How to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary

The executive summary for your business plan will be, by far, the most read section of the plan. It needs to capture the interest of the investor and motivate them to delve deeper into your business plan. You need to invest time and effort into making sure that your business plan executive summary clearly outlines the primary objectives of your business plan.

Even though this section is vital, put off writing your executive summary until you finished with your business plan. Why? Simply because the executive summary needs to summarize what your business plan contains. It doesn't make sense to write the executive summary until you've completed writing your business plan. Also, the method that Business Plan Success recommends for writing your business plan executive summary requires that your business plan be complete before you start.

Your executive summary shouldn't be longer than 1/10 of the length of your business plan. That means that if your business plan is 40 pages long, your executive summary shouldn't be longer than 4 pages.

Print out a copy of your business plan and read through the plan, highlighting any points that you believe are vital for investors to know right away. After you have gone through and highlighted the points you thought were important, go through and evaluate the importance of each point and cross out any that might not be necessary. You don't want what's really important to get muddled in with the information that might not be quite as important.

Type up a list of each of the points you have selected from your business plan. Keep these points in the same order that they appeared in your business plan. It is helpful for the business plan's executive summary to follow the same general outline as the business plan. After you have your list of main points, write a sentence that is simple and direct which states each of these points. Add supporting information to each point as needed.

Type your executive summary in paragraph form. Skim through it and make sure that it clearly conveys the main points in your business plan. If you miss the main points, edit the executive summary to bring them out. Now, read through the summary carefully and check for errors. When you're satisfied that your executive summary will accomplish its purpose, you're done!

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