This post is about one of my 45-second pitches at my BNI Chapter, BNI City Business. You can read the introduction to this collection here.
The slidedeck we use has the name of the next speaker overlaid in the bottom right-hand corner of the slide, and this was causing increasing issues with the previous format (image on the right, text on the left) once my meme images started having text at the top and bottom of the meme. So I changed the format by swapping sides. The width of the text blocks is set by the width of the meme image, which really comes down to the original image aspect ratio.
In this slide, I took an existing meme idea and used Canva to create my own version. I think the original I saw had Kermit. I thought this photo of Jack Nicholson (I think from his 2002 movie About Schmidt) had more impact. Again, sourced from an Google image search. The ‘Tell Me Again’ setup is a common meme structure, and useful to make a point.
At this point I tried consciously to keep the text simple and short. The text is to act as a headline to my presentation, not replace it.
Most Businesses are not Retirement Funds
The message is – I hope – clear. Many older business owners view their business as their retirement fund. Most of the time, this is not the case: the business either doesn’t sell, or doesn’t sell for the price the vendors need to fund their retirement. The stats are from the Exit Planning Institute, and had previously been used in the New Zealand market by other CEPAs. I don’t think there is an actual NZ study to support the statistics, but the message is there for impact.
Early in a typical engagement with a business owner I will undertake an audit of key value drivers that help increase the likely sale value. Some of these factors can be addressed quickly, but many take time. To prepare a business for sale will take at least 6 months for typical businesses, and are often multi-year strategies to build the saleable value of the business. I work with business owners, coaching them through the preparation process.