The Essential Business Toolkit

Investors today have the attention span of a gnat. They’ll review very little, and what they do review has to make the case fast. The same goes for employees, prospective clients, current clients and shareholders. (We say “clients” rather than “customers” because clients get a higher level of service.) Each of these audiences needs to understand your business quickly and clearly. That takes a basic set of communication tools, a mission statement anyone can repeat and a pitch deck that gets straight to the point.

What Every Business Needs

Before your business can communicate well, it has to look real. The foundation is covered in our article Funding Structures: Building a Business That Can Borrow on Its Own: forming an LLC, opening a business bank account, registering a domain with business email, getting a D-U-N-S Number and ordering business cards. With that foundation in place, the next step is the set of tools you’ll use to tell your story.

Some of these tools may never get looked at, and that’s fine. They aren’t a waste of time or money. Without them, prospects won’t believe you’re real.

At a minimum, every business needs:

• A mission statement
• A business plan (a topic for an upcoming article)
• A one-page brochure
• A pitch deck
• A website that presents the business clearly
• A LinkedIn company page
• A Facebook company page and an X (formerly Twitter) company page. Every company running a Reg CF campaign needs both.

When you meet a prospective client, employee or investor in person, bring two things. The first is your business card. Make it interesting, and leave the back blank so people can write notes on it. The second is a one-page brochure printed on glossy paper.  Personally, you also need a professional email address and an up-to-date LinkedIn profile.

The Mission Statement

Everyone connected with your company should know its mission statement. It should be short and simple enough for anyone to understand. A strong mission statement answers six questions:

• Who are our clients?
• What do we do for them?
• How do we do it?
• Where do we do it?
• When do we do it?
• Why do we do it? This is probably the most important one.

If you can’t say it in under 20 seconds, it’s too long. Use small words everyone understands. Getting it right can take a long time, but a clear mission statement pays off in every conversation you have about your business.

The Pitch Deck

Your pitch deck is often the only thing a prospective investor will ever see about your company. It needs to be short and relatable to the investors you’re targeting, and it should hit the key selling points of your business plan. Don’t try to fit in every detail from the plan. Your job is to make investors want the next conversation.

Make sure the deck includes these slides:

1. Cover: company name, logo and a one-line tagline
2. Our Mission: your mission statement
3. Challenge to Be Addressed: the problem your clients face, and why it matters now
4. What Makes Us Unique: your services and products, and the results only you deliver
5. Market Opportunity and Focus Areas: the size of the market and the sectors you’ll target first
6. Competitive Advantage: how you compare with the alternatives your clients have today
7. Team: officers, board of directors and key advisors
8. Business Model: how you make money, which is the “how” from your mission statement
9. Financial Model: unit economics, 3 years of history and 3 years of forecasts
10. Milestones: 5 to 10 past milestones and 3 to 5 future ones
11. Financing and Use of Proceeds: the round’s terms and how you’ll spend the money
12. Exit Strategy: how investors will get their return
13. Contact Us: names, titles, phone numbers and email addresses
14. Forward-Looking Statements and Sources: standard legal language, plus where your market data comes from

You can add more slides or use several slides for one topic. Whatever you include, the deck has to answer the question each topic raises.

Summary

With so little attention from investors and prospects, your business has to show it’s real right away and explain itself quickly. Once the foundation from Funding Structures is in place, a complete set of communication tools builds credibility. A short mission statement keeps everyone on the same message, and a focused pitch deck turns a quick look into real interest.

• Build on a solid foundation. Your LLC, bank account, domain and D-U-N-S Number (covered in Funding Structures) come first.
• Show up everywhere prospects look. Have a brochure, a pitch deck, a website and company pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.
• Keep the mission simple. Answer who, what, how, where, when and why in under 20 seconds.
• Pitch the highlights. A 14-slide deck should cover the key points of your business plan without every detail.