The world is filled with brilliant ideas but unfortunately, not all business ideas will get the required funding. Are you in the process of raising capital? Do you want to know what it takes to do a business plan presentation and walk away with the money you need? Do you want to learn how to present a business plan with PowerPoint? Then read on.
Raising capital is one of the toughest challenges entrepreneurs face in business. Writing a business plan is one thing, doing a business plan presentation to investors is another thing and walking away with the needed capital is the ultimate achievement. Now how do you increase your chances of getting the needed financing? Well, the answer is to do your business plan presentation with PowerPoint.
PowerPoint is an efficient way to present anything including a business plan. In the game of business presentations, one key fact that the audience look out for is the simplicity of the information shared. If you are dealing with investors, they would want to see the workability of the business idea and every other details of the project.
A good way to help your audience understand and appreciate the message you are trying to get across to them is to use a PowerPoint. Considering that you have a plan that you need to show to the board of director, group of investors or your business team, here is how to present a business plan with PowerPoint.
List of Equipment you need for a business plan presentation
- Lecture stick
- Laptop or desktop computer or tablet PC
- Whiteboard
- Projector
- Microsoft PowerPoint software
How to Successfully Present a Business Plan with PowerPoint
The Content of a Business Plan
What should you include if you are tasked to present a business plan with PowerPoint? Well, you are to start by creating a slide with the name of the company and the term “business plan.” Follow it with a slide containing the mission statement. Your presentation may also include the leaders of the company. Put a slide dedicated to the past, present and future market. Be sure to include the following in your business plan presentation with PowerPoint:
- Competition analysis
- Opportunities
- Business concept
- Financial plan
- Goals and objectives
- Resources, rewards and risks
- Long term and short term issues.
It will be easier if you have this written, printed or saved in a digital format like .doc.
Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
Open the PowerPoint program and create a new presentation. You can find templates for the title and content. You can choose to add a slide showing one or more of the following:
- Text
- Table
- Graph
- Picture
- Video clip
If you want to present a business plan with PowerPoint and you have digital copy of the plan in Word or other formats, you can just use the Copy and Paste function. You might need to do some modifications if you want to. You can easily re-arrange the slides depending on which you want to show first. Do this once you have already put everything you want to include such as texts, graphs or tables.
After arranging the slides, you can choose a transition effect. Currently, there are numerous options on how you can go from the first slide to the next. The most common slide transitions are fade, dissolve, wipe, and push. If you prefer push, you can choose to which direction the second slide would push the first one.
You can also add transition sound effects like wind, cash register or click, although these could be disturbing when you are about to formally present a business plan with PowerPoint. In addition, you can animate how each part of every slide is presented. Go to Custom Animation to add effect on each element of the slide. For instance, the title can fly in before the rest of the text appears with “blinds” effect. You can even choose an animation for exit.
You can also choose if the animation will start with a click on the mouse, with the previous or after the previous. It is best to choose “on click” if you are going to present a business plan with PowerPoint so the presentation will go on only when you want it to. Be sure to and save the PowerPoint presentation.
Be a Confident Presenter
When you already have the presentation, you may also want to rehearse on how you would present a business plan with PowerPoint. Look confident and don’t forget to stand properly and speak loudly. Producing a good business plan and PowerPoint presentation will not achieve the desired goal if you are not convincing enough.
You must prove to your audience that you prepared the presentation, and a good way to do this is to master the content of your business plan off hand. You must also answer every question posed to you without leaving doubts in the minds of your audience.
- Go to Bonus Chapter: – A Sample Business Plan Template
- Go Back to Chapter 14: Your Business Exit Strategy
- Go Back to Introduction and Table of Content