A North-east businesswoman is celebrating after being awarded £1,000 by a leading business support organisation in recognition of her pitching skills.
Local entrepreneur Louise Chrystal of Louise Chrystal – Hair, was crowned the winner of the Elevator Video Pitch competition, which was launched by Elevator and Business Gateway during North East Business Week in April 2015.
Local entrepreneurs were invited to submit an ‘elevator’ pitch via video, explaining what makes their business, products, service or prospective business, special - in just 60 seconds.
Elevator received a high number of entries, and a panel of judges narrowed the entries down to just six. Members of the public were then invited to vote for their favourite pitch, and during July 1,104 people voted, with 346 votes going to Louise.
Louise said: “I heard about pitch perfect from my fantastic Business Gateway adviser Debbie Moir. It was close to the submission date but she felt I could pull it off.
“I called in some help from colleagues and put together my video clip in a couple of days. It was great fun to do and I feel it really put across my vision. It has raised awareness of my plans, attracted interest from other business people, as well as created a buzz amongst my clients. I'm absolutely delighted to win, and the money will go towards securing premises to open Blo Dry – watch this space.”
Andrew Burnett, operations director, at Elevator, added: “It can be quite difficult to create an elevator pitch that clearly articulates a product or service in an interesting and engaging manner.
“Elevator and Business Gateway assisted North East businesses to navigate their way through this process by establishing an Elevator Pitch competition. This has provided businesses with the opportunity to obtain high quality advice and valuable tips before the opportunity to record their own 60 second video pitch for £1,000 start up funding. This has attracted wide spread interest from the business community who had the final say in determining the winner. With over 1,100 votes posted, I’m delighted that Louise has emerged victorious and will utilise her prize to assist in developing her business Blo Dry, which will bring something new to the Aberdeen hair and beauty industry.”