meaning of executive summary in business plan

“Investors will read the executive summary to decide if they will even bother reading the rest of the business plan. It’s rare for an investor or lender to read an entire business plan, at least in the initial stages of analysis and consideration for funding,” says Eric Markowitz , Inc.com Staff Writer.

Keep your goals and purpose in mind when writing your executive summary.

If your business is a startup, the purpose of your business plan (and executive summary) will likely be to get banks or investors to provide you with financing. So, when writing your executive summary, highlight the financial requirements of your business and why your business is worthy of funding.

If you're a more established business owner, then your executive summary will talk more about your achievements, evolution, and goals for the future.

How to write an executive summary for a business plan

Your business's executive summary should be as short as possible, ideally only one or two pages long.

Remember that you're vouching for yourself and your business in your executive summary, so make sure your language is confident and positive!

Bad example : We might not be the best or the most established protein powder brand, but we probably have the most passion and love out of all our competitors.

Good example: With some vegan protein powder products on the market currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.

It's best practice to avoid talking about more fluffy, subjective points and cliches (like passion, hard work, etc.) so you can focus more on the practical information and facts your readers want to know about (like why they should actually invest or partner with your business). You also want to seem confident in yourself and your business, so avoid words like "might," "maybe," or "could" and opt for more definitive words, like "will"!

Remember that your executive summary should fill in the blanks for your readers. Keep your target audience in mind and try to answer their questions, rather than create new ones, or they may get confused and stop reading. Give them a reason not to go back to checking their current value of Bitcoin.

"Put yourself in the business plan reader's shoes and think about what you would like to know in the report," Marius Thauland, business strategist at Leiekontor, told Business News Daily . "Get their attention by making it simple and brief yet still professional. It should also attract them to read the entire document to understand even the minute details."

There's no specific way to order the different sections of your executive summary, but you'll want to put the most important information or your strongest points first . The first sentence and paragraph of your executive summary is especially important, since these are what will reel your readers in.

We'll give you an idea of how to do this below.

What to include in the executive summary of your business plan

Questions to ask in your executive summary: Who's your competition?; Is there demand?; Who's running your business?; Who's your target audience?; How will you launch your business?

Despite being the first page of your business plan, it’s a good idea to write your executive summary section last. This trick allows you to get a clear picture of what specific material from the full business plan you need to introduce in the executive summary. So if you haven't written the rest of your business plan yet, stop, maybe check out our articles on writing a business plan (wink wink nudge nudge), and come back here once you're done.

Since the goal of a business plan is to persuade the reader to invest in your business, your executive summary needs to demonstrate why this investment would be a smart financial decision. The kicker is: you need to do all of this in 1-2 pages.

To get started, The Balance Small Business suggests including the following eight sections. Choose the topics most relevant to your business and write one or two sentences about each of them. And remember to order them from most important to least important! ‍

1. Business opportunity

What demand or need is there for your business and how will you meet this demand? Talk about a problem or a gap in the market, and why your business alone has all the answers. ‍

2. Target market

What demographic do you intend to reach as your customer base? Who's going to be buying your product? ‍

3. Business model

Use this part to give more juicy details about your business idea. What products or services will your business offer, and what makes them desirable? ‍

4. Marketing/Sales strategy

What will your methods be to create brand recognition for these products or services? You might want to consider marketing techniques like social media, paid media, or email marketing. ‍

‍ 5. Competition

Give your readers the low-down of your industry. What businesses will you compete with for market share, and what does your business offer that your competitors do not? How big and competitive is your industry? How will you stand out against other small businesses? Are there any industry trends you should bring up? ‍

6. Financial analysis

Investors and banks will be especially interested in this part. What is your plan to manage your business finances, and what is your projected revenue for the first three years of your business? You should go into detail about how you will distribute your funding and spell out what your investors will get out of it. ‍

7. Owners/Staff

In this section, you can give a brief overview of your business's history. Who are the owners and lead staff members of your business and what important skills or credentials do they bring? ‍

8. Implementation plan

What is your framework and timeline to move from a concept to launching an actual business?

Effective executive summary examples

Sitting down to start writing an executive summary and putting all the pieces together can be challenging .

To think about it differently, you might consider grouping the above details into a few specific categories: ‍

Mission statement

What are the core values and central purpose of your business? ‍

Executive summary/business plan example: Vegan Protein Blitz

Company: Vegan Protein Blitz: Animal-free protein powder ‍

Our Mission

Vegan Protein Blitz: Animal-Free Protein Powder offers 25 grams of protein per serving without any use of animal protein—similar to, and in many cases, more than, the average amount of protein in similar products. We intend to appeal to those within the fitness community who are looking for a great-tasting protein powder without compromising on the amount of protein per serving. With some vegan protein powder products on the market currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.

The Company and Management

Vegan Protein Blitz: Animal-Free Protein Powder was founded in 2018 by Sarah Bailey, a certified personal trainer and former food scientist, who couldn’t find a vegan protein powder that tasted good and provided the amount she needed to fuel her fitness routine. Her kitchen is based in San Diego, California, where she employs two full-time employees and three part-time employees.

Along with Sarah Bailey, Vegan Protein Blitz: Animal-Free Protein Powder has a board of advisors. The advisors are:

Our Product

We offer animal-free protein powder that is made with all-natural sugar sources and no preservatives. Our customers are health-conscious and serious about fueling their bodies with animal-free whole foods. We plan to grow quickly, with an initial goal of building a full-time marketing team of fitness advocates and professionals who understand the industry and our customers’ needs.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are other vegan protein powders on the national market, there are none that are made with all-natural sugar and with a comparable amount of protein as that of an animal-based powder. With the expertise of our founder Sarah Bailey, we also stand out as a company that truly understands the audience. Please see our market research (Section 3) for more information on why consumers are demanding this expertise.

Financial Considerations

Our sales projections for the first year are $600,000 with a 10% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 55% gross margins and will have ten full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $60,000 USD.

Startup Financing Requirements

We are seeking to raise $250,000 in startup funds to finance the first year. The owner has invested $40,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $80,000 to supplement the rest.

More executive summary templates

Need more business plan examples, or ready to create your own executive summary with a template? Here are a few we found around the web:

Final tips for writing an executive summary

Earning investor interest in your business is critical to getting access to the things your business will need to succeed, and a solid executive summary can help you do that. Writing your full business plan first can help you get clarity on the strongest key points of your business proposal, which you can use to build out your executive summary.

Most importantly, keep this section of your business plan straightforward and concise, making it easy for the reader to understand what you’re doing and why it matters.

Brush up on your writing skills

You're an entrepreneur, and you probably didn't start your business to write business plans . Free online editing tools and resources like Hemingway and Grammarly can help you punch up and polish your writing. Just copy and paste your executive summary into the software, and it will let you know where your writing needs to be more clear.

Get to the point

Remember what we said about keeping it short? We mean it. Even if there's a really clever sentence that you're super proud of, it's gotta go if it doesn't contribute to your summary. You don't want to give too much detail (that's what the rest of your business plan is for!) or repeat yourself.

Always proofread your work a couple of times before calling it a day! Reading your executive summary out loud can help you identify awkward phrasing and catch any typos you might have missed. Another idea is to copy and paste it into a text-to-speech program to hear what it sounds like out loud. It also helps to print out your executive summary and edit the physical document, which helps you see it from a fresh perspective.

Get feedback

If you have a kind friend, family member, or fellow business owner, you should ask them to take a look at your executive summary/business plan and give their constructive criticism. If they understand your goals and plan and seem excited about your idea, that's a good sign! If they give your business plan back to you with a bunch of red marks and a confused look on their faces, that's probably a sign for you to make sure your executive summary flows more logically.

Once your business is off the ground, Wave will be ready and waiting for you. Send free invoices, get paid, track expenses, pay your team, and balance your books with our beginner-friendly financial management software.

The information and tips shared on this blog are meant to be used as learning and personal development tools as you launch, run and grow your business. While a good place to start, these articles should not take the place of personalized advice from professionals. As our lawyers would say: “All content on Wave’s blog is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice.” Additionally, Wave is the legal copyright holder of all materials on the blog, and others cannot re-use or publish it without our written consent.

Everything you need to write a killer executive summary for your business plan

What is Executive Summary—and Why Should You Care?

Executive Summary is the first and most important section of a business plan, providing a snapshot of the overall plan with the aim to compel the reader to continue reading the full document by highlighting its most important components and strengths .

Keep reading for insider tips from a professional business writer on how exactly to write a captivating executive summary that will maximize the impact and success of your business plan.

You’ll discover:

Importance: Why is Executive Summary Important in a Business Plan?

Executive summary is the most important part of a business plan because it is the first and only opportunity to grab readers’ interest as they review this section prior to deciding whether or not to read the rest of the document.

No matter how excellent your business idea, it is the executive summary alone that persuades a reader to spend more time with the plan to find out more about your venture.

Some financiers receive hundreds of business plans every month. Understandably, they do not read them all . Instead, they can tell in a couple of paragraphs if it is something they may be interested in.

The Executive Summary is so important, in fact, that some investors and lenders prefer to receive just the summary and financials before requesting the full business plan. So if you can hook your readers here, they will ask for more.

In other words, your Executive Summary is the first impression many readers will get of your business. Make sure it is a great one. Only a clear , concise , and compelling summary of your business right up front twill persuade readers to wade through the rest of the plan.

Contents: What Should an Executive Summary for a Business Plan Include?

Executive summary brings the separate parts of a business plan together to sum up what the business is, where it is going, why it will be successful – and why it is worthy of backing . Highlight the most important and impressive facts about the company , management , offering , market , strategy and financials .

When completed, your executive summary will answer these questions for your readers:

Executive summary is an introduction to your business, which provides a brief snapshot of your plan as a whole. To that end, concisely highlight the most important concepts and impressive features from each section of your completed plan, addressing the following areas:

Essentially, you should make it crystal clear to the that a compelling market opportunity exists for your product/service and demonstrate that your business is well-positioned to exploit it .

Remember to be brief and concise . Organize the information in a way that gives the best impression of your business to your target reader. Combine related topics if that improves the flow of the document.

If the readers of your executive summary conclude that the above elements exist in your business, they are likely to commit to reading the rest of your business plan.

So, let’s examine each of the key elements in more detail to make the reader excited about the potential of your business plan and interested to read further:

Mission Statement

Answer this question for your readers:

What is your business on a mission to create and why?

Aim: Convince the reader that your basic business concept makes sense.

Give a concise overview of your business idea, purpose and goals. Summarize why you have created this company and what your business is all about in one or two sentences, but no more than a paragraph.

Products and Services

Answer these questions for your readers:

Aim: Demonstrate to the reader that your product/service solves a real problem in the market and that the problem is worth solving.

Briefly describe the products and services your company provides and what problems you solve for your target customers, making the case for why your product will be successful:

Description:

List the products or services your company sells or plans to sell.

Problem & Solution:

Explain the need for the products or services:

Value Proposition:

Outline why your product or service will be valuable to your customers and the advantages that will make it compelling enough for them to purchase.

Market Opportunity

Aim: Convince the reader that large and compelling market demand opportunity exists for your product/service.

List the target market you intend to reach and explain why you chose it:

Target Market:

Provide a brief description of your ideal customers and how do they break down into recognizable types or segments.

Market Analysis:

Indicate that you have done thorough market analysis by providing a summary of your market research results, including:

Competitive Advantage

Aim: Convince the reader that your business has a significant competitive edge to succeed in your target market.

This section is where you describe the gap in your target market, how your solution can fill it, and the competitive advantages that will enable you to exploit this market gap.

Hence, include information about your competition and what differentiates your business:

Competitors and Market Distribution:

Who are you up against? What other options do your customers have to address their needs? Indicate the nature of your competition and how the market is currently divided.

Competitive Advantage:

What comparative advantage does your product/service have?

Show your conclusions on your company’s competitive position and why your company will be able to compete successfully. Remember to list any important distinctions, such as patents, major contracts, or letters-of-intent.

Unique Selling Proposition:

What unique selling proposition will help your business succeed?

What makes your solution better for your customers compared to the competition?

Is competition going to get tougher?

Summarize your conclusions on whether competition is going to intensify going forward.

Company Description

Company information:.

Aim: Convince the reader that your business has the right structure and capable management team in place to succeed.

Your goal is to demonstrate that you are well-positioned to exploit the market opportunity by highlighting the positive factors in your company’s management, structure and history.

Company Details:

Include a short statement that covers the basic company details, such as the company name, when your business was formed, the names of the founders and their roles, number of employees, business location(s), and legal status.

Stage of Development:

State whether your company is a startup or continuing business, when it was founded, how far along the product or service is in its creation, and if you’ve already made sales or started shipping.

Track Record:

Management:

Briefly describe the bios of the key members of your management team , particularly those of company founders/owners , as well as the key professional advisors .

What do they bring to the table that will position your company well to take advantage of the market opportunity and make the business a success?

Highlight management’s vision and passion , along with the relevant skills , experience , qualifications , subject-matter expertise , business acumen , industry connections and other capabilities as they relate to the venture.

Operations:

Showcase the key operational features that will give the business a competitive edge.

This could include anything from an advantageous location, through innovative manufacturing technology and processes, to preferential supplier and distribution agreements – and anything in between.

Outline the strategy to achieve the company’s goals and continuously strengthen its competitive position.

Next, indicate the keys to success that you intend to use in order to implement that strategy, such as:

Address your plans for where you would like to take your business in the future.

Spell out the objectives you have for the company, what you plan to do:

Make an educated projection for the expected performance of your business, including:

Financial Forecast

Summarize the expected financial outlook and performance for your business, answering the following questions for your readers:

In general, it is customary to indicate financial information for years one through three or five , depending on the requirements of the business plan reader. Typically, this includes Year 1 and Year 3 / 5 results; and Year 10 / long-term goals.

However, your readers can find the detail of the projected financials further on in the plan. In this section, only provide the highlights of your forecast and encourage the reader to keep reading to learn more about your company.

Funding Requirements

How will you fund your business to get it started and grow it to the next level?

If the business does not require any outside financing, you can note that here or just remove this section from your plan altogether.

When you are using the business plan for financing purposes, explain how much money is needed, from whom, and how you will utilize it to grow your business, hinting at an exit opportunity:

Tips: How Do You Write an Executive Summary?

Writing an executive summary is arguably the most fun – and important – part of writing a business plan.

You have already completed all the research, thinking and writing about market demand, competition, strategy, operations and financials.

All that is left to do now is to summarize the key conclusions into a coherent narrative , answering the million-dollar question:

Why is your plan worthy of backing?

Here are 7 tried and tested tips to prepare a compelling summary of your business that will convince the readers to read through the rest of your plan:

Target Audience (Tip #1)

Ask yourself: “Who will be reading my business plan?”

Since the summary is what the reader reads first, and may be the only section read at all, you can significantly improve your chances of a positive reception if you know the answer to that question before you prepare your executive summary.

Remember, your reader is only going to spend a few minutes , or even seconds , on your executive summary. This is especially true if you are targeting busy investors or lenders for whom it is not unusual to review more than 1,000 each year.

Naturally, the readers are going to focus on the issues that interest and concern them most . If you understand their priorities, you will be better able to craft the summary to “push the right buttons”. For example:

Do your homework to discover the interests and concerns of your most likely business plan recipients, and then write and organize the summary in a way that most appeals to your target audience:

If you are not able to identify the specific person who will read your plan, just focus on the general type of a person that is most likely to receive it and their concerns.

However, it is not a good idea to tailor the executive summary for just one specific person or organization, especially if your plan is likely to end up in the hands multiple and/or unknown recipients.

To be on the safe side, target your summary to address general institutional concerns rather than individual preferences.

Insider Tips: Writing a Winning Executive Summary

Convey your enthusiasm (tip #2).

The Executive Summary enables the readers to quickly understand the highlights of your business and decide whether to commit more of their time to reading the full plan.

To that end, you need to motivate and entice the readers by your own optimism about how well-positioned your business is to exploit a compelling market opportunity, conveyed in a dynamic , positive and confident tone.

Write Executive Summary Last (Tip #3)

Your executive summary will be the last chapter of the business plan that you prepare.

Even though the executive summary always appears first in the completed document, it is usually crafted last after you have had a chance to carefully consider all key aspects of your business throughout the rest of the plan.

The executive summary is the place where you bring all your planning together and sum up the separate parts of your business proposal to provide an overall outline and highlight the strengths of your entire plan.

Therefore, you will find it much easier and faster to come back and produce this section once you have completed the rest of your business plan.

That way, you will have thought through all the elements of your business, work out the details, and be prepared to summarize them. This approach will not only increase the consistency and accuracy of the plan, but also help make it more compelling .

So, if you have not yet finalized the other sections of your plan, proceed to the next section, and return to the executive summary when you have completed the rest of your plan.

Once finished, the executive summary will become “ Chapter 1 ” of your business plan document.

Summarize Highlights (Tip #4)

A good summary contains highlights from all of the subsequent sections of the business plan.

To achieve that, select the key points from each section of your completed plan by summarizing conclusions you have reached in each area. Remember to focus only on the most important and impressive features of your business.

What sets your business apart from the competition? Early on in your summary, showcase your distinguishing qualities and make sure you describe your winning concept in a way that any reader can easily grasp .

Use logical writing to tell a story, freely changing the order of sections and combining related topics if that helps to improve the flow and make a good impression.

Make Each Word Count (Tip #5)

The executive summary provides a brief snapshot of your business, casting a spotlight on the most important facts and concepts from your entire business plan.

As a result, this section should be clear , concise and to the point. Make each word should count.

Avoid Jargon (Tip #6)

In case the summary read by people unfamiliar with your industry, avoid any technical jargon or provide sufficient explanatory notes .

Edit, Edit, … And Edit Some More (Tip #7)

By the time you reach the executive summary, you may be tired from all the planning and writing. However, remember that this really is the most important section of the business plan.

The best investment you can make is to spend sufficient time to perfect the summary, including ruthless editing . There are professional editors who can help you make it flawless.

Design: How Do You Design an Executive Summary?

Looks matter. Your business plan will be well researched, analysed and written, but it must also be well presented. While your plan will ultimately be judged on the quality of your business concept and strategy, you also want to make sure it gives the best first impression possible.

And nowhere is presentation more important than in the executive summary, because for all readers it will be the first page(s) they read – and some will read nothing else.

The key advice here is: Break it Up . Large, dense blocks of text intimidate readers.

Dividing the Summary text with paragraph headings, bullet points and white space makes the information on a page more inviting and appealing:

Because you are limited to so few pages, it may seem counterintuitive to give up space for visual considerations, but these effective techniques make your Summary much more accessible to the business plan readers.

The way you prepare and present the executive summary is an indicator of your professionalism. A polished Summary sheds a favourable light on your business. A sloppy one works against you.

Length: How long is an executive summary?

The executive summary in a business plan should be no more than 2-3 pages in length, with 1 page being perfectly acceptable and often preferable. The advantage to the busy business plan reader is that they are able to skim through this short summary in a few seconds and read it in full in less than 5 minutes .

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How to Write An Executive Summary for a Business Plan

It is important to know how to write an executive summary for a business plan, particularly if you expect an outside source to read it. 3 min read

It is important to know how to write an executive summary for a business plan, particularly if you expect an outside source to read it. This part of your business plan will provide a brief, but thorough overview of the most critical details of your company so that you can attract investors or reach other important goals as an organization.

What is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary can be defined as a short introduction in your business plan. The goal of the executive summary is to highlight the key points of the plan for anyone who reads it, which helps to save time and lets them know what the rest of the business plan will include.

It is essentially an advance organizer. The executive summary can often be considered the most crucial part of a business plan. It will describe a business, which problems it will solve, the target market, and a highlight of the financials.

Every plan will not need a summary. It is crucial for the plans that are written for outsiders. It will take considerable effort to write an excellent summary. If there is no real business use for it, do not write the summary.

There are many jobs that are accomplished by an executive summary . It needs to show readers the answers to their questions by pointing to the section with detailed information about their query. It should also make it easier for anyone who has to read it while making it enjoyable, through the presentation of interesting and useful facts about a company.

What Should an Executive Summary Include?

What needs to be included in an executive summary will largely depend on the business. The summary for a start-up and an established company will vary greatly. For start-ups, the primary goal of the business plan is to get money by convincing banks, venture capitalists, or angel investors to invest in a business by providing equity or debt financing.

To accomplish this, a company will need to present a tight case for a business idea. This is where the executive summary is very important.

An executive summary needs to include the following :

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How to Write an Effective Executive Summary

An effective and well defined executive summary can be the key to securing funding from a bank or outside investor. See what needs to be included and what the best way to approach writing your summary is.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a brief introduction and summary of your business plan. It should describe your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.

A good executive summary grabs your reader’s attention and lets them know what it is you do and why they should read the rest of your business plan or proposal. It’s not unusual for investors to make an initial decision just based on reading an executive summary, so it’s important to get it right. We’ll show you how to write an executive summary that sets your business plan apart from the rest.

Is an executive summary necessary?

Are you writing a business plan to show to investors or bankers? Then you need a good executive summary. Many people will read only the summary, no matter what. Others will read the summary first to decide whether or not they read the rest of the plan. The executive summary is essential in plans that are being written for outsiders.

Now if you’re writing a business plan solely for internal use you may not need to write out an executive summary. However, there are some internal plans ––such as an annual operations plan or a strategic plan —that can use a summary to highlight necessary information and showcase a digestible version of the overall plan.

It takes some effort to do a good summary, so if you don’t have a business use for the summary, don’t do it.

How long should an executive summary be?

The general rule of thumb is that executive summaries should be as short as possible. Your audience has limited time and attention and they want to get the details of your business plan as quickly as possible.

Try to keep your executive summary under 2 pages if possible, although it can be longer if absolutely necessary.

You might even be able to write it on one page using a Lean Plan format. You can learn more about that one-page business plan format and download a template here .

1. A description of your product or service and the problem your business solves

Include a brief description of the product or service you offer and why it’s necessary. Your business doesn’t need to serve a larger social problem, but it should address a need for customers or an opportunity in the market.

2. A description of your target market

Your target market is who you think your customers will be. Sometimes the product name itself defines the market, such as “Peoria’s Best Thai food,” or “Mini Cooper Dashboard Accessory.” If not, then a brief description of the target market—your primary audience, or the people you think will spend money on your solution will suffice.

3. Competition

Assuming your business has competition ( every business does !), then briefly describe how your business will differentiate itself. Are you competing on price, quality, or something else? Briefly describe what makes your business different here.

4. Financial Overview

If you’re an existing company, this might be as simple as highlighting recent annual sales and growth over the last year. For a startup, it might be a brief description of aspirations, such as a sales forecast goal for the next year or three years from now. I often recommend a simple highlights chart, a bar chart with sales and gross margin for the next three years.

5. Your Team

This is especially important for startup companies. Investors want to know who is behind the business idea and why you and your team are the right people to build the business. It also may be valuable to highlight any gaps in your team and how you intend to fill them. If you have potential partners or candidates in mind, briefly mention them and expand on their qualifications within your full business plan.

6. Funding Needs

If you are using your business plan to raise money for your business, your executive summary should highlight how much money you are looking for. Investors will want to know this upfront and not have to dig through a business plan to find this detail.

Future Milestones

You may also want to discuss future milestones that your business hopes to achieve. This is particularly important for businesses within a highly saturated or complex industry, such as medical device manufacturers and drug companies, for example. They need to explain where they are in the process of getting regulatory approvals and what steps remain.

Evidence of Financial Stability

If you’re seeking a bank loan, bankers will be looking for evidence of your financial stability, including your net worth, assets, and financial history. Read on for tips on writing an executive summary for each of those scenarios.

Tips for writing an executive summary for investors

Before you develop your executive summary for seeking investment, understand how it fits into your business plan. The executive summary can be the first section of your business plan, or you might be developing a stand-alone executive summary that you plan on handing out without the rest of the plan.

My views on this are taken from eight years as an active member in an angel investment group, and more than 10 actual angel investments, plus membership in the Angel Capital Association.

Investors use executive summaries to screen opportunities

A well-prepared executive summary is useful for angel investment platforms like Gust, AngelList, and others to gauge interest in candidates. Introductions lead to requests for email summaries, not full business plans, so you’ll want to have an executive summary ready to go that causes investors to want to see the full thing.

Investors need the full business plan to complete due diligence when reviewing candidates

We’ve never invested in a business that didn’t have a business plan and your executive summary is the key to having your business plan reviewed. The full reading of the complete business plan comes only later in the process after we’ve screened summaries down to a very few that are interesting enough to do due diligence.

Of the group I work with, for example, three-fourths of us will read every executive summary submitted to us. All of us will read summaries for plans that pique group interest, and half of us will look at the rest of the plan only if we are still interested after reading the summary.

Mention previous startup experience, or specific industry expertise

Let the investors know about any previous startup experience or specializations from the start because this makes a huge difference. Investors often say “bet on the jockey, not just the horse.” Keep it brief, just a reference to more information to come later, but make sure you’re able to back up your claims later on.

Outline how much money you intend to raise and how it will be spent

It’s a summary, so details will come later, but investors want to know quickly whether your startup is in their normal range of interest and the use of funds makes a difference, too. Spending to build inventory for existing orders, for example, is way less risky than spending to develop a product that is in design and prototyping.

Valuation, in this context, is controversial. Valuation is what you say your company is worth, a number that determines how much ownership you give away for investment. Some investors want summaries to specify how much money at what valuation; others want to assign the valuation themselves and don’t like startups pushing their number too early.

Mention your exit strategy

Leave the details for later, but investors want to know that you understand they don’t make money unless you achieve an exit in a few years so they can sell shares to get their return. Too many founders think investors just want them to be successful, when in fact that means very little without an eventual exit.

Be persuasive, but focus on the facts

You want to make your prospective investor want to keep reading; convince them to invest in your startup. But do understand that the persuasion is in the facts, not in the wording. What keeps them interested is the content of the summary, not the tone. Facts that prove traction, potential market, or startup experience are infinitely more powerful than mere assertions of excellence.

Avoid obvious clichés

There are severely obvious pitfalls that you can fall into if you’re not careful. For example, never mention the team’s passion or commitment—they all have that, so it’s irrelevant. If you say that your startup is disruptive, or game-changing, or the next Facebook or whatever, you lose. Instead, show that with facts and let the investors say it, not you.

Tips for writing an executive summary for a bank loan

Contrary to the common misconception, bankers don’t ever take risks on business plans. To get bankers to read on, the executive summary has to cover the six main points suggested in the beginning of this article, plus a few selected other points that highlight stability, assets on the balance sheet, and financial history, showing that the loan is not risky. With one notable exception, banking law forbids banks lending money to businesses that don’t have enough assets to cover the full value of the loan, and then some. That’s against banking regulations.

Good professional bankers ask for a business plan as part of a loan application because they legitimately want to know and understand your business, but they don’t take risks. This summary isn’t about persuading or selling, but rather reassuring and describing.

So what works for the executive summary for bankers is quite different from what works for the summary for investors.

Outline your personal net worth

Where investors want to see management team startup experience, bankers want to see the personal net worth of business owners. The more collateral, savings or other investment you have available, the more likely you are to secure the loan.

Be transparent about your financial history and bankable assets

Where investors want to see future potential growth, bankers want to see past financial history and bankable assets. Try to have every piece of financial information about yourself, current investors and any past businesses available upfront.

Give evidence of your potential stability and longevity

Where investors want to look at possible exits, bankers want their commercial borrowers to offer future stability. You don’t need to have exact numbers, but developing a financial forecast that defines growth, future cash flow, costs and sales over the next 1-3 years can serve as evidence for stability.

Risk exception for bank loans

I mentioned one notable exception to the rule that bankers don’t take risks. In the U.S., the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) has programs that work with local business banks to guarantee some of the riskier small business loans to make borrowed money available to startups and small businesses.

Like traditional bank loans, SBA loans require a solid traditional business plan that includes a good executive summary covering the five main points suggested in the first list above. It will still benefit you to have the financial stability elements laid out as you would for a bank, but the limitations may be less strict and provide more room for riskier businesses to gain funding.

6 Tips for writing an effective executive summary

No matter why you’re writing your executive summary, there are some general rules of thumb that make it easier, and ultimately more effective. Here are a few to keep in mind as you get started:

1. Think of an executive summary as a pitch

Think of an executive summary as being a lot like an elevator pitch , but with constraints. A good summary sells the rest of the plan, but it can’t be just a hard sell—it has to actually summarize the plan. Readers expect it to cover your business, product, market, and financial highlights, at the very least (see below for more detail on this).

Of course, you’ll highlight what will most spark the reader’s interest, to achieve this plan’s immediate business objective. But your readers expect the key points covered. It’s a summary, not just a pitch.

2. Write it last

Don’t start writing your business plan with your summary. Even though the executive summary is at the beginning of a finished business plan, many experienced entrepreneurs (including me) choose to write the executive summary after they’ve written everything else.

Ideally, the executive summary is short—usually just a page or two, five at the outside—and highlights the points you’ve made elsewhere in your business plan, so if you save it for the end, it will be quick and easy.

3. Keep your executive summary short

Be brief and concise. I know experts who recommend a single page, just a page or two, no more than five, and sometimes even longer. I say less is more. Keep it as short as you can without missing any essentials. And—I can’t resist, because I read hundreds of plans every year—one page is better than two, and two is better than five, and longer than five pages (my opinion here) is too long.

4. Keep it simple

Form follows function , so don’t over complicate or over-explain things in your summary. Most executive summaries are short texts, often with bullets, broken into subheadings. Illustrations such as a picture of a product, or a bar chart showing financial highlights, are usually a welcome addition.

5. Prioritize sections based on importance and strengths

Don’t bury the lead. Organize your executive summary so that the most important information appears first. There is no set order of appearance of the different key items included, quite the contrary, in fact— so use the order to show emphasis.

Lead with what you want to get the most attention, and follow with items in the order of importance. I tend to like summaries that start with stating a problem because that can add drama and urgency that tees up the solution in your business.

6. Use it for your summary memo

When it’s finished, repurpose it as a summary memo. It’s the first chapter of a formal plan, but you can also use it as a stand-alone “summary memo.” Investors often ask startups to send a summary memo instead of a full business plan.

It might be a short document, often attached to an email, or simply a summary in an email. You can also use it again to fill in startup profiles on investment platforms such as Gust and AngelList or to apply for an incubator or a business plan competition.

Download a template for your executive summary

If you’d like to start with a template, consider using a Lean Plan for your executive summary. It’s available as a free download here on Bplans, and it covers everything you might want to include.

View hundreds of executive summary examples

Take advantage of Bplans’ more than 500 examples of good business plans —all available online for free—to search for the sample plan that best fits your business’s profile, and then use that plan’s free example executive summary as a guide to help you through the process of writing your own.

More business planning resources

Business planning shouldn't be complicated. Plan, fund and grow your business with a simple, all-in-one platform. Get LivePlan.

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry .

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Executive Summary

By Entrepreneur Staff

Executive Summary Definition:

A nontechnical summary statement at the beginning of a business plan that's designed to encapsulate your reason for writing the plan

Anyone looking at your business plan will first want to know what kind of business you're starting or already have. So the executive summary, or statement of purpose, should succinctly encapsulate your reason for writing the business plan. It needs to tell the reader what you want and why, right up front.

Because it's the first thing the reader of your business plan sees, it must make an immediate impact by clearly stating the nature of the business and, if you're seeking capital, the type of financing you want. Are you looking for a $10,000 loan to remodel and refurbish your factory? A loan of $25,000 to expand your product line or buy new equipment? Would you like to find a partner to whom you'd sell 25 percent of the business? What's in it for him or her? The questions that pertain to your situation should be addressed here clearly and succinctly.

Your executive summary should be short and businesslike--generally between half a page and one page, depending on how complicated the business or use of funds is. It should touch on the following key elements:

More From Business Plans

Financial projections.

Estimates of the future financial performance of a business

Financial Statement

A written report of the financial condition of a firm. Financial statements include the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in net worth and statement of cash flow.

Business Plan

A written document describing the nature of the business, the sales and marketing strategy, and the financial background, and containing a projected profit and loss statement

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How to Write an Effective Executive Summary

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What is an Executive Summary?

While Alchemer has powerful built-in reporting features that are easy to use and present, sometimes you need an executive summary to preface the results of any particularly large or important online survey or research project. An executive summary efficiently summarizes a larger business plan while communicating key findings and takeaways from your research, as well as proposed courses of action.

For example, if a company performs a competitor analysis prior to deciding whether or not to move in a different strategic direction, a business plan would be put together to articulate findings and suggest the next steps. This business plan would open with an executive summary.

As such, an executive summary quickly becomes the most important element of any business plan.

Executive summaries should include the following components:

Writing an executive summary can be a daunting task. It can be difficult to know where to start, what to write about, or how it should be structured.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to write an effective executive summary.

How to Write an A+ Executive Summary

Write it last..

No matter what online survey software you use, the research you perform is only truly valuable when it’s able to inform business decisions and strategies.

Once your online survey is performed, there is work to be done in terms of packaging your findings to leadership in a way that easily communicates the need for a new strategy. The most straightforward way to do this is to create a business plan that includes all of your research, findings, and suggestions. This business plan naturally requires an executive summary.

Crafting the executive summary of your business plan after writing every other part of the report is the best practice. This ensures that you can build out a summary that represents the remainder of the plan as accurately as possible.

Capture the reader’s attention.

While an executive summary should be informative in nature, it should also capture the audience’s attention immediately so that they are motivated to read the remainder of the document. Even while crafting an objective presentation of your research findings and the proposed direction that your business, never forget that you want to inspire excitement in your audience!

At the end of your executive summary, your audience — whether they be an investor, banker, advisor, or executive — should be eager to read on. Your executive summary should be thorough, but it should not reveal everything. Your audience should be encouraged by the summary to read the remainder of your report if they want the full story.

Make sure your executive summary can stand on its own.

With a clearly defined structure, an executive summary can be a standalone piece. Without one, however, it would need the support of the entire report to make an impact. Strive for the former, not the latter.

If your executive summary can’t stand on its own, consider revising it until it can.

A tightly informative introduction, body, and conclusion should allow someone with no prior knowledge of your business or industry to read your executive summary and understand the key findings from your research, and the primary elements of your business plan.

Think of an executive summary as a more condensed version of your business plan.

Your executive summary should be directly aligned with the rest of your larger business plan. While writing your executive summary, read through your business plan and take the most vital information from each section. Numbers, facts, and goals in your business plan should be consistent with your executive summary.

Your executive summary should highlight the best features of your business plan. For example, if you’ve identified a primary advantage you should be leveraging, your executive summary should include this advantage.

Include supporting research.

Support the claims you make in your executive summary and the business plan with research, and cite this research via footnotes in your business plan.

Boil it down as much as possible.

One of the most essential aspects of an executive summary is succinctness. You should condense your summary as much as possible, with the goal of getting all of the vital information onto one page. The more succinct you are, the clearer your message will be, and the more confidence your readers will have in your plan.

Start with a BANG.

Including a thought-provoking statistic, or an inspiring and relevant quote at the beginning of your summary will capture the reader’s attention and get them thinking on the track that you want them to.

Keep things positive.

Your executive summary should focus only on the positive elements of your research and business plan. Leave the discussion of risks, obstacles, and challenges for the body section of your plan. Keep a positive tone and use upbeat language in your summary.

The Five-Paragraph Formula for an Effective Executive Summary

An effective executive summary can be broken down into five key paragraphs.

Paragraph 1: Provide an overview of your business.

As mentioned, you can get your readers thinking along the track you’d like them to by including a quote or statistic in the first paragraph of your executive summary. This first paragraph is also where you should provide the name and nature of your business, and relevant insights about your industry.

Paragraph 2: Discuss target market, competition, and marketing strategy.

Your second paragraph should include a clear and concise definition of your target market, and the need or pain point that your business will aim to solve.

Next, outline the competitive landscape of your industry, and the advantage that your particular business possesses.

Your marketing strategy should hinge on the three primary ways that you plan on reaching your target market. Focusing on just the three strongest points of your marketing strategy will maintain precision, and get your readers excited to explore the rest of your plan.

Paragraph 3: Provide an overview of operational highlights.

The third paragraph of your executive summary should provide operational highlights such as where your company offices will be located, whether or not you will incorporate or remain a sole proprietor, or whether you will serve as a brick and mortar or online business.

Paragraph 4: Show forecasting.

Here you should make sales forecasting projections for one and two years after your business plan has been implemented. Calculate your break even point, and inform your audience of when you project to turn a profit.

Paragraph 5: Detail your investment needs.

If your business requires financing, this is where you should go into detail about the investment needs of your business. The number you include here should be clear, and should align with your projections from the previous paragraph.

You should now have the tools and knowledge to draft an effective executive summary to back up your online survey findings. Hopefully, this article has alleviated some of the overwhelming feelings that come with getting the ball rolling.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, elements of a business plan, special considerations.

Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How To Write One

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

A business plan is a document that defines in detail a company's objectives and how it plans to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written road map for the firm from marketing , financial, and operational standpoints. Both startups and established companies use business plans.

A business plan is an important document aimed at a company's external and internal audiences. For instance, a business plan is used to attract investment before a company has established a proven track record. It can also help to secure lending from financial institutions.

Furthermore, a business plan can serve to keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and on target for meeting established goals.

Although they're especially useful for new businesses, every company should have a business plan. Ideally, the plan is reviewed and updated periodically to reflect goals that have been met or have changed. Sometimes, a new business plan is created for an established business that has decided to move in a new direction.

Key Takeaways

Want Funding? You Need a Business Plan

A business plan is a fundamental document that any new business should have in place prior to beginning operations. Indeed, banks and venture capital firms often require a viable business plan before considering whether they'll provide capital to new businesses.

Operating without a business plan usually is not a good idea. In fact, very few companies are able to last very long without one. There are benefits to creating (and sticking to) a good business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and working through potential obstacles to success.

A good business plan should outline all the projected costs and possible pitfalls of each decision a company makes. Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they can have the same basic elements, such as an executive summary of the business and detailed descriptions of its operations, products and services, and financial projections. A plan also states how the business intends to achieve its goals.

While it's a good idea to give as much detail as possible, it's also important that a plan be concise to keep a reader's attention to the end.

A well-considered and well-written business plan can be of enormous value to a company. While there are templates that you can use to write a business plan, try to avoid producing a generic result. The plan should include an overview and, if possible, details of the industry of which the business will be a part. It should explain how the business will distinguish itself from its competitors.

Start with the essential structure: an executive summary, company description, market analysis, product or service description, marketing strategy, financial projections, and appendix (which include documents and data that support the main sections). These sections or elements of a business plan are outlined below.

When you write your business plan, you don’t have to strictly follow a particular business plan outline or template. Use only those sections that make the most sense for your particular business and its needs.

Traditional business plans use some combination of the sections below. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making. Regardless, try to keep the main body of your plan to around 15-25 pages.

The length of a business plan varies greatly from business to business. Consider fitting the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Then, other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and included as appendices.

As mentioned above, no two business plans are the same. Nonetheless, they tend to have the same elements. Below are some of the common and key parts of a business plan.

Unique Business Plans Help

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its singularity and potential for success.

Types of Business Plans

Business plans help companies identify their objectives and remain on track to meet goals. They can help companies start, manage themselves, and grow once up and running. They also act as a means to attract lenders and investors.

Although there is no right or wrong business plan, they can fall into two different categories—traditional or lean startup. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the most common. It contains a lot of detail in each section. These tend to be longer than the lean startup plan and require more work.

Lean startup business plans, on the other hand, use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans aren't as common in the business world because they're short—as short as one page—and lack detail. If a company uses this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or lender requests it.

Financial Projections

A complete business plan must include a set of financial projections for the business. These forward-looking financial statements are often called pro-forma financial statements or simply the " pro-formas ." They include an overall budget, current and projected financing needs, a market analysis, and the company's marketing strategy.

Other Considerations for a Business Plan

A major reason for a business plan is to give owners a clear picture of objectives, goals, resources, potential costs, and drawbacks of certain business decisions. A business plan should help them modify their structures before implementing their ideas. It also allows owners to project the type of financing required to get their businesses up and running.

If there are any especially interesting aspects of the business, they should be highlighted and used to attract financing, if needed. For example, Tesla Motors' electric car business essentially began only as a business plan.

Importantly, a business plan shouldn't be a static document. As a business grows and changes, so too should the business plan. An annual review of the company and its plan allows an entrepreneur or group of owners to update the plan, based on successes, setbacks, and other new information. It provides an opportunity to size up the plan's ability to help the company grow.

Think of the business plan as a living document that evolves with your business.

A business plan is a document created by a company that describes the company's goals, operations, industry standing, marketing objectives, and financial projections. The information it contains can be a helpful guide in running the company. What's more, it can be a valuable tool to attract investors and obtain financing from financial institutions.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

Even if you have a good business plan, your company can still fail, especially if you do not stick to the plan! Having strong leadership with focus on the plan is always a good strategy. Even when following the plan, if you had poor assumptions going into your projections, you can be caught with cash flow shortages and out of control budgets. Markets and the economy can also change. Without flexibility built in to your business plan, you may be unable to pivot to a new course as needed.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers a quick explanation of its business. The company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide since it's just getting started.

Sections can include: a value proposition, a company's major activities and advantages, resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital, a list of partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Marketing Plan

An executive summary of your marketing plan gives a brief overview of how you intend to reach your target audience and drive conversions. Here's what you should include.

A marketing plan is essential when you are launching a new business or product. This plan guides your marketing activities, which can include building brand awareness, establishing your competitive advantage, growing your customer base and attracting new leads.

Marketing plans can be complex because they provide a lot of detail about your overall marketing goals and supporting activities. That’s why it’s important to also write an executive summary for your marketing plan.

What is an executive summary for a marketing plan?

As the name suggests, an executive summary provides a high-level overview of your marketing plan. Its primary purpose is to reduce complex topics and projects within your greater marketing plan to the basics and show your short-term and long-term goals. In one or two pages, it describes the key results of your marketing research and provides an overview of your brand objectives, marketing goals and related activities.

A marketing plan executive summary is usually one or two pages that provide an overview of the marketing plan.

How to write a marketing plan executive summary

The executive summary should cover the main parts of your marketing plan, as well as information about your company and brand, your products or services, the market, and your overall direction. While the marketing plan is typically written in sections separated by subheadings, the executive summary is usually written as a series of paragraphs, with each paragraph focusing on one section of the marketing plan.

Here’s how to write your executive summary and what information you should include in each paragraph:

1. Write an introduction.

Your executive summary should begin with an introduction that briefly explains what the reader can expect. It provides valuable context and will make the subsequent points easier to understand. Concisely explain the project, the purpose of your marketing plan, and the key benefits it provides to potential customers. Keep the introduction simple, short and direct.

Example : This plan is presented for XYZ Company, which sells widgets for the IT industry. We’ve created a new widget for the healthcare industry, and our marketing plan will show that we have a unique opportunity to expand into a new market.

2. Describe your company and team.

Briefly describe your business, including its history, structure, customer base and sales figures. List the main people involved with the business, including their positions and responsibilities, their respective skills and experience, and their responsibilities with respect to achieving your marketing goals . Include relevant external service providers (e.g., accountants, marketing experts and suppliers) and your company’s name, location and contact information.

Example : XYZ Company has been around since 2010 and is based in Anaheim, California. We sell widgets for the IT industry, which are designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs.

3. Outline market factors and trends.

Describe the marketplace and industry sectors in which you sell your products and services, and the main trends that affect them. List the factors that influence the market, the innovations that are taking place, and the main drivers or players involved.

Example : There are several large companies and a few smaller specialty companies that sell similar widgets to the IT industry. Innovations in this market can cause disruptions, but only when they provide significant benefits in cost savings or efficiencies.

4. Describe products or services being marketed.

Describe your products or services and explain their key features and benefits. Outline your products’ or services’ unique selling propositions to show how they differ from or are better than competitors’ offerings.

Example : We’ve created a new widget for the healthcare industry, which is outside our current market. This new product provides healthcare companies with greater efficiencies and cost savings not currently offered by existing products. Similar products exist in other industries, but there are currently no widgets designed specifically for the healthcare industry.

5. Define your customer base and related marketing activities.

Describe the key aspects of your target audience, as well as how you identify those customers. Briefly explain where you find your target customers and how you will reach them. Outline your promotional strategy, including its main objectives and related timelines. Describe your key marketing priorities and how they relate to specific business activities (e.g., entering a new market or creating new products). Explain what methods you will use to distribute your products or services.

Example : Our target market is large healthcare companies, including hospitals, clinics and manufacturers of healthcare devices. We plan to do a marketing campaign through direct sales and social media marketing. [Learn more about how to design an email marketing campaign you can include in your marketing plan/executive summary.]

6. Define any financial plans and projections.

Clearly define key financial information related to short-term and long-term marketing activities. Provide line-by-line budget details for individual activities and related metrics to determine their success.

Example : Our marketing budget for the year is $100,000, which will be spread over the following marketing activities.

7. Summarize your overall objectives and any related strategies.

Briefly describe the project’s goals and the strategies that will be implemented to achieve those goals. Conclude with a couple of sentences that will encourage the reader to review your marketing plan.

Example : We’ve developed a marketing plan that will help us to quickly reach key stakeholders in the healthcare industry and become the main provider of widgets to this market. We will use our experience in selling to the IT industry to showcase the benefits of our widget.

Additional tips for writing an executive summary

These tips should help you create an effective executive summary of your marketing plan:

Write the executive summary last.

The executive summary is a brief overview of your marketing plan. Write the complete marketing plan before you provide a summary of that plan. Once you have all of the information for your marketing plan, you can decide what’s important enough to include in the executive summary.

Whoever reads the executive summary should come away with a complete understanding of your marketing goals. Tell your story. Explain what your company does and why you chose to do what you do. Talk about what matters to you, the people who are helping you meet your goals, and what you want to achieve with your marketing.

Telling your brand’s story will entice readers and encourage them to read the full marketing plan.

Take notes.

When you’re creating your marketing plan, make note of anything that stands out. This could include interesting statistics, memorable moments, key findings about your competitors, anecdotes from leadership, ideas to support promotion and newsworthy events. Check out what your favorite brands are doing, note anything interesting you’ve read in a blog or article, or recall an interesting tool or technology that you can apply to your business. These ideas can be inspiration for an engaging executive summary.

Do your research.

Your executive summary must contain key data and findings, including an analysis of the market and your competition, as well as budgetary and financial considerations. Your full marketing plan will provide more details, but the executive summary should contain important research data to get your reader interested in your marketing plan.

Watch your language.

An executive summary is a professional document, so you should write in a professional manner. However, the language should also reflect who you are as a person and as a company.

Your executive summary tells your story. What is your style? What is your audience’s style? The tone of this document should match the tone of your marketing material and your company.

Avoid clichés and hyperbole, as they come off as inauthentic and can rub readers the wrong way. Clichés tend not to match the reality of your situation, as they can overpromise on what you can actually deliver. Is your company the best in its category among all competitors? What determines “best”? Ensure any claims you make are specific and measurable.

Remember the marketing.

Keep in mind that the purpose of your executive summary is to market your business. The summary should concisely position what you’ve written in the marketing plan in a way that compels the reader to continue. Include a brief explanation of the most important and interesting information and the key takeaways that will matter to the reader. [Learn more about effective offline marketing tactics you could potentially include in your marketing plan.]

Keep it current.

Your marketing plan should change over time, and so should your executive summary. Include any updates to your products, services or technologies, or any significant changes in your market and competition. For example, COVID-19 forced many companies to change their marketing strategies and business practices. Your executive summary should reflect the changes your company has made to its marketing plan to deal with the changes in the market.

Treat your executive summary as a living, breathing document that is subject to changes, just like your marketing plan. Write it with the expectation that it will change over time to reflect any serious changes in your business’s market.

Importance of the executive summary in a marketing plan

A marketing plan has several benefits:

The marketing plan is your guide to marketing your business effectively. The executive summary highlights the most important goals, actions and research results of your marketing plan. It is designed to grab readers’ attention and ensure they quickly understand where your business is going and how it plans to get there.

Additional reporting by Sean Peek.

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Business Plan

A summary document that outlines how and why a new business is being created

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a summary document that outlines how and why a new business is being created. New entrepreneurial ventures must prepare formal written documents to outline their long-term objectives and the means to be employed to reach said objectives. The business plan underlines the strategies that need to be adopted in order to reach organizational goals, identify potential problems, and devise custom solutions for them.

In addition, potential investors look at business plans to evaluate the risk exposure of a particular entrepreneurial venture. Startups that try to attract employees and investors use business plans to solidify their claims regarding the potential profitability of a particular business idea. Existing companies may use business plans to deal with suppliers or manage themselves more effectively.

Why Use a Business Plan?

Owing to the following benefits of a well-researched and comprehensive business plan, preparing one is highly recommended, but not a mandate.

1. Feasibility

Entrepreneurs use a business plan to understand the feasibility of a particular idea. It is important to contextualize the worth of the proposed product or service in the current market before committing resources such as time and money. It helps to expand the otherwise limited view of a passionate innovator-turned-entrepreneur.

2. Focusing device

Formulating a concrete plan of action enables an organized manner of conducting business and reduces the possibility of losses due to uncalculated risks. Business plans act as reference tools for management and employees as they solidify the flow of communication, authority, and task allocation.

3. Foresight

The process of preparing a business plan often creates many unintended yet desired results. It functions on the principle of foresight as it helps one realize future hurdles and challenges that aren’t explicit. It also brings a variety of perspectives on the forefront, eventually leading to a more comprehensive future plan of action.

4. Raising capital

A business plan is an effective way of communicating with potential investors, and the level of expertise and time used in preparing a business plan also gives professional credibility to entrepreneurs . It analyzes and predicts the chances of success for the investor and helps to raise capital.

Features of a Good Business Plan

1. executive summary.

The executive summary functions as a reading guide, as it highlights the key aspects of the plan and gives structure to the document. It must describe ownership and history of formation. It is an abstract of the entire plan, describes the mission statement of the organization, and presents an optimistic view about the product/service/concept.

2. Business Description

This section presents the mission and vision of an organization. Business descriptions provide the concept of one’s place in the market and its benefits to future customers. It must include key milestones, tasks, and assumptions, popularly known as MAT. Big ideas are redundant without specifics that can be tracked. Fundamental questions to be answered include:

3. Market Strategies

The market strategies section presents the target consumer group and the strategies needed to tap into it. It requires meticulous analysis of all aspects of the market, such as demography, cultural norms, environmental standards, resource availability, prices, distribution channels , etc.

4. Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis section aims to understand the entry barriers one could face due to other companies in the same or complementary sectors. The strengths of existing companies could be co-opted into one’s strategy, and the weaknesses of existing product development cycles could be exploited to gain a distinct advantage.

5. Design and Development Plan

It outlines the technical details of the product and its development cycle within the realm of production. In the sphere of circulation, it focuses on marketing and the overall budget required to reach organizational objectives.

6. Operations and Management Plan

The operations and management plan describes the cycle of business functions needed for survival and growth. It includes management functions such as task division, hierarchy, employee recruitment, and operational functions such as the logistics of the value chain , distribution, and other capital and expense requirements. The managers’ backgrounds must also be briefly included.

7. Financial Factors

The financials section should include the company’s balance sheet and cash flow projections. Financial data is imperative to provide credibility to any assertions or claims made about the future profitability of the business. The aim is to provide an accurate idea of the company’s value and ability to bear operational costs and earn profits.

Common Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Business Plan

Additional Resources

CFI is the official provider of the Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA)™ certification program, designed to transform anyone into a world-class financial analyst.

In order to help you become a world-class financial analyst and advance your career to your fullest potential, these additional CFI resources will be very helpful:

How to Write an Executive Summary

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Executive Summary of a Business Plan

On this page:, what is a business plan executive summary, why do i need an executive summary, executive summary length, key elements of an executive summary, how do i write an executive summary for a business plan, the dos and don’ts of creating a great executive summary, summary of writing a great executive summary, business plan executive summary example, executive summary frequently asked questions.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles

An executive summary of a business plan gives the reader an overview of the business opportunity and your entire business plan. It explains the type of business the company operates and summarizes the key facts and strategies supporting the businesses’s growth. If presented for funding, the executive summary provides the lender or investor a quick snapshot which helps them determine their interest level and if they should continue reading the rest of the business plan.

An effective executive summary is a quick version of your complete business plan. You need to keep it simple and succinct in order to grab the reader’s attention and convince them it’s in their best interest to keep reading.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

As mentioned above, your business plan is a detailed document that requires time to read. Capturing the reader’s attention with a concise, interesting overview of your plan saves them time and indicates which parts of the business plan may be most important to read in detail. This increases the odds that your business plan will be read and your business idea understood. This is why you need a well-written executive summary.

When structuring your executive summary, the first thing to keep in mind is that it should be short and comprehensive. The length of your business plan executive summary should never exceed 3 pages; the ideal length is 1-2 pages.

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The following are the key elements to include in your business plan executive summary:

Your executive summary is the most important part of your business plan since it’s the first thing investors, lenders and/or other readers see. And if they aren’t impressed, they’ll stop reading and you’ll lose them forever. To give yourself the best chances of success, follow these steps to write your executive summary.

1) Complete the rest of your business plan. Your executive summary provides highlights of each section of your business plan. As such, you need to first write those sections. Then, read each section and figure out what information from each must be included in the executive summary. For instance, if your industry analysis section mentioned that your industry’s current size is $100 billion and is projected to grow by 90% per year over the next 5 years, this is an exciting statistic and opportunity that should be mentioned in your executive summary.

2) Start with a one to two line description of your company. Your executive summary must start with a simple description of your company. Readers must be able to quickly and easily understand what your company does so they can decide whether they’re interested in the opportunity. If readers can’t quickly understand what you do, many will stop reading and you’ll lose the ability to get them involved in your company.

3) Create your executive summary structure. Start by creating headers for each section of your business plan. For example, you should have a marketing plan header, a customer analysis header, etc. Then, within each header, summarize the most important point you mentioned in that section. For example, under your marketing plan, you would write your three most important promotional tactics. Under customer analysis, you’d write a detailed one to two line description of your target customers. Then figure out the best way to organize your executive summary. You can either keep the headers, or create new headers like “business overview” and “unique success factors” in which you cut and paste the old sections as appropriate.

4) Make it shorter. Mark Twain once wrote “If I had more time, i would have written a shorter letter.” The more concise your executive summary is, the more successful it will. Read through your executive summary and aggressively edit it so you convey your key messages in the least amount of words possible.

5) Bring in outside readers. Find at least five people to read your executive summary. Ask them to spend no more than five minutes doing so. Then ask them questions about it. Did they understand what your company does? Are they able to recite back to you your company’s value proposition? If the readers are unable to understand and get excited by your executive summary, then you need to keep working on it.

There are certain mistakes often made in writing an executive summary. If these little glitches can be avoided, writing a flawless executive summary for your business plan is not difficult. So here are a few important tips and tricks for you to remember.

Whether you’re a large or small business, your executive summary is the first thing someone reads that forms an opinion of your business. Whether they decide to read your detailed business plan or push it aside depends on how good your executive summary is. We hope your executive summary guide helps you craft an effective and impactful executive summary. That way, readers will be more likely to read your full plan, request an in-person meeting, and give you funding to pursue your business plans.

Looking to get started on your business plan’s executive summary? Take a look at the business plan executive summary example below!

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Shoutmouth.com Executive Summary

Business Overview

Launched late last year, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet .

Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Taylor Swift receive over 5 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.

However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.

In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:

Success Factors

Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

Unique Investment Metrics

The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.

To begin, over the past five years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this audience.

The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during a recent test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.

While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes).

Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy

While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.

Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:

Other Resources for Writing Your Business Plan

What is the purpose of an executive summary?

An executive summary provides a quick overview of your business plan. It succinctly describes your business. It gives a summary of each of the other sections of your plan (e.g., marketing plan, financial plan, customer analysis, etc.). And it answers the key question that investors and lenders need to know: why is your business uniquely qualified to succeed?

What is included in an executive summary?

Your executive summary should include an overview of your business concept, a summary of each of the key sections of your plan (company overview, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan) and answer why your business is uniquely qualified to succeed.

How long is an executive summary?

Your executive summary should be one to two pages. Remember that the goal of the summary is simply to excite the reader into continuing through your full plan. Give them a summary of the key highlights of your business and invite them to learn more by reading the full business plan.

How do you start off a summary?

If the first paragraph of your executive summary isn’t compelling enough, you’ll immediately lose readers. So, start your executive summary by clearly stating what your business does and why your company is unique. Then give a summary of each of the other sections of your plan (e.g., competitive analysis, industry analysis, etc.).

Helpful business executive summary template

Pitching a business idea to an investor is enough to break down even the most prepared entrepreneurs. If you’re scrambling to get your value proposition across while fighting the clock, your business plan can quickly fall apart — along with your confidence.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. You can write a great business plan and deliver it — almost — without breaking a sweat. The key to success is summarizing your thoughts in a concise summary. In this article, you’ll learn how to grab your stakeholders’ attention and deliver all the key information with an effective executive summary template.

Get the template

What is a business executive summary template?

A business executive summary template is a framework for highlighting the core points of your business plan with your target audience in mind. In the template, you’ll have space to fill out all information that pertains to the management of your business. This can include sales and marketing strategies, figures related to the staff and other expenses, and short and long-term objectives.

One way to think of the summary is as an elevator pitch that seeks to convey as much information as possible in the shortest time.

Download Excel template

Why use a business executive summary template?

With the business executive summary template, all you have to do is distill down the essential parts of your business plan into easy-to-digest words. Bullet point lists and short sentences can help get across the most important information in a way that’s brief and scannable.

You can use the business executive summary template as a guide for boiling down the basics of your company for potential investors. Without a summary template, you may neglect to mention significant aspects of your business that could detrimentally affect your pitch. The last thing you want is to create an executive summary that’s long-winded and padded out with irrelevant data.

Give investors a pitch to remember by creating a hard-hitting executive summary that’s granular yet concise — which you can use a template to do. Often, this approach will yield better results than the long-winded approach since you condense the information down into a palatable presentation.

It also ensures that you use a consistent format each time you create a new one, which makes them skimmable for busy investors and high-level executives — in fact, investors have little time to read pitch decks, with an average time spent of 3 minutes and 44 seconds . This evidence suggests that investors don’t have time for reading the entire document, so you only have a few minutes to get your message across.

A business executive summary template can also streamline your pitching process. If you have meetings with various investors, you can plug in and swap out information according to the individuals you’re pitching to. The dawn of a new year can bring the promise of fresh investment, yet the reality is that as of February 2022, investor activity has declined by 5.56% .

What are some examples of business executive summary templates?

Let’s look at a few business executive summary template examples.

Problem resolution

Highlight the customer pain point you’re looking to address with your business, and you’ll quickly capture the interest of your audience.

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A business idea that doesn’t solve an obvious problem can be left by the wayside if investors don’t see the potential financial gain. Customers should have a compelling reason to buy the product or service, and if you can’t prove that you have one, investors won’t have a reason to invest.

Risk and opportunity analysis

With the risk and opportunity analysis, you can show off your knowledge of your target market and where your business fits in. Demonstrate to investors that you’ve carried out the research and prove that the opportunity is there for the taking.

When you show an understanding of your target audience and what the competition offers, you give the investor an overview of what risks they’ll assume and what they could gain.

Action plan summary

When evaluating business pitches, investors generally appreciate a clear roadmap for the business’s long-term success. Highlight the route to market, including your market strategy, and indicate any obstacles you’ll face to demonstrate that you’ve thought it through.

When you present a bulleted list of next steps or actions for your management team to take, you prove to investors that you’re forward-thinking and can elevate your business with financial backing. Investors ultimately want to know where their money will be going, so they’ll want to see that information when they read your executive summary.

monday.com’s business executive summary template

Use monday.com business executive summary template to take the core information from your business plan and break it down into bite-sized takeaways for investors. Our template gives you something to work from by giving you a space to create a central knowledge base. When it comes time to draw up your executive summary, you just need to enter the information and change it according to who you’re pitching to.

monday.com Work OS real-time tracking and analytics can help you reinforce every point you make in your summary with data. That way, you can show off your understanding of the current state of the market as well as future trends.

monday.com workdocs can be another useful tool to aid your quest for investment, as you can pass your summary around and receive valuable feedback. With monday.com workdocs, it’s easy to collaborate on business documents, share comments, and ultimately promote teamwork. Since it’s important to get the summary right, you want as many people to see it as possible so you can present an airtight pitch to investors.

Business executive summary template tips and tricks

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using a business executive summary template.

1. Carry out a market analysis

If you want to create an effective business plan executive summary, it’s best to start with a thorough market analysis. If you can sprinkle relevant statistics and figures into your summary, there’s a greater chance it’ll do a better job of convincing investors to part with their cash.

Without market research to back up your claims, investors won’t have any real data to latch onto. If you were to pitch a brick-and-mortar business a few months into the pandemic in 2020, you’d likely be laughed out of the boardroom.

If you show investors that you have your finger on the pulse of market trends, they’ll listen up.

2. Use financial projections

Think about where your business could fit into the market, not only today but several months and even years from now. Consider the market share you could conceivably reach and what your figures might be based on your closest competition.

Financial projections are critical to the success of any pitch. The bottom line is investors want to make money, so they’re not likely to invest in a business that will operate at a loss.

3. Remember that it’s a summary, not a plan

The business executive summary is called such because it should be drawn up after you’ve created a detailed business plan. If you were to try and create it before making your business plan, you may leave out important information that could prove costly.

Get started

FAQs about business executive summary templates

Let’s go over the answers to some common questions about business executive summary templates.

What does an executive business summary include?

An executive business summary should include all of the following information:

How do you write an executive summary for a business plan?

To write an executive summary, you need to take all the most important information from your business plan and present it clearly. A good way to approach the summary is to assume that it will be the only text the investors will read. This is often a reality, as investors safeguard their time and receive many pitches throughout the day. With that in mind, you want the summary to contain everything investors need to know without having to read the rest, according to the elements laid out in the template.

How long should an executive summary be?

Ideally, an executive summary should capture the investors’ attention and deliver all the key points in the space of a few minutes. The shorter, the better, but as a general goal, it’s wise to aim for two pages maximum, or 10% of your entire business plan.

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How to Write the Executive Summary of a Business Plan

1. company information, 2. the problem/s the business will solve, 3. the solution the business will provide, 4. concept of the business, 5. how the business is compared to its competitors, 6. the team/s of the business, 7. current business situation, 8. the business goals, mobile app business plan executive summary example.

mobile app business plan executive summary example

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COMMENTS

Business Plan Executive Summary Example & Template
A business plan is a document that you create that outlines your company's objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives. Every business plan has key sections such as management...
How to write an executive summary, with examples
An executive summary is a summary of the most important information in your project plan. Think of the absolutely crucial things your management team needs to know when they land in your project, before they even have a chance to look at the project plan—that's your executive summary. Read: Proof of concept (POC): How to demonstrate feasibility
Executive Summary of the Business Plan
An executive summary of a business plan is an overview. Its purpose is to summarize the key points of a document for its readers, saving them time and preparing them for the upcoming content. Think of the executive summary as an advance organizer for the reader. Above all else, it must be clear and concise.
How To Write an Executive Summary With Example
An executive summary is a brief overview at the beginning of your business plan. It should provide a short, concise summary of your business that captures the reader's attention and gives them an interest in learning more about it. See an example of a business plan's executive summary so you can begin writing one of your own. Key Takeaways
How to Write a Powerful Executive Summary [+4 Top Examples]
An executive summary is a brief overview of your company that is located at the beginning of your business plan and on the 'About us' page of your website. It's a section that grabs readers' attention and summarizes critical information regarding your company and your upcoming short-term and long-term goals.
How to Write an Executive Summary in 6 Steps
An executive summary tells the story of what your business does, why an investor might be interested in giving funds to your business, why their investment will be well-spent, and why you...
How To Write A Good Business Plan Executive Summary
The executive summary for a business plan is a brief, positive synopsis of the business that goes at the beginning of your business plan. It is normally about two pages long and contains two-sentence overviews of each section within the plan.
Why the Executive Summary is a Critical Part of Your Business Plan
An executive summary is essentially an outline of your business plan. If your full business plan is a roadmap, your executive summary is your roadmap's roadmap. It gives your readers a heads up about what you'll talk about in the rest of your business plan. For all intents and purposes, your business's executive summary is your elevator pitch. ‍
Business Plan Executive Summary: The Exhaustive Guide
Executive summary is an introduction to your business, which provides a brief snapshotof your plan as a whole. To that end, concisely highlight the most important concepts and impressivefeatures from each section of your completed plan, addressing the following areas: Business plan sections: What readers look for: Products and services
How to Write An Executive Summary for a Business Plan
The executive summary can often be considered the most crucial part of a business plan. It will describe a business, which problems it will solve, the target market, and a highlight of the financials. Every plan will not need a summary. It is crucial for the plans that are written for outsiders.
How to Write an Executive Summary
An executive summary is a brief introduction and summary of your business plan. It should describe your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights. A good executive summary grabs your reader's attention and lets them know what it is you do and why they should read the rest of your business plan or proposal.
PDF What is an Executive Summary?
edit and update the executive summary in all subsequent cycles. Early drafts of the executive summary will discuss your objectives and strategy and forecast work you plan to do. In your final report, the executive summary will be in past tense, summarizing your report and describing what your project entailed and its outcomes. Two examples of ...
Executive Summary
Executive Summary Definition: A nontechnical summary statement at the beginning of a business plan that's designed to encapsulate your reason for writing the plan. Anyone looking at your business ...
How to Write an Effective Executive Summary
Your executive summary should focus only on the positive elements of your research and business plan. Leave the discussion of risks, obstacles, and challenges for the body section of your plan. Keep a positive tone and use upbeat language in your summary. The Five-Paragraph Formula for an Effective Executive Summary
Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How To Write One
A business plan is a document that defines in detail a company's objectives and how it plans to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written road map for the firm from marketing,...
How to Write a Marketing Plan Executive Summary
The executive summary is a brief overview of your marketing plan. Write the complete marketing plan before you provide a summary of that plan. Once you have all of the information for your marketing plan, you can decide what's important enough to include in the executive summary.
Write your business plan
Executive summary. Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company's leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.
Business Plan
The executive summary functions as a reading guide, as it highlights the key aspects of the plan and gives structure to the document. It must describe ownership and history of formation. It is an abstract of the entire plan, describes the mission statement of the organization, and presents an optimistic view about the product/service/concept. 2.
How to Write an Executive Summary For a Business Plan ...
An executive summary of a business plan gives the reader an overview of the business opportunity and your entire business plan. It explains the type of business the company operates and summarizes the key facts and strategies supporting the businesses's growth.
How to Write an Executive Summary
That means the executive summary is an essential gateway for your business plan to get read. Think about it this way: If you had an endless list of things to do, and someone handed you an 80-page ...
Helpful Business Executive Summary Template
A business executive summary template is a framework for highlighting the core points of your business plan with your target audience in mind. In the template, you'll have space to fill out all information that pertains to the management of your business. This can include sales and marketing strategies, figures related to the staff and other ...
9+ Business Plan Executive Summary Examples
9+ Business Plan Executive Summary Examples - PDF. An executive summary is a section in a document that presents the highlights of the discussed topics. Th executive summary simplifies the discussions as well as state the purpose of the document. It is basically the summary of the entire document that is intended to encourage the reader/s to ...