Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

There was a time when using visual aids during a presentation meant large print illustrations tacked onto cardboard and set upon a tripod. These bulky extras were a pain to create and lug around, but were a necessary evil when it came to making a punch with an important presentation to investors, clients, customers, etc.

However, then the magic of computer software came along, and Microsoft developed the saving grace to any presentation: PowerPoint. With PowerPoint, anyone can create stunning slides to give a striking visual element while making a speech by simply projecting it onto a screen or blank wall. Using written statements, bullet point outlines, colorful images, and even animation between slide elements, PowerPoint is your friend when it comes to making an effective presentation.

However, not everyone knows the practical secrets of utilizing PowerPoint to make the best impression. That is why we bring to you the six most dynamic tips and secrets to help you be the best PowerPoint presenter you can be.

1. Avoid Slide Clutter

   One big mistake most presenters make is simply including too much information on a single slide. If you must use text to emphasize your statements, use brief bullet points. The best guide for each slide is to have a header, subject title of slide, and 3 or 4 short bullet points.

   Use illustrations and photos when you think they will help drive the point home. However, if you do, avoid shrinking a complex image and including it with all the other points. Use a separate slide if necessary so the image gets the most effect, then get back to the text.

2. Make the Most of Charts and Graphs

   A plethora of numbers on a slide does not make a lot of sense to viewers. For instance, if you are trying to show the history of your yearly revenues, a slew of side-by-side numbers has little impact.

   Instead, use charts and graphs to help crunch those numbers into helpful visual images. A bar graph showing the steady increase in sales and revenue is the best way to display that kind of information.

3. Go Easy on the Creativity

   The creative tools that come with PowerPoint software makes it very tempting to go crazy with transitions, animation, sounds, video, etc. However, be sure the transitions you use remain simple. Don't let them distract from the points you are trying to make. A simple guide is to show your points one by one as you make them, but don't have them fly, spin, or twirl in.

4. Brand Your Business

   Your presentation is likely to support your small business in some way. Whether you are pitching to investors, or describing the benefits of your product to customers, you want your company name branded all over the presentation.

   For starters, make sure that each slide template has your company name and logo. Don't make it too crowded, but just at the top or the corner of each slide. And if possible, always show photos of customers enjoying your product, your product on the store shelf, etc.

5. Limit Your Slides and Your Time

   A presentation is not a marathon sales pitch. A shorter presentation is a better presentation. Keep it under 20 minutes. 10 to 15 minutes is more preferable. You want more time for interaction with the attendees, especially if they have questions.

   Your slides should be kept to a minimum too. Don't try to include dozens of slides and try to race through them just so you can show more images, photos, or slide tricks. 20 is a good target for the number of slides. Remember, you want your personality and presentation to shine, rather than get lost behind digital slides.

6. Practice, Practice, Practice

   Never try to "wing it" on your presentation. You should rehearse your presentation not just once, but again and again. While you can use notes if necessary to keep you on track, you should never fully write your speech and read from it.

   A presentation should be extemporaneous, and when practiced can be free-flowing, yet professional.

   Make your business presentations count. Use these helpful tips to ensure that your presentation gets you that next deal!

Groupon has made significant waves in the online marketing, advertising, and promotion industry. While online SEO, PPC, and social media strategies are all helpful in trying to entice potential customers to simply view your business, Groupon gets them to reach right into their pocketbook and hand over the money.

To give you a brief overview, Groupon is a company where people in major cities across the US join up to receive notices of great deals, usually at substantial discounts. When they receive a notice of a deal each day, they have a limited time to buy. You get to name the minimum number of Groupons you wish to sell in order to make it profitable. Through social media and sharing with friends and family, your Groupon can reach hundreds even thousands of local buyers that otherwise may not get your marketing message.

While 97% of Groupon merchants want to get their marketing message through their system again, what does it really take to make Groupon successful for your small business?

Prepare Your Inventory

There is nothing worse than offering a great deal and being totally unprepared to handle the extra sales. Some small businesses experience an increase in sales tenfold due to the power of the Groupon social aspect. If you want to submit a deal to Groupon, do your best to forecast and prepare your business to handle the sudden and sharp increase in business.

Prepare Your Employees

Your employees will never forgive you if you don't let them in on the Groupon deal. When suddenly a business gets hundreds of new customers or thousands of calls out of the blue, the staff should be well prepared to know the deal, greet customers, and even work extra hours to handle the calls.

Determine the Proper Price Point

This is important for your profitability. If you give a $25 Groupon for $50 worth of merchandise at your store, but the average sales are only $30 - $40, your customers aren't getting the full deal, and you are not making any extra money.

One of the strategies to a Groupon monetary deal is to get customers to come in and spend more than they already paid for. For instance, say in the above Groupon scenario, your prices actually create average sales of about $75. That means on average, a Groupon patron paid $25 to buy $50 worth of goods, but pays you an extra $25 directly. They still only pay $50 on a total value of $75, so both the customer and you win on the deal.

Engage and Follow Up With New Customers

One important detail that many small business owners fail to do is follow up with those customers who redeemed a Groupon to your business. Without this strategy, most Groupon customers are a one-time-only phenomenon.

You must make the effort to retain your Groupon redeemers so they become repeat customers. Groupon gives you a way to track those who take part in each deal. Use that information so you can welcome a customer to your store. Thank them, make them feel at home, and welcome them to come back.

Do your best to obtain contact information so you can send follow up messages to get their feedback, as well as even allow you to offer another incentive to return.

Learn to Limit Your Deal

A Groupon may be a great way to drum up some extra business. But what if your main goal is to increase the customer base at a new store location? Or perhaps try to sell certain products deemed "slow movers" at a particular location?

You can work with Groupon sales to create the deal with specific parameters. You might offer a 50% off Groupon for your restaurant, but only at certain locations. Or you may offer a half-off Groupon to your mattress store good for only the surplus of last year's Serta mattresses.

Groupon has many small business success stories. Log on to their site for merchants at www.grouponworks.com and read a few case studies. Watch their helpful videos. If you think Groupon could benefit your small business, give them a try. Even if you break even on a Groupon deal, you can still come out ahead with an increased customer base and exposure.

Setting your pricing structure is one of the most difficult tasks a business owner must tackle. It's easy to assume certain pricing strategies, such as cost plus a certain percentage, valuing your time per hour, etc. However, setting a price is almost like a fine art.

It is imperative that you take the proper time to determine the correct pricing structure for your business. Setting your prices too low can cause you to lose money, but so can pricing too high. And pricing your services may be even more difficult than pricing retail products that you buy wholesale.

But as most experienced and savvy entrepreneurs will tell you, a higher price may cost you to lose a certain amount of customers, but the ones you attract will be the ones you want for your business.

Consider the Number of Projected Sales

Most small business owners make the mistake of thinking that more customers mean more sales. However, this is quite the contrary when you crunch the numbers.

For instance, say you have a new product you want to put on the market. If you price it at $5, your analysis shows that you could sell 10,000 units. That's $50,000 in gross sales. But what if you sold it for twice that? Or even four times that amount at $20? If you crunch the numbers, you may discover that you might only sell 3,000 units, but that still grosses you at $60,000. It simplifies your manufacturing costs and allows you to find the ways to add the quality and value necessary for making that pricing justifiable.

Consider also the possibility of servicing the products you manufacture. If you develop software or make a quality central heating unit, the fewer you sell means the fewer you'll have to service in the future. If you sold 20,000 units compared to just 5,000, just think of all the extra customer service personnel you would have to hire, train, and retain.

Consider What You Want, Not What You Need

Another mistake many new small business owners make is focusing more on what they need, rather than what they want. Say after careful analysis you determine that your solo work at home service business requires a minimum of $4,000 a month. That covers your mortgage payment, maintenance, utilities, car payment, food, and a little left over for entertainment and a few new clothes now and then. So you can live on $48,000 a year, and that's what you need. But what if you want $75K? Or $100K?

Just consider the possibility of $100K a year for your business. In order to earn gross sales of $100K, that would mean earning $8,333 per month. If you worked an average of 8 hours a day for 21 days a month (taking weekends off), that's about 173 hours. That breaks down to just $48 an hour for your services. Not an unrealistic goal at all.

Check Out the Competition

One important task that all small business owners should do before setting or raising their prices is determining what the market value for their services or product is. Check out what other similar business are charging. It may require doing to covert research in their store or calling up to "tire kick" on their pricing.

Then make a matrix citing each company's prices relative to each other. Determine the average price. Then consider what adding a little extra value could do to the price. It could be packaging, home delivery of a service, a 10-point 'quality check'. Then add that value to your product or service to justify your higher prices. You will find that people don't all just buy because a price is the lowest. Many consumers justify a higher price as higher quality and thus are willing to part with more of their money for it.

It is no shame to charge more. Raising your current prices may block certain customers whom you have previously served. However, it can open doors to an entire new customer base and an even more lucrative niche market.