how to prepare for business plan presentation

How to Make a Killer Business Plan Presentation (+Templates)

Learn how to make a business plan presentation with tips for slide design, structure, and engaging examples, as well as templates to bring your vision to life.

7 minute read

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Short answer

What slides should a business plan presentation include?

• Opening slide
• Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
• Business overview
• The challenge you're addressing
• Market analysis
• Your solution
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Team composition
• Funding request and allocation

Your business plan presentation needs to be as strong as your idea

Having a well-crafted business plan is crucial, but if it's not presented effectively, it's like having a treasure map that no one can read.

Even the best ideas can fall flat if they're not communicated clearly, potentially burying your chance of getting your business off the ground.

Remember, presenting a business plan is more than just sharing facts and figures. It's about engaging your audience, whether they're investors or stakeholders, and making them believe in your vision.

But don't worry, you're not alone in this. This guide is here to help you master the art of business plan presentation. You'll learn how to structure your presentation, design slides that captivate, and conclude in a way that leaves a lasting impact and drives action.

Let's dive in!

What to include in a business plan presentation?

A business plan presentation is your chance to delve deep, showcasing not just the what and the how, but also the why of your business. It's your strategic playbook that can persuade investors, guide your team, and set the foundation for your business's success.

11 essential slides of a business plan presentation:

Opening slide: Set the tone with an engaging first impression.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Define what sets your business apart.

Business overview: Offer a concise snapshot of your company.

The challenge you're addressing: Describe the problem your business solves.

Market analysis: Demonstrate your understanding of the industry and market trends.

Your solution: Detail how your product or service addresses the problem you’ve identified.

Marketing and sales strategy: Outline your approach to winning and keeping customers.

Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Specify your objectives and how you’ll measure success.

Team composition: Introduce key team members, their roles, and expertise.

Funding request and allocation: Explain your financial requirements and how the funds will be utilized.

Next steps: Guide the reader on the next steps after reviewing your plan, whether it's a meeting request, further discussion, or a specific action you want them to take.

What does a business plan presentation look like?

In today's fast-paced business world, static business plan presentations are losing their edge. Imagine having to constantly pinch and zoom on a mobile device just to see the details. It's frustrating and distracting.

People also get disengaged when faced with walls of text. They're there to hear a story, not read a novel.

Interactive presentations, on the other hand, bring your business plan to life. They encourage audience participation, adapt to the flow of discussion, and make complex ideas more digestible and memorable.

You can see what an interactive business plan presentation looks like below:

How to turn a business plan into a presentation

Transforming your business plan into a presentation is a crucial step in bringing your vision to life. It's not just about having a plan; it's about presenting it in a way that resonates with investors and partners.

Start by distilling the essence of your plan, focusing on key points like your mission, market analysis, and financial projections. Use engaging visuals and a clear narrative to make complex information accessible.

For detailed insights on how to write a business plan , check out our guide.

How to make a business plan presentation in 6 easy steps

Crafting a business plan is about blending vision and strategy into a narrative that captivates your audience. With Storydoc's AI business presentation maker, creating this narrative becomes intuitive and easy.

In the guide below, we'll show you how to turn your plan into an engaging presentation in 6 simple steps. Stick around to see how seamlessly Storydoc can bring your business story to life.

1) Describe your presentation’s objective

Kick things off by sharing with our AI the type of business plan you're looking to create. This is like setting the GPS for your journey, ensuring every part of your plan is aligned with your end goal.

2) Give an overview of yourself, your organization, and your offering

Introduce the essence of your business - who you are, what your company stands for, and the unique value of what you offer. This sets the stage for a personalized and relevant presentation.

3) Select a suitable design template

Dive into our collection of design templates and pick one that resonates with your business's personality.

4) Tailor your business plan presentation to your needs

Now, here’s where you add your personal touch. Fill in your details, tweak the design, and watch the magic happen as the template adapts to your content. This is where your business plan presentation starts to take on a life of its own.

Then, you can either upload your own multimedia elements or sit back as our AI assistant generates some for you.

5) Add personalized elements

Next up, sprinkle in some personalization. It works just like personalizing a newsletter - you can insert dynamic variables that automatically fill up with your recipient's data.

This level of customization not only makes your presentation feel tailor-made for each reader but also adds a layer of engagement. As a matter of fact, it can get 68% more people to read your deck in full , and share it internally 2.3x more often!

6) Review and refine your business plan presentation

Finally, take a step back and review your plan. Ensure it looks good, flows well, and clearly conveys your message.

The beauty of Storydoc is that it's a living document – if you spot a mistake or need to update information after sharing, you can. You're in control, ensuring your audience always sees the most polished and up-to-date version of your business plan presentation.

Business plan design principles to turn average into impressive

Designing a business plan presentation is about more than just putting words on a page; it's about creating an experience that captures and holds attention. In today's digital age, the way you present your plan can be just as important as the content itself.

Let's explore how to design a business plan presentation that stands out in the modern business landscape.

1) Move from static to interactive

Gone are the days of static, text-heavy business plan presentations. Today's plans are interactive, engaging readers with clickable elements, dynamic charts, and even embedded videos.

This interactivity not only makes your plan more interesting but also allows readers to engage with the content in a more meaningful way.

Here's a great example of an interactive business plan presentation:

2) Use scroll-based design

Forget the hassle of pinching and zooming on a PDF. A scroll-based design, similar to a modern website, offers a fluid reading experience.

It's straightforward and aligns with how we naturally consume content online, making your business plan presentation easier and more enjoyable to read.

Here's an example of scroll-based design:

3) Make sure your business plan presentation is mobile-friendly

With so many people reading on their phones, your business plan presenttion needs to look good on any device.

Responsive design means your plan is easily readable on a phone, tablet, or computer, ensuring that your message is clear no matter how your audience accesses it.

4) Shift from local files to online documents

Step away from traditional Word docs or PDFs and embrace online documents. They're great for sharing, updating in real time, and collaborating with others.

Plus, they're accessible from anywhere, which is perfect for busy investors who are always on the move.

For more information, check out our comparison of the best business plan document types .

5) Embrace visual storytelling

Use visuals like infographics and charts to tell your business's story. They can turn complex data into easy-to-understand, engaging information. A well-placed visual can often do a better job of explaining your points than text alone.

Here's a great example of visual storytelling:

Best business plan software

Selecting the right tool to create your business plan presentation is vital for any startup. To ease your journey, I've compiled a list of the top business plan software, each designed to cater to different needs.

From comprehensive platforms guiding you step-by-step to dynamic tools that add interactive elements to your presentation, there's something for every entrepreneur.

The best business plan software currently available:

LivePlan.com

BizPlan.com

Upmetrics.co

GoSmallBiz.com

Business Sorter

MAUS Master Plan Lean

For a deep dive into each tool and to find the one that best fits your business's needs, explore our detailed guide to the best business plan software .

Interactive business plan presentation templates

The pressure to get your business plan presentation right can be overwhelming. After all, in many cases, you only get one shot to impress.

These business plan presentation templates offer a framework that takes care of the structure and design, allowing you to focus solely on fleshing out your strategy.

Whether you're pitching to investors, partners, or stakeholders, these templates give you the confidence that your plan is presented in the best possible light.

Grab one and see for yourself.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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Home Blog Business How To Craft & Deliver an Effective Business Plan Presentation (Quick Guide)

How To Craft & Deliver an Effective Business Plan Presentation (Quick Guide)

A vital element in today’s highly competitive business landscape is the ability to craft and deliver a business plan presentation. This applies to both entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. 

This guide describes essential aspects required to build a business plan presentation and deliver it to stakeholders. 

Table of Contents

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

Is a business plan presentation the same as a business presentation, executive summary, justification of the business proposal, swot analysis, the niche of the proposal & actors in the industry, competitors, competitive intensity, trend analysis and critical variables, value chain, market analysis, jobs-to-be-done, value proposition, revenue streams, cost structure, distribution channels, key partnerships for the business model, organizational structure & management, go to market and marketing plan, development plan, qa, and continuous improvement model, distribution plan, inventory management, initial funding and financing structure, projection of income and costs.

• Evaluation of Projected Return vs. Required

Risk Evaluation

Sensitivity to critical variables, how to present bibliographical information in a business plan presentation, how to deliver a business plan presentation.

A business plan presentation is the medium we use to communicate a business plan to an audience. 

Presenters commonly ask what is the target length of a business plan presentation in terms of slides. Our expertise in this field tells us it’s advisable to work between 13-20 slides, remaining as concise as possible and using the help of visual aids. Let the graphics speak rather than fill your slides with text blocks.

No. A business plan presentation is used to communicate an identified business opportunity and how it is planned to be served in a way that generates profit. A business presentation is a more generic term, explained in our article about business presentation examples . 

How to Create a Business Plan Presentation

This section will list our recommended content for a successful business plan presentation. We broke it down into four stages which help the presenter build the story backing the business: a-. The opportunity and the competitive landscape analyzed, b- the business model designed and tested to serve the opportunity, c- the implementation plan of the business model, and finally, d- the financial and economic projections estimated that show the profitability of the opportunity.

For the purpose of this guide, the slides will refer to a case study of photo editing software. To replicate this slide deck creation process, you can speed up design decisions by working with the SlideModel AI Presentation Maker and tailoring it to your project.

So, how to make a business plan presentation? Let’s see a step by step guide.

Stage 1 – Identifying the Opportunity

After the title slide that defines how to start a presentation , any business plan should proceed by introducing the executive summary in a concise but impactful format.

The purpose of the executive summary is to inform the audience what to expect from the presentation and its conclusion.

Work with a maximum of two slides for this section, highlighting the key elements through visual cues. Check our guide on how to present an executive summary .

The next slide should disclose all the reasoning behind the business plan proposal, why this plan is being presented at this present moment, and projections of how the plan aligns with the current market trends.

Presenters can share the analysis done by the Market research team as long as it’s made clear which problem is relevant to the current market trends that this business plan aims to solve.

Mention all the references used to arrive at the conclusions expressed so data is backed with meaningful sources.

Any corporate PPT template can help you craft this slide, but presenters can also boost their performance through the use of infographics . If your solution for the selected problem involves a complex process, consider using a process flow template to expose the step-by-step justification of this proposal.

Use a SWOT template to showcase the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of this business opportunity.

Make sure the SWOT diagram is legible. Work your way to meet the same aesthetic style despite speeding up the process with templates. Mention the tools used for gathering the information for this SWOT Analysis in the footnote and ensure the audience understands which information elements help you reach conclusions in each quadrant. Check our guide on how to create a SWOT analysis and see if your business plan requires a SWOT or SOAR analysis . 

Every business plan is scoped under a niche or industry sector. With this slide, describe the sector in which the proposal is immersed. Communicate its value,  list the actors involved, and describe their high-level relationships.

List the analyzed competitors. Communicate their attributes. The competitors’ comparison in business plan presentation can be visually explained using tools from the Blue Ocean Strategy framework, like the Strategy Canvas . 

The competitive intensity of an industry sector is studied through the Porter’s 5 Forces model. This intensity expresses how attractive the industry is. Explain the conclusion in each force showcasing the model.

First, introduce the variables identified as important for the industry sector, citing the insight’s source. Secondly, drill down each variable and break down the different trend dimensions ( PESTEL ) 

• Use a highly visual slide, like a dashboard template , to introduce factual data regarding the trends over a specific time period. Growth rates must be represented in time frames of over 180 days to evaluate the trend accurately.
• List the critical variables (consumers, product, production capability, and financing) briefly.
• Disclose how each variable can affect pricing and your position within the niche for that trend. Presenters can refer to case studies from successful competitor stories on how they responded to trend changes in the niche.

When presenting the value chain, we ought to articulate the sequence of activities the company handles to create value within the business plan. Start by breaking down the value chain into its key components, briefly explaining the stages from inbound logistics all the way through customer service. It is important to highlight the linking point between each stage and express the value of coordinating team activities to enhance overall efficiency.

We can use flowchart diagram templates as visual aids for the audience so they can understand the process sequence. Check our guide on how to make a flowchart .

Present the identified Market and its Segments. Continue explaining how conclusions were driven through the analysis and sizing of the market.

Presenters can use target market analysis templates , market segmentation templates , or TAM SAM SOM templates to compare their target market with the total available market. 

We recommend you check our guide on market segmentation for this process.

Then drill down with a Persona definition.

This study can be made by creating ideal customers, describing their demographics and psychological factors that make them prospective candidates to purchase the product or service this business plan presentation refers to.

Here is our guide on creating buyer personas . 

The Jobs-to-be-Done theory explains why certain customers are attracted to products and services and how those elements solve core problems in the consumers’ lives. 

A Perceptual Map is a tool we can use to measure the consumer perception of different products/services in the same market. This can be particularly useful if our value proposal is to brand ourselves as cheaper alternatives to already existing solutions. Check our guide on perceptual maps for further information.

Check our guide on the Jobs-to-be-Done framework and add suggestions to the business plan presentation.

Stage 2 – Business Model

To describe the  Business Model in your Business Plan Presentation, use the business model canvas analysis tool. Display your design in one slide.

For specific sections of the BMC, you can add slides if you need to drill down for further details. In our experience, the following sections require a deeper level of explanation.

List the Segments targeted in your Business Model. You can include a slide with additional information and segment size. Reference the Market analysis explained earlier to justify the selection or which were the pivots applied.

In order to explain the reasoning behind the Value Proposition and how it serves the segments selected, you can use the Value Proposition Canvas tool to explain the logic behind this selection.

The Value Proposition outlines the unique benefit our product or service offers the market and why customers should choose our offer over potential alternatives. Since we have already analyzed the potential buyers and presented the market, it’s time to deliver that value proposition using our best assets: customer testimonials, report data, surveys, etc.

As testimonials often weigh the most in established brands, be sure to present this information through a narrative that showcases why your product or service had a positive impact on the life of that customer. You can use customer testimonial templates to give an extra boost through visual aids.

Explaining how much the customers will pay for the product/services is critical to understanding the viability and profitability of the business. Showcase for each segment the pricing model and the engagement terms.

The Income Model expresses the sources of revenue for our business plan. This has to be in relationship with the pricing strategy for established businesses. Lean startups can work concerning their minimum viable product (MVP) and then elaborate with projections for future releases or changes in their income stream structure.

At this point, companies need to present the sources of revenue depending on their origin:

• Product Sales
• Subscription Model
• Freemium Model
• Partnerships with other brands in different niches
• Advertising and Sponsorships
• Monetization

Check our guide on pricing strategy models for more information about how to present this point. You can use revenue stream templates to represent this data in style.

Drill down the cost structure categories and relate them to the Value Chain explained earlier. Show a cost breakdown chart to make it easier for the audience to understand their weight in the total costs.

As this step can be a bit complex to articulate, we recommend you check our guide on Cost Structure to see how you can resume all that information in one slide.

At the business model stage, distribution channels should be briefly introduced since they will be mentioned again in the Distribution Plan . In some industries, it is important to highlight which channels are chosen over others for the sake of revenue and faster operation.

Our Distribution Channels PowerPoint Template is a perfect resource for this.

Presenting the strategic partnerships for the business plan is a way to prove the plan’s potential reach and success factor. On this behalf, companies must list which resources they are sharing with their business partners regarding expertise, technology, distribution channels, or capital, as these elements will impact the cost structure.

You can use the Business Partnership PowerPoint Template to present this information in a professional-looking format.

Stage 3 – Implementation

The business plan is designed to offer a product, deliver a service, or combine both. At this stage, the business plan presentation drills down on how the organization will build/deliver the product/service implementing the business model outlined earlier.  

Describe how the company operates regarding human capital and its roles. Presenters must describe to the audience the hierarchical structure, responsibilities, and how they play a role within the value chain.

You can use Org Charts to represent the roles and responsibilities in the organization visually. It is also advisable to highlight the expertise and experience of the management team, as it helps to build trust.

The Human Resource Plan must refer to your planned recruitment, training, and employee onboarding. Which talent will be required, and how is it planned to build the different teams of the structure.

Check the Go To Market Strategy guide and describe how the Business Plan will enter the market and overcome the initial barriers. Continue with the Marketing Plan limited to 1-2 slides resuming the plan’s tactics to increase brand awareness and the selected channels for this strategy. 

You can use the Marketing Plan Templates help to speed up the process by focusing on the content to fill rather than the design or creating complex charts from scratch.

Present the sales plan describing the full sales process, lead generation, nurturing customers, and conversion strategies.

Use Sales PowerPoint Templates to visually illustrate your sales process, like the Sales Pipeline Slide Template for PowerPoint , which depicts the process from lead acquisition to a closed deal.

Check our guide on Sales Plan for further information on this topic.

This step refers to presenting the product/service development plan, the Quality Assurance processes behind its validation, and your company’s commitment to a continuous improvement process based on surveyed data or customer feedback.

We can refer to testimonials, user case experiences our team successfully troubleshot, or experiences we learned from competitors in the same niche.

Presenting the distribution plan involves addressing logistics topics, supply chain , and sharing fulfillment strategies. Although we already presented the potential distribution channels, this is the step in which you detail how each will interact and their impact on the estimated revenue. 

Present one slide mentioning your company’s approach to these channels, if applicable:

• Direct Sales (either physical store or e-commerce)
• Retail Partnerships
• Wholesalers or Distributors
• E-Commerce marketplaces

This step involves two different approaches depending on the kind of industry we’re in. For traditional business, inventory management in a business plan presentation must highlight how the inventory will be handled to minimize transportation costs or overproduction. Projections must be shown per quarterly period and take into account seasonality if it has a significant impact on the required storage capacity.

On the other hand, e-commerce companies have to present their online infrastructure to secure the product’s availability 24/7, how customer tickets are handled when the customer cannot access the product, server costs, and how we prevent online leaks.

Stage 4 – ROI and Risk Evaluation

This section will outline the Financial Plan of your Business.

Showcase the financial structure, including equity, debt, and potential investors, at the moment of kick-starting this business. It is a good practice to consider the initial funding slide to be a brief summary of those points, with particular emphasis on the funding needs.

Cash Flow Diagrams , Comparison Chart templates , and Timeline templates to showcase when funds help to meet each of the plan’s milestones are good ideas to represent the elements on this slide.

Income and expense projections must be presented over a defined time period by using graphs or charts to clearly visualize the trends supporting each change.

Break down the revenue sources with clear, identifiable icons to showcase: product sales, subscription fees, advertisement, affiliates, etc. Sales estimations have to be realistic and conservative, as they will be contrasted with the production, marketing, administrative, and personnel costs to leave a gross profit margin calculation. 

Evaluation of Projected Return vs. Required 

Demonstrate the feasibility of your business plan. Start by presenting the profit margins in relation to the projection of income and expenses, then introduce the break-even analysis .

Presenters can make their message more relevant by presenting an ROI calculation and contrasting it with industry benchmarks in the same niche. By following this approach, presenters prove how the ROI offered by this business plan aligns with the investment’s risk projection.

Presenting a risk evaluation analysis in a business plan presentation involves introducing both risks and their mitigation strategies. 

Risk Management templates , like the ROAM framework, can help organize potential risk sources by their severity and impact on the organization. A pyramid diagram can be used to demonstrate how risk management can be delegated across the organization to completely eradicate the risk factor depending on its severity. 

The elements you should consider presenting are mainly regulatory changes, market changes, competitors (new or existing), and financial crises. 

The final point in our business plan presentation involves summarizing how key variables can influence the projected returns in our plan. Examples of these variables can be sudden increases in raw materials (affecting production costs and sales prices), a new pandemic (affecting workforce capacity and shortage of raw materials), geopolitical situations like war, etc.

We highly recommend presenting these critical variables using scenario analysis techniques according to measured data. Introduce best-case, worst-case, and most likely-case to give a full panorama of how your organization is prepared against any contingency.

An often overlooked point in a business plan presentation comes when listing the bibliographical information used to craft the business plan. Follow these steps to ensure a professional outcome for this slide or document.

• Use a title like: “Bibliography,” “Source Credits,” or “References.” If your business plan presentation cites examples from other companies, use a “Works Cited” section.
• References are usually shown in the APA style, but the MLE or Chicago style can be requested depending on your location or situation.
• Maintain a consistent style in terms of reference style used, font, text size, and formatting options across the entire slide deck. Footnotes or in-text citations can be used for important data.
• Verbally acknowledge your sources when required throughout the course of your presentation. This helps to establish credibility and respect for other people’s work rather than just dropping a slide with chunks of text.

This section will cover the most commonly asked questions on delivering a business plan presentation.

How many slides should my business plan presentation list?

This will depend entirely on your niche and the complexity of the business plan. Generally, work with at least 15 slides and no more than 30. It is best to use an extra slide rather than overcrowd an existing slide with tons of information.

What is the best format to present a business plan?

There are different options to present any business plan, so the selected option will mostly consist of the presenter’s preferred style and the audience’s age and interests.

• PowerPoint Presentation : You can start from a blank slide and go all the way through a professionally designed PPT template . PowerPoint documents allow you to present images, text, audio, videos, and any kind of graphic to help you convey the core ideas behind the business plan. They can work with any PC or Mac device, as well as mobile devices.
• PDF Documents: This can be a choice made in a hurry or by preference. Sharing a PDF document can work, but you must include the fonts used in the original document, as some compatibility issues can be present. 
• Pitch Deck : Rather than doing a lengthy business plan presentation, a pitch deck consists of a maximum of 15 slides to deliver your proposal concisely. This is the typical approach we can see in TV shows like Shark Tank. 
• Video Presentation : In some cases, using a video in a business plan presentation is relevant, especially if we are to introduce an innovative product in the market. You can use videos to showcase features, present services in a live format, introduce your team, and plenty of other options.

Are printables required in business plan presentations?

Although they are not required, using supplementary material in business plan presentations can be useful. You can prepare reference material for investors, especially involving complex data like graphs in an amplified format (and reference the slide in which they appear and vice versa).

Providing a printable to accompany your business plan presentation helps to give an image of professionalism and respect to your proposal.

What are the don’ts of writing a business plan?

The main purpose of this article is to craft and deliver a business plan presentation. Still, we would like to clarify some common errors seen in business plans that typically affect the performance of the presentation.

• Using overcomplicated language : Jargon or unnecessary acronyms may confuse spectators who are not in touch with all the details relevant to a particular industry. 
• Ignoring the audience : Not considering the variety of interests among investors, partners, and team members can hinder your presentation.
• Neglecting/underestimating competitors : Any realistic business plan considers the existing competitors in their niche and perhaps potential newcomers. Not doing so will leave you unprepared to present a doable business plan.
• Ignoring Risk Assessment : Omitting the Risk Assessment analysis and mitigation strategies does not respect the value investors and your team have. 

How long should the business plan presentation be?

As a general guideline, try to fit your business plan presentation between 20-30 minutes. Some complex plans may require additional time to be presented.

Does the presentation need to be tailored to different audiences? 

Using this tactic can be a winning factor for both investors and your team, as you prioritize effective communication for the roles they are relevant. Take these items into consideration for tailoring the presentation for specific needs.

In-Company Presentation

The focus should be on goal accomplishment and the strategies targeted to the team’s roles. Emphasize how teamwork is the pathway to success and how each individual contributes to the bigger picture.

If new technologies or knowledge are required as part of the business plan implementation, then this is the moment to disclose that information and inform the process to coach the team into it.

Board Meeting

Whenever delivering the business plan presentation to a board of directors, focus on the strategic goals, financial projections, and KPIs. 

Showcase how this business plan aligns with the company’s core values, mission, vision, and long-term strategy. 

Potential Investors

Presenting your unique value proposition, potential ROI, and highlighting the market opportunity is extremely important. Focus on selling your business model and vision with accurate financial projections and growth strategy. 

Dedicate some minutes to present your industry’s competitive landscape and answer why your product or service is a better offering than what competitors produce.

As we can see, creating a business plan presentation is a process that can be time-consuming if we lack the required business plan presentation tools to turn data into visually appealing formats. 

Remember to work concisely without losing the big picture of what you intend to explain. Your presentation is the entry point into the heart of your business; therefore, by adopting a structured approach, you can deliver an experience that engages, inspires, and builds confidence. 

Finally, let’s see some business plan PowerPoint presentation examples & business plan templates that you can use to speed up the presentation design process and save time.

1. Coffee Shop Illustration Business Plan Slides

Create your new business plan presentation with quality vector illustrations for Coffee Shops. Ideal for cafeterias, coffee bars, barista giftshop stores, bookshops and more.

Use This Template

2. Real Estate Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Realtors looking to start their own agencies should take a look at this attractive selection of slides with tailored real estate vector illustrations. These presentation plan slides show the different stages that a prospective buyer may incur, from hiring the services of a Real Estate agent, checking different properties, to finally buying a home.  Graphs and charts are included in vivid colors that are fully editable to meet the required branding.

3. Restaurant Business Model PowerPoint Template

As we’ve seen with the previous cases, these vector images depicting typical restaurant activities can help us build a business plan presentation sample to discuss with our team prior to an important meeting. Save time and money by introducing these professional designs into your presentation.

4. One Pager Business Plan PowerPoint

To briefly summarize the objectives of your business plan, work in-team with this one-pager business plan slide. Ideal to take notes, give a general picture of the current status of the business plan and key growth opportunities.

5. Business Plan PowerPoint Templates

If you want to create the best business plan presentation, this slide deck can make that task 100% easier. Containing all the elements described in this guide, introduce your data and prepare to deliver a powerful speech.

6. Flat Bold Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Another slide deck intended for those looking at how to make a business plan presentation that delivers a memorable experience. With a minimalistic design approach, it perfectly balances formal elements and impactful visual cues to help increase your audience’s retention rate.

7. Car Sharing Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Create the next Uber-like car-sharing service with the help of these carpooling vector illustrations perfectly arranged in a cohesive business plan slide deck. Presenters can explain the ins and outs of their business model with highly detailed graphics that grab the attention of potential investors. Check it out now!

8. Beauty Salon Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Business plan presentations don’t have to look formal or boring. This slide deck is geared towards beauty salon businesses, especially for those targeted to women. Chic design, bold color scheme, and extremely useful tools like a pricing list to present an idea like a subscription-based model where consumers see the total value of their investment.

9. CrossFit Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Finally, we list an option filled with tools and gym vector illustrations for those looking to start a gym business or CrossFit academy. These illustrations were crafted with care to express the core idea on every single slide, such as human-shaped graphs to present relevant KPIs.

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The Easy Guide to Making a Business Plan Presentation

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

That’s why a business plan is crucial to your business. If you want to make sure that the promising business idea in your head is feasible, you have to start with a business plan .

Visuals make anything easier to understand. That’s why including them in your business plan presentation is a foolproof way to ensure that it’s readily welcomed by your audience and digested without confusion.

By no means is this business plan template limited to presentations; you can also include these diagrams in your business plan documents to make them more readable.

Following are downloadable Simple Business Plan Templates

• Business Plan Template PDF
• Business Plan Template Word
• Business Plan Template PowerPoint

What is a Business Plan?

Benefits of using a business plan presentation, executive summary, company profile, customer profiles.

• Perpetual Map
• Porter’s Five Forces

SWOT Analysis

Pest analysis, competitor profile.

• Competitive Intelligence

Marketing and Sales Strategies

Organizational structure and management, product canvas, value proposition canvas.

• Financial plan

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Business Plan Presentation

Faqs about business plan presentations, want to extend the guide to creating a business plan presentation.

Let’s start by clarifying the business plan definition.

A business plan is a document that describes your business in terms of what it does, the products and services it offers, your business strategy and business goals, and your action plan outlining how you plan to achieve your goals and earn money.

The main purposes of a business plan are to

• Show the future financial performance of the company and its economic situation for the owners and investors.
• Help identify risks that may affect the growth of the company and provide strategies to overcome them.
• Help make predictions about market trends, competitor behavior, customer requirements and define and prioritize key business objectives .
• Serve as a key resource for developing budgets

Clarity and Communication

A business plan presentation helps you communicate your business idea, goals, and strategies with clarity. It allows you to distill complex information into concise and visually appealing slides, making it easier for your audience to understand and grasp the key points. Presenting your business plan in a structured and organized manner enhances clarity and ensures that your message is effectively communicated.

Engaging and Persuasive

A well-designed and well-delivered business plan presentation can be highly engaging and persuasive. By using visual aids, such as graphs, charts, and images, you can capture the attention of your audience and create a memorable impact. Effective storytelling and compelling visuals can help you convey the value proposition of your business, showcase market opportunities, and convince investors, stakeholders, or potential partners to support your venture.

Feedback and Interaction

Presenting your business plan allows you to receive immediate feedback and engage in discussions with your audience. This feedback can be invaluable in refining your business strategy , identifying potential gaps or weaknesses, and addressing questions or concerns. The interactive nature of a presentation enables you to have a dialogue, gather insights, and build relationships with key stakeholders. It also provides an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, passion, and confidence, which can further strengthen your credibility and increase the likelihood of securing support or funding for your business.

The Key Elements of a Business Plan

A business plan should contain the following key components.

• Executive summary
• Company profile
• Market analysis
• Marketing and sales strategies
• Organizational structure and management
• Services and products

Although this comes first, it’s smarter to write it at the end. The executive summary of your business plan should explain what is great about your business model and its products or services.

It should be concise and appealing to the reader. And it’s easier to write a meaningful summary once you have filled in the rest of your plan.

Your company profile should provide details on,

• Company history
• Overview of the company
• Mission Statement
• Key resources
• Business contact information
• Products or services
• Location details
• The market you serve
• Your key customers
• The customer issue you seek to solve

All these details can be presented in a much nicer way with an infographic like the one below. It’s easier to read and understand and more compact and clearer than paragraphs of detail.

Market Analysis

Through a market analysis , you can find enough detail to define your target market, its size, customer segments, and their needs.

Your market analysis should also include a competitor analysis, where you will research your key competitors in terms of their influence in the market, their strengths and weaknesses, the threats they pose to you, their products and services, their pricing plans, their marketing strategies etc.

Some visual techniques you can use in this section to present your data are

These aptly summarize all your findings on your customers such as their demographic details, jobs, responsibilities, needs, challenges etc.

Perceptual Map

This tool helps you depict and analyze how your (potential) target customer perceives the brands or products of your competitors. It helps you make sense of your product or service’s competitive positioning through the survey data at your hand.

Porter’s Five Forces

This tool is used to assess your business competitive strength and position against your competitors. Using it you can understand whether your new product or service is profitable.

SWOT analysis is a great way to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and the opportunities and threats they bring to you within the industry. You can also use it to assess the capabilities of your own company.

More on SWOT Analysis: What, Why and How to Use Them Effectively

PEST stands for Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological factors. It’s a great way to examine how the external forces in your market can impact your company. It will also help you shape your marketing strategy and develop your risk management plan.

View More More on SWOT Analysis: PEST Analysis Tools

All the details you have gathered on your competitors, such as their sales numbers, strategies, partners, suppliers etc. can be organized here. It’s a great way to prepare your competitor analysis data to be added to your business plan presentation.

View More Competitor Analysis Tools

Competitive Intelligence Mind Map

Or you can convey these data in a mind map. You can use Creately Viewer to add this to your online documents, websites, intranet, Wiki, or business plan presentations. This way you can view any links included in the mind map and navigate through it easily.

You can learn how to use these tools along with other useful techniques in more detail in;

View More Market Strategy Planning Tools

This is where you outline how you plan to market and sell your product. It’s easier to do now as you have extensive knowledge about your market, target customer and your competitors.

With your marketing strategy, you have to consider factors like your marketing or communication channels, marketing goals, marketing budgets, resources etc.

With your sales plan , pay attention to your sales targets, sales tools, resources etc.

You can use mind maps to visualize all this data to your audience. You can either use two mind maps to outline your sales and marketing strategies separately or a single mind map to showcase both.

Marketing and Sales Plan Template

If you want separate a marketing plan and sales plan, check out the templates below,

• Marketing Plan Template for Business Plan Presentation
• Sales Plan Template for Business Plan Presentation

Who are the key personnel involved in your organization? List them down in this section along with their expertise.

Use an organizational chart to represent your team, their roles and skills. It can help you highlight the hierarchy of your organizational structure as well.

Services and Products

This section explains your services or products and how they can benefit the customers. Here are some visualizations you can use to make this section more interesting to your audience.

Product canvas is a tool used to map, design and describe your product strategy. It takes into consideration your target audience, the important features of your product decided by storyboards , epics, design sketches, mockups , and the tasks you need to carry out to build the product.

Learn about this in more detail here .

It’s a tool you can use to ensure that your product or service fits the requirements of your customer. It helps you look into

• The value you can deliver to the customer via your product or service
• Which customer problems/s that you are trying to solve
• Which is the job that your product helps the customer to finish
• Which customer needs you are satisfying
• What are the different products you are offering to each customer segment

Financial Plan

This is the section where you provide all financial information related to your business. This section is required if you are presenting your business plan to investors.

It will include both historical data such as cash flow statements,profit and loss statements, income statements etc. and financial projections based on the impact of your new product.

If you are pitching a new product to your investors, you may also want to include your funding requirements.

For a business plan presentation, you can use a digital database of your financial information with a simple Creately mind map. You can link up all your financial statements on your mind map.

This way anyone who refers to the mind map can easily access the linked resources from one single place.

Overloading with Information

One of the most common mistakes is including too much information on each slide. This overwhelms the audience and makes it difficult for them to follow along. Keep your slides concise and focused on key points. Use bullet points or visuals to convey information effectively.

Lack of Visual Appeal

A presentation that lacks visual appeal can fail to engage the audience. Avoid using too much text and opt for visually appealing elements such as images, graphs, and charts. Use a consistent color scheme and fonts that are easy to read. Make sure your visuals support your message rather than distract from it.

Ignoring the Audience’s Needs

It’s essential to consider the needs and interests of your audience when creating a presentation. Tailor your content to address their concerns and provide relevant information. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that your audience may not understand. Focus on presenting the most compelling aspects of your business plan that align with their interests.

Lack of Practice and Rehearsal

Presenting a business plan without sufficient practice and rehearsal can lead to a lack of confidence and a disjointed delivery. Practice your presentation multiple times to become familiar with the content, timing, and transitions. Rehearse in front of a mirror or a small audience to receive feedback and improve your delivery.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create a compelling and effective presentation that effectively communicates your business plan to your audience.

In this post we have explained how to create a business plan presentation step-by-step. Make use of the templates that are provided to make your presentation more eye-catching and easy-to-understand.

Here are some more tips on making your presentation a hit.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

How to Create a Business Plan Presentation

Noah Parsons

9 min. read

Updated April 9, 2024

It’s been said that business plans are worthless – it’s the planning process that is truly valuable . In many ways, this is a true statement. The business plan document that you create isn’t necessarily that useful because few people will ever review it in detail.

But, the process you went through to create that document forced you to think in detail about your business and answer questions that you might not have answered otherwise.

The planning process forced you to become an expert in your business, your target market, and your operations.

The expertise that you created in the planning process is what you need to showcase when you pitch your business to lenders and investors. Figuring out how to distill all of that knowledge into a few slides and a ten-to-twenty-minute presentation is the next challenge.

This guide will help you turn your business plan into a cohesive and convincing presentation that will help you win investors and wow your audience. 

• What is a business plan presentation?

A business plan presentation is also often called a “ pitch deck .” It’s a set of slides, often designed to accompany an in-person or Zoom meeting, that presents the fundamentals of your business.

A great business plan presentation explains what you do, who your target audience is, how your business operates, and what your “ask” is. After all, you probably aren’t just presenting your business plan to share your great idea, you’re trying to convince your audience to do something for you.

When you’re designing your business plan presentation, it’s helpful to know if you’re going to be able to talk through your presentation, or if it’s just going to be emailed out. This 

• Why do you present a business plan?

Your business plan presentation is all about the “ask”. Whether you’re trying to raise money for your business, win a business plan competition, or pitching a potential new employee to join your business, you have a reason for presenting your business. As you work on your business plan presentation, keep this in mind. Know who your audience is and what you want from them at the end of your presentation. More often than not, your goal will be simply to get to the next meeting or have some opportunity to continue the conversation. 

• 6 Tips to create a convincing business plan presentation

We’ll cover exactly what to include in your business plan presentation in the next section, but first let’s go over a few tips that will help you prepare a great presentation.

1. Start with a review of your business plan

Your business plan presentation is a summary of your business plan, so use your plan as a starting point. You already have all the information you need to, so just go back to your plan and highlight the key points that you plan to cover in your presentation. If there are key statistics or facts about your market that you want to highlight, identify those so that you don’t forget to include them in your presentation.

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2. Tell a story

The key to engaging your audience is to hook them with a story. Think about the problems your customers face when they’re using a product or service from the competition. Explain what life is like before your business arrives to provide a novel solution. The more that you can get your audience to nod along and understand the point of view of your customer, the more likely they are to support your business. 

3. Use visuals

Business plan presentations shouldn’t be slides crammed with text and other information. Instead, focus on using imagery to convey your message. You don’t want your audience to just be reading a slide full of information while you talk – they won’t really give you their full attention when this happens. Instead, use photos, charts and graphs, or diagrams to explain your business and the problems you are solving. 

4. Use large, easy to read font

Always use a relatively large font in your presentation – 30pt or larger. Your audience shouldn’t have to strain to read what’s on your slide. Using a large font will also force you to choose your words carefully because you won’t have that much room on the page for a lot of words. 

6. Research who you’re presenting to

Nailing your presentation requires knowing your audience. For example, suppose you’ve invented a new medical device and are presenting to a room full of industry experts and medical professionals. In that case, you’ll want to present using terminology that they are familiar with.

However, if your presentation is to investors who may not be as familiar with your industry, you may need to simplify things and make sure to use language that they will understand. 

• What to include in your business plan presentation

As a general rule, try to keep your presentation to 10-12 slides. Although you could probably talk about your business all day, your audience is looking for a concise presentation that clearly communicates what your business does and where you are going.

Here are the 10 slides you should include your presentation:

1. Introduction 

This is sometimes also called the title slide. You should include your company name and logo and a one line summary of your business. This might be your mission statement, or just a short tagline that explains what you’re doing in a nutshell. For example, Spotify might have said, “We’re revolutionizing how people listen to music and how artists get paid”. Instagram might have said, “We make it easy for anyone to produce professional-looking photos”.

2. The problem and your solution

This is where your story-telling skills need to come into play. You want to make your problem real to your audience. You want them to relate to people who have the problem, even if they don’t have the problem themselves. You want your audience nodding along in understanding.

With your problem clearly identified, you now explain your solution. This is a description of what your product or service is and what it does. Explain how it solves your customer’s problem and how it compares to the competition. 

3. Target market and opportunity

Your next step is to explain the size of your market and what your business opportunity is. You’ll use the market research data from your business plan in this slide to show how many potential customers are out there and you’ll show the different market segments that your business will target . 

4. Business model and pricing strategy

Your business model is an explanation of how you make money. For many businesses, this is very straightforward and doesn’t require much, if any, explanation. For others, more details will be required. For example, a business like Google provides their search engine for free to users, but sells ads in the search results. 

5. Traction

Traction is evidence of early success with your business. This might mean a list of initial customers, pre-orders through a Kickstarter campaign, or signed contracts with potential buyers. Any evidence that you can provide that proves that your business will be a success is useful to showcase here. 

6. Marketing and sales

Be sure to include a slide that provides an overview of your marketing and sales plan . You’ve identified your target market and now you need to explain how you’re going to reach them and sell to them. 

7. Financial projections

You shouldn’t try and fit your entire financial plan into your business plan presentation. Instead, extract the highlights and present them here. A sales forecast chart and profits chart could be useful. If you have a guess as to when you’ll become profitable, include that information. The goal of your presentation is to spark interest and get your audience to ask for additional information, so don’t overload things in your initial presentation.

8. Your team

Who is behind your business is often even more important than your idea. People come up with good ideas all the time. Investors are looking not just for a great idea, but for a team of people who can turn that idea into reality. Use this slide to provide a brief overview of your team and the rationale behind why your team is the right team to make the business a success. 

9. Use of funds

Assuming that you are presenting your business plan to raise money for your business, you’ll need to explain how you’re going to use that money. Is it for marketing or perhaps R&D? Maybe you need to raise funds to hire key additions to your team or to expand to a new location. Make it clear why you need the money and how you’re going to use it.

10. Call to action

Finally, don’t forget your “ask.” If you’re seeking investment, ask for it. If you are trying to convince someone to join your team, ask them to join. Your business plan presentation exists for a reason and there’s no harm in being direct about what you are looking for.

11. Appendix

Aside from the core slides of your presentation, it’s always useful to have additional slides ready to answer questions that come up. A great presentation leaves the audience interested and wanting to know more. Try and anticipate those questions and add slides in the appendix that helps answer those questions. When the audience asks a question that you’ve prepared a slide for, skip into the appendix and answer that question with your slide. This method shows your audience that you’re well prepared and have thought through all aspects of your business.

This is where it all comes back to planning. The plan document itself may not be useful, but the process you went through will leave you well-prepared to present your business plan expertly and successfully.

Check out our analysis of 7 well-known startup pitch decks for examples of businesses that successfully did this.

• Download your free pitch deck template

Get a jump start on your business plan presentation by downloading our free pitch deck template . It has everything you need to get started and includes all the key slides you need for a winning presentation. 

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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How to Develop a Killer Business Plan Presentation [with Template]

Written by Dave Lavinsky

On This Page:

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

How to create a business plan presentation, free business plan presentation templates to download, when should you create a business plan presentation, business plan presentation mistakes to avoid [& how to do it right].

Before they meet you to discuss the possibility of funding you, investors will frequently want to read your business plan or at least your executive summary . If they like what they see, then you’ll have to present your business plan/concept to them.

You will use your written business plan to create a presentation or pitch deck to show your audience, which may include potential business partners, angel investors, venture capitalists, lenders and others. Whether you are starting a new business or growing an existing venture, if you need to raise funding, you need to nail this presentation!  

A business plan presentation is a summary of your business idea which highlights the company’s purpose, business model, funding requirements, development status, and other business essentials.

A presentation template typically includes the following:

• Product and/or Service Demo
• Business Model
• Competition
• Go-To-Market Strategy and Marketing Plan
• Financial Projections
• Funds Being Raised

Investors want to know more about your business and how you’ll make them money before they invest their money in your company. Make sure you provide the necessary information in your presentation to meet their needs.

Most business plan presentations are in the form of a pitch deck, or slide deck, however, there are some options in terms of the platform you use to present your business plan presentation. This may include Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, Prezi, Canva, etc. Note- presenting a business plan with a unique format could be a mistake because investors like to keep things simple.

To create a business plan presentation, often referred to as a pitch deck, you will need to go through the business plan itself and highlight the key points that investors need to know.

Start with a title slide with the basic information about you, any business partners you may have, and your company.

Then, follow the steps below for each essential slide in your business plan presentation:

On this slide, describe the major problems that your target customers are experiencing. Try to express the problem in simple language so that investors can grasp it quickly, especially if they aren’t within your target customer segments.

For example, if you have a website development business, you may want to express the problem as:

“Many business owners waste valuable time, energy, and money trying to create a business website on their own. This is because they lack technical knowledge of business website design and business development.”

2. Solution

Once you’ve successfully convinced the audience that there’s a problem, it’s time to present them with your company’s product or service. So on this slide, explain how your firm intends to address the issue you highlighted. Emphasize how scalable your solution is. Scalability refers to a business’s ability to expand as demand for its services grows.

Continuing with the website development company as an example, your solution might be:

“Our business provides website development services to business owners who lack the technical knowledge of business website design and business development.”

3. Product and/or Service Demo

On this slide, you’ll detail your product(s) and/or service(s). If you have a working prototype of your invention, it should be shown here. If a prototype isn’t feasible, attempt to convey your offering to the investors as best as possible. Offer pictures or screenshots of your product/service in use from customers.

For example, in a website development business presentation, you may want to show your business’s working product as follows:

“We provide website development services including business website design, business hosting, and business email setup. Our clients are able to manage their business websites independently without having to rely on external IT support.”

You may also link to some examples of websites that you’ve developed so far to demonstrate your skills in this field.

Describe the real or predicted size of your target market in this slide to back up your claims about the scale of the problem and your company’s scalability.

This section of your presentation will pique the interest of potential investors. They want to know if the market is big enough and whether you can grow big enough to pay them a good return on their investment if you achieve a significant share of the industry.

So, describe the size of your market, key trends, and how big your business may develop if it achieves a major market share. This slide will be highly data-driven and is frequently evaluated by investors. Make sure your data is from trustworthy, verifiable sources and that all of your estimates are accurate.

For a website development company, this section may be as follows:

“There are over 25 million business owners in the United States alone. There were an estimated 32.4 million business websites worldwide by 2016 and this is expected to grow exponentially as business computing takes root across the globe. In fact, research from developer Gartner forecasts that business’s digital business models would generate more than $340 billion of business value by 2020, leading them to estimate that more than three out of four business processes will involve digital technology by 2018.”

5. Business Model

On this slide, you need to describe how your business generates revenues.  You can include things like your business’s pricing plan, how much it costs to acquire each customer, the business channels you’ll use, etc.

Your target audience must find your business credible and pricing feasible. If you’re targeting large enterprises with big budgets, mention that in this slide.

For example, in a website development company, you might  say something like this:

“Our business provides business owners with website development services. We provide business hosting and business email setup, both of which are paid services. Our business also offers business website design as a free service.”

6. Competition

On this slide, you’ll describe your rivals — those firms or solutions that are currently addressing the issues you described above. Clearly show how various options to your company exist in the market.

Competition is generally a good thing. Investors frequently believe a market or issue does not exist if there are no competitors.

Perform a SWOT Analysis for similar organizations and emphasize their distinct qualities. How does your firm distinguish itself from the competition? What makes your product or service stand out? What is it about your company that gives it an edge over the competition? State what gave you a competitive advantage.

Competitors for a website development company might include business website builders, business email providers, and business hosting services.

“Our company provides business owners with website development services. We provide business hosting and business email setup, both of which are paid services. Our business also offers business website design as a free service.”

Your business plan presentation should include the specific benefits that your business brings to customers. Financing demand is not enough; you need to show the compelling reasons why people will buy your product or service rather than someone else’s.

7. Go-To-Market Strategy

The goal of the Go-To-Market approach is for your company to communicate its unique value proposition to specific target consumers.

On this slide, you’ll explain how you intend to attract consumers to your product or service. If some aspects of your marketing plan are already in place, note them and the outcomes. The goal of this presentation deck’s slide is to demonstrate to investors that you have the capacity to expand your business into a global market.

As a website development business, your go-to-market approach may include business networking events, business trade shows, and business partnering opportunities.

“Our business networking events provide us with the opportunity to market our business by meeting potential clients. Businesses that are interested in finding out more about what we do attend these business networking events.”

On this slide, name the individuals on your management team. To demonstrate how and why they are the ideal individuals to manage your project, describe their skills and prior accomplishments.

Investors will be particularly interested to learn who will be in charge of executing the company ideas outlined in the presentation. Due to bad execution, a lot of wonderful business ideas never get off the ground because there are not enough competent individuals in the correct positions. 

9. Traction

The term “traction” refers to evidence or proof that consumers desire your firm’s goods or services.

On this slide, you should include the following information: annual growth rates for your business based on relevant measurements such as sales, website traffic, users, sign-ups, downloads, and so on.

If your business is growing at a consistent rate, add a graph to the slide. Include indicators that are most easily measurable in your company’s success and expansion. 

For a website development business, the indication of traction may be the business website traffic count.

“Our business has more than 10,000 business websites on our hosting service plan.”

10. Financial Projections

Here you’ll include a three to five-year projected income statement for your company. If you’re a startup, make sure your estimates are reasonable since you won’t have any prior data.

Investors will use your projections to determine the potential future scale of your business and whether it may satisfy their desired ROI.

On this slide, indicate when you anticipate breaking even and begin generating profits. Also note where additional fundraising is required, which advances to the following slide. 

11. Funds Being Raised

The final slide of your business plan presentation should detail the amount of money you’ll require to reach your objectives. Rather than providing a fixed figure, you may wish to provide a range and demonstrate what you can accomplish with various amounts of money.

Importantly, emphasize the core benefits of the funding. Is it for staffing, product development, marketing strategy, or something else? To grow your company, where and how will the investor’s money be utilized?

An example of funding requests for a website development company may look like the following:

“Our business is in need of XX additional funds to further grow our business into a global market. Funds will be utilized for business website hosting, network leasing, business website traffic measuring equipment, and advertising.”

Business Plan Presentation Template – Google Slides Format Business Plan Presentation Template – Microsoft PowerPoint Format Business Plan Presentation Template – PDF Format

Investors want to know more about your business and how you’ll make them money before they invest their money in your company. Make sure you are providing the necessary information in your presentation to meet their needs.

Also, be sure to make your presentation deck well in advance leaving you enough time to rehearse your pitch, so that you feel confident during the actual presentation.  

No matter what platform you choose to design your presentation there are common mistakes business owners make when developing the presentation. If you avoid these pitfalls, you will have a much higher chance of success.

Focusing on Non-Essential Information in the Presentation

One of the most common mistakes when creating presentations is including the entire business plan into the deck instead of just the main points your recipients want to see. Most investors do not have time to read hundreds of pages of non-essential information.

How To Do It Right:

Before you start crafting your presentation deck, create an outline highlighting the main points necessary for presenting to your potential investor. Be sure to answer the following questions when designing your pitch deck:

• How is this company different from others?
• Why should I invest in your business when there are other funding options available to me?
• Who is the target market for this company?
• What measurable outcomes do you hope to achieve in the next 3 years?
• What will be your biggest obstacles to success in achieving these business goals?

Not Timing Your Presentation

If you have thirty minutes (or ten minutes or five) to present, you simply must time your presentation to use the time available – no more and no less. If you go over the time allotted you might not be cut off, but they will keep in mind that you could not follow directions when they consider starting an investing relationship with you. If you do not use the entire time available, you will lose a valuable opportunity to explain your concepts further and they may, again, consider you somewhat incompetent.

Practice, practice, practice! Building a beautifully designed deck is only part of the presentation. Practicing is the single most critical part of the presentation. Rehearsal is especially important if you are pitching to a new company or people with specific expertise who will be looking for every detail in your presentation. Remember, timing is not just about how long your pitch deck should be but also about getting up and walking around to keep your audience’s attention. As you become more comfortable with your presentation, your confidence will also grow which will initiate a more memorable experience for your investor.

Obsessing Over Graphics and Animation

You should spend time on your presentation deck because it is a reflection of you, not because you want to use cool animations or graphics. If an animation needs explaining, don’t do it – just go with plain pictures that are easy to understand. Animated slides that are not used sparingly can lose their effect and be distracting.

How to Do It Right:

Your slides should be easily understood by individuals who have little background in your industry – just like the investors you are pitching to. If an animation or graphic is necessary to illustrate a concept, keep it simple and to a minimum so as not to distract the intended listeners.

Presenting Poorly Designed Slides

Avoid using too much text on the slides by including all the information from your business plan. The problem with too much text on slides is that the investor will attempt to read rather than listen to what you are saying. And if there is too much text, it will become more and more difficult to read the font size.

Quality slide design takes practice and is a topic in and of itself. To develop presentations with quality slide design, entrepreneurs should either hire a designer or become trained on the proper presentation software – most likely PowerPoint, Prezi, or KeyNote – so they can do it themselves.

Each slide should be focused on graphics or a few bullet points. Paragraphs or lists of text should be narrated by the presenter rather than written on the slides. Double-check all slides for spelling and grammatical errors. Having another set of eyes on the presentation will help to get another perspective.

The investment owners make to improve their presentation delivery will be well worth it as prospective investors are often turned off by owners who do not have professional slide designs and mistakes throughout the presentation.

Giving the Full Financials

Presenting the complete pro forma financial statements on slides is another serious mistake. In a short presentation, an investor does not have the time to take in all of this data and all you will convey is that a) you have a financial plan and b) you don’t know how to present.

Financials should be presented in summary format with just a few key metrics and numbers on each slide. Presenting these numbers in chart or graph format is an even better idea. If the numbers you show interest the investors, they will have time to peruse the complete financial projections and statements within your business plan at a later time.

Lack of Clarity and Confidence

Remember that these presentations may be the first, and only, impression with your prospective investors. If you seem ill-prepared or muddled when presenting the deck, investors will not get an accurate picture of what your business is about.

Rehearse your pitch multiple times until you can deliver it in a way that is clear and confident. You need to know what you want to convey in each slide and how this information compliments your business. Practice your pitch with family members or friends who will provide constructive feedback to help you prepare.

Failing to Deliver the Message

Business plan presentations are not meant to be a reiteration of a business plan. While you may think that you should convey all aspects of your plans, remember you are really marketing yourself and your business idea.

A successful presentation is about your ability to execute your business idea or concept by highlighting the following pieces of important information: who you are, what you want to accomplish, why this will succeed, and how you plan to do it.

This means that while there should be enough content in the slides for investors to conduct more research on your company on their own, your mission is not just to slide through hundreds of pages but convey a specific pitch in just a few slides.  

The business plan presentation is your opportunity to show investors what you have planned for the future of your business. If you want to learn how to present a business plan and create a perfect business plan presentation, utilize the information in this article and remember these quick tips:

• Keep it simple and focused on one or two key points.
• Make sure that your business slides are easily understood by those who don’t know much about business, especially your industry.
• Present the numbers in charts and graphs rather than as full financial statements.
• Practice! Rehearse until you feel confident and clear before taking on any potential investors.

You’ll be able to make an excellent first impression with them if you do all of this right – now go out there and ace those presentations!  

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How to Create a Quality Business Plan Presentation

The Art of Perfect Pitch

• April 18, 2024

13 Min Read

Want to hook potential investors to your business idea? A compelling business plan presentation will do that for you!

Do you wish to create a business plan presentation that’s not only visually attractive but also contextually enriching and sound? Well, it takes a detailed understanding of the subject matter and little effort on your end to create a professional presentation for your investors.

Don’t fret. We are here to help you out with this blog post. It includes everything you need to know about business plan presentations and outlines an efficient way to create yours.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive right in.

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

A business plan presentation also known as a pitch deck is a concise yet detailed presentation of your business idea.

It explains your business objectives, concept, solution, target market, operations, and strategies through attractive visuals and bite-sized simplified concepts.

A great pitch deck successfully communicates your business plan and your purpose of presentation, whether it is to raise funds, demonstrate traction, or grow your network.

It is quite helpful when you want to familiarize people with your business idea without diving into extreme details.

Translating your promising business idea into a presentation is quite a challenge. However, is it worth the effort? Let’s take a look.

Benefits of having a Business Plan Presentation

Having an insightful professional pitch deck is an asset for your business. If you don’t believe it, here are a few benefits to change your mind.

1. Secure the funding

The most obvious benefit of having a pitch deck.

Investors want to know the viability and feasibility of your business idea to consider funding your business. A well-crafted pitch deck with a strategic layout will make it easier for you to prove the worthiness of your business idea.

2. Explain your business plan

No one has time to dive into your detailed business plan, at least initially. A quick presentation or an elevator pitch is what you need when you want to tell your audience about your business idea in a couple of minutes.

You can enhance your networking considerably by having a pitch deck that’s ready to be presented anytime.

3. Keep the audience engaged

It’s easy to keep the readers engaged in a presentation with its powerful visual components. After all, charts, graphs, and pictures are easier to decipher than complex blocks of text.

By adopting a storytelling approach, you can easily convey your business objectives and strategies without risking the attention of your readers.

4. Gather feedback

Presenting your business plan allows you to gather feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs and experienced investors. Such feedback helps you to identify potential gaps in your planning and refine the strategies accordingly.

Convinced now? Well, then let’s learn what a visionary business plan presentation should include.

What to include in your Business Plan Presentation?

Whether you create a presentation using an advanced tool like an AI pitch deck generator or Microsoft PowerPoint—here are 10 essential components to include in your business presentations.

1. Title slide

It is an introduction slide including basic business information such as name, logo, and tagline. Additionally, it must include the name of the presenter and contact details so that readers can reach out.

You can also consider adding an extremely crisp and short one-line summary of your business to show what your business does or aims to do. Remember, it has to be much more concise than your executive summary.

While the entire presentation needs to be visually appealing, the first slide plays an extremely crucial role in capturing and retaining the reader’s attention.

So make sure that you incorporate appropriate brand elements in a neat design and present your business in a strong light.

The most brilliant business idea is the one that solves some real-life problems. And if that’s not the case with your business, reconsider your idea.

This slide is your chance to put your storytelling skills to use. Weave a compelling narrative and talk about the problem your target market is facing. Make people relate to the problem even if they are not the ones facing such issues.

Here’s an example of how a home cleaning service provider would illustrate the problem:

3. Solution

After talking about the problems, it is now time to push forth your solution.

Introduce your products and services and explain how they will solve your target customers’ problems.

Highlight the competitive edge of your solution and illustrate how yours is a solution filling some unmet demand.

Instead of wordy long texts, translate your solution into easy-digestible text blocks and visuals.

Continuing our previous example, here is how you can add a solution to your pitch deck.

4. Market Analysis

Market analysis is quite extensive and you can take up to 2-3 slides to convey essential information.

Now, you can filter and decide what to include in your presentation. However, ensure that your market analysis includes details about the industry overview, target market analysis, and competitors analysis.

Industry Overview

In this slide, you will describe the state of the industry, its current market size, emerging trends, and the market share of your business.

Ensure that you collect data from highly authoritative sites like BLS and industry publications to increase the reliability of your research.

Present your data through visually enriching graphs and charts and prove the potential of your chosen marketplace to the readers.

Target Market Analysis

In this slide, you will tell the readers about your target market and what your potential customer looks like.

Introduce your target market and describe what your ideal customer looks like. Talk about their age, gender, income, problems, interests, and spending capacity in this slide.

The easiest way to do so is by creating a visual customer profile or a buyer’s persona of your ideal potential customer.

Here’s an example of a buyer persona for a cleaning services company:

Target Market

Age: 35 Occupation: Full-time professional Income: $90,000 annually Lifestyle: Suburban family Problems: Struggles to balance work, family, and house cleaning Goal: Minimize time on chores and maximize family time

Looking for easy-to-book and convenient high-quality cleaning services

Competitive Analysis

Readers want to know about the state of competition in your market and this slide is something they look forward to.

Include a SWOT analysis of your competitors or simply describe the competitive landscape for your business. Show your competitive advantage over the competitors in terms of pricing, product offerings, target market, and related business components.

Ensure that your slides explain all this information through flowcharts, diagrams, images, infographics, and crisp text blocks. The idea is to offer everything that your audience might need to make informed decisions.

5. Business Model and Pricing Strategy

This is one of the most important sections where you explain your business model to the audience.

Demonstrate how you would be making money with your business. This can be quite simple or complex depending on your service offerings, revenue model, and pricing strategies.

Use images and visuals to explain this section and charts to present your pricing plans.

For example, a cleaning services company can present its pricing plans as depicted in the image.

6. Traction

Any sort of evidence that supports your business idea can be used here to gain the confidence of investors.

This could be early recorded sales, a Kickstarter campaign, an MVP of your software, social proof, strategic partnership—literally anything that proves that your business is a success.

In case of an in-person presentation, you can show the practical demo of the product while presenting.

However, if you are going to send a presentation through email you have to find a way to attach proofs in the mail itself.

7. Sales And Marketing Strategies

In this slide, you will talk about your sales goals and methods to achieve those goals. Moreover, you will also talk about your strategies to market and brand your business.

Introduce different marketing streams and your marketing budget to reach your target audience. Instead of listing it all down, find a way to create self-explanatory visuals with minimum text.

Also, include details about your existing marketing strategy if any, and the results it is generating.

8. Operations Plan

Investors want to see the practical aspects of your business. They want to know if you have the skills and understanding essential for running a business.

Give them an insight into your day-to-day business operations. Explain your business processes. Demonstrate all the essential resources and equipment you need for your business.

Introduce the prospective investors to your team. Present your key personnel and management team on this slide. Describe their core competencies, key skills, and achievements through graphical representation.

Introducing your team shows the investors that you have the right people to drive the business on a successful path.

10. Financial Plan And Projections

This is again the most important section, especially, if you are presenting in front of investors.

Instead of adding your detailed financial plans here, just add important figures and highlights.

This could include details about your ROI, sales projections, revenue milestones, cash flow, and aspects that offer an overview of your business’s financial health.

Newly founded startups can show financial projections and back them with claims and proof. The idea is to excite the investors about your business by offering adequate financial information.

Learn more: Create a financial plan for your startup business

10. Funds Being Raised

Ensure that your pitch deck offers concrete information about the funding you need for your business.

Instead of offering one fixed amount, give a range of options and show what you can do with different amounts. Explain core areas where your funding will go. Do you require funding for marketing, diversification, staffing, expansion, or product development?

Also talk about the returns investors can expect on their investment and back those figures with calculative predictions.

With that, end your pitch deck with a call to action to drive necessary action from readers.

And those are all the sections a business plan presentation must include. Let us now explore some tips before you kickstart making your own presentation.

Tips to Create a Winning Business Plan Presentation

Translating your idea into a presentation gets much easier if you stick to these handy tips:

1. Use online resources

It’s a huge struggle trying to structurally and contextually fit your ideas into a 10-slide deck. Instead, get yourself a subscription to a pitch deck generator to create stunning pitch decks.

However, if you don’t want to spend a penny, you can use a free PowerPoint template as well.

2. Know your audience

Before you start, know the purpose of your presentation and your target audience. This will help you identify information that is actually essential for your audience, thereby making your pitch decks more nuanced and specific.

3. Focus on clear writing

Explain your complex business ideas crisply and concisely in a simple easy-to-understand language.

You can use AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, QuillBot, and Writesonic to translate your ideas into words. However, such tools may lack a contextual understanding of business planning.

Instead, use tools like Upmetrics that specialize in business planning and offer advanced AI assistance to write pitch decks and business plans.

4. Recheck your Fonts

Choose simple and clean fonts to design your presentation. Avoid using too many different fonts as well.

Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, and Gill Sans are among the popular fonts for presentation. They are pleasing to the eye and make content scannable.

Set the font size to at least 30 points. Fonts smaller than that will look messy on the slide.

5. Balance the Visual Elements

Adding visual elements to your PPT templates and business presentations increases the audience’s ability to grasp your business concept.

However, too many visual elements without a purpose will create clutter. Know the difference between clutter and sophistication and remember that presentation needs to reflect your business idea in the best possible light.

6. End with a CTA

Don’t leave the reader hanging midway. Guide them with a CTA telling them exactly what you want them to do.

Add contact details and a link or document to a detailed business plan. This will help investors to connect and discuss further opportunities with you.

How to Pitch to Investors?

Now that you have learned the fundamentals of creating a compelling business plan presentation, it’s time to present it to your potential investors.

Here are a few things to bear in mind while delivering your presentation.

1. Tell a Story

When you practice your presentation, ensure that there is a narrative binding everything together.

This can perhaps be the most difficult task. However, you must find a hook to keep the readers engaged.

Now, figures and brilliant ideas can overpower your narration if you don’t have a simple, humane story at the core. So take your time, practice the pitch, and find ways to engage your readers with a compelling story.

2. Practice Your Pitch

A little extension of what we said earlier.

Making a presentation and presenting a presentation are completely different things. While you already know how to make a presentation, learn how to pitch to investors to be able to attract funding for your business.

Now, you might not be a great presenter. However, a little practice can fix everything.

Know what you are going to say on each slide, make notes of it, and practice it several times till you get it right.

Practice even when you get comfortable explaining the contents of your pitch deck. This will help you polish your presentation skills.

Record yourself and look out for minor details to refine your presentation delivery. Reviewing yourself critically might be great for your presentation.

3. Get Realistic

Even after presenting a hundred pitch decks, your presentations may go off-route. You can never predict or control the exact environment of a new investor pitch. Be ready for untimely interruptions, unplanned questions, and glitches.

Understand your business idea thoroughly to get realistic and comfortable with uncertainty in the presentation. Create a checklist from an investor’s perspective and see if your presentation has every detail one needs before investing.

And there you have it. Now, let’s make you a stunning pitch deck to get your funding.

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All you need to do is answer the questions, use inbuilt AI assistance to write the content and see your pitch deck coming together. It’s as simple as that.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to create a business plan presentation.

There are different ways to create a business plan presentation. While you can use PowerPoint templates to design your presentation, you can also consider using an AI pitch deck generator to create strategically sound pitch decks for your investors.

Whatever you choose, ensure that your presentation is visually and contextually rich and caters to your specific audience.

What is the best format to present a business plan?

While there is no strict rule regarding how to structure your pitch deck, following this structure can help you establish a linear flow.

• Summary/ Title
• Problem and the solution
• Market analysis
• Revenue model
• Sales and marketing strategies
• Operations plan
• Management team
• Funding requirement

What is the 10-20-30 rule?

Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule stands for a 10-slide presentation to be delivered within 20 minutes with a font size no smaller than 30 points. This rule is quite helpful in making your pitch decks memorable and compelling.

What is the best AI pitch deck generator?

Upmetrics, Pitch Bob, Beemer Docs, and Beautiful AI are some of the best AI pitch pitch deck generators available online. However, Upmetrics , however, is the best choice given its advanced AI business planning functionalities for a cost-effective price point. It’s extremely easy to use and requires no steep learning.

Cannot think of what to write? This business plan course will indeed be a great help.

How to make your business presentation stand out?

Here are a few tips that can help you prepare and deliver an exceptional business presentation:

• Know your audience
• Engage in storytelling
• Keep it visual rather than textual
• Practice your presentation
• Add essential business plan components

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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How to create a business plan presentation?

Business plans are essential for any company. Start with a business plan to ensure your business idea is promising and feasible.

It can be much easier to understand with business plan slides and attractive visuals. Hence, it is best to include them in your business plan presentation so that the target audience will welcome and internalize them without confusion.

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

The business plan presentation PowerPoint is an animated document describing your company’s activities, the services and products offered, your company’s business goals and strategy, and the action plan you have defined. A business plan must outline how you plan to make money and achieve your goals.

The main objectives of a business plan PPT include:

• Assistance in identifying risks affecting the company’s growth and strategies to overcome those risks.
• Demonstration of the company’s financial performance and the state of the economy to investors.
• Help predict competitors and major market trends and explain key business objectives.
• An essential resource for various development budgets.

Ten tips for creating a business plan presentation:

• Add your company details: name, headline, name, and tagline to the first slide of your business plan. When introducing the slide, you can describe your actions in one sentence.
• Imagine a specific problem. Make sure it relates to your target audience. You can also add statistics to this part of a business plan to clarify how you influence others.
• Describe the solution in simple terms. Offer a solution to the problem mentioned in slide 2. Offer a unique approach.
• Explain how you want to make money. Indicate the pricing structure, customers, sources of income, and ways of making a profit.
• Add some details to your business plan. Explain how it works and make a summary. Add a visual slide to show how it all works.
• Briefly outline the strategy. Briefly explain how you can plan for your company to go to market. Provide specific details to your audience. Publish your marketing plan and budget.
• Tell about your main competitors and indicate how and how you differ from them.
• Name something about your team. Highlight each participant’s business experience.
• Provide your audience with a clear and concise financial forecast for several years. Tell about the methods by which you have reached the current numbers.
• Show where you are now. Presentation of the business plan must share what you have done, what you are looking for, and how you plan to achieve your goals. On the last slide, call your audience to action.

How to Create a Business Plan: 16 Components of a Business Plan

You can make a business plan summary at the end or do it first. However, it would be better to generate it in the episode. It is where you need to explain the benefits of your business model and present your products and services.

It should be attractive and concise for the reader. After you complete the rest of the plan, it’s easy to write a meaningful resume.

Company Profile

In your company profile, tell readers certain information:

• The customer problem you want to solve;
• History of the company;
• Business contact data;
• Services or products;
• The market you serve.

It would be better to use an infographic to show all these details in the business plan. Much easier to understand and read more clearly and concisely than tons of paragraphs of additional information in your business plan.

Market analysis

With market analysis, you can add many bright details to the business plan presentation PPT: determine customer segments, their needs, your target market, or its size and present them with graphs, pies, and charts.

Add competitor analysis to your business plan

There, you research your most important competitors. For example, you can indicate your strengths, weaknesses, and influence on the market. Learn about specific threats and explain products and services, pricing recommendations, and marketing strategies.

Client profiles

Here, you should summarize all the results for your clients, e.g, their problems, needs, and responsibilities.

Perception map

This method will assist you in presenting or analyzing your target group. You should get to know other brands and their products well. This way, you can find out the primary purpose of your competitors’ products or services. You can post research data in a business plan as you see fit.

Porter’s five forces

You can use this device to assess your position relative to competitors and a company’s competitiveness. With it, you can find out if your new service or product is profitable.

SWOT analysis

Use a SWOT analysis when you create a business plan to find out the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, as well as the threats and opportunities they pose to you in the industry. You can also use it to assess your company’s capabilities.

Pest analysis

It is short for political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors. It is a great way to learn how the outside forces of your market can affect your business. You can also develop a risk management plan and a marketing strategy to include in the business plan.

Competitor profile

One more critical point of the business plan presentation outline requires all data about your competitors can be collected here, such as suppliers, partners, strategies, sales figures, etc. Use this method to organize information about your competitors to include in your business plan presentation.

Competitive Intelligence/Intelligent Map

You can also transfer this information to a mind map. Add it to business plan presentations, wikis, intranets, websites, or online documents. You can view and quickly navigate all the links in the mind map.

Marketing and sales strategies

It is the part of a business plan where you describe how you will sell and promote your product. It is now easier because you understand your competitors, target customers, and the market well.

• When you have a marketing strategy described in your business plan, you can consider factors such as your resources, marketing budget, marketing goals, communication channels, etc.
• When you have a sales plan , you should pay more attention to your resources, tools, goals, etc.
• Use mind maps to ensure that all this information is visible to your target audience.
• Use two smart cards to show your marketing strategies and sales separately or one smart card to showcase both.

Organizational structure

Tell us about the key personnel who work for the company in your business plan. Mention them in this section and share your knowledge.

Use an organization chart to represent your team and their roles. It can also help you highlight the hierarchy of the organizational structure.

Products and services

This part of the business plan tells about your product or service and how customers can use it. You can use several visualizations to make this piece more appealing to your audience.

Product canvas

Use this device to display, describe or design a specific product strategy. It considers your target customer, the required product features (from models, sketches, epics/sprints, design systems, and storyboards), and the tasks you need to complete to create the entire product.

Core value proposition

Use this device when you want to clarify whether your product or service meets a specific customer need. It will help you learn the following:

• What customer problems are you trying to solve?
• What profit can you provide to your customers through your services or products?
• What customer needs do you want to satisfy?
• What is your product’s job to help a buyer complete it?
• What different products do you offer to each customer segment?

Financial plan

Provide all financial data related to your company. This part is essential when presenting a business plan to investors. It includes historical information such as profit and loss statements, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, etc., as well as financial projections based on the impact of the new product.

Whenever you offer investors a new service or product, you can also add your own funding requirements. You can use your financial database with a handy mind map to make a great business plan presentation. Anyone accessing a mind map can easily access your linked resources from your business plan when you do.

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We hope you’d take advantage of the above business plan presentation tips. We are also eager to offer our excellent services to get support in submitting your business plan. We promise to create a presentation of your business plan from scratch in no time.

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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.

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• 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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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to Make a Business Presentation in 7 Easy Steps [Free Business Presentation Templates]

Updated: May 02, 2022

Published: September 11, 2019

There’s a reason many people despise public speaking. Defining your presentation style , putting together engaging slides, getting your point across clearly, handling unexpected questions, and squeezing a laugh out of the audience is a lot to consider.

Still, nearly all of us have to give business presentations every so often — especially salespeople . And the most daunting part of preparing for any presentation is that there’s always room to improve. 

Even the most seasoned speakers headlining at conferences or reps who top the leaderboard every month can improve their storytelling, deliver their message more clearly, and perfect their physicality. And so can you.

There are an infinite number of presentation tips out there, so we’ve distilled the vast pool of tips down to what will make the biggest impact on your presentation — and we’ve left you with actionable takeaways you can apply to your presentations today.

How to Make a Business Presentation

1. make a plan.

Things won’t go according to plan if you don’t even have a plan in the first place. Before building your slide deck , create an outline that includes the main points and pieces of evidence you want to get across.

This outline will act as your anchor while you build a slide deck and give your presentation, pointing you toward the key arguments you know you need to touch on.

I like to start with the bare bones: introductory remarks , the three points I hope my audience remembers from my talk, and concluding remarks. Then, I add sub-points to each of those three points that comprise the meat of my presentation.

These bullet points become helpful later, too, when I’m putting together my slides. They show me how much material I have on each takeaway, which allows me to split my content into the appropriate number of slides.

A well-delivered, memorable introduction and conclusion are essential ingredients of a presentation. Don’t overlook them in your outline.

Even a couple of quick bullet points on exactly what you plan to cover in each will help you set an engaging, confident tone at the start and wrap up in a way that helps your material stick in your audience’s mind.

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2. Choose a slide deck

Select a slide deck that matches the tone of your presentation. There are three primary factors that can influence your deck style:

• The formality of your workplace . A good litmus test is your company’s dress code. For example, if you wear business formal attire to work, stick with a slide deck with neutral colors like navy, white, grey, and black, and keep your fonts sharp. If your workplace is more casual or prizes creativity over ceremony, consider a more colorful deck, but keep it to two to three complementary colors to avoid creating slides that are too busy.If you’re looking for a slide deck that’s creative but not overwhelming, consider something like this ( you can download this slide deck template for free here ):

• The content you’re presenting. Serious research and financial data, for example, are suited for more professional decks. Informal recaps, brainstorms, and planning sessions may give you more bandwidth to use brighter colors.Here’s an example of a slide that would be well-suited for data:

Download the Slide Deck Template for Free

• Your personal brand . If you’re known at work for your sense of humor or your GIF reaction time on Slack, you’ll be able to get away with a more friendly font and colorful template. If you lean into professionalism and want to express rigor in your analysis or ideas, select a deck with few distractions — keep the colors neutral.

We had our designers here put together a set of free business presentation templates that you can start using today. 

3. Lead with a story and a laugh

One of the reasons it’s so easy to get wrapped up in TED Talks for hours on end is that nearly every presenter begins with a compelling story.

Whether it’s the harrowing tale of a near-death experience or a heartwarming recap of the speaker’s daughter’s first day of preschool, a great story engages the audience’s attention. It should also allow the speaker to build a personal connection with listeners and serve as a memorable cornerstone of the presentation.

When possible, begin your presentations with a story. The key, once you’ve shared your story, is to succinctly tie its main point back to the focus of your presentation.  

Don’t feel you must tell a story that’s groundbreaking or unique — in fact, relatable stories will be most effective at breaking through to your audience.

For example, a marketing director at HubSpot recently began a presentation about her team’s redesign project by sharing a personal anecdote about her struggles clearing weeds in her garden.

Finally, add humor where it feels natural. Getting a laugh out of your audience within the first minute will put them at ease and set a positive tone for the information they’re about to take in. 

4. Add verbal signposts

One of the best pieces of presentation advice I’ve ever gotten came from a college professor who believed our brains needed what he called “signposts”: verbal cues that could stick in an audience’s mind even as the details slipped away. 

He challenged us to distill our presentations down to three key takeaways and come up with one-to-three-word phrases that represented each point. Then, we were to reference those three cues or signposts in our introduction — just before diving into their details — and once again at the end.

If there were slides involved, he also had us select a simple image for each signpost that would be repeated throughout the deck.

Here’s an example: if you were giving a presentation pitching a website redesign, you might talk about all of the benefits a redesign would bring. Your website would be more visually consistent with your brand, the user experience would vastly improve, and you’d improve loading time to boost your search rankings.   

The signposts for this presentation might be: 

• Brand Consistency
• Improved UX

Even if the audience forgot the mechanics of how each of these areas would improve with the redesign, they would walk away with three easy-to-remember phrases that summarized the value of your proposed project.

Since taking that professor’s class, I’ve watched and created presentations completely differently. I always look for a speaker’s signposts and incorporate my own into every presentation I build. Signposts help me retain more material and communicate my points more directly.

5. Rely on images and charts rather than text and tables

Humans process images faster than text. And, as a speaker, it’s a disconcerting experience to see your audience squinting their eyes as they try to make out a hundred tiny words or numbers on your slides, scribbling down as much information as they can before you skip to the next section.  

To avoid this issue, rely on images whenever possible. Keep the attention on you, the expert, by selecting an image or two to drive home your point. Don’t try to squeeze all of your information on a single slide.

6. Incorporate audience interaction

We all dread sitting through boring presentations. And no matter how experienced a speaker you are, there’s inevitably going to be a low-energy point of your talk during your first dry run.  

To keep the energy up, add in a quick moment of audience interaction. There are many different ways to re-engage listeners with participation:  

• Quiz them and have them raise their hands to vote on options.
• Ask a question.
• Have them turn to a neighbor and share one reaction to what they just heard.
• Have people stand up momentarily if they agree with a given statement.

Movement will engage attention in a new way and refresh the energy of the room, carrying you through to the end of the presentation.

7. Hold a couple of non-essential data points until the Q&A at the end

You will always want to use adequate data to make a business case and provide a meaningful, truthful presentation. However, it’s okay if you’re not able to fit every detail into your presentation. 

In fact, if you intend to hold a question and answer session at the end of the presentation , leaving a couple of interesting but non-essential data points out during the presentation can give you impressive material to work with during the Q&A.

Anticipate several questions you’re likely to get or have a colleague watch a practice run-through and come up with three questions for you. Then, choose a couple of pieces of evidence not included on the slides themselves and have them in your mental back pocket to support your answers. 

Data always speaks more loudly than statements that don’t have a specific piece of evidence behind them. Remember, you’re an expert on your presentation topic — and additional, specific points can only help you when it comes to demonstrating your expertise.

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5 Steps to Preparing an Engaging Industry Presentation You can make a great impression and generate interest with an exciting, informative presentation. Find out my five secrets to creating an industry presentation guaranteed to wow.

By Cyrus Claffey Edited by Chelsea Brown May 28, 2024

Key Takeaways

• This article offers practical advice for delivering impactful presentations at industry events, emphasizing the importance of a comfortable stage presence, understanding your audience, designing effective slides and more.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Industry events are a chance to network with your colleagues and impress distributors — but to really make the most of your time at a conference, you need to learn how to prepare a presentation that engages, informs and leaves an impact.

I've presented at some of the most important real estate and property technology events in the country as the founder of ButterflyMX . Here are a few tricks I've picked up along the way to wow any audience.

Related: 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation

1. Getting comfortable with the stage

I recommend taking a walk around the stage before your presentation. By familiarizing yourself with your environment, you can prepare yourself better.

And while you're on stage, a relaxed, comfortable presence goes a long way in keeping your audience engaged . Whether you want to play your presentation casually or more formally, audiences can sense discomfort, which prevents them from fully connecting with your message.

To project your sense of comfortability, focus on your body language . You can project confidence by speaking slowly and clearly and by walking across the stage to keep the audience's attention — even if there's already a podium or lectern set up on stage.

Unfortunately, if a speaker spends too long standing behind the podium, an audience might interpret that as a sign of indecision and inaction from the speaker. Instead, you can remove any barriers between yourself and the audience by using the whole length of the stage.

2. Familiarity with industry statistics

An audience that doesn't know me might be wondering why they should be taking my advice. I certainly don't blame them. When I'm watching a new presenter, I ask the same question.

If you can back up your claims with hard data, your presentation will ring true with listeners. You can cite industry-wide statistics or establish your own bona fides by citing stats that buttress your own credibility by establishing your company's success.

In my case, I'm happy to use a couple of statistics that prove how successful my company, ButterflyMX, is in the proptech industry. For instance, we serve more than one million apartment units, and if you're interested in how consumers feel about us, look no further than the internet — we have over 20,000 five-star reviews !

Related: 7 Ways to Captivate Any Audience

3. Knowing your audience

Depending on who your audience is , you'll have to adjust your game plan and prepare for different things.

I've spoken at conferences where the audiences couldn't be more different — a presentation that wows one crowd might have no information that's applicable to another. As the founder of a property technology company, I have the pleasure of speaking at a variety of different conferences that serve different markets.

For example, integrators and installers might value a talk on product features and hardware more than others. And if I'm presenting to an audience of property managers, I'll know to dial down the technical talk and focus on the benefits a robust video intercom offers, such as simplifying their day-to-day workloads.

Depending on your audience, you need to strike the right balance between talking about hardware specs and features.

4. Designing your slides carefully

Slides are a good opportunity to share the aesthetics, tone and values of your company — but you've got to make sure you use them effectively.

A slide with too much text looks busy, and it'll distract your audience and draw focus away from you. Instead, consider putting that information into your notes and speaking it aloud. Slides should focus on one or two visual elements, like bullet points, charts and graphs.

As for the actual design of your slides, you should ensure that you adhere to your company's brand guidelines. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, brand guidelines are a single, governing document that goes over important design concepts like the colors and logos that your company has.

Related: 6 Ways to Take Your Next Presentation to the Next Level

5. Asking for audience participation

Asking for audience participation is the ultimate way to ensure everybody is locked in and paying attention — but it's also a double-edged sword. You also need to be prepared in case asking the audience to participate doesn't necessarily go your way.

For example, you might generally ask if an audience has any questions at the end of your presentation. But you run the risk of running into a hostile, bad-faith question — or you might even be met with silence.

That's why I'd recommend you give the audience questions and tasks that have a little more structure. You could do things like asking for a show of hands, asking for specific anecdotes or taking a poll.

Polls have gotten an especially high-tech upgrade recently — see if you can set up an electronic voting system that allows audience members to vote with their smartphones. Then, you'd be able to throw the results on screen and watch them update in real time!

You should pepper these interactive sections throughout your presentation to ensure that audiences are engaged throughout your entire talk.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

Founder of ButterflyMX

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How to Start a Business: A Comprehensive Guide and Essential Steps

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Conducting Market Research

Crafting a business plan, reviewing funding options, understanding legal requirements, implementing marketing strategies, the bottom line.

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Starting a business in the United States involves a number of different steps spanning legal considerations, market research, creating a business plan, securing funding, and developing a marketing strategy. It also requires decisions about a business’ location, structure, name, taxation, and registration. Here are the key steps involved in starting a business, as well as important aspects of the process for entrepreneurs to consider.

Key Takeaways

• Entrepreneurs should start by conducting market research to understand their industry space, competition, and target customers.
• The next step is to write a comprehensive business plan, outlining the company’s structure, vision, and strategy.
• Securing funding in the form of grants, loans, venture capital, and/or crowdfunded money is crucial if you’re not self-funding.
• When choosing a venue, be aware of local regulations and requirements.
• Design your business structure with an eye to legal aspects, such as taxation and registration.
• Make a strategic marketing plan that addresses the specifics of the business, industry, and target market.

Before starting a business, entrepreneurs should conduct market research to determine their target audience, competition, and market trends. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) breaks down common market considerations as follows:

• Demand : Is there a need for this product or service?
• Market size : How many people might be interested?
• Economic indicators : What are the income, employment rate, and spending habits of potential customers?
• Location : Are the target market and business well situated for each other?
• Competition : What is the market saturation ? Who and how many are you going up against?
• Pricing : What might a customer be willing to pay?

Market research should also include an analysis of market opportunities, barriers to market entry, and industry trends, as well as the competition’s strengths, weaknesses, and market share .

There are various methods for conducting market research, and these will vary depending on the nature of the industry and potential business. Data can come from a variety of places, including statistical agencies, economic and financial institutions, and industry sources, as well as direct consumer research through focus groups, interviews, surveys, and questionnaires.

A comprehensive business plan is like a blueprint. It lays the foundation for business development and affects decision-making, day-to-day operations, and growth. Potential investors or partners may want to review and assess it in advance of agreeing to work together. Financial institutions often request business plans as part of an application for a loan or other forms of capital. 

Business plans will differ according to the needs and nature of the company and should only include what makes sense for the business in question. As such, they can vary in length and structure. They can generally be divided into two formats: traditional and lean start-up. The latter is less common and more useful for simple businesses or those that expect to rework their traditional business plan frequently. It provides a vivid snapshot of the company through a small number of elements.

The process of funding a business depends on its needs and the vision and financial situation of its owner.  The first step is to calculate the start-up costs . Identify a list of expenses and put a dollar amount to each of them through research and requesting quotes. The SBA has a start-up costs calculator for small businesses that includes common types of business expenses.  

The next step is to determine how to get the money. Common methods include:

• Self-funding , also known as “ bootstrapping ”
• Finding investors willing to contribute to your venture capital
• Raising money online by crowdfunding
• Securing a business loan from a bank, an online lender, or a credit union
• Winning a business grant from a donor, usually a government, foundation, charity, or corporation

Different methods suit different businesses, and it’s important to consider the obligations associated with any avenue of funding. For example, investors generally want a degree of control for their money, while self-funding puts business owners fully in charge. Of course, investors also mitigate risk; self-funding does not.

Availability is another consideration. Loans are easier to get than grants, which don’t have to be paid back. Additionally, the federal government doesn’t provide grants for the purposes of starting or growing a business, although private organizations may. However, the SBA does guarantee several categories of loans , accessing capital that may not be available through traditional lenders. No matter the funding method(s), it’s essential to detail how the money will be used and lay out a future financial plan for the business, including sales projections and loan repayments . 

Businesses operating in the U.S. are legally subject to regulations at the local, county, state, and federal level involving taxation, business IDs, registrations, and permits.

Choosing a Business Location

Where a business operates will dictate such things as taxes, zoning laws (for brick-and-mortar locations), licenses, and permits. Other considerations when choosing a location might include:

• Human factors : These include target audience and the preferences of business owners and partners regarding convenience, knowledge of the area, and commuting distance.
• Regulations : Government at every level will assert its authority.
• Regionally specific expenses : Examples are average salaries (including required minimum wages), property or rental prices, insurance rates, utilities, and government fees and licensing.
• The tax and financial environment : Tax types include income, sales, corporate, and property, as well as tax credits; available investment incentives and loan programs may also be geographically determined.

Picking a Business Structure

The structure of a business should reflect the desired number of owners, liability characteristics, and tax status. Because these have legal and tax compliance implications , it’s important to understand them fully. If necessary, consult a business counselor, a lawyer, and/or an accountant.

Common business structures include:

• Sole proprietorship : A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business that has just one owner, who pays personal income tax on its profits.
• Partnership : Partnership options include a limited partnership (LP) and a limited liability partnership (LLP) .
• Limited liability company (LLC) : An LLC protects its owners from personal responsibility for the company’s debts and liabilities.
• Corporation : The different types of corporations include C corp , S corp , B corp , closed corporation , and nonprofit .

Getting a Tax ID Number

A tax ID number is the equivalent of a Social Security number for a business. Whether or not a state and/or federal tax ID number is required will depend on the nature of the business and the location in which it’s registered.

A federal tax ID, also known as an employer identification number (EIN) , is required if a business:

• Operates as a corporation or partnership
• Pays federal taxes
• Has employees
• Files employment, excise, alcohol, tobacco, or firearms tax returns
• Has a Keogh plan
• Withholds taxes on non-wage income to nonresident aliens
• Is involved with certain types of organizations, including trusts, estates, real estate mortgage investment conduits, nonprofits, farmers’ cooperatives, and plan administrators

An EIN can also be useful if you want to open a business bank account, offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan, or apply for federal business licenses and permits. You can get one online from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) . State websites will do the same for a state tax ID.

Registering a Business

How you register a business will depend on its location, nature, size, and business structure.  For example, a small business may not require any steps beyond registering its business name with local and state governments, and business owners whose business name is their own legal name might not need to register at all.

That said, registration can provide personal liability protection, tax-exempt status, and trademark protection, so it can be beneficial even if it’s not strictly required. Overall registration requirements, costs, and documentation will vary depending on the governing jurisdictions and business structure.  

Most LLCs, corporations, partnerships, and nonprofits are required to register at the state level and will need a registered agent to file on their behalf. Determining which state to register with can depend on factors such as:

• Whether the business has a physical presence in the state
• If the business often conducts in-person client meetings in the state
• If a large portion of business revenue comes from the state
• Whether the business has employees working in the state

If a business operates in more than one state, it may need to file for foreign qualification in other states in which it conducts business. In this case the business would register in the state in which it was formed (this would be considered the domestic state) and file for foreign qualification in any additional states.

Obtaining Permits

Filing for the applicable government licenses and permits will depend on the industry and nature of the business and might include submitting an application to a federal agency, state, county, and/or city. The SBA lists federally regulated business activities alongside the corresponding license-issuing agency, while state, county, and city regulations can be found on the official government websites for each region.

Every business should have a marketing plan that outlines an overall strategy and the day-to-day tactics used to execute it. A successful marketing plan will lay out tactics for how to connect with customers and convince them to buy what the company is selling. 

Marketing plans will vary according to the specifics of the industry, target market, and business, but they should aim to include descriptions of and strategies for the following:

• A target customer : Including market size, demographics, traits, and relevant trends
• Value propositions or business differentiators : An overview of the company’s competitive advantage with regard to employees, certifications, and offerings
• A sales and marketing plan : Including methods, channels, and a customer’s journey through interacting with the business
• Goals : Should cover different aspects of the marketing and sales strategy, such as social media follower growth, public relations opportunities, and sales targets
• An execution plan : Should detail tactics and break down higher-level goals into specific actions
• A budget : Detailing how much different marketing projects and activities will cost

How Much Does It Cost to Start a Business?

Business start-up costs will vary depending on the industry, business activity, and product or service offered. Home-based online businesses will usually cost less than those that require an office setting to meet with customers. The estimated cost can be calculated by first identifying a list of expenses and then researching and requesting quotes for each one. Use the SBA’s start-up costs calculator for common types of expenses associated with starting a small business.

What Should I Do Before Starting a Business?

Entrepreneurs seeking to start their own business should fully research and understand all the legal and funding considerations involved, conduct market research, and create marketing and business plans. They will also need to secure any necessary permits, licenses, funding, and business bank accounts.

What Types of Funding Are Available to Start a Business?

Start-up capital can come in the form of loans, grants, crowdfunding, venture capital, or self-funding. Note that the federal government does not provide grant funding for the purposes of starting a business, although some private sources do.

Do You Need to Write a Business Plan?

Business plans are comprehensive documents that lay out the most important information about a business. They reference its growth, development, and decision-making processes, and financial institutions and potential investors and partners generally request to review them in advance of agreeing to provide funding or to collaborate.

Starting a business is no easy feat, but research and preparation can help smooth the way. Having a firm understanding of your target market, competition, industry, goals, company structure, funding requirements, legal regulations, and marketing strategy, as well as conducting research and consulting experts where necessary, are all things that entrepreneurs can do to set themselves up for success.

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Market Research and Competitive Analysis .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Write Your Business Plan .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Calculate Your Startup Costs ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Fund Your Business .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Grants .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Loans .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Pick Your Business Location .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Choose a Business Structure .”

Internal Revenue Service. “ Do You Need an EIN? ”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Get Federal and State Tax ID Numbers .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Register Your Business .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Apply for Licenses and Permits .”

U.S. Small Business Administration. “ Marketing and Sales .”

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