Tips for entrepreneurs who want to make compelling presentations

As an entrepreneur, you will have to present your case to numerous people, from pitching ideas to your team to pitching the entire concept of your company to lenders. Knowing how to make those presentations as compelling as possible will help your startup in the long run. Here are 5 tips that will help you do that:

Know the Listener

At the heart of every compelling presentation is bespoke design. Custom presentations depending on your audience have a greater chance of turning them into believers, and you cannot make those well if you do not know your audience.

One of the best moves you can make as an entrepreneur is to know your listeners or audience. Research what they've done before if you can, and figure out what they want in the future. When speaking to a group of investors, for example, you should look at their experience in your industry. If they generally have a history in your startup's field, you can take off the kid gloves and hit them with technical terms to really show off your team's expertise and value. If not, you can cater to their lack of knowledge with an introductory section - and then take off the kid gloves.

Tell a story

If you want to get into your audience's heads, you will want to tell a story. Numbers and facts are important, but a story gets people to listen. Stories are what people remember by heart. The good news is you don't have to become a master storyteller. All you need is to weave a narrative around the numbers you present.

For example, when talking about your profit margins to an investor, you don't want to just throw out the percentages and numbers. Talk about the company's initial numbers and the process you used to improve them over time. Tell listeners about the problems you faced and how you solved them.

Study Your Body

A great speech can be crippled by poor body language. A slouching posture can undermine any confidence you want to exude. Closed body language through crossed arms can make you seem irritated or angry when you want to look welcoming. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to assess your body language by yourself, so you will need help from other people.

Ask someone to critique your body language as you practice your presentation. Have them list down what your body language is saying at different stages. The more people you get to look at you, the more information you will have to refine how you hold yourself.

Utilize Visual Aids

There are few business presentations that cannot be improved with a few visuals, no matter how compelling the speaker may be. The right diagrams or charts can quickly emphasize your point and help the more visually minded listeners follow what you're saying.

However, you must use visuals sparingly. They should not replace you as the main source of information. They are there to emphasize certain parts or to serve as a quick visual reference. The sooner you realize that their place is only to support you, the sooner your presentations will improve.

Involve the Audience

If you want to make your presentations compelling and powerful, you need to step down from the stage so you can involve and engage the audience. Encourage people to give you feedback, ask them questions, create polls - do whatever is appropriate that also includes your listeners. Being engaged in that manner makes your presentations more memorable and helps keep audience attention on point.

For example, you can leave a dedicated amount of time in your presentation specifically for questions. Sprinkle those moments in throughout your time onstage, as different people will come up with questions at different points.


While those are far from the only tips you can utilize to make compelling presentations for your startup, they should get you off to a good start. As an entrepreneur, you will need to convince a lot of people of the value of your company and its offering. The sooner you practice the art of presentation, the better off your business will be.