7 Questions to Answer in Your Business Pitch

7 Questions to Answer in Your Business Pitch At its core, a business pitch is a presentation given to an investor, inviting him or her to consider investing in your business idea. This can be done in several different ways â€" online and via e-mail, in-person, or through requests for pitches/proposals. With nontraditional methods employed by the influx of business incubators and accelerators in most major cities, the business pitch has replaced the business plan as a buzzword among start-ups. From the idea of an elevator pitch (which is basically your business pitch in the few minutes it takes to ride an elevator with someone), to the 30 to 50-page business plan, the business pitch falls somewhere in the middle as a way to attract investors and to convince them to fund your entrepreneurial idea.So, do I even need a business plan if I have a business pitch?So, do you even need a business plan at all? In her article in Forbes, Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, expresses concern over the assumption that a business plan i s a thing of the past. While she admits that the days of 30 to 50-page business plans might be over, she points out that a true venture capitalist will want to see the numbers and details that a business plan provides.So, go ahead, pitch, she writes. Dont send a business plan to anyone. But you better have done your homework and have all the research somewhere-- so that when that Venture Capitalist asks you a pointed question about why your forecast is realistic, you can launch into an intelligent response that covers your market, the size, the competition, and your pricing, which will show that Venture Capitalist you actually do know what you are talking about, and could potentially implement this business.The lesson here is that you cant have a great business pitch without a great business plan to give it a backbone. But once thats the case, and youve done your research, here are seven questions you should be ready to answer during and after your business pitch presentation.Questi on 1 â€" What is the competitive landscape?Any business plan or business pitch needs to contain a solid picture of the competitive landscape surrounding the proposed business. Who are the competitors? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What do they do that you plan to do better; or in other words, how do you plan to compete with them?Understanding the competition is a large part of running a successful business. In the same sense that when pitching a novel to a publisher, a novelist will need to know the sales statistics of other writers who have successfully published in their intended genre, and how he or she will be different from those writers â€" you need some numbers to run by your potential investors to show them the high odds of your business being a success. In the simplest of terms, you need to know and be able to clearly present what else is out there thats similar to what youre doing, and know details like what theyre charging and whats included. Not on ly will this help you to potentially fill in gaps in service or product offerings that other businesses are providing, it will also help you to narrow down the revenue you can expect to make by looking at the revenue of similar businesses.Question 2 â€" Who is the market for what youre offering and how do you plan to reach them?The next information that needs to be a part of your business pitch is the market for what youre offering and how you plan to reach that market. This can include demographics of your intended clients or customers. Being as specific as you can be in delineating each possible demographic will assist later â€" after your business is up and running â€" in designing specific marketing campaigns on social media or elsewhere. Such campaigns are targeted as narrowly as possible when optimized to reach the best audiences, so knowing these details on the front-end of your business preparations will be valuable insight.Knowing your market will also help you to tailor yo ur business website content. If youre like most start-ups, your online presence is essential to what youre doing and a website (or social media) is required. Distinguishing your market will help your website reach the right audience and project the right brand image you are seeking to build.Question 3 â€" What will you sell/offer and how much will you sell/offer over the next 12 months? What about the next 5 years?This information should include details about the product or service you plan to offer in your entrepreneurial activities, as well as a forecasted volume of sales. These numbers should be based on solid research, with numbers reflecting current market trends and statistics. Whatever information you find thats relevant, document it and its source, keeping in mind to pull numbers only from valid, trustworthy sources.Your sales goals should also be divided into periods â€" for example, the first year of business operation and the first 5 years of business operation. The busin ess plans that do this correctly can also project further than 5 years. This shows your investor that you are prepared for things like changes in the market, and have set realistic sales goals to help you to keep up with how your sales are doing despite such changes. Even if you arent completely sure of how the outlook of your sales will look within the next 5-year timeframe, planning for these long-term goals keeps you looking like youre on top of your game (even if you arent!).Having a forecast of your sales goals will work to your advantage in two ways. First, it will help you to set goals along the way â€" daily, monthly, or quarterly â€" and provide a well-researched reason behind the goals you set. Second, it will give venture capitalists a glimpse of the kind of revenue you plan to generate through your business, and essentially help them to get a bigger picture of whats in it for them if they choose to invest.Question 4 â€" What are your overhead and inventory costs over the same timeframes?Everyone has heard the adage that you have to spend money to make money. The overhead and inventory cost calculations that should be a part of your business plan and business pitch involve this exact concept. Investors know that these are numbers that will affect the bottom line, so they cant be overlooked when planning your business, even as part of the pitch. You need to know what it will cost to run the business you plan to run, and how much money needs to be spent up front to reach the point where revenue can be made. Without these details, it will seem as if you havent planned your business from a practical standpoint, which is a red flag to potential investors.You need to know exactly what will be required to have in your inventory, as well as the overhead that will be required in the basic operation of your day-to-day business dealings. Will you need a printer? Put that on the list. What about ink for the printer (which is expensive!)? Put that on the overhea d cost list, as well. If a potential investor looks at your overhead costs and notices that you havent determined these costs from a realistic vantage point, your entire business idea will start to not hold water.Question 5 â€" What is your timeline and your plan to implement this timeline?When hearing your business pitch, a potential investor will want to know about your timeline for the business, and your plan to implement that timeline. For example, youll need to estimate important start dates for expenses incurred in the process of conducting your business. When will your storefront be open, and what will it take to get to that point? Five months into your storefronts being open, what do you expect to see as far as sales and inventory costs?This timeline will sync with your long-term plans for cost and inventory, as well. Together, they will present an overall picture of how well you have planned out your business. In short, they will either make or break your business pitch!Que stion 6 â€" How will you use the money invested in your business?Venture capitalists are less likely to finance your business idea if they worry their money will be mismanaged. Because of this reality, most will want to see a detailed estimate of how the money that is invested will be used and accounted for. Within this analysis, they want to see that youve realistically planned for the business expenses that you will incur in the process of opening and running your business. They also want to make sure that youve included budgets for everything from assistants to paper to storefront costs if you are opening a brick-and-mortar store. Put simply, they want details about where the money is going and how it will be accounted for at all stages of the business enterprise â€" from planning, to execution, to managing for longevity.Question 7 â€" What can investors expect to receive in return for their investment?In addition to full disclosure of how their money will be spent in the day-to- day operations of a business, investors will, of course, want to know the return they can expect to receive for their investment. As the part of your business idea that is likely to be the most attractive facet to an investor, this ROI is the true selling point of the entire pitch. No investor will want to put money into something that will lose money for him or her, and this promise (or suggestion, rather) of a return on his or her investment is the part that must be solidly presented, with numbers to back it up. Investors also want to see that you have the business acumen to understand how to handle their investment wisely, and, hopefully, to not lose money in the process of trying to gain it. Once you have investors convinced that you know what youre doing â€" that youve run the numbers multiple times and are prepared for a myriad of potential problems â€" youll have their ear and their money.Final noteA business pitch and a business plan are likely to be looked over if they are full of grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. Dont forget to have a second pair of eyes look over all of your writing â€" both for the business plan and for the presentation materials that you might be putting on PowerPoint slides or other software. Even the best-organized business plans can look unprofessional with just a few small grammar errors, as investors will wonder why youve allowed something so important to you to be overshadowed by misspellings and mistakes. Put simply: If your business plan and business pitch are rock solid, be sure your grammar, spelling, and punctuation used to relate them are equally as solid.

Hr Management An Hr Manager - 1394 Words

An HR manager needs to advocate a diverse workforce by making diversity qualities clear at all hierarchical levels, or some employees will rapidly reason that there is no future for them in the organization. As the HR manager, it is important to show regard for diversity issues and advance clear and positive reactions to them. Diversity can be defined as acknowledging, understanding, accepting, and valuing differences among people with respect to age, class, race, ethnicity, gender, disabilities, etc. (Esty et al. 1995, p. 1). The importance of having individuals with varying lifestyles in the workforce from a human resource professional perspective is that you have to keep in mind the end goal to meet these challenges, and it is fundamental to obtain top administration responsibility. Also, the gifted training and broadness of departmental learning HR retain, and a mutual understanding that managing diversity is not a separate issue to be explained but rather a continuous and lon g practice. It is this commitment and shared understanding that is needed to sustain the willingness to work together when employees do not share skills and abilities, values, experiences, culture, and ways of interpreting the meaning and solving problems (Zane, 2002, p. 438). Managing diversity at companies requires that employees make a global and peaceful environment which highlights a better spotlight of the organization with individuals looking for occupations, therefore ready to pull inShow MoreRelatedHuman Resource Management : An Hr Manager Essay805 Words   |  4 Pagesthe course and I have acquired knowledge of human resource management. 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Before human resource managers were seen as people who deal with employee disputes and little more, now this is just one small part of their role to organisations. Human resource is a huge department for reasons as being a key planner in helping company’s employee performances. In this essay I will be exploring the different types of personnel management that is used, assessing the roles of human resource practitioners, Evaluating the responsibilities

Vygotskys Theory Of Cognitive Development - 1622 Words

Learning Journal Entry 5 Theories of Cognitive Development (Vygotsky) Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky alleged that adults play a fundamental role in the development of children as they nurtured their learning in a premeditated way (McDevitt et al, 2013), rather than entrusting it to natural processes. Vygotsky also believed that language played a primary responsibility in a child’s development, while Piaget excluded this from his theory (McDevitt et al, 2013). The social experiences a child encounter along with conversations they have with others and themselves (self-talk), greatly influences their capacity to grow and learn. One of the benefits of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the Zone of Proximal development. Where children are frequently being pressed to the limit of their comfort zones within learning in order of forward progression (McDevitt et al, 2013). In Vygotsky’s theory, he developed nine key ideas. These ideas include: Key Principles General Description 1. ‘Some cognitive processes are seen in a variety of species; others are unique to human beings’ (McDevitt et al, 2013, p.220). Vygotsky held belief that there is two different mental functions that species exhibit (lower and higher) (McDevitt et al, 2013). He explained that many species demonstrate lower mental functions (determining which foods to eat), unlike human beings which are unique in their use of higherShow MoreRelatedDiscuss and Evaluate Vygotskys Theory of Cognitive Development966 Words   |  4 PagesDiscuss Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development (8+16) Vygotsky proposed that children’s development is affected by their culture and social interaction. 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Conflict with Watching Tv Free Essays

Television viewing is a regular part of American daily life and poses negative effects on children and adults. When television was invented children and adults would only spend a couple hours during the day watching television. Now children and adults are obsessively watching television for more than two hours a day. We will write a custom essay sample on Conflict with Watching Tv or any similar topic only for you Order Now Television creates multiple health problems. A problem with watching too much television is a lack of movement and sleep. Also, watching too much television can cause a lack of communication inside and outside of the house. Television is extremely distracting when a person is trying to do his or her homework. Television is detrimental because it creates health problems. The television provides many opportunities to be lazy. First, children and adults will stay up all night watching television causing a lack of sleep having an after effect in the schooling department. A negative effect of television is adults and children are missing out on the physical workout that keeps us healthy from being outside and active. Second, it has been proven that television has a connection with weight gain. Children are more obsessive over TV because they mimic what they see on television without understanding the consequences that follow their actions. Children may watch TV shows that contain violence and will mimic it. This could lead to nightmares and acting out. Third, television can lower a person’s self-esteem. The media puts on ads of products portraying the perfect image, as a result making children and adults have low self-esteem. When children watch too much violence they become unaware of reality and try to imitate it. If television does not benefit children it can lead them to behave inappropriately. Other than television creating health problems, it is also detrimental because it makes people communicate less. Without a parent’s guide or adult supervision, shows on television can become a lifestyle for the young ages of today. First, viewers are unable to carry on a conversation while watching television. People are discarding and ignoring potentially important conversations simply by focusing on the television rather than people talking. Next, people spend us the majority of their time watching television. Television demands vision and hearing to receive images and sounds so that the viewer can get important information to understand programs. Second, some families go as far as letting their children watching television during dinner time instead of sitting around the dinner table and discussing valuable matters. Instead of watching television, the day should be spent productively with family, aside from work and school. A lack of communication will diminish parent-child interaction can have negative effects on children, especially when they are young. Third, this neglect could lead to the breakdown of relationships between family members and lost friendships. Television is a function that is diffusing information but lacks interaction with other people. The longer a person watches television, the shorter his or her communication skills are. When a person watches TV constantly they do not care for a long meaningful conversation only a superficial conversation. Due to spending most of our daily time watching television, people care less about job responsibility and relationships between families and friends. Not only does television create lack of communication, TV also creates distraction. Children who become addicted to television seem to have worst grades based on the fact that television runs there life’s. First, Television is distracting because it takes away the ability to want to do homework or read. People’s attention spend gets shortened because too much of television. This is where procrastination starts people decide to watch a TV show and then do their homework after the show is finished, but instead they get sleepy and are not able to complete it. Second, continuing to watch TV instead of doing homework will have a major effect on a student’s grades. Some people stay up to watch all the games that play so they do not miss anything. Sleeping in late can cause individuals to be tired the next day of school and can lead to not doing as great on an assignment, quiz, or test the following morning. Third, when watching television, some people are not as likely to be involved with other activities. Television affects children the most. Every child has limited time and resources to put toward personal development. If children fill up all their free time watching television they will miss out on many life lessons learned through experience. Children may learn a little bit from the TV, but not nearly as much as school and playing outside. Having more quantity time to spend on their own development means that our children are starting to seriously excel in certain areas they’ve worked on with their own initiative. In conclusion, television is detrimental because it creates health problems by making people lazier. After work these days, a typical father comes home and sits down in front of the television instead of being productive by spending time with their children, or working on projects. Too much television also causes a lack of communication because most people tend to get absorbed in the story of their favorite show, and completely ignore their surroundings including their upset spouse or child. Television can be an addiction that makes people lethargic, anti-social, and distracted affecting many areas of a healthy life. How to cite Conflict with Watching Tv, Essay examples

The Effects Of Marijuana Essays - Entheogens, Medicinal Plants

The Effects Of Marijuana Marijuana can cause many harmful effects. There has never been a major test though. The ones they've used have shown very different things. I have been very surprised by what I have been reading. I cannot believe the difference in what different scientists think. One says, ?It's hard to know for sure whether regular marijuana use causes cancer. But it is known that marijuana contains some of the same and sometimes even more, of the cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Studies show that someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes every day.? While in certain places it is legally perscribed to people with many different types of cancer. The New scientist says, ?A FRENCH government study has heaped fuel on the debate over the safety of cannabis by listing it as the least dangerous of all potentially addictive drugs. It also concludes that alcohol is among the most dangerous. The study, commissioned by French health minister Bernard Kouchner, was carried out by a panel of 10 French and foreign scientists headed by Bernard-Pierre Roques of the Ren? Descartes University of Paris. The panel searched the scientific literature for information about psychological and physical dependence, neural and general toxicity and social hazards such as aggressive behavior caused by various legal and illegal drugs. The team then grouped the substances into three categories of dangerousness. Cannabis was the only drug put in the least dangerous category. While cautioning that no drug they assessed was completely free of danger, the researchers gave cannabis a rating of weak for social hazard and addictiveness, very weak for general toxicity and zero for neurotoxicity. In the most dangerous category, they included heroin and other opiates, and cocaine. Alcohol was also placed in this category because of its strong toxicity, its potential as a social hazard and its very stron g addictiveness. In the middle category they placed stimulants such as amphetamines, hallucinogens and tobacco--largely because of its very strong addictiveness and toxicity. The authors point out that government's base their decisions whether or not to prohibit a drug on its ability to induce dependence. They conclude that the official classification for some drugs is incorrect.? These are two very different sides. Yet another online site says, ?Health officials in Geneva have suppressed the publication of a politically sensitive analysis that confirms what ageing hippies have known for decades: cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco. According to a document leaked to New Scientist, the analysis concludes not only that the amount of dope smoked worldwide does less harm to public health than drink and cigarettes, but that the same is likely to hold true even if people consumed dope on the same scale as these legal substances. The comparison was due to appear in a report on the harmful effects of cannabis published last December by the WHO. But it was ditched at the last minute following a long and intense dispute between WHO officials, the cannabis experts who drafted the report and a group of external advisers. As the WHO's first report on cannabis for 15 years, the document had been eagerly awaited by doctors and specialists in drug abuse. The official explanation for excluding the comparison of dope with legal substances is that the reliability and public health significance of such comparisons are doubtful. However, insiders say the comparison was scientifically sound and that the WHO caved in to political pressure. It is understood that advisers from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse and the UN International Drug Control Programme warned the WHO that it would play into the hands of groups campaigning to legalise marijuana. One member of the expert panel which drafted the report, says: In the eyes of some, any such comparison is tantamount to an argument for marijuana legalisation. Another member, Billy Martin of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, says that some WHO officials went nuts when they saw the draft report. The leaked version of the excluded section states that the reason for making the comparisons was not to promote one drug over another but rather to minimise the double

40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers

40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers 40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers 40 Twitter Hashtags for Writers By Simon Kewin If you use Twitter, you’re probably already familiar with the idea of hashtags. These are simply a way of categorizing particular tweets by including within them a keyword prefixed with the hash or â€Å"pound† (#) symbol. So, for example, tweets containing writing advice will often contain the â€Å"#writetip† tag. The point of this is to make it easier to find all tweets containing writing advice : you just search for â€Å"#writetip†. Similarly, you could find a stream of publication tips by keeping an eye on tweets with â€Å"#pubtip† in them.   Using relevant hashtags in your own tweets also increases the likelihood of others seeing your post and becoming a follower. They’re a great way to engage with a particular community of Twitter users.   The following is a list of some of the hashtags that will be of interest to writers. The list can never be exhaustive because anyone can invent a new tag at any time. Most are self-explanatory, although some need explanation :  Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Ã‚   #amediting  Ã‚  posts from people who are editing #amwriting  Ã‚  posts from people who are writing #askagent  Ã‚  agent questions and answers #author #authors #editing #fictionfriday #fridayflash  Ã‚  flash fiction on a Friday #nanowrimo  Ã‚  national novel writing month #novels #novelists #poem #poet #poets #poetry #pubtip  Ã‚  publication tips #publishing #scifi #selfpublishing #vss  Ã‚  Ã‚  very short story #webfic  Ã‚  web fiction #weblit  Ã‚  Ã‚  web literature #wip  Ã‚  Ã‚  work in progress #wordcount #writegoal #writequote #writer #writers #writetip  Ã‚  writing advice #writing #writingtips  Ã‚  writing advice #wrotetoday  Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Ã‚   Some hashtags are specifically â€Å"chats† – which means they work in the same way as all tags, but are mainly used at certain agreed times :  Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Ã‚   #journchat #kidlitchat #litchat #scifichat #scribechat #storycraft #writechat #yalitchat   Ã‚  young adult literature chat  Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Ã‚   The following spreadsheet is a good place to keep track of the schedules for these Twitter chats if you’re interested in joining in :   http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=ruaz3GZveOsoXUOOt86B3AQ Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About NumbersBroadcast vs Broadcasted as Past Formâ€Å"Least,† â€Å"Less,† â€Å"More,† and â€Å"Most†

Definition and Examples of Sound Bites

Definition and Examples of Sound Bites A sound bite is a brief excerpt from a text or performance (usually ranging from a single word to a sentence or two) that is meant to capture the interest and attention of an audience. Also known as a grab or a clip. In recent presidential elections, said Craig Fehrman  in 2012, the average TV sound bite has dropped to a tick under eight seconds (The Boston Globe). In the 1960s, a 40-second sound bite was the norm. Examples and Observations From Other Writers From the late 1960s to the late 1980s, the place of oratory in U.S. public culture was shrinkingliterally. In 1968, the average sound bite in presidential election news coverage was more than 43 seconds long. In 1972, it dropped to 25 seconds. In 1976, it was 18 seconds; in 1980, 12 seconds; in 1984, just 10 seconds. By the time the 1988 election season rolled around, the size of the average sound bite had been reduced to less than 9 seconds. . . . By the end of the 1980s, . . . the time and space allotted to political oratory in the American mainstream media had already been incrementally eroded.(Megan Foley, Sound Bites: Rethinking the Circulation of Speech From Fragment to Fetish. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Winter 2012)A day like today is not a day for sound bites, really. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders.(Prime Minister Tony Blair on arriving in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the talks that produced the Good Friday Agreement, April 8, 1998Seeking to prod Congre ss to provide more money to help prevent layoffs from local and state governments, [President] Obama stressed how much better off private companies are doing in terms of hiring.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The private sector is doing fine, he said, immediately giving Mitt Romney the same kind of bumper-sticker sound bite that Mr. Obama used against Mr. McCain four years ago. (Michael D. Shear, Republicans Take Aim at Obama’s ‘Doing Fine’ Comments. The New York Times, June 8, 2012) Over images of factory employees hard at work and smiling families, an announcer says, when a million jobs were on the line, every Republican candidate turned their back, even said, Let Detroit go Bankrupt.Then the commercial pivots to the president. Not him, says the announcer as a sound bite of the president plays. Don’t bet against the American auto industry, Mr. Obama is shown saying.(Jeremy W. Peters, Obama Goes After Republicans in New Michigan Ad. The New York Times, February 23, 2012)I am even told that you like your reading in short bursts now. Little chunks. Sound bites. Like that. Because you are busy. In a rush. Like to graze. Like cows. A bite here. A bite there. Too much to do. No time to spare. Under pressure. Bollocks. Lazy. Stupid. Finger out. Socks up.It was not always thus. Time was when an Englishman could happily gawp at a single sentence for an hour at a time. The ideal magazine essay took roughly as long to read as it took your umbrella to dry.(Michael B ywater, The Chronicles of Bargepole. Jonathan Cape, 1992) Sound Bites as Compressed Arguments As Peggy Noonan has explained so well, a sound bite is the culmination of good writing and a good argument. Ask not what your country can do ... or The only thing we have to fear ... represented the sharpest point of the speeches behind them. (John Dickerson, Dispatches From the Republican National Convention.Slate, August 30, 2012)The sound-bite should encapsulate the main point of the argument; the strongest opinion or reaction. Again there is a danger of distortion by over-emphasizing the already emphatic and polarizing a point of view, and this danger can only be eliminated by carefully explaining the context in which the remarks were made. (Andrew Boyd, Peter John Stewart, and Ray Alexander, Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News, 6th ed. Focal Press, 2008) The Sound Bite Culture A sound bite society is one that is flooded with images and slogans, bits of information and abbreviated or symbolic messagesa culture of instant but shallow communication. It is not just a culture of gratification and consumption, but one of immediacy and superficiality, in which the very notion of news erodes in a tide of formulaic mass entertainment. It is a society anesthetized to violence, one that is cynical but uncritical, and indifferent to, if not contemptuous of, the more complex human tasks of cooperation, conceptualization, and serious discourse. . . . The sound bite culture . . . focuses on the immediate and the obvious; the near-term, and the particular; on identity between appearance and reality; and on the self rather than larger communities. Above all, it is a society that thrives on simplicity and disdains complexity.(Jeffrey Scheuer, The Sound Bite Society: How Television Helps the Right and Hurts the Left. Routledge, 2001) Television Journalism and Sound Bites In any campaign reform, it must be acknowledged that television news is an accomplice as well as a victim of the politicos. The sound bite is to television what the fang bite was to Dracula. The office seeker who has a thought that takes more than 30 seconds to express turns producers rabid. (Walter Goodman, Toward a Campaign of Substance in 92.  The New York Times, March 26, 1990)Television is the enemy of complexity. You rarely have time to express the fine points, the caveats, the context of your subject. Youre always being interrupted just as you try to make a larger point. What works best on a talk show is the snappy one-liner, the artful insult, the definitive declaration. What makes you look weak and vacillating is an acknowledgment that your case is not airtight, that the other side may have a valid point. (Howard Kurtz, Hot Air: All Talk, All The Time. Times Books, 1996)If news reporters and cameras are only there to be used by politicians as recording devices for their sc ripted soundbites, at best that is a professional discourtesy. At worst, if we are not allowed to explore and examine a politicians views, then politicians cease to be accountable in the most obvious way. (ITV news reporter Damon Green, quoted by Mark Sweney in Ed Miliband TV Interviewer Reveals Shame Over Absurd Soundbites. The Guardian, July 1, 2011) Sound-Bite Sabotage Sound-bite saboteurs on all sides of the aisle try to move the opinion of publics toward positions that are contrary to the best available data. Rather than communicating with publics to enable more informed decision making, sound-bite sabotage occurs when public and private leaders use the tools of public relations to discredit the importance of using data, engaging in scholarly inquiry, and supporting democratic deliberation.Seeing (hearing, reading, experiencing) sound-bite sabotage draws our attention to the commodification of political discourse rather than to the political spectacles constructed, to distract citizens from the communicative strategies mobilized by public and private elites. (Julie Drew, William Lyons, and Lance Svehla. Sound-Bite Saboteurs: Public Discourse, Education, and the State of Democratic Deliberation. SUNY Press, 2010) Alternate Spellings: sound-bite, soundbite