What Is an Executive Summary Business Plan?

If you understand the importance of an executive summary in a report, then you should understand the role of an executive summary business plan. Just about every small business should have an executive summary business plan. More than just a page or two tacked to the beginning of your company’s business plan, this is a stand-alone document used to get the interest of potential investors and other key people who may be interested in your company.

Role of the Executive Summary Business Plan

Traditionally, the executive summary is the introduction to a full business plan and summarizes the important parts contained in the full document. It’s essentially what a busy executive would read to get an idea of what the business plan contains.

While it should be added to the beginning of the full business plan, the executive summary can also be used as an independent document, and Forbes recommends you should write it as one. The reason for this is that if someone reads your executive summary and isn’t interested in reading the rest, your relationship with them has ended.

You can give the executive summary by itself to potential investors, potential business partners and potential new hires for your company. If they’re interested in what they read, you can give them the full business plan. If they aren’t interested, you don’t have to worry about them walking away with sensitive information that is included in your full business plan.

Components of the Executive Summary Business Plan

The executive summary business plan should be between one and three pages, written in the third person. The executive summary format should follow the same order as the full business plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends that a business plan include the following sections, in this order:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management team
• Product or service line
• Marketing and sales
• Funding request
• Financial projections

Obviously, there isn’t an executive summary inside the executive summary, but the other components should all be there. Bullet points are fine. In fact, use any opportunity you can to condense important information to make it brief and easy to scan.

There are many templates available online, which you should look at before drafting your own executive summary. The SBA, for example, has business plans geared towards different business sectors, as well as plans for traditional companies and lean startups.

Writing the Executive Summary Business Plan

The experts at Hubspot recommend writing the executive summary first, while others recommend writing it after your full business plan is complete. Perhaps the ideal approach is to do both: Begin by drafting the executive summary, compose the rest of the business plan, and then go back and revise the executive summary as needed.

Just like the facts in your business plan, the facts in your executive summary should be accurate. Hubspot compares this document to the back cover of a book designed to get the readers’ interest in your company. However, this doesn’t mean it should read like a sales pitch.

Keep in mind that the ideal reader will be someone who likely has as much experience in your industry as you do, if not more. When readers finish the document, they will ideally see you as someone with the right facts and the right plan to succeed.

Keep the adjectives to a minimum, proofread the document several times and get feedback from others – preferably people with experience in your business sector or investors who have experience reading executive summaries.