4 Helpful Tips for Developing Effective Business Plan Executive Summaries

A business plan executive summary may be your only chance to communicate how your business will achieve success to potential investors, partners, employees and others. Given that these summaries are limited in length, below are some tips on what to focus on in order to develop a compelling, effective executive summary for your business plan.

Creating a Compelling Executive Summary for Business Plans

1. 

   Focus on the broad highlights, not the finer points – Detail the business’ name, location, products and services, target market, and the experience you/other owners are bringing to the table. Also, explain plans and projections for growing the business and meeting certain specific goals. Avoid, however, going into specifics about performance measurements, budgeting issues and other finer points that can (and should) be explained more thoroughly in the business plan.

2. Avoid/eliminate vague language – There’s no room for it, and it will only detract from the important points/messages you are trying to communicate in the summary. A few helpful tips for eliminating vague language include to reread the summary and edit it a least a few times over the course of a few or more days (taking a break between readings to clear your head/eyes); and having a mentor or respected colleague read the summary for an outside perspective.
3. Get specific with the numbers – Essentially, provide details about the financial position of the business now, what additional funds may be needed to get the enterprise (or a new division of it) off of the ground and what the projected earnings will be for the first quarter or year. While you can include a chart (or a few charts) to depict these projections, reserve the deeper explanations behind how you made these projections for the lengthier plan.
4. Update the plan as your business evolves – With business plans and their executive summaries, it’s important for business owners and entrepreneurs to consider these to be evolving documents that will change as the business changes. Consequently, it’s critical to have a plan for regularly updating the plan and its summary (possibly even every 6 months or so) to ensure that they are always up-to-date.

Contact a Denver Business Lawyer at Downey & Associates, PC

When you are ready to start a business and position it for success, you can turn to Denver Business Lawyer Thomas E. Downey. Since 1983, Thomas Downey and the other legal professionals at Downey & Associates, PC, have been providing individuals and businesses in the Denver Metro Area and throughout the U.S. with the highest level of legal service for their litigation, business and real estate legal issues.

To learn more about our various services and how Mr. Downey can help you, call today us at (303) 813-1111 or email us using the contact form on this page. From our law offices in Centennial, we serve clients throughout Colorado and the U.S.