We’ve all been there.  You need to create a business presentation in a short period of time and you are not prepared.  Well here a few simple tips on how to at least wing it.

PowerPoint Template

Have a PowerPoint template that you use each time for your presentations.  Don’t use the standard Microsoft Office ones as they have been used by half the world.  Here is what you should do.

• Open up PowerPoint.
• Make modifications to the standard very basic template so that it looks like you want it to look.  Here are some tips.  Create a smart coloured heading.  Reduce the standard font sizes.  Put your business name in the footer.
• Put a subtle shading in the background using Slide Master.  Then stop.  The content is what wins and this is just a presentation for a quick review.  There are lots of other subtle things that you can do with time to a template that I will cover in a later post.

Standard Sections

When you are happy with your look and feel fill in some standard sections.  All presentations should have the following sections.  Title, Agenda, Questions prompt and Backup Data slides.  Create these and use them again and again and it will mean 3-4 less slides for you to create.

Simple Sections

Do not over elaborate in your sections.  If you are caught for time then put in simple bullets and talk to the bullets.  The best presentations are when people talk to the content and not from the content.  People really hate reading PowerPoint slides.  I am assuming that you know what you are talking about so this is where you will shine not in talking out lines of information

Backup Data

Keep a consistent set of backup data.  You will use it again and again. Work on this as your core database of information.

Here is a very simple example that took me 10 minutes to put together.

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