Helping Presentation Consulting Businesses

At this year’s Presentation Summit (formerly known as PowerPoint Live), I’ll be conducting a pre-conference workshop designed to help people build or grow a presentation consulting business. With all of the turmoil in the job market these days, many people have chosen to, or been forced to, set up their own business. For those with a design background, the presentation consulting business is one choice. We all know there are so many presentations that need help!

In this workshop, we’ll look at the business side of running your own presentation consulting shop. To support the information at the workshop, I’ll be conducting an anonymous survey of presentation consulting businesses in May and June. I’ll be asking questions about their business and their results so that we can get a true picture of what this industry really looks like. To my knowledge, this is the first time that this type of survey has been done and promises to provide valuable insight that can help new entrants and established businesses.

Here’s what I am planning to cover at the workshop:

Part 1: Defining your business
It would be easy to say all presentation consultants do the same thing, but that’s not reality. We’ll talk about at least six parameters that you should define in order to be clear about what your business offers to a potential client.

Part 2: The financial side
As much as you may not want to deal with the numbers, you will have to. We’ll talk about pricing models and how getting clear on your financial goals determines your daily activities.

Part 3: Getting clients
We all know that so many presenters need our services, but just opening your business does not guarantee a flood of paying customers. We’ll talk about numerous options for marketing your business, selling your services and managing this area.

Part 4: Running the business
Providing service to your clients is probably the part you enjoy the most. But there are many behind the scenes roles that you must take care of. We’ll talk about these so that you can thoughtfully manage your time each day.

I won’t be advocating one business model or way of running your company. There is no one correct way to do this business. We’ll explore options so that you can consider what makes sense for your unique situation. There will be lists, spreadsheets and other resources to download after the workshop to help you apply the ideas to your own business. And of course I and most of the other participants will be around the entire conference to continue the discussions.

If you are interested in attending, make sure you sign up at www.PresentationSummit.com. See you there!