I have been involved with a small team of like-minded students where we were pitted against numerous business case studies in preparation for a province wide competition at the end of June. Needless to say we took first place and joy and happiness gushed forth.
After school was finished we were asked to essentially be “guest advisers” to one of the consultants that helped us during our competition. We spent our regular amount of time preparing a presentation for this small company run by two young entrepreneurs much like myself. Unfortunately we (read: I) made the mistake of being over confident in my knowledge of the industry and therefore my team didn’t do a proper amount of research on key points.
Making recommendations without properly researching your audience is a bad idea. For starters, chances are they know just as much as you do, especially if they have gotten this far.
Essentially I ended up getting grilled about my knowledge of blogs and the superstars who surround them. While it’s good, I’m not quite an expert yet.
In the end they really enjoyed our point of view and many of our recommendations. It was the one little slide that hung over the room like thick fog.
There isn’t much to say now other than I live and I learn.
Lessons learned include:
- Do research
- Know your audience
- Do 1 and 2 until you know your shit
Remember kiddos, if you’re going to say something, back it up.