Business Plan – Executive Summary

The first written section of the business plan is the Executive Summary this is a summary of the key points and areas of the business plan and is many times judged to be the most important section of the business plan. 

In the executive summary, the content presents the company and describes what it does. 

In the executive summary, briefly explain the company’s product(s) and / or service(s) and why the business will be successful. 

The executive summary should be at the beginning of the document. As the first section, it should give the reader, either management, partners, investors, lenders or other interested parties a nice high-level review of what the overall business encompasses and the strategies it will follow. What is in the executive summary should be addressed in depth throughout the remainder of the business plan.

The summary should:

• Touch on the sections and content that will be detailed in the business plan, to give an overall understanding of what will follow.  
• Be captivating, but not overly puffy, as to encourage the reader to want to get deeper into each section and read the whole plan.
• Make the main points about who, how and what the company is and does.

Given the fact that the executive summary is the at the front of the business plan, usually read first and encapsulates sections from the whole document, it becomes a key component of the business plan and as such needs to be strong and crisp. Pull in the reader by encompassing the main points of the business, but just give them highpoints, so that they are enticed to read the rest of the document.

A sub-heading in the executive summary is the financial summary. Here in the business plan, it is common to show the financial highlights for the company over the next few years of operation. Many times, a chart is to convey the highlights of the financial summary. Financial outlooks such as revenue, expenses and profit are charted here.

The next sub-heading in the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is a short declaration of who the company is, what it provides and its beliefs. The overall philosophy of what the company advocates can be addressed in the mission statement. 

Finally, in the executive summary are objectives. Objectives for a company are clearly defined targets that are set by management or business owners. The marks the company intends to hit by executing on strategies in the plan are written here. Listing company objectives helps to give management and all stakeholders a clear perspective on what targets the company expects to pursue. These targets do not have to be only financial. Looking at and reviewing objectives can give a means for a company to track growth and reflect on how the company is doing based on what it stated it would do. Objectives should take into account the desires of all those involved with the company.