Small business owners often have to pitch to customers for new deals or to potential partners that may help them grow. There's no exact science on how to do it and it can be extremely discouraging when things don't go according to plan. Being prepared is a given, but you can overdo it, as one small business owner found out the hard way.

At some point in its life, a start-up will need to have investors to help it grow even bigger. If you’re an entrepreneur trying to get investors on your side, save the marketing spiel. Here's why.

How many times have you rushed through something without stopping to read the instructions first, making everything that much more difficult for you? It turns out this mistake can affect your business just as badly as it does, say, a hasty piece of IKEA furniture, and you could be sabotaging yourself without even realising.

Television is not as simple as what you see is what you get. Hours of footage is packaged into snack-sized segments, omitting large chunks of context, with nifty editing skill filling in the blanks. But that was a risk Disruptsports.com co-founder Gary Elphick was willing to take when he applied for Network Ten’s Shark Tank.

This may be stupid, I don't know, but tell me if you've ever started pitching an idea the way I started this sentence. If you're in the habit of putting down your ideas before you even suggest them, try to cut that habit.

You might think it would be easier to show off your intelligence with writing, but research suggests the sound of your voice is actually better at making you seem smarter and your ideas stronger.