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The Basics every business needs

  • Business
  • 3 min read

The attention span of a gnat…

That’s the phrase that comes to mind when I review what investors today will be willing to review – not much.  So what does each company need in order to effectively communicate with internal employees, prospective clients (“clients” denote a higher level service than “customer“), current clients, prospective investors, and current shareholders of their business?

Business Needs

Here’s what we believe each business needs at a minimum:

  1. Mission Statement
  2. Business Plan (this is outside our discussion today, so this si just a place holder)
  3. Brochure – 1 pager
  4. Pitch deck
  5. Website
  6. LinkedIn company page
  7. Facebook company page (every company doing a Reg CF campaign needs one)
  8. Twitter company page (every company doing a Reg CF campaign needs one)
  9. Bank account
  10. Dun & Bradstreet (‘D&B‘) number
  11. Corporate entity (yes, you need to incorporate)

And the things that every business person should have with them in person when they meet a prospective client, employee, or investor:

  1. Business card (make it interesting and blank on back so they can write on it)
  2. Brochure – 1 pager printed on glossy paper (here are a number of examples, including our crowdfunding brochure and reorganization brochure)

These items are just tools and if no one ever looks at them it wasn’t a waste of money nor time – prospects don’t think you’re real if you don’t have these.  And for you personally, you need:

  1. Personal e-mail
  2. LinkedIn personal profile

Mission Statement

A company’s mission statement should be known by everyone associated with the company, should be concise and simple enough for everyone to understand.  Mission statements answer the following:

  • WHO our clients are,
  • WHAT we do for our clients,
  • HOW we do the “what” for our clients,
  • WHERE we do the “what” for our clients,
  • WHEN we do the “what“, and probably the most important
  • WHY we do the “what” for our “who“.

If you can’t say them in less than 20 seconds, they are not concise.  Use small words that everyone understands – this can take a long time to get this right, but it will pay huge dividends if you get it right.

Pitch Deck

Most often this is the only thing that prospective investors will see about your company. It needs to be concise, have a frame of reference that is general enough to appeal to investors you seek, and conveys the “gotcha points” of your business plan.  Don’t try to make convey every single piece of information that your business plan details either.  I like to ensure that the following slides are in the pitch deck:

  1. Title – include logo
  2. Mission Statement
  3. Problem
  4. Services & Products
  5. Market
  6. Competition
  7. Team – management (officers, directors) and key employees or advisers
  8. Business Model – this is the “HOW” in your mission statement
  9. Financials – include 3 historical years and 3 future forecast years 
  10. Milestones – include 5 to 10 past milestones and 3 to 5 future milestones
  11. Offering
  12. Exit Strategy
  13. Contacts
  14. Forward Looking Statements – boiler plate

Of course there are many other slides that could be added, and you can include multiple slides for each of the subjects listed above, but you need to answer the questions posed by each of the subjects.

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