Update Your Business Plan for 2023 Part 2 - Executive Summary

Update Your Business Plan for 2023 Part 1 - Getting Started

The Executive Summary is an extremely important part of the business plan. Often times, when you submit your plan to investors or bankers, they many only read this section of your business plan. You definitely want to hook the reader, so they will be motivated to continue reading your business plan.

Even though it is one of the first sections of the business plan, we update this section of our website last. It will be much easier to write the summary, after you have completed the comprehensive sections of your overall business plan.

The executive summary should be comprised of at least the following sections:

• Business Overview - one or two sentences
• Products/Services Description - what problems are you solving for your niche’ target market?
• Business Goals - Where do you expect the business to be in one year, three years, five years, etc.?
• Target Niche’ Market - Who are your ideal customers?
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - What differentiates your business from the competition.
• Competition = Who are you up against, and what strategies do you employ to succeed?
• Management Team - What do they bring to the table that gives your business a competitive edge?
• Financial Outlook – What does the next year, 3 years, 5 years look like financially for your business?
  • If you plan to submit the business plan to financial institutions or investors, plan to explain exactly how much money you want, how you will use it, and how your business will be more profitable.

The executive summary should be no longer than two pages.

Share this post!