Perhaps one of the biggest fears for an entrepreneur is that of the actual moment when you are going to have to present your idea in front of your shareholders. Whether you are the CEO of an environmental start-up or a freelance journalist approaching a newspaper editor, selling your idea and yourself could seem tricky or simply uncomfortable. I know that, at least in my case, talking about my idea – no matter how much I believe in it – and convincing someone that it is wonderful and worth investing in, make me cringe. “Why would anybody take me seriously at this age?” or “What if they think my idea is crap?” are just two of the many questions storming through my mind as I contemplate the idea of writing a pitch.

To overcome this fear – or at least to begin to rationalize it – I invited my dear friend James to Amsterdam to hold a workshop about the art and science of writing a pitch. James writes as a freelancer for the New York Times, CNN and BBC and has a lot of experience in selling his work to some of the most demanding editors in the world. As result of his background, the session focused on the theme of pitching a story but the things we learnt can be extrapolated to the business world as well.

The two hour session began with James telling us about what it means to be a journalist in today’s ever-changing media landscape. Like with the entrepreneurial world, the sphere of journalism seems to need an infusion of a new type of capital. As readers’ numbers plummet and magazines shut down, journalists must learn to be more entrepreneurial. One of the ways in which you can do this is by diversifying your expertise.

“It is really important to be a specialist in a particular area – Middle Eastern football and politics, for instance – but, at the same time, I believe a journalist should be able to work with several types of media and be ready to edit photos and video or make a radio recording” says James to 6 pairs of very curious eyes

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The second part of the session continued with practical exercises in how to write a pitch and who to send it to. Here are some of the basics:

1. A pitch should be no longer than three paragraphs.
2. The first paragraph should be exactly how you would imagine your actual article to begin.
3. The second paragraph should give more details about the subject and its background as well as what makes you valuable as a reporter.
4. Don’t send more than one or two pitches at once as editors don’t have the time to read everything.

But to me, the most interesting intake from the meeting was the discovery that anybody can pitch to big publications. I think James exemplified perfectly how simply having the right structure and courageous attitude can help you see your own name in the New York Times.

Finally, after quite a bit of cultivation our business idea starts to take its final shape! Me and my fiancé have been busy finding relevant information about the state and future of urban agriculture in Finland, tackling possible problems and mapping our contacts and possibilities and now our ”home-grown enterprise” is finally ready to be taken to the next level!

Our business aims to promote urban agriculture – a growing interest among private people and policymakers alike – by providing an easy access to planting boxes and other gardening essentials to our customers. We also provide information about starting up a garden, and how to make the most of it! We also offer the services of an urban agriculture expert who can really give people all the information they need. Our web page will have clear how-to instructions for those who wish to find the information themselves. We aim our services mainly to private people and housing companies, but will also aim to cooperate with the public sector and other communities.

Urban gardening saves emissions on food transportation, makes the urban environment more enjoyable and healthy, creates a sense of community among the people doing gardening in the same courtyard and is a great way to show children, and even adults, how their food is grown and produced. Our margeting targets families with children, elderly people and young green-minded urban dwellers – those who have the time and interest to do urban gardening.

Main channel for customers to take contact will be our internet page and social media. We will have an online form our customers can fill in and choose their preferred planting box and other services, such as soil, nutrients and plants/seeds. Then the customers will fill in their contact information and we will take care of the rest, including negotiating with the housing company and transportation of boxes to and from the customer. This solves a big problem with urban gardening today: when gardening is done in public areas, people have to travel a long way to get to their plantations, limiting their attractiveness and use for those who don’t have the capability to commute. It is also attractive that the gardens are brought close to the customers. Some urban gardening projects have also experienced theft and vandalism, which will be prevented by bringing the gardens to courtyards. Apart from the online form, we will also have a possibility to make orders or enquiries by telephone.

“You have to get used to being completely crap on something in order to improve. You shouldn’t be afraid to embarrass yourself.”

-Liselotte Lyngsø

We did this exercise on the roof terrace of Future Navigators office where  Liselotte taught us to juggle. The idea was to give a concrete example of a situation where you get out of your comfort zone, and do something where you know that you are going to be very lousy at first, but you just have to start from somewhere if you ever want to learn. I taught that this was a great exercise, that is applicable in many situations in life and especially in entrepreneurship.

On Saturday 12th we visited the Finnish embassy in Nyhavn, where media and culture secretary Veera Weisdorf described both the mission of the embassy and her perception of the work environment there. She also talked about general trends in Denmark, how the Danes perceive Finns and which aspects of the Finnish culture interest them.

After Veera’s presentation, we were lucky to also meet Niina Aagaard ja Pirjo Hamnström from Finpro – a company which promotes Finnish trade in 56 different countries around the world. In Denmark Finpro aims to help Finnish small and medium size companies enter Danish market and vice versa. At the moment, approximately a hundred Finnish companies operate in Denmark.

Niina and Pirjo gave us an hour introduction to the Danish market and entrepreneurial life, talking for example about the main similarities and differences between Finland and Denmark. It became evident that although Denmark and Finland are culturally the closest countries in the EU, there are still rather large differences when it comes to communication. The most evident example is the use of small talk in the discussions with other people – in Denmark you just have to be able to keep up the conversation at least on some level because long breaks that the Finns love are perceived as offensive.  Also the business thinking of the Finns differs significantly from that of the Danes: In Finland people are not telling other people about their business ideas like they seem to do in Denmark but rather hide it so that no one would steal the ideas. In Denmark it is just the opposite – the organizations can get organized with each other as well and even the smallest companies are very well connected with other companies. So the message was to be active for example by asking questions when in communication situation with the Danes and to network  whenever there is a chance to do it.  In addition, it was really surprising to hear that in Denmark as many as 80 per cent of the start-ups still stand alive after 3 years. After the meetings, I felt I could actually deepen my knowledge on entrepreneurship in Denmark in general quite a lot as well as get to know Danes a bit better.