A business plan presentation is a pitch with evidence. Its audience — a bank, investors, a grant committee, a business partner — wants to know three things: is there a real opportunity, can this team deliver it, and do the numbers work? Every slide should feed one of those answers. The written plan holds the detail; the deck holds the argument.
The order below suits most audiences. Investors in start-ups care more about market and traction (see our pitch deck page); banks care more about cash flow and security. Adjust the weight, not the sequence.
The slides, in order
| Slide | It answers | What goes on it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Title | Who and what? | Company name, one-line description, presenter, date |
| 2. Executive summary | What is the whole plan in one slide? | Opportunity, offer, key figures, the ask |
| 3. Problem or need | Why does this business need to exist? | The customer’s problem with evidence |
| 4. Solution and offer | What exactly do you sell? | Products or services, prices, what makes them different |
| 5. Market | How big is the opportunity? | Target customers, market size, trends — with sources |
| 6. Competition | Who else does this? | Main competitors and your position |
| 7. Marketing and sales | How will customers find you? | Channels, costs to win a customer, partnerships |
| 8. Operations | How does it run? | Location, suppliers, processes, key resources |
| 9. Team | Why you? | Founders and key people with relevant experience |
| 10. Milestones | What happens when? | Timeline of the next 12 to 36 months |
| 11. Financial forecast | Do the numbers work? | Revenue, costs, profit for three to five years |
| 12. Funding and use | What do you need? | Amount, form (loan, equity, grant), what it pays for |
| 13. Risks | What could go wrong? | Main risks and how you reduce them |
| 14. Close | What now? | The ask repeated, contact details |
| Appendix | Can we check it? | Detailed financials, assumptions, CVs, letters of intent |
The slides that decide
The executive summary
If the audience reads only one slide, it is this one. Four short blocks work well: the opportunity (one sentence with a figure), the offer (one sentence), the evidence so far (customers, pre-orders, pilot results, experience), and the ask (amount and purpose). Write it last, after the other slides, so it summarises what you actually show.
The market slide
Avoid the giant number from a global industry report. Show the market you can actually reach: for a bakery café, the people within walking distance and their spending on coffee and bread; for a software company, the companies of the right size in the right sector. Build the figure bottom-up (customers × price × frequency) and show the calculation. Name your sources.
The financial forecast
One slide with a chart of revenue, costs and profit by year, and one or two lines on the key assumptions (“average spend per visit £6.40, 180 visits a day from month 6”). The detailed profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet go into the appendix. Banks look hard at the cash flow: show when the business covers its costs and how the loan is repaid.
Build the forecast chart in PowerPointWindows and Mac
Insert a combo chart
On a Title Only slide choose Insert → Chart → Combo. Set revenue and costs as Clustered Column and profit as Line.
Insert Chart → Combo for a forecast Paste the figures
In the worksheet enter years in the first column and revenue, costs and profit in the next. Round to thousands.
Forecast figures in the chart worksheet Mark the break-even
Add a text box with an arrow where profit turns positive: “Profitable from year 2”. Put the same statement in the slide title.
The funding slide
State the amount, the form and the use in one view: a simple bar or donut of how the money will be spent (equipment, fit-out, working capital, marketing), plus what the money achieves (“opens the café and carries it to break-even in month 14”). For a loan, add repayment and any security offered.
Turning the written plan into slides
- Extract one sentence per section. For each chapter of the written plan, write the single sentence the audience must remember. Those become slide titles.
- Pick one piece of evidence per slide. A figure, a chart, a photo, a quote from a customer.
- Move detail to the appendix. Tables, full forecasts and CVs stay available, one click away.
- Make the numbers match. Every figure in the deck must be the same as in the written plan and the spreadsheet. Check twice; reviewers do.
- Rehearse with questions. Ask a friend to play the bank and ask about the weakest assumption.
A deck that will be sent rather than presented needs slightly more text per slide — full statements as titles, short explanations under charts — but the same structure. See our guide to what a slide deck is for the difference between presented and reading decks.
Mistakes reviewers notice
- Hockey-stick forecasts without reasons. Steep growth needs a stated cause: a new location, a contract, a channel.
- “No competition.” There is always an alternative, even if it is doing nothing. Name it.
- Market size from the top down only. “1 % of a huge market” convinces nobody.
- Unclear ask. Amount, form and use must be unmistakable.
- Inconsistent numbers between slides, the plan and the spreadsheet.
Business plan templates
PowerPoint’s File → New (search “business plan”) and Google Slides’ Template gallery offer business plan decks with the main sections laid out. Use one for the structure, then replace generic icons and stock photos with your own evidence — your premises, your product, your team. Our guides to SWOT slides, business cases and competitors and presenting data cover the individual slides in depth.
Adapting the deck for each audience
| Audience | Looks for | Give more room to |
|---|---|---|
| Bank | Repayment, security, steady cash flow | Operations, cash flow forecast, collateral, your experience |
| Investors | Growth, market size, a team that can scale | Market, traction, business model, use of funds |
| Grant or competition jury | Fit with the programme’s aims, impact | Problem, impact, milestones, budget |
| Business partner | What working together brings them | Offer, operations, the partnership model |
| Your own team | Where we are going and their part in it | Milestones, roles, goals |
Keep one master deck with all slides and build each version by hiding the slides an audience does not need and reordering the rest. Right-click a thumbnail and choose Hide Slide in PowerPoint, or Skip slide in Google Slides; the hidden slides stay ready for questions.
Designs for this kind of deck
Every design brings its own colours, fonts and layouts to the whole deck.
From written plan to deck with ExpertSlides
If your business plan exists as a document, ExpertSlides can build the presentation from it. Attach the plan as a PDF or Word file — and the financial forecast as a spreadsheet — say who the audience is, and the AI plans the deck in the order above: executive summary, problem, offer, market, competition, marketing, operations, team, milestones, financials, funding and risks. It takes names, figures and claims from your documents rather than inventing them, and turns the forecast into charts.
The library has slides for each part — market sizing, competition matrices, business models, unit economics, financials, roadmaps, team and the ask — in many layouts. In the PowerPoint export (Pro and Business) charts are real PowerPoint charts with their data, so your accountant can check every figure.
See also our pages on pitch decks and business presentations, and browse designs in Design Templates.
Questions, answered
What slides should a business plan presentation have?
Title, executive summary, problem, solution and offer, market, competition, marketing and sales, operations, team, milestones, financial forecast, funding and its use, risks and a closing slide, with details in an appendix.
How long should a business plan presentation be?
Usually 12 to 15 main slides for a 15 to 20 minute meeting, with detailed financials and documents in an appendix.
How do I present financials in a business plan deck?
One slide with a chart of revenue, costs and profit by year and the key assumptions, plus a funding slide showing the amount and its use. Put the detailed statements in the appendix.
What is the difference between a business plan presentation and a pitch deck?
They share a structure, but a pitch deck for investors stresses market, traction and growth, while a business plan presentation for a bank stresses operations, cash flow and repayment.
Can ExpertSlides turn my business plan into a presentation?
Yes. Attach the written plan and the forecast, and the AI builds the deck in the expected order, taking figures from your documents and turning the forecast into charts.
