When you have to present a business or venture, the business plan is important. But maybe you don't know, executives, investors... prefer another type of document to know the viability of a business: the executive summary. Examples of this report help to present adequate, summarized and sufficient information for those people who do not have time to waste.
Do you want us to give you a hand with that executive summary? Then pay attention to the information that we are going to provide you below.
What is an executive summary
Before talking about examples of executive summaries, it is important that you have clear ideas about what one of them is.
We could say that an executive summary, also called an executive report, is a document in which information on the most important aspects of a project or business plan is presented. In other words, it is a kind of summary where only the most important things are offered to make a decision.
The objective is simple to understand: it has to give the summarized and most important information of a business plan so that, at a glance, the person who reads it gets an idea of the type of business, what is needed and what it requires. can get with it. And thus make the decision whether it is something viable or not.
How an executive summary is structured
Once you are clear about what an executive summary is, if at any time you need to create one, you need to know its structure. And, to do this, we can divide it into eight different sections. These are:
Introduction
The introduction is a first vision of the business you have in mind. In other words, it is a presentation to put the person reading the report in the situation in such a way that you know what type of company or business it would be, what the objective is and what the benefits are.
Keep in mind that we are not talking about something that is going to be very extensive. Sometimes just one paragraph is more than enough.
Company and opportunity
In this part of the report you should make a summary about the company (or business to be set up), the team, the vision, mission and objectives of the business (the latter a little more detailed) and also the type of clients that would be your audience. objective (as analyzed as possible).
Again, we warn you that it should not be very long. And it is also Here you must present the benefits that your project would have for those investors or executives.
Industry and market analysis
In this case, in the executive summary section it is important to pay attention to reality, that is, to objectively analyze the situation of the industry and the market, that is, trends, how your business would fit, opportunities and risks, problems, solutions, etc.
In other words, you have to know what you are going to get into, and give that information to the professionals who can help you make that project a reality.
Management and operations
In this section of your executive summary you will have to Focus on what you need to move the project forward. But focused on the staff or equipment you are going to have.
Application and marketing
This is one of the most important points of this report. And this is where you must tell the other person what you are going to do and how you are going to do it to achieve the objectives you set at the beginning.
That is, you have to explain the plans you have to start it and how you want the business to grow. Of course, don't forget to have a plan B to turn things around in case things don't go as you expected at first.
Financial plan
Another very important section, and we could say that it is where many pay the most attention, is the financial plan. In other words, the point at which you are going to talk about money, what you need to start the project.
The more details on what the money is going to be used for and how it is going to be spent, the better the idea will be for the investor and he will be able to see if the business is really feasible or not.
Conclusion
The conclusion is a summary of all the points we have talked to you about. When professionals don't have much time, this is where they can look to see if, a priori, they are interested in the project (and therefore spend time reading it more carefully).
So, just because it is the end, don't neglect it.
Contact
Always end the executive summary with a contact so they can call you, write to you or visit your website. The important thing is that the person contacts you and you give them the means to do so.
Note that Most executive summaries are actually abbreviated reports of business plans.
Executive Summary Examples
So that you understand much better what an executive summary is, we have looked for some examples.
The first of them can be found on Venngage, a website that has an example executive summary template for a business plan. It is in English, but it will give you an idea of how to structure the information.
You can find it this article.
In the case of the website Example.de they offer you another way to build the executive report, based on points or dashes that would fit into each of the sections that we have mentioned before.
You see this one this article.
Finally, another example of an executive summary that we can leave you is also on Venngage, where you can see an example at a business level, with a simple design. In fact, on the web you can look for more options to inspire you and at the same time see how the information is organized (even if it is in English).
You got it this article.
Now you have clearer ideas about the executive summary and examples of it. We recommend that you see it as a summary of the business plan, since you will get the information precisely from it. Do you have any more questions about these?