Getting the message across
For many business owners one of the scariest things they have to do is present in front of an audience. The problem is that no matter how great you may be at sales, marketing or running a business if you aren’t a confident public speaker people will mark you down.
IT can’t solve all of your presentation problems, but it can help you do an even better job. Here are some tips from my own experience:
- Prepare. Although this sounds obvious you need to know your subject. Try and understand your audience and what they are looking for to make sure you get the level of the presentation just right
- Practice. Run through your presentation so that you know it well enough not to have to rely on the slides as prompts.
- Use of media. Most people will use products such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Although an excellent product it is open to abuse as people produce too many slides. This is called “death by PowerPoint” and I have seen it so many times. I often work on the basis of 2 minutes per slide for a presentation – for example a 30 minute presentation will need around 15 slides.
- Any slides you create should be to the point. Use a simple two colour template and a single font. Don’t over crowd the slides as too many bullet points will be unreadable. Avoid the use of transitions – these are the flashy graphics that change the way each slide is presented.
Slides aren’t everything, so we will cover some tips about personal presentation techniques in another blog to help your presentation go with a bang.
Related content:
Creating better business presentations
By: Mr BITG, Virtual Director, Business IT Guide
