Your Pitch Deck Design and Production Alternatives

 

Now let’s describe each design alternative and rate them against my ranking system.

 

1. DIY

Honestly, this is likely the most used alternative and predictably has the least probability of success. It is often done as an almost forgotten activity. There is usually a big rush and corresponding negative impact on quality. You can’t blame new business founders for choosing this cheap to free approach. However, once you’ve started down this road, it’s not immediately apparent what a time sink it becomes until you are well invested in the project. 

 

You need to find more than one source to learn how to use the applications, likely opt for cheap stock images, and go through multiple edits. And still not be thrilled with the results. So much depends on your skill set and willingness to put in the time. You can expect to spend a ton of real-time hours, 40 to 80 hours is common, probably measured in 1 or 2 weeks on your calendar.

 

If you just happen to have artistic graphic design experience, then great, go ahead and take a stab at producing your own presentation deck. Although, being a skilled graphic artist doesn’t mean you will capture the conceptual business perspective to tell your story the way an investor wants to experience it. Realistically, if this is your first time at the pitch presentation rodeo, using a pitch deck professional is a safer option.

 

• Cost: Low-End (not including your opportunity cost)

• Duration: Long

• Impact: Uncertain

• Design Excellence: Uncertain

 

 

2. Use a Pitch Deck Template

 

There seem to be hundreds or thousands of pre-designed ‘best’ pitch decks for the I’ll-do-it-myself business founder. Most of them are well-designed. Many clothes are well-designed too, but they may not fit or even be appropriate for a specific occasion. The same is true of pitch deck templates. They may impress you, but they must have the perfect content and be suitably designed for your investor audience.

 

While you will save money on graphic design, you are still doing all the additional content and creative work yourself. The cost of your valuable time needs to be factored in. In the end, you may have a good-looking pitch deck that took you 40 hours to complete, which is dependent on your personal design and tailoring skills, which may not be adequate.

 

• Cost: Low End (not including your opportunity cost)

• Duration: Long

• Impact: Adequate

• Design Excellence: Adequate

 

 

3. Contract a Graphic Designer

 

When an entrepreneur determines they don’t have the skills or time to either create a deck from square one or use a pitch deck template, they look for a skilled contract graphic designer. This is a step up from the DIY mindset, but these artists are not necessarily skilled at producing the best pitch decks. They may do beautiful design work and it may not cost very much. Typically they will charge CAD$500 to CAD$2000 and the quality usually correlates well with the price. It is possible to get them to work by the hour or some may offer a fixed fee. Their main benefit is elevating the appearance of your pitch deck.

 

Be prepared for graphic designers to be totally dependent on you for all the verbal content, colour choices, and basic business sense, the mindset of your investor audience, etc. So, don’t hope for any of that type of support. You will save on time to some degree, but be prepared to closely oversee their work from start to finish. It’s hard to predict what the final product will look like. Between your skills and theirs, the outcome and ultimate impact can range significantly.

 

• Cost: Mid-Range

• Duration: Medium

• Impact: Adequate

• Design Excellence: Adequate

 

 

4. Fee Per Slide Agent

 

Although not common, there are agencies willing to work for a set fee per slide, which you agree on ahead of time. The cost to you will be mid-range for a completed pitch deck, but again the output quality is not assured. You are still expected to create all of the verbal content and give company design details yourself. This still means you are giving up a good amount of time to provide input and oversee their work.

 

In reality the agency most likely uses preformatted templates and reworks only the most basic elements like colours and layout formatting, with your content inserted where needed. The actual graphic design work may not be done by the agency themselves since there are loads of cheap freelancers with just enough skills to follow the agency's instructions.

 

• Cost: Mid-Range

• Duration: Medium

• Impact: Adequate

• Design Excellence: Adequate

 

 

5. Marketing Agency

 

The marketing agencies I’m discussing here may operate under different descriptions, ad agencies, branding companies, marketing design houses, etc. The point is they are generally very good at what they do and their fees are commensurately quite high, in the CAD$3,000 to CAD$6,000 territory. They tend to work with large established clients under ongoing agency agreements on predetermined marketing strategies and tactics. 

 

They can definitely produce a high-priced pitch deck with impressive quality design attributes, but this is not an area of work they regularly perform. Consequently, they are not accustomed to preparing materials for fresh clients in the early stages of venture capital seeking. They won’t have the insight into how investors and lenders think and what to incorporate to meet those needs. Hence, you will be called on to provide those insights and likely much of the written content for your high-priced pitch deck and hours of your time overseeing the project.

 

• Cost: High-End 

• Duration: Medium

• Impact: Ideal

• Design Excellence: Ideal

 

 

6. Pitch Adviser

 

Although not a common service there is a growing number of what I call ‘pitch advisers’. These are people who have either taken their own start-up projects to market or in some fashion, formally or informally, assisted others in their efforts to get business startup or growth capital.

 

They can certainly do a decent job of helping you tell your enterprise narrative in a few words suitable for a pitch deck, but they almost certainly don’t have the graphic design skills needed to support those words with an impactful presentation deck. Their fees may be reasonable considering their business acumen, but you will need to spend time bringing them up to speed and collaborating to be sure they capture all the key points needed.

 

What you have after they have finished their work is good content for a pitch deck, but zero graphic design work. You will need to find a good designer on your own and again you will be faced with spending hours of your time overseeing their work to completion.

 

Don’t be surprised if the overall actual costs of the two service providers are fairly expensive, not to mention the opportunity cost of all the time you will spend collaborating and overseeing their output.

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• Cost: High-End 

• Duration: Medium

• Impact: Uncertain

• Design Excellence: Uncertain​

 

 

7. Business Plan/Pitch Deck Designer

 

In my professional opinion, this is by far your best option if you need the highest quality pitch deck with the least opportunity cost on your time.

 

What I mean by a BusinessPlan/Pitch Deck Designer is literally the professional who prepares your full business plan narrative, including your detailed marketing and operations plans and all of your financial projections, and has already had the experience of taking your business story and condensing it into a one or two-page business plan summary. 

 

This expert needs no additional support from you to create the best pitch deck narrative possible. You have likely already collaborated with them for multiple days or weeks recently and they know you and your business intentions intimately, so there are no additional demands on your time for the pitch deck production.

 

Granted, they likely don’t have high-caliber graphic design skills. They do have highly capable resources to produce the final high-quality, high-impact pitch deck you require. Again, this phase of pitch deck production requires no added time on your behalf except for possible final tweek requests. The expert is responsible for delivering the final pitch deck product in ‘investor ready’ form.

 

This option will have commensurate fees in the CAD$1,500 to $4,500 range (depending on page count and complexity), but there are no opportunity costs to you for time, and you receive the ultimate pitch deck for your capital sourcing needs.

 

NOTE: If you have already prepared your business plan, using this type of expert is still very beneficial. A professional business plan and pitch deck expert can, with very limited time on your part, digest and interpret your business plan narrative and expertly compress your story into 10 to 20 pages of a quality pitch deck with little or no added charge for the upfront effort needed to digest your story. They will oversee the same graphic design resource to yield a perfect pitch deck.

 

• Cost: Mid-Range

• Duration: Light

• Impact: Ideal

• Design Excellence: Ideal

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