'Shark Tank' Investors Reveal Top 5 Tips to Make Your Business Famous Is your business worthy of fame? If so, pay attention to what the Sharks have to say ...
By Eric 'ERock' Christopher Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Shark Tank enters its tenth season as popular as ever. Over the past decade, millions of people have watched fascinated as entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas and startups in the hopes of winning an investment and support from self-made millionaires and billionaires.
The multi-Emmy® Award-winning reality-based show has had a tremendous impact on the business world and has been a major influence on the increased popularity of becoming an entrepreneur. Over the years, the show has evolved into one of the world's top platforms to launch a business and recently reached an astonishing $100 million in deals offered in the Tank.
I was recently invited to attend a private event hosted on the set of Shark Tank to celebrate their 10th season and met with all the Sharks and most of the guest Sharks for the current season. This year's guest list includes luminaries:
Charles Barkley, Hall of Fame NBA star and TV analyst
Alex Rodriguez, legendary baseball player and businessman
Rohan Oza, an iconic brand builder and marketing expert
Sara Blakely, founder and owner of SPANX brand
Matt Higgins, the co-founder and CEO of RSE Ventures and vice chairman of the Miami Dolphins
Bethenny Frankel, TV celebrity, author, and founder of Skinnygirl brand
Jamie Siminoff, the CEO of RING, who rejected an investment offer in season 5, but went on to sell his company to Amazon for a whopping $1 billion.
My better half was also invited, and we arrived promptly on time at Studio 24 inside of Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, CA. We were greeted by the cordial staff who informed us that the Sharks were still filming the last takes of the day. After several minutes, we were invited to chat with the Sharks on the main floor where nervous entrepreneurs excitedly pitch their companies to the investors under the bright lights of the studio set.
I was curious to know what excited the Sharks the most about their tenth season and what they believed to be the best advice for an entrepreneur to help make their business famous.
Related: The NYC Bagel Shop That Blew Up Thanks to 'Shark Tank' Just Got Acquired for $34 Million
1. Create an ingenious product.
When asked, Lori Greiner said, "It's a mix, right? Of smart marketing and ingenious product. For example, Scrub Daddy was a technology. So, taking that one sponge, which was revolutionary, changed the whole sponge arena. We now have, to date, 20 different SKUs, and we have 30,000 new retail locations and 170 million in sales. That's what takes it from one idea to a global brand."
Of course, skillfully promoting your product on a platform like QVC is another excellent way to make your business famous. The day after the Scrub Daddy episode aired, Greiner helped CEO Aaron Krause sell their entire inventory of 42,000 sponges in less than seven minutes on QVC.
Related: How a 10-Minute Spot on QVC Turned This Woman Into a $100 Million Cosmetics Mogul
2. Leverage social media marketing.
During my chat with Bethenny Frankel, she stressed, "Social networking is so important. Also being a little bit disruptive now ... and you have to be creative. You have to be creative. The President was the most disruptive candidate that there's probably ever been in history. He got people's attention, and young entrepreneurs need to get people's attention in some way. So be a little disruptive."
Matt Higgins responded, "I'd say that you have to understand social and digital marketing. You can't survive unless you understand Instagram, Snapchat or all the tools out there. You have to be contemporary."
Barbara Corcoran claimed, "Every one of us successful entrepreneurs, for the last two years, were phenomenal at social media. It's true. No exceptions."
No smart entrepreneur will deny the power of social media when it comes to making your company famous. With more than 2 billion people worldwide using some form of social media, any business can put their business in front of a large audience, especially if they can create content that goes viral.
Related: How Being Dyslexic and 'Lousy in School' Made Shark Tank Star Barbara Corcoran a Better Entrepreneur
3. Build a community.
Daymond John stressed the value of building a community. "You've got to build a community," stated John. "Nobody needs to buy anything new in this world. They only buy it because there's some form of community and/or need that you are supplying for them."
John speaks from experience. He built a successful clothing empire by creating a vast community of his own via his clothing brand FUBU. John wisely invested in celebrity endorsements, making him an early pioneer of modern influencer marketing.
If you lack the resources to build your own community from scratch, you can leverage the power of others. Partnering with influencers who have cultivated their own communities allows you to introduce your product or service to larger audiences. In fact, some consider Shark Tank to be the world's largest business influencer platform.
4. Devise a publicity hook to win earned media coverage.
Barbara Corcoran also said, "I'd say you need a publicity hook. Some hook, angle or gimmick that grabs the attention unfairly from your competitors."
Remember, Shark Tank is a unique combination of reality television, business acumen, and entertainment. Doing something unique, different, or disruptive can get you significant media attention and abundant free publicity... especially if you're able to leverage that publicity and captivate the show's producers, who decide your fate as to whether you'll appear on the show.
Regardless if you want to appear on Shark Tank or not, being featured in the media is a way to differentiate your business from the competition and reach a broader audience. Be creative and willing to take educated risks when it comes to getting noticed by the media. You should always be actively building relationships with media representatives and ask for their insights when formulating your plan.
Related: It Started As a Joke and Turned Into a Startup That Raised $1 Million in Funding
5. Know your strengths and stay focused.
When I asked for billionaire Mark Cuban's insights, he thoughtfully replied, "Knowing your unique advantages, play to that, and your strengths. And focus. You know, what happens is very often people start with an idea, get a little bit of traction, then it gets hard. And when it gets hard, they start looking for other things to do as opposed to playing to their strengths. Because businesses aren't supposed to be easy. You know, if they were easy everybody would already be rich, and we'd all be sitting on a beach somewhere. And so, when it gets tough, you gotta dig in and work hard. I'd say the final thing I'd add is that sales cures all. There's never been a business that succeeded without sales. So, if you focus on selling ... if you're able to sell ... and that's something that is one of your core competencies, then you'll be okay."
These are wise words from one of the world's few billionaires.
Related: Mark Cuban on Why You Should Never Listen to Your Customers
Bonus tip: Get on Shark Tank.
When asked about the one tip to making your business famous, Robert Herjavec instantly replied, "Get on Shark Tank, it really works -- or Real Housewives that works, too." Herjavec was referencing Bethenny Frankel's past show "The Real Housewives of New York City" that launched her into the mainstream spotlight after being the runner-up on the reality show "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart."
Kevin O'Leary commented, "I think a lot of the companies and entrepreneurs have figured out that the Shark Tank platform is exceptionally good at launching and promoting extreme goods and services."
Lori Greiner declared, "Boom! Boom goes the dynamite! Yes, come on Shark Tank. The one way to become instantly famous!"
Most entrepreneurs would agree that being able to feature their business on one of the most popular and iconic business shows with millions of viewers would be a fantastic way to make your company BizFamous. However, with over 45,000 entrepreneurs applying to get on the show each year, it's incredibly competitive, with less than 200 of them making the cut. If you feel like you've got what it takes to make it, then you can plan to attend an open casting call audition in 2019.
Shark Tank inspires other pitch panels.
Thanks to the innovative genius of Mark Burnett and the teams at ABC and Sony Pictures Television, the popularity of the multi-Emmy® Award-winning show has inspired a new era of entrepreneurship and venture capital.
As a result, there are many alternative and amazing opportunities to raise capital and pitch investors. Kevin Harrington, an original Shark Tank investor from season one, now hosts an annual event The Pitch Tank. Meet the Drapers is a new show where viewers can actually invest in the company via a crowdfunding platform called Republic. Even major media outlets are following suit with their own version of the Shark Tank format.
For example, did you know that you can pitch media editors and get your business funded, while possibly putting your company in front of thousands of people, by attending Entrepreneur Live? Event attendees are invited to pitch a board of investors for the season 4 casting call of Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch. Fifteen finalists will pitch on the main stage, and five lucky winners will receive Golden Tickets to be on season 4 of the hit web series.
However, you'd better have a great pitch! You only have 60 seconds to capture the attention of four investors, and if you don't have a compelling story that quickly creates curiosity and shows promise, you'll get the shaft ... you'll be sent down the elevator shaft, that is. If you win the investors' interest, you'll be sent up to present your pitch in greater detail and hopefully strike a deal.
Without the proven success of ten seasons of Shark Tank, these types of opportunities may not be flourishing like they are today and entrepreneurs should be grateful. Thanks to the hit TV show, it's made entrepreneurship and raising capital an exciting adventure while putting entrepreneurs in the spotlight and making it cool to start a business.
What's new on season 10 of Shark Tank?
Surprisingly, Kevin O'Leary revealed news about something that has never been seen before in the history of the iconic show, "This last week we had multiple million dollar deals. That's never happened before. No Shark gives up a million bucks unless they're buying into something that's really cash flowing. That's what I like."
Thus, this season of Shark Tank will be showcasing multiple deals that earn a seven-figure investment from the savvy investors which will likely make for great excitement and entertainment. Can you imagine what an entrepreneur could do to scale their business with such a sizable investment and support from a Shark?
Also for the first time ever, the women Sharks will outnumber the male Sharks on an upcoming episode during the tenth season... finally. With more women receiving support from venture capitalists and investors, I predict this episode will be one the most popular and watched episodes of the season.
Will Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, and Sara Blakely team up to overwhelm Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary as they all conduct tough negotiations to land the best business deal? Or will it be a free for all? Regardless, it's a great sign that women will be seen in a majority role on the show as strong leaders and investors.
Although it was never discussed, nor asked, I'm publicly predicting here that one or more of the main Sharks is going to retire from the show after this season, as my business intuition gave me the feeling that these guest Sharks are competing for an exclusive spot on the illustrious panel. I imagine it's incredibly demanding for these Sharks to commit to the hectic schedule of filming a show while supporting their portfolio of companies and investments. Perhaps the Sharks are ready to permit a new mix of personalities and perspectives to continue the tradition of the show, although it seems hard to imagine it can get any more popular.
In the meantime, it appears that Shark Tank is continuing its momentum into its tenth season after celebrating the 200th episode. With new blood entering the Tank, and with more guest Sharks seeking to fight for their bite of new companies, the entrepreneurs who dare to swim with the Sharks will likely make their business famous.
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