Writing a pitch deck is a critical skill that all business owners should learn. As you're growing your business, you will need to figure out how you plan to secure funding from investors to keep your company on track with its goals.

The main purpose behind your pitch deck is to raise money for your business. You’ll need to describe your business to investors and show them what makes you different and why you deserve their funding.

While you can add many different slides to your pitch deck, these are the 10 that you should always include.

1. Title Page

The title page is the first impression of your business to your potential investors. Include the company title, logo, and a tagline that explains your business.

The color scheme and fonts of your whole presentation are just as important as what you write. It sets the mood for your company and subsequent presentation. The fonts should be easy to read, and everything should be consistent throughout. Changing the scheme for every slide is confusing to the viewer and doesn't help establish an identity for your business.

2. Problem Slide

Before introducing how your business works, you'll want to explain the problem that your business solves or the market gap it fills.

For example, Dropbox started its problem slide by describing how difficult it is to share files from different computers and collaborate on files as a team. They presented a common problem that many people could relate to, before going on to show how their business can solve it.

3. Solution

Now that you've successfully established a problem for your audience, it's time to introduce your business. Describe your product or service and tell how it addresses these issues. You can even have a demo or pictures to give your audience the full experience. Make sure your product can solve all the problems mentioned in the previous slide. If not, you'll need to edit your problem slide to make it more relevant to your business’s skillset.

4. Target Market

You'll want to tell your investors how big of an opportunity they are facing by getting involved in your business. You should have research that shows how many people are in your addressable market and how much of it you've captured so far. If you're just starting your business and haven't secured any part of the market yet, you can show the market share of your competitors for comparison or describe what part of the market you plan to target first.

5. Business Model

Knowing your company's business model is also important for every business owner. You should be able to explain to investors how your company plans to make its money. You should know how much your business charges for your product or service, how many price plans it has, and what the company's expected revenue is.

6. Team

Now it's time to introduce your team and show what experience you all have. This establishes credibility for your company and shows why your potential investors should trust you with their money. For example, your head of accounting should have experience in finance and your creative director should have experience managing campaigns. You don't need to introduce every single person who works for you or with you, just the main players like founders or CFOs.

7. Milestones

This step is where you show what your company has accomplished so far and the progress you've been making. You don't want your investors to think that you just started this business yesterday and are relying on them to figure out the rest of your business plan for you. Important things to mention can be money raised, beta launches, public launches, active users, new features, and other things your business may have accomplished. You can show this information in a timeline, graph, or another format.

8. Financials

Your financial slide is one of the most important slides in your pitch deck. Investors will spend a lot of time looking at how you've spent your money so far and your projected spending and revenue for the next three to five years. Your projections for the next few years may not turn out exactly how you thought, but they should at least be reasonable, not overly optimistic or pessimistic.

9. Competition

This is a great time to show what makes your company different from other companies that offer similar products or services. You can compare users and growth, and make sure to mention any competitive advantages your company has over others. Making a positioning chart like those seen below can show how your business is unique. 

10. Call to Action

Here is the part of the pitch deck that people tend to forget about: the call to action.

You’ve set your business up for your investors, shown them there's a problem and you have a solution, so now's the time to ask for money. You should be prepared to tell the audience how much you need and what specifically you need it for. It can be helpful to have a list of everything you plan to spend the money on including equipment, marketing, or product development. Your ask should be reasonable, and you should be able to explain how this money will help your company reach its next milestone.

Writing your pitch deck and planning out your company's future can be time-consuming, but the reward is worth it. Securing an investor can be the key to turning your small business into the next big thing.