Initial Sections: Executive Summary, Mission, & Business Description

The initial sections of your Business plan give your audience quick information about your business and objectives.

The first section of your business plan is the last section to be written chronologically. The Executive summary is a synopsis of your entire business plan within 2-3 pages, taking the most important parts of the plan and presenting them in an abbreviated fashion. This section allows readers and potential investors to get a feel for your business and its objectives without having to go through the entire plan in order to understand the basics of the business. Interested readers can decide to move on to the meatier sections of the plan upon finding a point of interest within the Executive Summary.

The easiest way to build an Executive Summary is to take the major points from each section of the plan and combine them. Instead of attempting to rewrite a 20-30 page plan in 2-3 pages, key sentences can be chosen from each section which best represent the points of those sections.

Next you'll want to list the mission of your business along with your primary objectives for the business, such as seeking financing or becoming a market leader within three years.

The Business Description portion of the plan gives the opportunity for you to describe your business’s industry, purpose, mission, and concept. This section should be used both to introduce the business and it’s industry, as well as to introduce it’s niche and competitive advantages within it’s industry. The key here is to give a clear understanding of the business and an introduction into why it has the potential of being successful.

The Entrepreneurial Perspective - The Executive summary will allow you to get a quick reminder of your business's objectives, structure, marketing plans, and financials. Taking time to place your idea in written form through your mission, objectives, and business description will allow you to begin to see any areas of the business that are incomplete or need to be more fully thought out and explained.

The Lender/Investor Perspective - As mentioned above, this section will provide investors and banks with a peak into your business idea, allowing them to get a picture early on of what the business entails and whether they are interested in becoming a stakeholder in it. Investors will need a clear and concise general understanding of your business. Since investors will be looking for a return on their investment into your business, they will be looking for an indication of the potential viability of your idea.

The Partnership Perspective - The Executive Summary can serve as a quick basis upon which to open up discussions with potential partners. Ideally, this summary can also be partially memorized so that it can serve as a sort of "elevator pitch" when such opportunities arise. Following your Executive Summary, potential business partners will need to see where their skills can fit into your business. If you have a potential partner in mind, highlighting a certain aspect of the business within this section of the plan may be beneficial to them.