No, it's not to inform every technical detail about why your customer wants your brochure or wants your product. Okay. What it's designed to do is build interest.

All of the selling is done in person. Remember that no matter what you do. It's always going to be done in person. The relationships are built in person. The product demos are done in person. Everything done right is done in person. The brochures are to get you in the room. They're to sit on somebody's desk and make them wonder what that technology could do for their company.

Okay. So when we're building a brochure, I want you to think about it. Just like I was talking about with the website, really, really clean front page, beautiful image, not much information on the front page, have the, about us. Tell me, tell me about the mission that you guys are working on in that first page, tell me about the problems you're solving with this technology.

And then, and then I want you to go a step further, and this is the real meat and potatoes. I want you to create separate brochures. Hear me out. Not one, one isn't enough. Okay, one brochure is not enough. You need an ability to add on different applications, because let me tell you what, your product or service, it probably is applicable to multiple industries.

And you may be thinking well I'm only designing it for one. Okay, fine, maybe you are. But I want you to understand that most technology can be applied to not just one industry, but multiples. However, If you are marketing to multiple industries, or frankly, even if you are just marketing to one, you need to make brochures that are specific to that industry.

Why? Because if you provide a brochure to, let's say, the energy, the energy world, however, Your, your main product or service happens to be for food processing instead of oil refining, you're immediately disqualified because your brochure is only saying that you're good for food processing. But even though, you know, for instance, that your product could do some oil refinery stuff.

They're not going to put two and two together and you didn't sell it. You didn't paint that picture well enough. Okay, so I want you to think about the industries you plan to serve. This is why it's very important to think down the line as to what are what is the solutions that you that you're putting forward?

What are the multiple solutions? Think about this up front. And when you guys are designing your brochures, if you got ones for food processing, Make an insert one pager that just explains why your product or service is absolutely amazing for the food processing industry. If you got one that's made for oil and gas and it's going to change the world, maybe it's going to take all the, all the carbon out of, out of oil and gas.

Great. Make a brochure that's specific to oil and gas. If you have one that's for water, make it for water. Trust me. Trust me, make these industry specific and watch your meetings go through the roof because you need the people reading your brochures to be able to mentally apply them to their industry.

And if they can easily make that connection, or you can easily make that connection for them, when you say, Hey, I can't wait to have a meeting with you, they're going to say, Yeah, me too. I'm really excited to see what this technology can do for us. Okay. But this comes down to being industry specific with our brochures.

So if that means that you need to make two brochures, three brochures, five brochures, spend the money, do it. It's going to be worth it. Trust me. All right. So we've chatted about advertising materials, right? We've, we've talked about brochures, making sure that we have our features listed out and making sure that we're building our advertising materials for industry.

So that's number two. Okay. Okay. Don't just rely on. Like, shows, okay? Like, I get it. You guys are doing lots of trade shows, you're doing lots of demo shows, there's industry, you know, events for startups. And I see a lot of you falling into this trap, okay? And I, I might get a little flack for this. It's not a trap.

It's amazing. Keep doing them. It's not enough. Okay. It's not enough. Yeah. You might have investors that go to that and they're interested in spending money. However, I'll tell you who's probably not going to those things and not as much as maybe not, not at all, but maybe not as much as you'd hope. And that's your end user.

Your end user customers are probably not attending the accelerator demos that showcasing all of your all of your technology at. Okay. It's really important that we go back to basics on this. Okay. Showcases are absolutely great. They are, tech demos are great. They get lots of media attention, they get lots of investment attention.

And maybe if that's what you're after, great. Absolutely. But if what you're, what your hope is with this is to hopely, get some end users and make some sales of this product. That may not be the best place to do it, okay? You need to go find your customer. And I truly mean this, and, and, never more so than with a brand new technology, okay?

Because guess what? You know what the cool thing is about technology? And I, mean, I know, I've marketed new technology. It's really interesting, okay? It is frickin interesting! It's exciting! I love marketing robots. I love marketing new technology. Why? Because it's so easy to drum up interest! People find it super interesting.

I'm one of them. You can tell by my excitement on this. I absolutely love new tech. I love working in Edmonton for that very reason, but once again, there's typically not a lot of information out there. I'll tell you what, some of the technology that I've marketed, I had no idea about it until I met with the owner of these tech companies and they showed it to me and said, Look how cool this is.

And I'm like, yeah, this is flipping amazing. Why don't I know about this? Why isn't there more information? Oh, well, you know, we've mostly been going to just demos and and tech startups and it's like, okay, okay. So remember, if you're in that world, it is an ecosystem world, okay? The world of your customer is a completely different world and you need to bridge that gap.

You need to bridge that gap and get in touch with your end users. Get in touch. If it's oil and gas companies, you need to get in touch with the oil and gas companies of the world. You need to get in touch with the food processing companies, the manufacturing companies, the water companies. You got to get in touch with them and introduce your product because guess what?

It's amazing. Your product or service is amazing. You have a problem though. No one knows about it. No one knows about it outside of your tech industry, okay? Outside of, you know, the people that are promoting it. But the reality is, it's, it's not enough. You need to get out there, you need to make those introductions, okay?

So active business development is better. What do I mean by this? You need to start getting, you need to start reaching out. And I know that this might be a bit of a hard sell. I know some of the people that I'm talking to here are the engineers who have built this product or service. And you know what?

You guys might be a little bit introverted. I get it. I was right there. Business development is a learnable skill. Whether you're introverted or not, you can learn this skill. I had to learn it. You know, I started out pretty introverted. I still am, I think personally. You know, I've learned to be extroverted where it matters in the business development front, and you can too.

So, you know, there's a lot of information here in the business development podcast for you. So feel free to go back, feel free to go back and, and work on the different things that you think you might need to work on, because it's all there. And I provide all of the information and skills on how to do it.

And I really hope you do it because trust me, if you can get better. At, at the extroverted side of this, at the business development side of this, reaching out to people you don't know, going into rooms with people that maybe scare the shit out of you. If you can get good at this, this is what's going to make your tech startup the most successful over time.

Okay. You need to get good at this. It's something you need to start practicing today. So, you know, don't be afraid to do LinkedIn marketing, digital marketing, okay? So you've made these absolutely beautiful brochures. You have a beautiful website. Introduce yourself, introduce your company, connect with, with, with, with stakeholders at the businesses that you potentially think could buy your product or service and just introduce yourself, you know, Hey, I'm John.

Hey, I'm Janet. I work with XYZ startup and we have an amazing new technology. I think you might be interested in. Drop the brochure and just say, I'd love to meet you sometime. Put them on a CRM, right? I need you to start thinking like a business development person because you are okay. If you are marketing your tech startup, you are a business development person.

Okay. And you are until you can afford one. So. Get good at it. Get good at it. Do this every day. Do this every week. Get into the habit, especially once your product is reaching those final stages, get in the habit of starting to do business development. Okay. So like I want you, you know, you can add a hundred people.

So if, if you have a paid LinkedIn membership, okay, you can add 100 people a week, start adding stakeholders, decision makers at the companies. That you want to work at, introduce your company in a short and sweet way, and then add them to a CRM, start a CRM, start a LinkedIn digital introduction side, go back in the show to my CRM section.

I explain exactly how to do it. And then I want you to start following up with these companies and asking for meetings, get in the room. You want to sell your product or service. You need to get in the room. You get in the room. By asking to get in the room by asking for a meeting by asking for an introduction by asking to give a tech demo and show them how your product or service can change the world because it can and I believe in you and I believe it can but you're not going to do it.

Without getting in that room. So if there's one thing that you take away from this today as a tech startup, ask for in person meetings, ask to give demos, show them what it can do. And you're just going to find success. Mark my words. You will find success if you can get in front of these people. Okay. So.

What does this mean? It means that we have to do the LinkedIn digital contacts, okay? We have to do active marketing. We have to do cold calls, okay? We have to get good at our cold calls and we have to hold ourselves to it. Start making 10 calls a day. Just start by 10. Just start at 10. Trust me, I know that sounds scary, calling 10 new people and introducing your product or service.

I know. I know. I still have days where I'm like, crap, I gotta make cold calls today. But... Trust me, once you do one, five, 10, it gets easier and easier and easier. It's like, it's a cold call cadence. Okay. That's what happens. Like a runner's high, the more cold calls you make, the easier they get. And so those first like three are kind of tough, but by the time you get to five, six, seven, you're in a rhythm and you can make 30.

Okay. Mark my words on this introverted, extroverted. I don't care. Trust me. Just do it. Sit down, make three, four, five cold calls and just see where it goes. And if you get shut down, okay. If somebody just absolutely shuts you down, remember they are not shutting you down personally. This is not personal.

This is just business. Forget about it. Forget about it. Take a breather. Go for a quick run. Give yourself five minutes. Get back on that phone and make another call. And right. It's like, if you fall off the horse, you've got to get back up and do it again. Sometimes getting a crap cold call or giving a bad call can really hurt.

I get it. I've been there a million times, but if you just. Oh, that's shake it off. Go for a little run. Do something to just get your mind off it. Grab a coffee. Don't, don't dwell on it. Just make another call. And the next thing you know, you're going to be back in that cold call cadence and you are going to book meetings.

And guess what you're going to do with those meetings. You're going to build so much interest in your new product and service that you are going to change the world with it. Mark my words. Okay. So we have to get into meetings. And then what do we have to do? If you have a product or service, it's a new technology, you need to be able to demo it.

Okay? So it's not enough just to have it on paper. It's not enough just to explain to people what this is going to do for them. You need to show them. Okay? It is absolutely critical with your next Tech startup to show them how it works. So if you get a meeting, let's say you get a zoom meeting or a team's meeting for your introduction, which is happening a lot these days, right?

We live, we live in the days post COVID. There's still some fear. There's still some reluctance sometimes to get in a room. Okay. Your goal in a team's meeting should be to get to a demo meeting. It should be to ask, Hey, I think you, I think there's, you know, a product fit for this service for you guys, or your product fit for this product in your company.

I would love to come and give you a demo. Can we set up a demo, set up that demo, show them what it'll do for them. And then ask them, ask to bid it, ask to bid it right. Ask them if this is something they're interested in. Can you put together a proposal? Trust me, if you want to sell your product or service, you need to get as many proposals out as possible.

Remember our goal with business development is to always take things to the next stage, right? So if we start out at that digital introduction stage, then we need to take it to a phone call. Then we need to take it to a teams meeting. Then we need to take it to a demo and then we need to take it to a proposal, an RFP, an RFQ, whatever's going to sell that product.

Okay. But the reality is you didn't design this product or service to sit on a shelf. And this is what you have to do to get it to market. You have to sell it. Okay. And I, and once again, I'm just going to move into this. I'm talking to my real startups right now, the ones that are kind of cash strapped, maybe struggling, maybe having to do it themselves.

Look, I get that's not all of you. If you have the money to do this, there are companies like mine, there are companies like Capital Business Development that you can bring on that will do all this for you, that will handle the complete business development, that will build the interest, that will get you in the room to pitch your product.

That is what we do. So if you need some help, I can probably help companies like capital business development can help. We can do it. There are initiatives. There are initiatives like Edmonton unlimited has initiatives. You know ERIN has initiatives. Alberta innovates has initiatives. There's lots of, there's lots of grants and funding that can help you on this business development front on this business growth side too.

So there are lots of options out there for you. So once again, if you need help with marketing, you can look external or you can do it internal. If you were cash strapped and you're looking for options. There are grants available for business development. You know, like I said, reach out to Edmonton Unlimited.

I know that they have, I know that they have expert in demand program. They have programs that can help you with the business development front. Okay. But if you were doing it yourself, you can do it yourself. Let me tell you that. Let me give you a little bit of let me push you along a little bit. You can do it.

You can do business development. Mark my words. Yeah. It's going to take time. It's going to take dedication. Someone on your team is going to have to focus 100% of their time on it, but you can do it. And just remember, you need to get in the room with these companies, right? If you can get into these rooms, you can ask for RFP's

you can ask for opportunities, but you have to ask, and you can't forget about the commercial aspect of your startup. None of this matters. If you cannot sell your product or service, mark my words, it will die. If you can't find a way to sell it. So this is just as critical. as the invention of your product or service.

Okay, figuring out how to sell it is just as critical as it was to create it in the first place. All right. So what are some takeaways from this episode? I want you to practice your social skills. Don't be afraid to ask for help or look to the community to find different grants and initiatives that can help you on the business development front.

There's lots of people out there to help believe in your product or service and believe in yourself and you can do this. You can do this. Mark my words. Okay. All right. So that takes us to the end of episode 59 of the business development podcast. That absolutely blows my mind. Shout outs this week.

Cole Rosentreter, Chris Eklund, Mats Karlsson, Blake Hellyar, Karen Castillo. David Stephan and Joel Magalnick. You guys are awesome. Thank you for all the kind words this week. You guys are total rock stars. I appreciate it immensely. If you've enjoyed this show, you can please like, follow, subscribe on Spotify, Apple podcasts.

And yes, we are coming to YouTube. I am uploading the videos as we speak. There's not much there yet, so hold off. But within about a month, month and a half, I should have all of our episodes up on YouTube as well for your enjoyment. Okay. You've been listening to the Business Development Podcast. Until next time, we'll catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020, his passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.