Do Business Well

If you’re using your plan to try to raise cash, you may be called upon to present your business plan personally to bankersor investors. In this event, be prepared to impress your audience. Many of the same rules that apply to preparing the business plan also apply to a personal presentation. Here are those I have found to be most important:

1. Keep it short and to the point. Unless you’re told otherwise, your presentation should be kept to half an hour or less. Like the written plan, the presentation should be concise and easy to understand. That means extracting the most important points from the plan and running through them in an interesting and logical way.
2. Use visual aids. These may be slides or overhead transparencies. They may simply state points from the plan in a phrase or two. But in our visually oriented society, they help keep your audience focused on the important points.
3. Involve several members of your management team. If you have a marketing manager and a financial executive, allow each of them to speak for five minutes or so. This not only breaks things up, but conveys the impression that your company consists of more than just you.
4. Try to demonstrate your product or service. If possible, bring a sample that listeners can hold and touch or watch being demonstrated. One of the best examples of a service demonstration I saw was for a company that put on dramatic presentations for corporate organizations. The company performer skit in which one of the characters was nearly murdered—to convey the excitement of the service the company sells. Following the short skit, the company president presented the business details to a rapt audience.

Because writing is as much art as science, there isn’t proven formula for guaranteeing its success. My concluding advice to business owners trying to become better writers is t keep it simple. Write in short sentences. Don’t get bogged down in technical details. And do lots of rewriting.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Personally Presenting the Plan

• Previewing the Business Plan: The Best Type for You
• Making a Plan: how to construct a simple and workable business plan part 6
• Targeting Your Plan
• How Your Business Situation Helps Shape Your Plan
• Making a Plan: how to construct a simple and workable business plan part 1
• Ask Yourself: Would You Invest?
• Targeting Your Plan continue...
• Packaging Issues
• What All Plans Must Cover
• Evaluate Your Business Resources

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