The old saying about slide presentations is that they're
never finished; entrepreneurs simply run out of time. Nothing could
be more true. The amount of time spent dithering over slide
presentations is almost incalculable and rarely productive. The
reality of raising money is that the slides don't sell the
deal. The persuasive and compelling manner in which the
presentation is made sells the deal.
Slide presentations are a necessary evil, but keep in mind the
following pointers the next time you go out to meet with
investors:
Think billboards, not
books. Slides should be sparse, not crowded. Remember,
they're only there to keep the audience on track.
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Go easy. In most
cases, one slide per minute, or 20 slides for a typical
presentation, is about the maximum you should try to squeeze in.
Optimum: 10 to 15.
Make handouts from your
slides. Some public-speaking pros say never put anything
into the hands of the audience that will distract them from the
speaker-a notion not without merit. However, most hard-core
investors will ask for handouts and often use them to take notes,
so it's better to be prepared than to be caught
empty-handed.
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