Criteria for Project 6: Business Plan Presentation

On April 14th and 16th, you will be presenting your working business plans. Essentially, you will be presenting to your classmates as if they were potential supporters or investors. Your ultimate purpose of this presentation is to secure funding for your business idea. Below is some important information for your pending success.  Here is a PowerPoint on Pitching/Presenting your Business Plans as well.

Media Types:

Your business plan pitch should take advantage of “typical” visual media available to entrepreneurs and business owners. How you choose to present your business plan and concept is, in the end, up to you. But, you are required to use some form of visual assistance, including:

• PowerPoint
• Overheads
• Poster(s) and Easel
• Others

Further, you are required to have a handout of some sort for all of your audience members. Your handout should supplement--not be a copy of--your presentation content. This should be your best work—which means it should be in the format you would be proud to present to potential funders in the real world.

Participation:

Each member of the business plan team is required to participate in the Business Plan Presentation. Completely equal participation is, of course, not necessary (or even quantifiable), but each member should have a distinct task during the presentation. Essentially, it should not be obvious that one person or another did more work—either on the business plan, or on the presentation. Your audience should hardly be aware of the transition from one presenter to another. Or one slide to another, for that matter. Practice.

Time:

In alignment with business plan competitions across the nation, your Business Plan Presentation will be no longer than 20 minutes, with a 5-10 minute Question & Answer session to immediately follow. Being this short, it is extremely important that you make decisions about what you will include, what you will exclude, how you will position yourselves rhetorically, how you will present the material (e.g. charts and graphs?), and how you will grab and maintain your audience’s attention. You will need to practice to ensure that you say what you want, how you want in the 20-minute time constraint. Practice more than once.

Professional ethos:

It is my expectation that you will conduct yourselves with utmost professionalism. Your professional ethos, along with that of this class, the program, and Purdue University all rests on how the decisions your groups make regarding professionalism. Although the following is not all inclusive, these are some aspects of professional ethos you might consider:

• Attire
• Polish of Presentation
• Word Choice (level of formality)
• Presentation Materials
• Body Language
• Self Introductions
• Question and Answer Session
• Others

Grade Breakdown for Project 6

• 40% - Content
• 15% - Presentation Makeup
• 10% - Business Plan Presentation Handout (presentation aid)
• 15% - Ranking and ethos
• 20% - Media Assistance

In all, your groups will professionally present your Business Plan (the content and not the construction) to the class. Your presentation will be between 15 and 20 minutes long, incuding an additional 5-10 minute question-and-answer session.  At minimum, each group is responsible for the following:

• A PowerPoint Presentation (or some media) related to your Business Plan (its content, not its creation)
• A professional handout to accompany (and supplement) the PowerPoint Presentation.

Please refer to the Business Plan Presentation Criteria Document posted here.

Here is a copy of the Presentation Rubric I will use to assess your presentations.

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Below, please find some resources for creating and presenting your work

• Resource 1: Developing Your Powerpoint Presentation (UT-Austin)

• Resource 2: Ten Commandments of Powerpoint

• Resource 3: Examples of Bad Slides from Bill Gates himself

• Resource 4: Annoying Powerpoint Elements Survey

• Resource 5: Presentation Zen - Blog on Good Powerpoint Presentations

• Resource 6: The Cost of Bad Powerpoints

• Resource 7: Powerpoint is Evil - Comments from Edward Tufte

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Don't Read From Your PowerPoint Slides

TJ Walker Video

This is a four-minute video clip that stresses—over and over and over—not to use PowerPoint presentations as notecards/telepromter, etc. It’s a bit drawn out, but Walker makes his points:

• Don’t use PowerPoint as your Speech or notecards
• Focuses on the why: audience
• What PowerPoint is really for: an aid to be used by the speaker—who actually makes a speech
• Don’t show anybody your cue cards: use a piece of paper that you can refer to—that your audience does not need to see

PowerPoint: shot with its own bullets

by Peter Norvig (Check out the PowerPoint from the Gettysburg Address)

Norvig attends to the pros and cons of PowerPoint and gives the following points:

• “Design your presentations and your meetings to take advantage of the people gathered there, not to bore them.” = Audience
• Use your presentation to build on another’s idea “or for a new idea to arise collaboratively from the meeting.”
• Use PowerPoint as a visual aid tool, to “convey visual information: photographs, charts, or diagrams,” but do not use it as a way to stop further thinking, talking and collaborating on the subject.

Grab Your Audience Fast

By Carmine Gallo

Gallo, a corporate presentation coach, refers to Jeff Taylor, the Monster.com founder, throughout this very short essay. Gallo’s point is that “you literally have just a few seconds to makek an impression on your business audience when you deliver a presentation.” His points are to:

• Think of your audience—who is asking ‘What’s in this for me?’
• Make an emotional connection with your listeners—in other words, give them a reason to care about your message.
• “The goal of most presentations is to lead the listener to some sort of action: buying a product, scheduling a follow-up call to learn more, visiting a Web site, investing in a company, or doing whatever it may be. The more memorable the message, the easier it is to act upon.”

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint!!!

Guy Kawasaki

Guy begins his video clip (or his text, if you’re reading it) with a joke about Ménière’s disease, which he says is not catchy, can be caused by too much salt or caffeine, etc. or—as his real point is—that it is caused by sitting through too many PowerPoint presentations. His points:

• Show 10 slides: This will “require you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well.”
• In 20 minutes: You always have to worry about technology, people coming late/leaving early, etc.
• Using 30 point font: In the workplace, most of the people are older and wear glasses.