In this episode, Jon Margalit shares the things he learned in his entrepreneurship journey. He discusses the importance of building the best team by hiring people with strong values. Jon talks about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. He emphasizes the need for innovation and creativity. Along the way, entrepreneurs should know how to identify and pitch to investors. It comes down to knowing your product, your customer, and your investor. 

Starting your own business with little to no knowledge can only get you so far. To see your vision through, you need business development strategies in place. If you are interested in learning some successful business development tips, this episode is for you. Tune in and apply some of these to your business today !

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

1. Find out how Jon effectively merchandises his goods to big retailers.

2. Explore essential strategies in building your team.

3. Learn more about raising capital and attracting investors for business development.

Resources

• You may connect Jon Margalit on LinkedIn | X
• You may connect Jon Margalit on Tiktok | Facebook
• For more Informative Interviews Click Here

Episode Highlights

Jon Margalit Background

• At an early age, Jon Margalit  recognized that he didn’t want to work for anyone.
• Jon’s first attempt in business was when he spent $5,000 for a sandwich shop.
• After two weeks, he found himself cleaning the bathrooms and making sandwiches.
• Running this business has taught him to be cautious in choosing opportunities in his life.
• If you want to buy a brick-and-mortar business, observe the traffic that’s going into the business. 

The Key to Business Development

• Business development won’t happen if you don’t have the people driving it.
• To accomplish this, pay yourself less or equal to the amount you pay to those you hired. 
• You will eventually earn more venture capital in the future; sacrificing early on is the key. 
• In the early period of your business, take the profit and invest it back into the business. 
• By doing so, you invest in your team members. They, in turn, will buy into your vision. 

The Definition of a Pitch Deck Entrepreneur

• Jon explains that someone who starts a business without turning a profit yet is just canoeing.
• Jon emphasized that entrepreneurs should initiate things. 
• Jon differentiates this from business owners who buy a franchise. They didn’t have to do marketing, branding, and product development.
• A true entrepreneur is somebody who creates. They identify a problem and innovate a solution. A fundraising activity is one example.

Building the Best Team Template

• Jon believes that references and resumes are irrelevant.
• What he does is conduct extensive interviews with applicants.
• Salespeople usually like the color green.
• Jon observes that candidates who identified one of their parents as their role models had better values. They were successful and stayed with him for a long time.
• When Jon built a finance business, he looked for people who had strong values and understood people’s needs.

Justifications on Sharing Profits

• For Jon, the only thing that matters in a business is sales. There are metric references that can measure sales progress.
• As you undergo business development, see which areas you can use to generate profit.
• You need to add more revenue streams and profit centers to the business.
• Next, crack the code in marketing by conditioning your buyers to spend money on as many places as they can.
• Create a VC pitch or fundraising pitch that companies would love.
• Check out works from venture capital investors for inspiration.

Acquiring Capital for Business Development

• Jon shares that the investor pitch deck wants to see you stretch money to get traction.
• They want to know if the entrepreneur has a way to address and minimize the risks.
• If an investor sees that you have a well-oiled machine that has yielded profits, they’ll be more confident that you can grow. 
• You need to be methodical when dealing with money. Test out what works and what doesn’t in small chunks. 
• Remember to report your financials to your investors and VC pitch deck.

How to Pitch to Investors

• Jon shares that he raises money for his business by cold emailing pitching investors on LinkedIn.
• “You don’t want to miss out on this.” Jon uses this phrase to attract investors.
• Attend as many networking events as you can. 
• Look for angel networks in your community. 
• Join pitch competitions. You know your business if your pitch is 3 minutes or less. 

More Tips from Jon Margalit

• For Jon Margalit, keeping rejected emails as notes is a huge motivation.
• There was an instance where an investor outlined his reasons for not supporting Jon Margalit.
• He kept this in a folder with other rejections.
• Raise venture capital.
• Investors are looking for employees who can successfully raise sales and create unique pitch deck templates.
• Investors don’t want slacks.
• Jon looks forward to when he can email those who said no and say that they missed out.

Getting into Retail

• In major and big-box retailers, it is important to understand your audience.
• The key is to create a concise pitch deck or product deck. 
• You write an email to your buyers about your next big product.
• Instead of marketing your product to the big retailers, focus on how you can sell the product to their customers.
• You need to know how to merchandise correctly. Learn the specific details in the full episode.

Making Slides to Get into Retail

• You attach the slides to the emails you send to the big box retailers.
• The slides contain your product, the problem, the solution to the problem, and merchandising. 
• In this instance, you’re showing that your product can solve a problem that a target group has.

5 Powerful Quotes

“You can have a great business model; you can have a great business plan; you can have a great idea. But if you don’t have great people executing, it means nothing; it’s worth zero.” 

“When you take that money, and you put it right back into your people, it will pay back 100 fold. I promise.”

“I feel that the true entrepreneur is somebody that innovates, somebody that creates, somebody that disrupts what’s going on, not somebody that jumps in the stream that’s already going one way and just start swimming with it.”

“You want to spend the least amount of money possible and get the most traction. And just because you get funding, that’s not a green light to go spend money. It is in a way as long as you’re methodical about it and you do your testing in small chunks that are controlled.”

“And I have a folder in my email that says, you know, ‘Nos,’ and putting those nos in there. And I do it for a reason. It’s because it’s so much motivation.”

About Jon Margalit

Jon Margalit is the founder and CEO of Togally.com. His company is an innovative online photography platform. It aims to “uberize” the sourcing and booking of local photographers. He is also the CEO of TowelMate. This company is a consumer product startup. It is dedicated to solving key and mobile phone storage for gym users.

Jon graduated from San Diego University with a background in business, sales, and merchandising. He has over 12 years of experience in startup business development. In this period, Jon has launched various startups from financial service businesses to consumer packaged goods. 

Jon won first place at the 2018 Lyfebulb and UnitedHealth Group Startup Pitch Competition. He was also awarded at the 2015 CyberTECH’S Pitchfest for his Togally pitch.

If you want to reach out to Jon, you can email him directly at [email protected]. Learn more about his businesses at togally.com and Towel Mate.

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