Your boss asks you to present your company’s services to a prestigious potential client. You’re speaking at a seminar for professionals in your industry. You’re introducing your project to the board of directors for approval. Whatever the scenario, many of us will have to present our knowledge to others in a business setting at some point.

Whether you’re presenting to a group of colleagues or to clients, you want to deliver your information effectively.

Creating a professional presentation booklet can help you organize your message and keep your audience’s attention. They can peruse a read-along booklet during your presentation, then take the booklet with them to reinforce your message. Or you can add extra information in a presentation booklet so they’ll continue reading after you’ve sparked their interest in the topic.

Here are some suggestions for an effective and professional presentation booklet:

- Make your booklet a hard copy of the PowerPoint you’ll be projecting

- Give them an overview of your company or the background of your presentation

- Leave space in the booklet so your audience can write thoughts or take notes during your presentation, if appropriate

- Focus your booklet on statistics and facts related to your presentation

- Be sure to leave contact information or action you want them to take at the end of the presentation booklet

Now that you have ideas for what to put in your presentation booklet, there are several ways to actually make one:

You can take your information to a local printing company or printing website and have them create the booklet for you. This can quickly become expensive, depending on the size and quality of your presentation booklet. Color print, paper type, and binding type are some of the variables that will affect the price.

If you (or your company) are planning to create a presentation booklet more than once, it may be more economical to get the materials to make it yourself. You may already own or have access to a higher quality printer.

You will need to purchase a binding machine (a largish purchase), and the supplies for the booklet (paper and covers, nominal purchases). After these initial costs, you will enjoy the convenience and relatively low expense of producing your own presentation booklets.

Another benefit to creating your own presentation booklets is quality. Many printing companies allow for defects in your order. And if they don’t get it right the first time, it may be too late by the time you receive the remake. When you create your own presentations, you get to decide what the final product is, and you’ll be able to produce them as quickly as you like.

I’d recommend using the Unibind XU138. The great thing about a Unibind system is that you can quickly and easily create professional looking hard or soft cover books. You can also reuse the binding and add or remove pages from your booklet if you need to change the content.

Warning: a poor quality presentation booklet won’t help your presentation – it will draw attention away from your message! Demand the highest quality from your printer, or do it yourself to ensure that it’s done right.