If you've taken a stab at writing a business plan before, you've probably heard the old mantra that the management summary is one of the most important parts of the document. To a certain extent, that's true.

But here's where a lot of well-meaning entrepreneurs go wrong: they assume their management summary is the sole source of information a potential investor or lender uses (aside from their credit report) to vet them.

It's pretty much a given that if an investor is going to hand over a large sum of money to you, they're going to make sure you're not 1) a criminal 2) bankrupt or 3) out of your mind. They do this several ways. Some VCs actually hire PIs, according to an article(subscription required) on the Dow Jones wire yesterday. Even if you're not pitching a multi-million dollar venture capital firm, chances are that whoever's writing the check is going to snoop around. It may sounds obvious, but try Googling yourself to see what it says about you on the net. Also, clean up your MySpace or Facebook profiles or set them to private. It never ceases to amaze me how many smart people post NSFW content up on their Facebook page, and then leave it there for the whole world—including potential lenders, investors, and their parents—to see. I'm not saying that those pictures of you from last Fourth of July are going to nix your chances of getting investment, it's just that you should make sure you know what face you're putting forward. You can bet that if the information's out there, someone's going to find it. And investors and lenders are hip to the fact that people lie. According Margo Evashevski, PI to the VCs:

"There are three things you often find on people's resumes," she said. "Embellishing, omitting and complete fantasy."