Business one-pager: how to write one and practice the pitch

A business one-pager is a single page that tells someone new what you sell, who buys it, what they use today, what evidence you have and what you want from them. Write a first version in an evening. Then say it out loud to three different people and rewrite it after each one.

This guide is for a small physical-product business that will sell online with pre-orders. Its one-pager is mostly read by suppliers, shops, partners and early backers, rarely by venture investors.

One-pager, one-page business plan or pitch deck?

A one-page business plan is written for you. The US Small Business Administration says lean startup plans are "typically only one page" and use a handful of elements to describe your value proposition, infrastructure, customers and finances. A common version is the Lean Canvas, a one-page business model template Ash Maurya created in 2010. Both hold costs and guesses you wouldn't hand to a stranger.

A pitch deck is for investors in a meeting. Sequoia publishes its outline as Writing a Business Plan, though the page calls it a guide to pitching: ten short headings that run from company purpose and the problem to financials and what you expect to have built in five years.

A business one-pager is for someone outside the business. They can read it in two minutes and keep it, and it ends with a request for them.

A worked example: a self-watering herb planter

The product, people and numbers are invented and round. A founder who spent six years working at a garden center is making a glazed ceramic planter with a water tank in its base. You drop a supermarket herb pot into it and refill the tank every two weeks. It sells for $38. The first production run is 500 units, and she plans to open pre-orders in March.

1. Decide who will read it first

List the people whose yes you need in the next three months. Each one reads the page for something different.

The core page stays the same for all four, and only the last section changes.

2. Write a first version in six short sections

Keep it to one side of one page, about 300 words. Use these sections, in this order:

1. The product and its price, in one or two sentences, named the way you would say it aloud.
2. Who it's for and when the problem shows up. Name one group, the beachhead market you will sell to first.
3. What they do about it now and why that falls short.
4. Evidence so far, with a number next to each kind, so a reader can tell people you spoke to from people who signed up and people who paid.
5. Who is making it, in one sentence.
6. What you are asking this reader for.

Your costs and margins stay off the core page. A factory or a shop may need some of them, so put those in that reader's version only. If a section is hard to write, the decision behind it is probably still open, such as an unsettled price. Settle that first.

The founder's first version, shortened:

What it is: a self-watering herb planter for kitchen windowsills, $38.



Who it's for: people who cook most nights and buy potted herbs from the supermarket, then throw them out when they wilt.



What they do now: buy a new pot every couple of weeks, or try to remember to water it.



Evidence: 14 conversations; 9 people said they throw out at least one herb pot a month. 60 people want one.



Who: six years at a garden center.



The ask: tell me what you think.

3. Explain it to a friend who works in another field

Don't show them the page. Tell them what the product is in a sentence or two, then stop and let them ask questions. At the end, ask them to describe it back to you as if they were telling someone else, and note what they get wrong.

The founder's friend asked whether it plugged in and needed an app, because "self-watering" made him think of an electronic indoor garden. He also asked why people don't just water the pot. She knew the answer from her interviews (a small supermarket pot on a sunny sill can dry out in a day), but it wasn't on the page.

4. Describe it to someone who might buy one

Pick someone from the group you named in section 2, such as a person on your waitlist. If you interviewed people like them earlier using the Mom Test, you kept the product out of those conversations. This time, describe the product and give the price, then let them ask.

The founder talked to a waitlist member who buys basil most weeks. Her first question was whether $38 was worth it when a basil pot costs $4. Her second was whether her supermarket pot would fit or she'd have to repot it. She also assumed herbs came in the box.

If you ask whether they would buy one, count a yes as interest. A sign-up from someone who has seen the price counts for more, and a payment counts most. The guide to testing demand before you build ranks each kind of signal.

5. Take the page to a shop, supplier or backer

Choose the reader from step 1 whose yes you need next, and this time bring the page.

The founder went to the owner of a kitchen shop. The owner asked for the wholesale price, how many came in a case, when stock would arrive and how a shopper would know the planter waters itself when it sits on a shelf. Then she pointed at "60 people want one" and asked how many had paid. None had: all 60 were waitlist sign-ups.

The founder changed the page after each conversation:

Every new line was something the founder already knew. She had measured the herb pots at two supermarkets and sized the inner pot to take them, and $19 is half the retail price. When a listener asks for something the product doesn't do, note it for a later version and keep it off the page.

6. Keep one page and change the ask for each reader

Write a separate last section for each reader in step 1. The factory version names the 500-unit first order and says it will be placed once pre-orders cover it. The backer version says how much is needed and what happens to the money if pre-orders fall short.

Once pre-orders open, the count of paid pre-orders replaces the waitlist as your strongest line.

Draper's Pitch Your Company workshop drafts the page from the decisions you made in earlier workshops, then plays a friend and a likely customer so you can practice answering their questions before the real conversations.

How to write an elevator pitch from your one-pager

An elevator pitch is the spoken version of the top of the page. ZenBusiness's guide to elevator pitches puts it at 30 seconds or less. Take sections 2, 3 and 1 in that order (who has the problem, what they do now, what you make), add your strongest evidence, and end with the ask for that listener.

The founder's shop version, after the three conversations:

You know the $4 basil from the supermarket that's dead in two weeks? I'm making a ceramic planter with a water tank in the base. You drop the pot straight in and refill it every two weeks. No plug, no app. Sixty people have joined the waitlist, and pre-orders open in March. Could I leave a sample with you for a week?

It is 62 words. Time yours out loud, and change only the last sentence for each reader.

When a one-pager is the wrong document

• A venture fund will expect a deck with market size, financials and a long-term vision, along the lines of Sequoia's list.
• For a bank loan, the SBA says lenders commonly ask for a traditional business plan, which can be dozens of pages long.
• If you can't fill in the who, the alternative or the price yet, writing the page won't settle them. Go back to those decisions, then write it.
• If you need nothing yet from a supplier, shop or backer, skip the page and practice the elevator pitch on buyers.

Related questions

The opening line of the page is your value proposition, and value proposition examples shows how to write one.