Most of us would rather be thrown to the piranhas than walk into a roomful of investors, pitch an idea, then ask for large amounts of money. But getting a business plan off the drawing board needs cash, which means you’ll probably have to find an investor. Follow the experts’ tips to maximise your pitching power.

1. Pick your investor. “The most common are business angels or venture capitalists,” says Fiona Reid, director of Entrepreneur-ship Saïd at the University of Oxford. Angels invest their own money; venture capitalists invest bigger sums. Research their interests and make preliminary phone calls to whet their curiosity. But remember, the pitch starts there.

2. Sell to them. Start off with an elevator pitch – a one-minute condensed explanation of your idea, says Duncan Bannatyne, a Dragons’ Den judge and serial entrepreneur. “Tell them the cost of your product, where it will sell, how it will sell, who it will sell to and the profit it will make. Leave asking for money until the end.”

3. See it their way. “People always concentrate too much on their product and not what the investor is going to get out of it,” says Lucius Cary, managing director of Oxford Technology Management, a venture capital firm. “[Investors] want a good return and, usually, a quick exit.”

4. Props are optional. Prototypes or mock-ups are effective only when necessary, so keep it simple. “There has to be a good reason why you couldn’t do a presentation without them,” Bannatyne says.

5. Create excitement. “Investors are all looking for the next Google or penicillin,” Reid says. And enthusiasm is crucial. “Someone who has an interesting business proposition and can communicate it well is far more likely to raise money than someone with an even better idea who presents it in a dull way,” Cary says.

6. Stay grounded. Avoid superlatives and be careful with adjectives: “world-beating” is a tired phrase. “It’s better to underexaggerate; aim for a niche,” Reid says. Don’t blow your idea out of proportion, Bannatyne adds. “Saying, ‘We’re going to command 1 per cent of the global leisure industry’ is meaningless.”

7. Strength in numbers. Two or three team members can help, particularly when answering questions. If you’re young, bringing in some “grey hair” gives you added credibility, Reid says.

8. It’s about you, not your idea. Investors back people, not products, so present yourself as a reliable partner. “An investor isn’t going to invest in someone they don’t like or can’t work with,” Cary says.

9. Be honest. “Explain a problem,” Bannatyne says. This could be the patent you’re planning to secure or the management team you haven’t recruited yet. “Never try and wing it with an investor. They’ve heard it all before,” Reid says.

10. Learn from rejection. Less than 1 per cent of ideas get through. “Take it on the chin,” Bannatyne says. “Think about how you presented the pitch and what questions came up that you couldn’t answer.”

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