Once you understand the benefits and value of using a flip chart for all your business meetings, training sessions, formal presentations, and other speeches or lectures—as well as the value in developing your own flip chart skills—you may be wondering how to develop these skills so you can start using flip charts as an effective visual aid.

Fortunately, there are a number of visual training companies that offer hands-on training to individuals and companies who want to learn how to create and use their own flip charts. You’ll probably find a variety of companies online offering their “services” in flip chart success. How will you know which one to choose?

There are a number of key questions to ask each visual training company you are considering to make sure you know what each one is offering, what you are getting for your money, and so on. Be careful of the companies who only want to serve as your “crutch;” in other words, they want to sell you a bunch of products (like templates and tools) in such a way that you don’t really learn flip chart skills for yourself, and you have to keep spending your money on the company.

First, find out how much the training will cost. Don’t just pick the visual training company that’s the cheapest: find out exactly what you will get for their listed price, and then choose a company that offers high-quality training at a low price. Some specific items to look for include teaching practical skills, examples of charts, graphs, and diagrams, as well as electronic products (DVDs that are easy to use and mailed out are the simplest and most practical) and offline, interactive training courses.

Next, find out whether the visual training companies you are considering offer ongoing support and information (such as newsletters, e-mailed updates, etc.); stellar customer service via a toll-free phone number and e-mail address where you’re not waiting and waiting for a response; a money-back guarantee if for any reason you are not satisfied; and any additional products and/or services that may benefit your business or you as an individual.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, find out if you are dealing with an established, reputable, and proven business. You can ask the company questions about their number of years in business and customers yourself, but you may also wish to conduct some research about the company online. Visit forums, find out what others are saying about them, and verify their status with the Better Business Bureau.

Flip charts are highly relevant and effective visual aids that can be used to enhance essentially any type of oral presentation or meeting. If used properly and to their full advantage, flip charts can make these presentations more visually appealing, effective, relevant, interesting, and memorable, and will in effect help participants and listeners to absorb more of the presentation and retain the information later.

Flip charts are likely most commonly used in the business world and office workplace with respect to presentations, training sessions, and business meetings. However, the use of flip charts is certainly not restricted to these environments, despite what you may have thought, understood, or assumed. Flip charts can be used in all kinds of environments and in different situations for different purposes. Just think of any instance where there is a leader, speaker, or presenter giving any type of oral presentation (be it a speech, a lecture, a meeting, a lesson, a training session, a debate, a discussion, a brainstorming session) with a group of listeners or participants. In any of these instances, a flip chart could be used as a great visual aid.

For one example outside the traditional business/office environment, teachers—be they homeschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, elementary school teachers, junior high teachers, high school teachers, college instructors, or university professors—can and do make great use of flip charts for their lessons, either in addition to or as an alternative to the chalkboard. One of the benefits for teachers in using flip charts instead of the chalkboard is the permanency factor—what’s on the chalkboard can (and does) get erased, whereas charts, graphs, maps, posters, and diagrams created on a flip chart are permanent and can be put up around the classroom for students to remember.

Students themselves can also use flip charts at school. Younger students can practice their writing, spelling, drawing, and even painting skills, and older students can learn flip chart skills and techniques and practice them, and use them for their own presentations in front of small groups or the entire class.

As you can see, the when and where of using flip charts really has no bounds.

Brainstorming sessions are essential when it comes to identifying the best plan of action for developing new products, creating a five year plan, organizing an advertising campaign and even for planning meetings. The challenge is that sometimes, the best of ideas are not easy to communicate.

If you have a fantastic idea during a brainstorming session, you need to be sure that you can get others on board. Sometimes, words aren’t going to be quite enough.

Storyboards and other visual tools can help you to make sure that you’re getting everyone on board. With storyboards, you can show the ways in which where you are now with a few changes will get you to where you want to be.

Focusing on bringing everyone together and making sure that their opinions can be taken into consideration as well allows your organization to function more effectively. When you are able to come together and focus on getting results - and everyone is on the same page - you’ll be astounded by just how far you can go.

In a number of businesses, it is essential that quarterly reports are prepared and presented to show what the goals initially were, what’s been done to help reach them and to identify the best course of action for the future.

Unfortunately, not all quarterly reports are created equally. Some miss key details. Some fail to take into consideration the issues with staff members that may have contributed to a slow down in production.

With storyboards, you’ll find that you are able to look at the way all of the things that went on throughout the quarter so that you can put the pieces together. With storyboards, you’ll be able to look at the whole story and to be sure that you are telling it appropriately.

More importantly, when you use storyboards to help you to create the quarterly reports that you need, you will want to be sure that you also look at small changes that you could have made. After all, part of the reason why quarterly reports are used is to create a plan for the next quarter.

You’ll be able to use storyboards to focus on the big picture and, in the result, you’ll even be able to create a presentation that everyone will appreciate.

Consistency is essential within most businesses. In a restaurant, every meal needs to be prepared as well as the others; every ingredient needs to be the same within the dish on Thursday night as it was on Monday or Saturday. When your business involves manufacturing, everything needs to go smoothly. If you bottle beverages, you need to be sure that each is filled with the same volume.

But there are other consistencies that you need to ensure as well. You need to know that meetings will run smoothly and all of the major topics will be covered. You need to know that everyone on staff within a certain position will receive the same training.

Storyboards will enable you to look at the ways in which all of the elements of your business go together. With storyboarding, you will be able to focus on the way different elements go together and you will be able to communicate more effectively with everyone on staff.

Clear communication and a strong understanding of both goals and accomplishments are essential when you need to establish consistency. Shouldn’t you be sure that you have a strong grasp on the situation so that it can be communicated to your staff?