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Present or publish your research or creative activity, planning your oral presentation.

You have to give an oral presentation in two days on a topic of your choice, regarding research in your major. How do you plan for this presentation? Just like writing an essay, you start with a plan.

Steps for Planning Your Oral Presentation

1. determine your reasoning for this presentation.

Is your purpose to inform, educate, entertain or convince? Once you know this, you can structure how you want the delivery to look, as well as the topics you want to address

2. Keep only the most important information

Determine what your topic will be and the areas that you plan to touch upon.

3. Know your Audience

This is one of the most important steps when planning and delivering a presentation. It is essential that you know who will be listening to your presentation and remembering to adjust your words, your visuals and your expectations, however, your goal should be the same, making sure the audience understands what you have presented to them.

4. Create an Outline

Layout your basic talking points. Like that of an essay, you have the opening statement, your body paragraphs, and your closing statement. Try not to overload your outline, or note cards with too many words. Your purpose as a presenter is to have knowledge of your topic, therefore too many words will give the audience the impression that you are not knowledgeable of the information you are presenting.

5. Practice

This is the most important step of all those outlined. Practicing what you are going to say, how you are going to say it is the essential to giving a presentation. Practice with friends or family, or with yourself in the mirror. This practice will take away some of the anxieties we get when talking in front of others as well as increase your confidence.

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How to Make a Business Plan Presentation

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  • Business Planning & Strategy
  • Making Business Plans
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How to Make Trivia Questions on Powerpoint

How to design powerpoint slides for oral presentations, how to write a preface for a business plan.

  • Marketing Presentation Objectives
  • How to Pitch a Business Plan

Presenting your business plan is an important step in raising capital.

Making a business proposal presentation to prospective investors is stressful for nearly all entrepreneurs. Even if they are confident their business plan is well thought out, they still worry that they will not be able to express the most important aspects of their plan and engage the investors’ interest in the short time allotted for the in-person presentation. The keys to a successful presentation are advance preparation and rehearsal until your delivery is smooth and polished.

Preparing the Business Plan Presentation

Business plan presentations are designed to sell your idea to investors through a concise and engaging overview of what your business does, how it fills a consumer need and what you are looking for in terms of an investment. Seasoned investors are busy, and typically aren't interested in a long, drawn-out presentation filled with irrelevant information. In fact, many seasoned venture capitalists and angel investors will give you a specific time limit and a suggested outline for your presentation; if you receive these suggestions, it's a good idea to follow them. If you don't receive specific guidance, focus your presentation on the following key points:

  • Introduce yourself, your company and its products. 
  • Describe your market and how you solve your customers' problems. 
  • Explain how your product is different than anything else on the market.
  • Discuss the size of the market for your product
  • Explain who your customers are
  • Demonstrate growth in your market in the next 3-5 years 
  • Discuss the competitive advantages your venture has that will lead to outstanding revenue growth and profitability. 
  • Demonstrate your projected revenues and pretax profits for the next 3-5 years. 

Slides 9-10

  • Discuss your marketing strategies, including distribution channels and sales strategies

Slides 10 and beyond

  • Introduce your management team and advisory board members. Include one or two points about each person’s background and experience. and explain how each person on the team brings a critical element necessary for your company’s success.

Final slides

  • Reveal the total amount of capital you need and a short list of major expenditures.

By following this general outline and focusing on the most important information, you'll answer most of the investors' questions and give them the details they need to make a decision. Remember to only hit the highlights, and don’t try to fit your entire business plan into the presentation. Too many slides can result in information overload, and they will not remember the most important pieces of information. Aim for a business plan PowerPoint of about 10-12 slides.

Rehearsing Your Presentation

Once you've created the presentation, practice presenting it to ensure that you appear polished and professional come presentation day. Again, keep time limits in mind, and respect the investors' time. Don't forget to include time for questions in your overall presentation plan.

To begin rehearsing, create an outline of your the presentation, addressing the important points that you want to cover. If you are using presentation software like PowerPoint, print a copy of your presentation in outline view, and use that to identify the key points you want to make from each slide and jot down additional notes about what you want to say. Creating the outline not only ensures that you cover all of the key points, it also keeps you from simply reading what's on the screen, which will quickly bore the audience.

Once you have an idea of what you are going to say, rehearse your presentation with colleagues. Invite members of your management team or trusted associates into a conference room and conduct a dress rehearsal of the presentation. Get their feedback on what parts of the presentation might need editing or clarification. Time your presentation and cut it down if necessary. Rehearse the presentation several more times on your own.

Succeeding on Presentation Day

It's normal to be nervous come presentation day, but do your best to relax and calm your nerves. Try some breathing or visualization exercises ahead of time to clear your mind and get into the right frame of mind. If you are well-prepared and know your presentation inside and out, there is nothing to be nervous about. Just be yourself – the investors are evaluating you as well as your business plan, after all – and do your best to project an image of confidence and competence.

Show enthusiasm and urgency, but avoid coming across as desperate or unfocused. Speak slowly, smile, make eye contact and refer to your notes if you need to and you'll impress investors with both your business and your presentation skills.

  • Entrepreneur: 10 Tips for Creating a Winning Business Plan in PowerPoint
  • Business News Daily: How to Give a Great Business Presentation
  • Close the presentation with a sense of urgency. Show why now is the right time for your company to enter the market. Timing is often critical with early stage companies.
  • Don’t try to fit your entire business plan into the presentation. Too many slides can result in information overload for the people you are presenting to, and they will not remember the most important pieces of information. Ten to twelve slides is sufficient.

Brian Hill is the author of four popular business and finance books: "The Making of a Bestseller," "Inside Secrets to Venture Capital," "Attracting Capital from Angels" and his latest book, published in 2013, "The Pocket Small Business Owner's Guide to Business Plans."

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  • 1 Keys to a Successful Business Pitch
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  • 3 How to Plan a Business Presentation
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FAC Number: 2024-01 Effective Date: 11/14/2023

15.102 Oral presentations.

15.102 Oral presentations.

(a) Oral presentations by offerors as requested by the Government may substitute for, or augment, written information. Use of oral presentations as a substitute for portions of a proposal can be effective in streamlining the source selection process. Oral presentations may occur at any time in the acquisition process, and are subject to the same restrictions as written information, regarding timing (see 15.208 ) and content (see 15.306 ). Oral presentations provide an opportunity for dialogue among the parties. Pre-recorded videotaped presentations that lack real-time interactive dialogue are not considered oral presentations for the purposes of this section, although they may be included in offeror submissions, when appropriate.

(b) The solicitation may require each offeror to submit part of its proposal through oral presentations. However, representations and certifications shall be submitted as required in the FAR provisions at 52.204-8 (d) or 52.212-3 (b), and a signed offer sheet (including any exceptions to the Government’s terms and conditions) shall be submitted in writing .

(c) Information pertaining to areas such as an offeror ’s capability, past performance , work plans or approaches, staffing resources, transition plans, or sample tasks (or other types of tests) may be suitable for oral presentations. In deciding what information to obtain through an oral presentation, consider the following:

(1) The Government’s ability to adequately evaluate the information;

(2) The need to incorporate any information into the resultant contract;

(3) The impact on the efficiency of the acquisition ; and

(4) The impact (including cost) on small businesses. In considering the costs of oral presentations, contracting officers should also consider alternatives to on-site oral presentations ( e.g., teleconferencing, video teleconferencing).

(d) When oral presentations are required, the solicitation shall provide offerors with sufficient information to prepare them. Accordingly, the solicitation may describe-

(1) The types of information to be presented orally and the associated evaluation factors that will be used;

(2) The qualifications for personnel that will be required to provide the oral presentation(s);

(3) The requirements for, and any limitations and/or prohibitions on, the use of written material or other media to supplement the oral presentations;

(4) The location, date, and time for the oral presentations;

(5) The restrictions governing the time permitted for each oral presentation; and

(6) The scope and content of exchanges that may occur between the Government’s participants and the offeror ’s representatives as part of the oral presentations, including whether or not discussions (see 15.306 (d)) will be permitted during oral presentations.

(e) The contracting officer shall maintain a record of oral presentations to document what the Government relied upon in making the source selection decision. The method and level of detail of the record ( e.g., videotaping, audio tape recording, written record, Government notes, copies of offeror briefing slides or presentation notes) shall be at the discretion of the source selection authority. A copy of the record placed in the file may be provided to the offeror .

(f) When an oral presentation includes information that the parties intend to include in the contract as material terms or conditions, the information shall be put in writing . Incorporation by reference of oral statements is not permitted.

(g) If, during an oral presentation, the Government conducts discussions (see 15.306 (d)), the Government must comply with 15.306 and 15.307 .

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6 Strategies for Presenting Your Business Plan When you're ready to approach people with your finished business plan, these six strategies will help you achieve the results you want.

By The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. • Feb 3, 2015

In their book Write Your Business Plan , the staff of Entrepreneur Media offer an in-depth understanding of what's essential to any business plan, what's appropriate for your venture, and what it takes to ensure success. In this edited excerpt, the authors explain how to present your plan to investors or other individuals after you've completed it.

It doesn't matter how compelling your business plan is if the reader starts with a negative impression. A shopworn plan reeks of failure from the get-go. Make sure the cosmetics are right: Clean paper, crisp font, clear pictures and a professional (noncolloquial) presentation go a long way toward securing a fair reading or hearing of your business plan.

As always, when preparing your plan, keep your audience in mind. Businesslike is almost always best as a fallback decision on how to make a good first impression. Also ask in advance if the recipient wants a hard copy or an e-copy of your plan. In the digital age, we want to give people what they want.

Once you've prepared your plan for presentation, you need to put it in front of the right people. There are six steps for doing so:

1. Obtain leads and referrals. Find names, addresses and phone numbers of the type of investors you wish to target. Ask people you know for referrals. Network as much as possible.

2. Research your target. Learn as much as possible about how much money people have to invest, industries they're interested in and other requirements. Search venture capital directories, Who's Who , news articles, websites and similar sources.

3. Make your pitch. First, email or mail an introductory letter to your target letting them know you have a plan you'd like to send. Sending unsolicited, unanticipated business plans with a mere cover letter won't typically get your plan read. Not only are most people too busy to read whatever comes across their desk or lands in their inboxes, they also don't want to be sued someday for "stealing your ideas," even if they never read your plan.

A letter of introduction is your way of asking them if they'd be interested in reading your business plan. Within the letter, explain why you've selected them and what you have to offer, in a brief compelling manner.

You should also explain generally what you're looking for—an investor, a loan, a long-term supplier relationship or something else. Often this will be obvious from the circumstances. If you've received a personal referral, you'll want to include who gave you the referral very early on, probably in the first sentence following the salutation. Never underestimate the power of a personal referral from a friend, colleague or acquaintance. It may not land you an investor, but it gets your foot in the door. When emailing the individual, you might put the referral in the subject line.

In a world of "who you know" and the power of networking, many of the people you'll be sending your plan to will be referred by others. In some cases, you may even have some personal connection to the person other than a referral. For instance, perhaps you once met this individual while networking or worked together at a company or organization.

Finally, in the letter of introduction, you may want to detail the terms under which you're presenting your plan. For instance, you may say that you're not submitting the plan to any other investor. Or you may explicitly point out that you're currently seeking financing from a number of sources, including this one. If there's a deadline for responding to your plan, if you wish to stress that the plan is confidential and must be returned to you, or if you'd like to ask the recipient to pass it on to someone else who may be interested, this is the place to do so. Somewhere between sending the introductory letter and sending the plan—if the person agrees to see it—is where you can email a non-disclosure agreement if you plan to include one.

If you don't hear from them within a week or so, send a follow-up email, and try once more about two weeks later (in case they were out of town or swamped with other work). If this doesn't produce a meeting, look elsewhere.

4 . Try to meet people in person. Despite the fact that we're living in a text, email and conference-call age, you should still try to meet your recipient face to face, especially if you're seeking any type of funding. It's very hard to get such a commitment through a few texts or by email. Skype may work, but meeting in person for a major financial commitment is best. If they want to keep all communication electronic, then follow their lead.

5. Defuse objections. Although you may think you've answered everything in your plan, you haven't. Prepare a list of possible objections—potential competitors, hard-to-buttress assumptions and the like—that your investor may raise. Then prepare cogent answers. Have friends, co-workers and your team play devil's advocate and provide every possible objection or ask tough question, then formulate your answers.

6. Get a commitment. You won't get an investment unless you ask for it. When all objections have been answered, be ready to offer one last concession—"If I give your representative a board seat, can we do this today?"—and go for the close.

Entrepreneur Staff

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IMAGES

  1. 16 Effective Oral Business Presentation Tips

    the oral presentation of any business plan should be

  2. 15 Tips For Preparing An Effective Oral Presentation

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  3. Plan your oral presentation the same way you would plan... your purpose

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  4. 3 Ways to Prepare an Oral Presentation

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