Executive Summary and Business Plan Outlines
Introduction
The most significant single section of a business plan intended for outsiders is the Executive
Summary.
Venture-capital investors, bankers, and corporate investment officials typically receive many
business plans each week-more than they could possibly read from beginning to end. To help
them determine which plans they should spend time analyzing, financiers invariably begin by
reading the Executive Summary. If the Executive Summary suggests a promising business for
investment or loan funds, the experts read further. If not, they quickly reject the plan. Essential
information has no value if it is buried away in a later section and the reader never gets that far.
Your objective in the Executive Summary, then, is to entice and convince investors to study your
business plan further.
Keys to an Effective Executive Summary
What makes for an enticing Executive Summary? First, it is important to remember that it is not
a preface to or abstract of the business plan. Rather, it is a much-shortened version. It is the
business plan in the most concise form possible.
An effective Executive Summary describes all of the key elements of a business plan in two
pages or less. It must include the following essential information:
• A synopsis of the company's strategy for succeeding
• A brief description of the market (along with the ingredients for success that make your
company unique in that market
• A brief description of the product or service
• A brief description of the management team's qualifications that make the company
successful (be sure to include a description of your team's contributions to previous
successful business ventures)
• A capsule summary of key historical and forecasted financial data, such as annual
revenue and net income, for five years
• An estimate of the amount of venture capital or loan funds you need and a statement of
how you will use the money
If all this sounds like a lot to explain cl