Persuade Investors with Better Business Executive Summaries

Summaries are important because they save people time and effort. They simplify details for readers, and they include only the source material’s most important details.

If you’re having difficulty writing a business executive summary, don’t fret. This guide will explain business executive summaries and their importance. It will also teach you how to write each section properly.

What is a Business Executive Summary?

A business executive summary is a more concise description of a full business plan. A business executive summary highlights the core business strategy and is as clear and concise as possible for the reader.

The Executive Summary is typically about one to two pages in length. It explains the reason for the report and includes conclusions and recommendations. It is also called a business plan summary.

A business executive summary should contain these crucial details:

• Details about your business
• The problems it addresses
• Your target market
• Financial highlights
• Your company’s market position
• Funding needs

Executive summaries condense and simplify the information found in the original business plan for the consumption of investors, bankers, and partners. 

The Importance of an Executive Summary

An executive summary separates internal information from those you’re willing to share with investors. Most times, people read only the summaries of long texts, while others read them before deciding whether to read the rest of the plan.

Many investors decide whether your business plan has potential by reading its executive summary. As with all summaries, executive summaries contain only important and relevant information.

It’s also a way to control the information you share with investors. You wouldn’t want to accidentally share critical company information with people who may or may not work with you.

Think of executive summaries as grant proposals.

Tips for Writing a Business Executive Summary

Executive summaries can be challenging to write because you need to determine which information you can provide. This simple guide contains some tips you can use to write an executive summary. It will cover each section and describe the type of content you need to include in them.

Business Solution

The most important part of your summary is your business solution. It contains a brief description of your product and explains its necessity. Not all products need to affect a major societal change, but they all need to solve a customer’s problems. This section should focus on highlighting a business opportunity and must convince investors that your product will have a steady demand.

Target Market Description

Your target market description helps investors visualize your most likely customers. Identifying and describing your target demographic also sets the tone for your marketing campaign and your marketing angles.

Competitors

This section describes potential market rivals and describes how you intend to differentiate yourself from competitors. It’s a way to help investors gauge the benefits and risks of working with your business. It also gives contextual data into your chances of success.

Different investors have varying risk appetites, and this information will help them determine whether your business risks are within acceptable parameters.

Financial Overview

Financial overviews highlight the financial state of your company. It also includes a sales forecast for the foreseeable future. We recommend using a highlights chart and bar chart with a sales and gross margin for easy reading.

Funding Needs

Your funding needs refer to the amount of money your business needs to be able to execute your business plan. Investors will often want to know about upfront costs right away because this determines whether the opportunity you’re offering matches their risk appetite.

In Summary

Writing a business executive summary can be challenging if you don’t have a clear format in mind. Remember that the point of a summary is to condense and simplify information for your reader. Business executive summaries are also a way to control the information you share with prospective investors.

Feel free to consult this guide again if you need a bit of help. Just remember that executive summaries are meant to help investors understand the opportunity you’re offering them.