Business

5 Tips for Crafting Great Speeches and Presentations

Published

4 years ago

September 16, 2021

The ability to captivate an audience through your speech or presentation is a beneficial skill to have. Whether you are trying to climb the ladder at a company you work for or build out your own brand, great public speaking and presentation skills can certainly offer a lot of mileage. To help you make the most of the benefits that being a great public speaker has to offer, we’ll take a look at five presentation design tips for crafting speeches and presentations that are sure to wow your audience.

Tip #1: Know Your Idea and Your Audience

Before you can get started crafting an ovation-worthy presentation, you first need to form a firm understanding of the idea you are trying to convey and the audience that you are trying to convey it to. Every speech or presentation needs a point or a key message that it is meant to get across. Rambling on about various topics without providing your audience any key message(s) that they can take home with them certainly isn’t likely to win you any awards as a skilled orator.

In addition to forming a solid understanding of the message you would like to convey through your presentation, it’s also important to consider the audience that you are presenting to. A speech that is delivered to an audience of business executives, for example, obviously needs to be much different from a speech that is delivered at an amateur magicians convention – even if the message you are trying to get across is the same in both instances. By pinning down the message you are trying to convey and taking into account the audience that you are presenting it to, you can hone your presentation and message in a way that will be best received by your audience. A perfect business idea can enhance your business objectives.

Tip #2: Avoid Writing a Script

It can be tempting to write and follow a script when giving a speech. After all, a script ensures that you are able to deliver all of your thoughts without losing your place or getting sidetracked. The problem with scripts, though, is that it is easy to tell when someone is reading from one. Even if you happen to have a teleprompter that allows you to avoid staring down at a piece of paper throughout your entire speech, your audience will still probably be able to tell that you are reading from a script – and the quality of your speech is likely to suffer as a result.

If you feel the need to create something to help keep you on track during your speech, consider creating note cards that cover your speech’s key points and main ideas. Ideally, you will have practiced your speech enough times before you actually deliver it to a live audience that you don’t even need these note cards. Either way, though, they can still be a nice safety net to have and one that shouldn’t impact the quality of your speech in the way that reading from a script is prone to do.

Tip #3: Make Use of Visual Aids

Human beings are visual creatures. Visual ads increase your brand awareness in the mind of the audience more effectively. While it is certainly possible to deliver an amazing speech that only consists of you speaking to your audience, visual aids make it much easier to keep your audience entertained and engaged. If you are delivering a presentation as opposed to a speech, visual aids are a must. No one wants to watch a presentation that consists of slide after slide of nothing but written text. At the very least, you’ll want to include some relevant images on your slides. Sprinkling animations or short videos into your presentation design alongside the images you use is even better.

There’s a reason that television is more popular than radio. Even if you are gifted with a silver tongue and your speech is eloquent and captivating, your audience is sure to still enjoy something interesting to look at while they listen. Sprinkle some visual aids throughout your presentation and the quality of your presentation is almost certain to improve.

Tip #4: Inject Storytelling and Humor

Have you ever noticed that almost every speech – no matter the subject or the person presenting it – includes some degree of storytelling and/or humor? The reason why these elements appear in just about every speech (or at least the good ones) is quite simple – nothing keeps an audience engaged better than storytelling and humor. In fact, it’s even fair to say that most audiences are going to expect it from a speech.

Before you can inform your audience and deliver the point that you would like to get across that audience has to be engaged – and no matter how informative your speech might be, it’s difficult to engage an audience unless they are entertained. By telling them a story or injecting some humor into your speech, you can ensure that your audience is entertained and enjoying themselves. Ultimately, keeping your audience engaged and entertained is an important prerequisite for any great speech.

Tip #5: Learn From the Best

There’s no better way to learn a skill than studying the people who have mastered it, and public speaking is certainly no exception. If you would like to craft a speech or presentation that will be well-received, studying the tactics of master public speakers is definitely a great place to start. In some cases, you may be able to find resources written by great public speakers where they lay out their strategies for crafting a great speech. If not, even watching speeches from master public speakers is an excellent way to pick up tips and tools of the trade that you can apply to your own speech.

Research people who are renowned for their public speaking skills, watch a few of their speeches, and see if you can pick up on what it is that makes them great. Once you’ve pinned down some of the things that make these people so enjoyable to listen to, try and apply those same attributes to your own speech.

Business

Why Multi-Province Payroll Compliance Is the Hidden Challenge Canadian SMBs Face and How Folks Solves It

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2025

Matthew Wiles

Photo courtesy of: Folks

Byline: Shem Albert

Running payroll in Canada can feel like crossing a country stitched from many different fabrics. Each province weaves its own pattern of tax rules, leave policies, and benefit requirements, creating a landscape where a single misstep can ripple through every paycheck. For small and mid-sized businesses, the challenge often remains hidden until growth pushes hiring beyond provincial borders or brings remote workers into the fold. What seems like a routine back-office task quickly becomes a test of accuracy, timing, and local knowledge. This is the gap that Folks set out to close, offering a way for employers to navigate Canada’s regulatory patchwork without slowing their momentum.

Provincial Rules Add Complexity

Canada’s payroll environment varies sharply by province. Federal rules set the foundation, but provincial tax rates, deductions, statutory leave entitlements, and benefit premiums add layers of complexity that employers must monitor carefully. Small and mid-sized businesses with staff across provinces or remote employees face different tax tables, reporting deadlines, and leave calculations that directly affect pay accuracy and remittance schedules.

Folks built its payroll module to address these differences. The platform calculates the correct provincial tax rates and deductions for each employee, applying updates automatically so employers avoid misapplied withholdings or late filings. Multi-location tax management allows a company with workers in Ontario, Quebec, or several other provinces to process payroll without creating separate accounts for each jurisdiction. Bilingual functionality in English and French and secure Canadian data hosting support compliance while keeping employee records accessible across language and regional boundaries.

Unified Records Improve Accuracy

Payroll errors often stem from mismatched employee data. Changes in pay rates, banking details, or benefits eligibility may not align between HR and finance systems, creating incorrect deductions or delayed payments. Smaller teams juggling separate platforms spend valuable hours reconciling information instead of focusing on strategic work.

Folks resolves these issues by combining HR and payroll in one platform. Updates to wages, hours, or tax information entered on the HR side flow directly into payroll without re-entry. This single, verified record strengthens the accuracy of every payroll run and ensures employees receive the correct pay and deductions. By removing the need for repetitive administrative work, HR staff can redirect their time to tasks that support growth and employee engagement.

Automation Keeps Provinces in Step

Each province sets its own requirements for holiday pay, pay frequency, and statutory benefits, making manual calculations both time-consuming and error-prone. Businesses that expand or hire remote employees must keep pace with shifting provincial regulations or risk penalties and audit issues.

Folks address these demands with automation designed for Canada’s regulatory landscape. Pay statements, deduction calculations, and custom pay schedules follow the applicable provincial rules without extra configuration. The system’s automated updates mean that a company hiring staff in British Columbia or Quebec can meet local payroll standards without adding new layers of setup or monitoring. Employers gain the ability to expand into new regions while maintaining accurate, on-time pay.

Reporting Strengthens Compliance

Changing tax rates and reporting requirements require ongoing attention from HR and finance teams. Companies that rely on disconnected systems risk missing a provincial update or submitting incorrect remittances, which can lead to fines and interest charges.

Folks provides detailed reporting tools that compile payroll, deductions, and benefits information across all locations. Employers can generate clear remittance and deduction summaries, simplifying the process of meeting provincial filing requirements. For organizations that want additional guidance, Folks also offers a payroll management service that brings in-house specialists to assist with configuration, compliance, and regular updates. These reporting features help companies stay audit-ready and avoid costly compliance gaps.

Scalable Payroll for Expanding Businesses

Many small businesses begin in a single province, where local tax and payroll demands can be learned over time. Growth into new provinces or the decision to hire remote staff adds a level of complexity that manual processes cannot handle efficiently. Errors multiply, compliance risks rise, and payroll teams spend more time correcting mistakes than supporting expansion plans.

Folks provides payroll that scales with company growth. Provincial tax logic, automated deductions, bilingual support, and secure Canadian data storage are built directly into the platform. By maintaining an accurate employee record and applying province-specific rules automatically, the system allows Canadian SMBs to expand with fewer administrative surprises and more predictable payroll operations. Companies gain the stability of compliant payroll across provinces while controlling the time and costs that typically accompany multi-jurisdiction growth.