AllBusiness.com frequently has interesting and helpful articles and I especially liked this one: 8 Collateral Marketing Items Every Small Business Needs..

Sometimes it's helpful to have a checklist of the things you should have for your small business, to see if you are fully stocked with the necessary items to spread the word about your brand. The 8 items are:

1. Company Fact Sheet
2. Product Fact Sheet
3. Bios on Founders and Senior Management
4. Mission Statement (I actually have an opinion about this - see my article on Mission or Mantra)
5. Company Background
6. Current List of Clients/Partners
7. Press Kit, which should include:
- folder with company logo
- personalized letter pitching your company
- company fact sheet
- product fact sheet
- press release(s)
- articles written about your company
- business card
- company background
8. Clip File

Remember, when you are compiling these items that they should all have a similar look and feel - use your company logo, tag line and company colors on all of the items.

If at all possible - use the services of a graphic artist to create a professional look.

The key is to have enough on hand (not a ton so they become obsolete) but enough so that when you encounter a prospect, you can easily provide a professional image to them. There's nothing worse than someone saying "yeah, send me something" and then you spent a frantic hour hunting material down to stuff in an envelope.

So how many of the 8 do you have? Which do you use most often?