Writing a killer executive summary

Have you ever wondered why so many business plans fail to achieve their objectives? Many of them are technically perfect, meeting the apparent requirements of those text books you can pick off the shelf at the book shop.

They include the necessary business school SWOT analysis and mission statement and even, possibly, Porter’s Five Forces diagram, but nobody wants to read them. Well sometimes the authors cannot see the wood for the trees – or even the voluminous amounts of paper that come from the trees to make the plan. So for a few handy hints on how to write the perfect business plan read on…

First, it helps to understand why you are writing a plan and who you are writing it for. If you know where you are going (and why) it will be much easier to work out how to get there. I find that the end is the best place to start. See the big picture and then work down towards increasing amounts of detail – not the other way around.

Can you capture the vision of what your business will look like in 3 years’ time? Can you really make me feel that you understand what you are going to achieve? Can you do it in one or two sentences? Do you even know who I am and what I care about? The more you know about the reader and their requirements, the better equipped you will be to give them what you want – and so get what you want.

The bank manager, the equity provider, the internal management team and you all have different needs and concerns, but one thing they all have in common – they are busy, short of time, impatient and hassled. Spoon feed them! Make their lives easier – they will appreciate it.

So, once you have excited the finance provider with your vision, give some background about the business. Don’t make assumptions about what they know. Just because you know so much about your company, your ambitions and your plan, they may not. Tell them who you are, how you got into this position of writing the plan, what is the status of the company. In short, put it all in perspective. Frame the plan, and the reader will have some reference points straight away.

Now they'll know two things – where you came from and where you are going.

Next comes the fun bit: can you really explain what your value proposition is to your customers? No, really. In no more than 30 seconds or a few lines of text? If you can, you are in a very small minority of entrepreneurs, even the successful ones. Who will buy your product or service? Why will they buy? How many will they buy? Why will they continue to buy over time? Why will they buy from you rather than someone else?

In short, what value are you really delivering to your customer? Test yourself: bore your friends. More importantly, test it out on your customers, and once you have it off pat, get it down in writing. It will be one of your most valuable assets.

So there you have it – the starting point – the early hurdles that so many fall at. It sounds so simple, but it is actually almost impossible, or so you would believe if you read the vast majority of worthy business plans.