examples of executive summary of a business plan

Business Plan Executive Summary Example & Template

Updated: Jun 3, 2024, 1:03pm

Table of Contents

Components of an executive summary, how to write an executive summary, example of an executive summary, frequently asked questions.

A business plan is a document that you create that outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives. Every business plan has key sections such as management and marketing. It should also have an executive summary, which is a synopsis of each of the plan sections in a one- to two-page overview. This guide will help you create an executive summary for your business plan that is comprehensive while being concise.

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The executive summary should mimic the sections found in the business plan . It is just a more concise way of stating what’s in the plan so that a reader can get a broad overview of what to expect.

State the company’s mission statement and provide a few sentences on what the company’s purpose is.

Company History and Management

This section describes the basics of where the company is located, how long it has been in operation, who is running it and what their level of experience is. Remember that this is a summary and that you’ll expand on management experience within the business plan itself. But the reader should know the basics of the company structure and who is running the company from this section.

Products or Services

This section tells the reader what the product or service of the company is. Every company does something. This is where you outline exactly what you do and how you solve a problem for the consumer.

This is an important section that summarizes how large the market is for the product or service. In the business plan, you’ll do a complete market analysis. Here, you will write the key takeaways that show that you have the potential to grow the business because there are consumers in the market for it.

Competitive Advantages

This is where you will summarize what makes you better than the competitors. Identify key strengths that will be reasons why consumers will choose you over another company.

Financial Projections

This is where you estimate the sales projections for the first years in business. At a minimum, you should have at least one year’s projections, but it may be better to have three to five years if you can project that far ahead.

Startup Financing Requirements

This states what it will cost to get the company launched and running. You may tackle this as a first-year requirement or if you have made further projections, look at two to three years of cost needs.

The executive summary is found at the start of the business plan, even though it is a summary of the plan. However, you should write the executive summary last. Writing the summary once you have done the work and written the business plan will be easier. After all, it is a summary of what is in the plan. Keep the executive summary limited to two pages so that it doesn’t take someone a long time to peruse what the summary says.

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It might be easier to write an executive summary if you know what to expect. Here is an example of an executive summary that you can use as a template.

Bottom Line

Writing an executive summary doesn’t need to be difficult if you’ve already done the work of writing the business plan itself. Take the elements from the plan and summarize each section. Point out key details that will make the reader want to learn more about the company and its financing needs.

How long is an executive summary?

An executive summary should be one to two pages and no more. This is just enough information to help the reader determine their overall interest in the company.

Does an executive summary have keywords?

The executive summary uses keywords to help sell the idea of the business. As such, there may be enumeration, causation and contrasting words.

How do I write a business plan?

If you have business partners, make sure to collaborate with them to ensure that the plan accurately reflects the goals of all parties involved. You can use our simple business plan template to get started.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a small business writer.

Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.

How to Write an Executive Summary (+ Examples)

• March 21, 2024
• Business Plan , How to Write

The executive summary is the cornerstone of any business plan, serving as a gateway for readers to understand the essence of your proposal.

It summarizes the plan’s key points into a digestible format, making it crucial for capturing the interest of investors, partners, and stakeholders.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what the executive summary is, why we use it, and also how you can create one for your business plan. Let’s dive in!

What is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is a concise and compelling overview of a business plan (or simply a report), designed to provide readers, such as investors, partners, or upper management, with a quick and clear understanding of the document’s most critical aspects.

For a business plan, it summarizes the key points including the business overview , market analysis , strategy plan timeline and financial projections.

Typically, the executive summary is the first section of a business plan, but it should be written last to ensure it accurately reflects the content of the entire document.

The primary goal of an executive summary is to engage the reader’s interest and encourage them to read the full document.

It should be succinct, typically no more than one to two pages, and articulate enough to stand on its own, presenting the essence of the business proposal or report without requiring the reader to go through the entire document for basic understanding.

Why Do We Use It?

The executive summary plays a crucial role in whether a business plan opens doors to funding, partnerships, or other opportunities . It’s often the first (and sometimes the only) part of the plan that stakeholders read, making it essential for making a strong, positive first impression. As such, we use it in order to:

• Capture Attention: Given the volume of business plans investors, partners, and lenders might receive, an executive summary’s primary function is to grab the reader’s attention quickly. It highlights the most compelling aspects of the business to encourage further reading.
• Save Time: It provides a succinct overview of the business plan, allowing readers to understand the key points without going through the entire document. This is particularly beneficial for busy stakeholders who need to make informed decisions efficiently.
• Facilitate Understanding: An executive summary distills complex business concepts and strategies into a concise format. Therefore, it makes it easier for readers to grasp the business’s core mission, strategic direction, and potential for success.
• Driving Action: By summarizing the financial projections and funding requirements, an executive summary can effectively communicate the investment opportunity. Indeed the investment opportunity, whether to raise money from investors or a loan from a bank, is the most common reason why we prepare business plans.
• Setting the Tone: The executive summary sets the tone for the entire business plan. A well-written summary indicates a well-thought-out business plan, reflecting the professionalism and competence of the management team.

How to Write an Executive Summary in 4 Simple Steps

Here’s a streamlined approach to crafting an impactful executive summary:

1. Start with Your Business Overview

• Company Name: Begin with the name of your business.
• Location: Provide the location of your business operations.
• Business model: Briefly describe how you make money, the producfs and/or services your business offers.

2. Highlight the Market Opportunity

• Target Market : Identify your target market and its size.
• Market Trends : Highlight the key market trends that justify the need for your product or service.
• Competitive Landscape : Describe how your business is positioned to meet this need effectively.

3. Present Your Management Team

• Team Overview: Introduce the key members of your management team and their roles.
• Experience: Highlight relevant experience and skills that contribute to the business’s success.

4. Include Financial Projections

• Financial Summary: Provide a snapshot of key financial projections, including revenue, profits, and cash flow over the next three to five years.
• Funding Requirements: If seeking investment, specify the amount needed and how it will be used.

2 Executive Summary Examples

Here are 2 examples you can use as an inspiration to create yours. These are taken from our coffee shop and hair salon business plan templates.

Coffee Shop Executive Summary

Hair Salon Executive Summary

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Home » Business Plans

How to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary [Sample Template]

A good executive summary is the holy grail of good business plan writing. Even though it comes after you have written and thought through every other facet of your business, it is arguably the most important part of the puzzle. As its name implies, the executive summary is a brief overview of your business plan. Call it an introduction to your business and you would be very right.

The executive summary gives time-crunched executives or VCs  that high-level overview that will either persuade them to read your plan further or toss it in a trashcan without a second thought. Even though the executive summary is the first thing that the readers of your business plan will go through, you should write it last because it summarizes everything from that start to the end of your business plan.

Also, it is usually the first and probably the most important thing that busy investors consider before deciding if your business plan is worth spending a minute on. Secondly, since it’s a summary, you will only be highlighting the main facets of what you have uncovered over the course of writing your business plan. Below is a list of what your executive summary should include:

Components of a Business Plan Executive Summary

• Business concept (what you do or what you intend to do)
• Business goals and vision (what you want to achieve)
• Product/service description and differentiation (what you offer and what makes it different)
• Target market (who you want to sell to)
• Marketing plan (how you plan to reach your customers)
• Current financial state (what you currently make in revenue—for existing business looking at expansion, or how much you already have on ground—for startups)
• Projected financial state (what you foresee making in revenue)
• The request (how much funds you are asking for)
• The team (who runs your business)

Your business plan executive summary must provide brief information on the following areas of your business;

• The target market : it has to describe the type of customers you will be targeting.
• Business model : it should describe your products or services and what will make them appealing to the target market.
• Marketing and sales strategy : it should touch briefly your plans for marketing your products or services.
• The competition : since competition is a major part of business, so it has to describe how you plan on dealing with the completion and gaining market share. It should equally state your competitive advantage.
• Financial analysis : it should summarize your financial plan
• Owners/Staff : it should describe the owners and the key staff members and the expertise they bring to the venture.
• Implementation plan : it should briefly outline the schedule for taking your business from the planning stage to opening your doors.
• An overview of funding requirements : you need to state the amount of funding you need, and what the money would be used for.
• Growth highlights : it should give any instances of growth and, if possible, illustrate that growth with graphs or charts.
• Future Plans : This doesn’t have to be too detailed, but it should give anyone reading your summary an idea of where your business is heading and how you intend to get there.

Writing a business plan executive summary is not that difficult, you only need to include the summary of the details that were listed above. You executive summary should be arranged this way;

Writing a Business Plan Executive Summary – Sample Template

You can start by describing your company, your mission and vision statements. Include your Business Name and address. If you are lost for words on how to describe your company, think about how you want your employees, customers and the business community to view your company.

This intro paragraph should be attention-getting from the start. It is wise to bring in impressive attributes of your company, but be specific here. Potential investors will want to see real evidence of demonstrated skills and unique abilities. Use this section to highlight company or employee accolades, albeit briefly. Describe the organizational structure and name key employees.

The names and titles of key employees are sufficient; however, include a brief description of executive team members’ responsibilities and duties. Include a list of satellite offices, contact information for each location and how many employees would work in each location.

2. Your business offering

Write a description of what your business aims to offer to its target market. Here, you should give a description of the product or service the business expects to offer. Highlight the products or services in a way that sounds appealing and sets you apart from the competition. The aim of the executive summary is to intrigue the reader enough to read what the rest of the business plan holds.

3. Your finances

This section is where you now talk about the financial aspects of your business. Disclose all business partners, investors and banks you have business relationships with. Explain the role of each entity or individual, the amounts invested or financed, and fiduciary terms and responsibilities.

If you are proposing your business plan to additional lending institutions or investors, this information can strengthen your plan by illustrating confidence others have in your ability to operate a successful business. This section should also include sales and profit projections for the business. You are free to use charts or graphs to reflect this information if it would provide more insight than texts.

Construct the final section of your executive summary by drafting comments about your organization’s accomplishments, accolades or remarkable growth. In this section, briefly describe your plan for achieving your company’s future goals.

Having discussed how an executive plan is written, let’s go further by looking at tips on how to ensure that your executive summary is perfectly written.

8 Tips for Writing a Perfect Business Plan Executive Summary

A. you must ensure that your first paragraph is strong enough.

To attract the reader’s attention and compel them to read the rest of the summary. For example, you can start by stating a market problem that your business promises to fix.

b. Remember, it’s all a summary

So, keep it short. The business plan itself will provide the details. So, don’t waste the reader’s time or irritate them by adding unnecessary details in your executive summary.

c. Use strong and positive language

Don’t weaken or dilute your statements with inappropriate words. For example, instead of writing “Our business might just become the market winner in the next five years”, write “Our business is poised to become the market winner in the next five years.”

d. Although there is no standard page length for executive summaries

It is better to keep it within two pages. Always resist the temptation to stuff your business plan’s executive summary with details that are already covered in the rest of the plan. Remember, the summary is meant to present facts about your business and entice the reader to read the rest of the plan.

e. Fine-tune your executive summary after writing it

Read it aloud to yourself. Does it sound great to you? Does it sound clear and brief, but detailed ? If you are satisfied with it, let someone else who knows nothing about your business read it and give suggestions on how you can improve it.

f. Customize the executive summary for your target audience

If your motive is to entice investors, for instance, your summary should hammer on the benefits that investors stand to gain from the opportunity you are presenting to them. Also, use formal or informal language depending on what’s more appropriate for your target audience.

g. Read the executive summary aloud once again

Putting yourself in place of the reader this time. Does the summary trigger your interest in the business or put you off instantly? Does the summary sound too good to be true, due to the choice of words? After reading it thoroughly, make necessary adjustments.

h. Clear your vocabularies of any self-glorifying superlatives

Clichés, and overused expressions that you may not be able to back up. Avoid words like “ best ”, “ ground-breaking ”, “ cutting-edge ”, “ world class ”, etc. Investors and other readers see those words almost every day and they tend to overlook their real meanings.

In conclusion

When writing your executive summary, even though it comes first, but aim to write it last after you have written the rest of your plan. This is the only way to know what exactly you should include when writing it. You have already done the research, so use that when pulling together the salient points of the executive summary.

Also, ensure that you check, double-check and triple-check your executive summary for any errors. Grammatical and spelling errors should be eradicated. But more importantly, your financial projections should contain absolutely no errors. Just one slight financial error will make you an amateur to any savvy investor.

Again, don’t be afraid to let your passion or excitement for your business come through in your executive summary. Investors typically believe that it takes a certain kind of entrepreneur to make a successful business, so capitalize on your commitment to get the backing you need.

More on Business Plans

Executive Summary Examples for Business Plans, Project Plans, and Research Projects

By Kate Eby | February 8, 2024

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Executive summaries allow decision-makers to quickly grasp the key points of important documents and make decisions. We’ve collected a variety of executive summary examples and templates that you can use as models for your executive summaries. 

Included in this article, you’ll find a  business plan executive summary example , a  project proposal executive summary example , a  research report executive summary example , and more. Plus, learn  how to fix common executive summary mistakes .

What Are the Main Components of an Executive Summary?

An  executive summary is a concise overview of a larger document, report, or proposal. It gives high-level executives or decision-makers a quick understanding of the main points of a longer document without requiring them to read the whole text.   

These are the components you might include in an executive summary:   

• Problem Statement: Clearly state the problem or challenge the company, product, or project addresses.
• Key Proposition: Outline the proposed solution or key value proposition.
• Market Analysis: Summarize findings about the market, customer needs, or competition.
• Key Features and Benefits: Highlight the main features or benefits of the proposed solution or strategy.
• Financial Summary: Provide a snapshot of financial aspects, such as cost, revenue projections, or return on investment (ROI).
• Next Steps: Briefly describe the next steps or strategy for implementation.

Simple Executive Summary Example

The following simple executive summary presents a concise statement of key findings and links them directly to a strategic recommendation. It provides a clear snapshot of the situation and the proposed action, which is essential for an executive summary.

Problem Statement

Many small businesses struggle with inefficient inventory management, leading to lost sales and increased operational costs.

Key Proposition

Our company proposes an AI-driven inventory management system that automates tracking and forecasting, tailored for small businesses.

Market Analysis

Research shows a 40 percent increase in demand for automated inventory solutions in the small business sector, with a significant gap in affordable, user-friendly options.

Key Features and Benefits

The system offers real-time inventory tracking, predictive restocking alerts, and an intuitive interface, reducing inventory errors by an estimated 50 percent.

Financial Summary

Our projected development cost is five hundred thousand dollars with a break-even point in 18 months. The expected ROI is 200 percent in three years, tapping into a market with a potential revenue of five million dollars annually.

Development will commence in Q1 2024, with a pilot launch in Q3. Full market release is scheduled for Q1 2025, followed by targeted marketing campaigns and customer feedback integration for further enhancements.

Executive Summary Template

Download a Blank Executive Summary Template for

Microsoft Word | Google Docs

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Available in blank and example versions, this executive summary template guides you in succinctly presenting key information about your business plan or project to stakeholders. Simply fill in each section with relevant details to create a concise overview that highlights problems, solutions, market potential, product features, financials, and next steps.

Business Plan Executive Summary Example

Review the following example for a business plan executive summary of an eco-friendly transportation company. This example provides a clear, brief overview that is essential when you want to engage stakeholders and set the stage for more detailed discussions.

In urban areas, the lack of convenient, eco-friendly transportation options leads to increased traffic congestion and pollution.

GreenGo Mobility Solutions proposes a network of e-bike sharing stations, offering an affordable, sustainable, and flexible transportation alternative.

There is a growing trend toward eco-friendly transport in cities, with a 60 percent increase in e-bike usage. Surveys show high interest among urban commuters for more accessible e-bike options.

Key Features and Benefits 

Our e-bikes are equipped with GPS tracking and easy-to-use interfaces. The bikes are designed for urban environments, offering a convenient and environmentally friendly commuting option.

The project requires an initial investment of two million dollars, with projected annual revenue of five million dollars by the third year. We anticipate a break-even point within two years, based on subscription and pay-per-use models.

Marketing Plan Executive Summary Example

In the following example, an executive summary outlines a marketing initiative within a company, detailing both the challenge and the strategic response. It provides a clear overview of the marketing plan’s objectives, actions, and expected outcomes.

We have seen a decline in new user adoption of our company's flagship software product over the past year.

Initiate a Revitalize and Engage campaign, focusing on updating the product’s user interface and enhancing customer engagement through social media and community building.

Competitor analysis and customer feedback indicate a need for more intuitive design and stronger community presence to attract and retain users.

The campaign will introduce a sleek, user-friendly interface and a robust online community platform, aiming to increase user engagement and satisfaction.

The campaign requires a budget of five hundred thousand dollars, with an expected increase in user adoption rates by 20 percent within the first year post-implementation.

Begin a UI redesign in Q2 2024, launch a social media engagement strategy in Q3, and roll out the updated product with community features in Q4.

Project Proposal Executive Summary Example

The example executive summary below demonstrates a well-structured project proposal that succinctly identifies a specific challenge and proposes an actionable solution. It provides a comprehensive snapshot of the project, including its rationale, expected benefits, financial implications, and implementation timeline.

Our current customer relationship management (CRM) system is outdated, leading to inefficiencies in sales tracking and client management.

We propose the development and implementation of a new, custom-built CRM system to streamline sales processes and enhance customer engagement.

Internal analysis indicates a 35 percent increase in process efficiency with a modern CRM system, while competitor benchmarking shows significant advantages in customer retention.

The new CRM will offer real-time sales tracking, automated client communication tools, and advanced analytics features, improving sales efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The estimated project cost is two million dollars, with a projected increase in sales efficiency by 50 percent and customer retention by 20 percent within two years.

Initiate the project in Q2 2024, with phase-wise implementation and employee training, aiming for full deployment by the end of Q4 2024.

Startup Executive Summary Example

Startups need to communicate their vision to potential investors and key stakeholders. In this example, an executive summary helps convey the startup’s vision with a concise summary of the business opportunity, unique selling proposition, market potential, and action plan.

There is a growing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly home cleaning products, but the market lacks options that are both effective and affordable.

EcoClean Innovations is a startup offering a line of environmentally friendly, biodegradable cleaning products made from natural ingredients, catering to eco-conscious consumers.

Market trends show a 50 percent increase in consumer preference for green homecare products, with a significant gap in cost-effective options.

Our products are non-toxic and competitively priced, and they have a minimal environmental footprint, addressing the need for effective and sustainable cleaning solutions.

We require an initial investment of one million dollars, projecting a 30 percent market penetration in the eco-friendly segment within the first two years.

Launch with an initial range of products by Q3 2024, followed by marketing campaigns targeting eco-conscious communities and online marketplaces.

Real Estate Development Executive Summary Example

In the following executive summary example for a construction project, the author outlines their vision for the Greenway Residential Complex. This summary captures the essence of the construction project proposal, presenting key information in a concise and structured format.

The growing urban population in Metro City has led to a shortage of affordable, eco-friendly housing options, resulting in increased living costs and environmental concerns. Key Proposition

Our project proposes the development of the Greenway Residential Complex, a sustainable and affordable housing solution. Utilizing innovative construction methods and eco-friendly materials, the complex aims to provide a balanced urban living experience that is both cost-effective and environmentally responsible.

Research indicates a high demand for eco-conscious housing in Metro City, with a market gap in affordable segments. Surveys show that young families and professionals are actively seeking sustainable living options that align with their environmental values and budget constraints.

• Sustainable design incorporating solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and green spaces
• Affordable pricing, targeting middle-income families and young professionals
• Proximity to public transportation and city centers, reducing commute times and the carbon footprint
• High-quality, energy-efficient building materials, ensuring lower utility costs and a smaller environmental impact
• Estimated project cost: Fifty million dollars
• Anticipated revenue from sales: Seventy million dollars, with a projected ROI of 40 percent over five years
• Funding secured from green building grants and private investors
• Finalize construction permits and approvals by Q2 2024.
• Begin construction in Q3 2024, with a projected completion date in Q4 2026.
• Launch a marketing campaign targeting eco-conscious families and professionals. Tip:  In this example, notice how helpful it is to use bullet points to convey certain information. Using bulleted lists is a great way to organize and present information in an executive summary.

Construction Project Executive Summary Example

Construction projects have many moving parts, which means executive summaries need to capture a lot of information in a small space. Consider a construction-specific executive summary template to ensure that stakeholders are keyed into the most vital project information.

Download a Blank Construction Project Executive Summary Template for

Microsoft Word |  Adobe PDF | Google Docs

Download an Example Construction Project Executive Summary Template for

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs

This construction project executive summary template allows users to give a high-level overview of the key aspects of a project, such as status, risks, issues, and changes. Available in both blank and sample versions, this editable template condenses complex project information into an easily digestible format. To use it, simply fill in each section with relevant, concise information about the current state and progress of your construction project, ensuring it remains updated and reflective of any changes or developments.

Renewable Energy Initiative Executive Summary Example

A renewable energy initiative executive summary should highlight the project’s objectives, strategies, and potential impact, as well as its contribution to environmental sustainability. In the following example, the summary articulates the project’s vision and its alignment with global environmental goals.

The urgent need to address environmental challenges and the increasing global demand for energy underscore the importance of transitioning to renewable energy sources. The reliance on traditional fossil fuels is unsustainable and contributes significantly to climate change.

The SunWind Project is a pioneering initiative combining solar and wind power to create a robust and sustainable energy solution. This project aims to leverage the strengths of both solar and wind energy, ensuring a continuous and reliable power supply while significantly reducing carbon emissions.

The renewable energy sector is experiencing rapid growth, fueled by global environmental policies and a rising consumer preference for sustainable energy. This shift presents an opportunity for the SunWind Project.

The project is unique in its integration of solar panels and wind turbines, ensuring consistent energy production under varying weather conditions. This scalable approach is designed to adapt to increasing energy demands. By significantly reducing the carbon footprint, the project supports global environmental sustainability goals and has the potential to power thousands of homes and businesses.

The SunWind Project has an estimated cost of two hundred million dollars, with projected revenues from energy sales anticipated to be around three hundred million dollars over the next 10 years. This represents a potential ROI of 50 percent. The project is poised to benefit from green energy grants, government subsidies, and private investments.

Immediate steps include securing the necessary environmental permits and clearances. The construction phase, slated to begin in the second quarter of 2024, will focus on installing solar panels and wind turbines, with a goal to commence energy production by the end of 2025.

One-Paragraph Healthcare Executive Summary Example

An executive summary of a healthcare initiative needs to do the following: concisely identify a pressing healthcare issue, present a tailored solution with its benefits, summarize market needs and competition, and outline the financial viability and next steps. 

In the following example, notice how an executive summary can capture all key elements in a single paragraph:

The HealthFirst Community Wellness Initiative addresses the critical problem of rising chronic illness rates in urban areas, focusing on diabetes and heart disease. Our comprehensive solution involves launching community health centers that provide preventive care, lifestyle education, and regular health screenings, as well as cater to the specific needs of urban populations. Market analysis indicates a significant demand for accessible healthcare services in these areas, with a lack of preventive and educational resources being a key gap. The initiative’s main features include state-of-the-art diagnostic tools, personalized health plans, and collaboration with local fitness and nutrition experts, offering benefits such as improved community health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs. Financially, the project is expected to be sustainable, with a mix of funding from public health grants and private partnerships. We are projecting a positive ROI within three years due to reduced hospital admissions. The next steps involve securing funding, establishing partnerships with local health professionals and organizations, and launching a pilot center in the downtown district, with a plan to expand to five more urban areas within two years.

Nonprofit Executive Summary Example

An executive summary for a nonprofit organization should communicate the essence of a project or initiative to donors and volunteers. It should concisely outline the organization’s mission, goals, and key solutions while also detailing strategies, actions, and their impact.

  This  executive summary example from Doctors Without Borders emphasizes the inadequacy of current Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agendas in meeting the needs of vulnerable populations. It then proposes six key recommendations to address these shortcomings. 

This executive summary succinctly identifies the core issue — inequitable access to healthcare — and clearly outlines actionable recommendations. This document helps facilitate advocacy and policy change, which are central to this organization’s goals.

Research Report Executive Summary Example

An executive summary in a research report concisely presents the key findings, conclusions, and recommendations derived from a research project. It covers elements such as the project topic, background, research methods, and critical insights, tailored for quick understanding and decision-making.

In this real-world  exampl e from the ASPCA , the executive summary details a study showing that veterinary hospitals’ proactive discussions about pet health insurance positively impacted hospital revenue and increased patient visits. 

Notice how this summary concisely outlines the study’s purpose, methodology, and significant findings, providing a clear overview for readers. In addition, it highlights the study’s relevance and implications for veterinary practices, emphasizing the practical benefits of educating clients about pet health insurance.

Research Report Executive Summary Template

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Microsoft Word |  Adobe PDF | Google Docs Download an Example Research Report Executive Summary Template for

To create your own research report executive summary, download this customizable template. Available in blank and example versions and three printable formats, this template serves as a structured guide to organize and present the key components of a research report. Simply fill in each section with specific details about your research, including the project topic, background information, methods used, conclusions, and recommendations.

Research Project Proposal Executive Summary Example

An executive summary for a research project focuses mainly on the research question, methods, and expected outcomes. These summaries often point out how important the research could be and what impact it might have on the field.  

Download a Blank Research Project Proposal Executive Summary Template for Microsoft Word | Google Docs  

Download an Example Research Project Proposal Executive Template for Microsoft Word | Google Docs

Teams can use this one-page executive summary — available in a blank or sample version — to concisely present the key elements of a research project to stakeholders, potential funders, or academic committees. By structuring the summary with specific sections such as background, objectives, and methodology, you can be sure that you’ve clearly and briefly outlined all critical aspects of your research.

Executive Summary Slide Example

Executive summaries are often documents that one distributes to executives, potential investors, and other stakeholders. However, slideshow presentations can facilitate a more interactive discussion. Plus, the inclusion of charts, graphs, and other images can better illustrate key points.  

Download an Example Single Slide Executive Summary Template for

PowerPoint | Google Slides

Download a Blank Single Slide Executive Summary Template for

This executive summary slide template is a versatile tool for succinctly conveying key project information in a single, visually engaging slide. You can enter your project information in the blank template or download the sample version for additional guidance. Input relevant details in each section, such as an overview of your project and next steps. The template allows users to insert their own text, graphics, and data. Copy your completed slide into a longer presentation, or use it on its own as a visual complement to any stakeholder presentation.

How to Improve Your Executive Summary

A poorly constructed executive summary can serve as an instructive example of what to avoid. Ineffective executive summaries might be too detailed or technical, lack focus on key points, or omit a clear call to action. 

Here are examples of the three most common mistakes found in executive summaries:

Includes Too Many Details or Technical Information

This example demonstrates one of the most common mistakes, which is including too much detail or overly technical language. It dives deeply into the specific technical specifications of the equipment and financial metrics, which might be overwhelming for readers. A more effective executive summary would focus on the broader objectives, expected impacts, and benefits of the project in a language that is accessible to a non-technical audience.

Lacks Focus on Key Points  

Sometimes, summaries fail to clearly highlight the most critical aspects of the project or proposal. This summary lacks focus concerning the key points of the Pathways to Knowledge project. A more effective summary would concisely state the project’s goal, significance, and anticipated outcomes.

Omits a Clear Call to Action or Conclusion  

Failing to include a clear conclusion or call to action is another common mistake. The summary should not only inform but also persuade and guide the reader toward the desired action or decision. This summary outlines the project’s goals and structure, but omits a clear call to action. The document doesn’t specify what is expected from the reader or potential stakeholders, such as support, partnership, funding, or involvement in the project.

Corrected Example

To create a more effective example, start by removing overly technical details. (Stakeholders don’t need to know the specific standards with which the training modules are aligned or which types of processors power your computers.) Next, take out unnecessary details that stray from the main point of the project. An executive summary is not the place to discuss the origins of the project idea or the elements your team has not yet decided on. Finally, always conclude your executive summary with a clear call to action.

The Pathways to Knowledge project is a pioneering educational initiative by a nonprofit organization, aimed at bridging the educational divide in underprivileged and remote communities. This project involves the deployment of Mobile Education Hubs: state-of-the-art, solar-powered mobile units that are equipped with educational resources, technology, and internet access. These hubs are designed to travel to various underserved areas, providing children and adults with access to quality educational materials, online learning platforms, and virtual tutoring. Each hub also hosts workshops and seminars led by educators and experts, covering a wide range of subjects from basic literacy and numeracy to vocational training and digital literacy. The initiative seeks to empower communities by enhancing educational opportunities, fostering a culture of lifelong learning, and equipping individuals with the skills necessary for the 21st-century job market. By focusing on accessibility and adaptability, the Pathways to Knowledge project aspires to create a ripple effect of educational advancement and social upliftment across diverse communities.

Master the Art of Writing Executive Summaries with Examples for Business Plans, Project Plans, and Research Projects from Smartsheet

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Executive Summary Examples & Templates

When introducing your business to angel investors, stakeholders, and venture capitalists, they won’t want to sit through fifty pages explaining why they should work with you. A simple and effective way to present your business in a palatable way is to write an executive summary. This document can tell the potential investors what to expect from the meeting where you will discuss your business plan or investment proposal. It will summarize the reason for your project.

Have you ever prepared an executive summary? If not, the following guideline and Executive Summary Example should help you create a concise and compelling one.

What Is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is a broad overview of a business document that tells the reader everything they need to know about a business plan or investment proposal. While the length and scope will often depend on the document being summarized, most executive summaries are about one to two pages long. Important documents that usually include an executive summary include:

• Project plans
• Business cases
• Project proposals
• Environmental studies
• Research documents
• Market surveys

Purpose of an Executive Summary

As mentioned, most lenders, executives, managers, and investors will not want to take time out of their busy day to read an entire novel-sized document. Still, they will want to know what your plan is about and why they should invest in or approve it. A summarized version of the plan – the executive summary – presents an analysis of all your arguments, funding considerations, and projected returns, among other key details. This is often enough to convince them to take a better look at your plan.

Essential Elements of an Executive Summary

A business plan consists of your company’s mission, vision, product or service description, brand identity, goals, target market, and financial projections. In turn, an executive summary should be a short version of your business plan. It should contain the following details:

• Your company’s name and office locations
• Mission and vision
• A brief history and company description
• An overview of your management, advisors, and employees
• A product or service description, including its niche market and competition status – how does it stand out from products from other companies?
• Company goals and objectives
• Startup financial budget and projected returns
• A review of how the reader can help you accomplish your goals

How to Write an Executive Summary

Most executive summaries have four main parts: the problem, the solution, the value of the solution, and the takeaway. The following step-by-step guide will help you flesh out these elements with information that your stakeholders want to know.

Step 1: Define the Pain Point

Start by defining the problem that your business plan or project proposal aims to solve. Include market research and customer feedback to back up your claims and explain why this problem is worth solving. How will solve it helps your target market? Why does it matter?

Step 2: Outline Your Solution

Next, explain your solution and convince the stakeholder that it is the right approach to the problem. Answer the question, ‘how will my product or service solve the problem?’ Once you have, support your solution with facts and figures.

Tip: At the time of writing an executive summary, you will often not have the complete map of your product or service and milestones. Rather than use this document to brainstorm, briefly tell the reader what you plan to do and back it with success-rate research.

Step 3: Expound on the Value of Your Solution

Now, go into detail about how the solution you have described will solve the problem you defined in step 1. Why is your solution important? What results will it yield? This is also where you should highlight potential returns, projected risks, and financial projections for the solution. You should also explain how it ties into your company’s mission, vision, and goals.

Step 4: Supply the Takeaway

Lastly, guide the reader to a takeaway by telling them what they should conclude from your executive summary. Think of this as one final chance to convince them to get on board.

Executive Summary Example

The following is an Executive Summary Example for the imaginary company: Green Future Ltd.

Company Mission

Green Future Ltd. provides green energy solutions to factories, industries, warehouses, and homes, allowing efficient functioning that is safe to both the user and the environment. Our mission is to help you watch TV, drive your tractor, and perform your manufacturing process without worrying about your health or those around you.

Company and Management

The Green Future Ltd.’s main office is located in Jersey City, New Jersey, with branches in Huntington Beach and Bayonne. It is owned and run by Holly Howard, Ph.D., an environmental engineer at MIT, and James Sutton, MBA, who has 30 years of experience in green solar energy solutions.

The company management consists of the two owners and a board of advisors that includes:

• Malcolm Right, CEO of Right Engineering Firm LLP
• Att. Grace Hawkins of the Law Offices of Grace Hawkins (Environmental Law)
• Hellen Irene of ABC Marketing and Accounting

Our Services

We cater to industries, companies, farms, and homeowners that would like to switch to more affordable, environment-friendly, and efficient energy sources and systems. Our services include:

• Solar panel installation
• Panel restorations
• Windmill constructions
• Biogas plant construction
• Bio-digester system installation
• Energy consultations
• Large scale green energy solutions
• Energy recycling
• Round-the-clock repair services

Recently, the call for industries to turn to green energy has become more prominent. More and more companies in New Jersey are looking for ways to optimize their energy use for more efficiency in industrial processes, a smaller carbon footprint, and affordable solutions. According to our market research, eight out of every ten business owners in Jersey City alone plan to switch to solar energy within the next five years.

Competitive Edge

Currently, there are five companies offering green energy solutions in New Jersey but none at our scale. Four of these businesses cater to small-scale farms and homes, while one only focuses on large plants. Green Future Ltd. emphasizes its all-size approach because our solutions can be up or downscaled to meet the needs of a single homeowner or multi-warehouse industry. Our technicians are also highly accredited and from prestigious engineering schools in the country.

Financial Projections

Our market research shows sales projections of $3.6 million for the first year and a steep 20 percent growth rate for the next four years.

Startup Requirements

Green Future Ltd will need $1.5 million in startup costs to finance this first year of operation. The owners have already invested $900,000 toward the capital.

Executive Summary Samples & Templates

An executive summary is a brief overview of a business plan or project proposal, usually found among the first pages of the entire document. It captures the reader’s attention and tells them everything they need to know about the company, your plans, and where they come in – so they can decide whether to invest in or approve your plan (project). If you are preparing to meet with potential stakeholders, this guide and the Executive Summary Example should help you capture and keep their attention.

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How to Write an Executive Summary in 6 Steps

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When you’re starting a business, one of the first things you need to do is write a business plan. Your business plan is like a roadmap for your business, so you can lay out your goals and a concrete plan for how you’ll reach them.

Not only is a business plan essential for any business owner, but it’s also a requirement if you decide to apply for small business funding or find investors. After all, before a bank or individual hands over any money, they’ll want to be sure your company is on solid ground (so they can get their money back).

A business plan consists of several pieces, from an executive summary and market analysis to a financial plan and projections. The executive summary will be the first part of your business plan.

If wondering how to write an executive summary has kept you from completing your business plan, we’re here to help. In this guide, we’ll explain what an executive summary is and provide tips for writing your own so your business plan can start strong.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a short, informative, and easy-to-read opening statement to your business plan. Even though it’s just one to two pages, the executive summary is incredibly important.

An executive summary tells the story of what your business does, why an investor might be interested in giving funds to your business, why their investment will be well-spent, and why you do what you do. An executive summary should be informative, but it should also capture a busy reader’s attention.

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Why write an executive summary?

Anyone you’re sending your executive summary and business plan to is likely busy—very busy. An entire business plan is long, involved, and deals with a lot of numbers.

Someone busy wants to get an understanding of your business, and they want to do it quickly, which is to say not by diving into a complicated, 80-page business plan. That’s where your executive summary comes in.

An executive summary provides just the opportunity to hook someone’s interest, tell them about your business, and offer a clear selling point as to why they should consider investing in your business.

Your executive summary is your chance to sell your business to potential investors and show them your business is worth not only their money but also their time.

What to include in an executive summary

By its nature, an executive summary is short. You must be able to clearly communicate the idea of your business, what sets you apart, and how you plan to grow into a successful enterprise.

The subsequent sections of your business plan will go into more detail, but your executive summary should include the most critical pieces of your business plan—enough to stand on its own, as it’s often the only thing a prospective investor will read. Here’s what your executive summary should include—consider it an executive summary template from which you can model your own.

1. The hook

The first sentence and paragraph of your executive summary determine whether or not the entire executive summary gets read. That’s why the hook or introduction is so important.

In general, a hook is considered anything that will get a reader’s attention. While an executive summary is a formal business document, you do want your hook to make you stand out from the crowd—without wasting time.

Your hook can be sharing something creative about your company, an interesting fact, or just a very well-crafted description of your business. It’s crucial to craft your hook with the personality of your reader in mind. Give them something that will make your company stand out and be memorable among a sea of other business plans.

Grab their attention in the first paragraph, and you’re much more likely to get your executive summary read, which could lead to an investment.

2. Company description summary

Now that you’ve hooked your reader, it’s time to get into some general information about your business. If an investor is going to give you money, after all, they first need to understand what your company does or what product you sell and who is managing the company.

Your company description should include information about your business, such as when it was formed and where you’re located; your products or services; the founders or executive team, including names and specific roles; and any additional details about the management team or style.

3. Market analysis

Your market analysis in the executive summary is a brief description of what the market for your business looks like. You want to show that you have done your research and proven that there is a need for your specific product or services. Some questions you should answer:

Who are your competitors?

Is there a demand for your products or services?

What advantages do you have that make your business unique in comparison to others?

To reiterate, stick to the highlights of your market analysis in your executive summary. You’ll provide a complete analysis in a separate section of your business plan, but you should be able to communicate enough in the executive summary that a potential investor can gauge whether your business has potential.

4. Products and services

Now that you’ve established a need in the market, it’s time to show just how your business will fill it. This section of your executive summary is all about highlighting the product or service that your company offers. Talk about your current sales, the growth you’ve seen so far, and any other highlights that are a selling point for your company.

This is also a good time to identify what sets your business apart and gives you a competitive advantage. After all, it’s unlikely that your business is the first of its kind. Highlight what you do better than the competition and why potential customers will choose your product or service over the other options on the market.

5. Financial information and projections

In this section of your executive summary, you want to give the reader an overview of your current business financials. Again, you’ll go more in-depth into this section later in your business plan, so just provide some highlights. Include your current sales and profits (if you have any), as well as what funding you’re hoping to acquire and how this will affect your financials in the next few years.

This is also where you can explain what funding, if any, you’ve received in the past. If you paid back your loan on time, this is an especially bright selling point for potential lenders.

6. Future plans

While asking for what funding you need is essential, you’ve also got to make clear what you’re going to use that funding for. If you’re asking for money, you want the person to know you have a plan to put those funds to good use.

Are you hoping to open another location, expand your product line, invest in your marketing efforts? This final section of your executive summary should detail where you want your business to go in the future, as well as drive home how funding can help you get there.

Tips for writing an executive summary

Even if you include each part of a good executive summary, you might not get noticed. What is written can be just as important as how it’s written. An executive summary has to strike a delicate balance between formal, personable, confident, and humble.

1. Be concise

An executive summary should include everything that’s in your business plan, just in a much shorter format. Writing a concise executive summary is no easy task and will require many revisions to get to the final draft. And while this is the first section of your executive summary, you’ll want to write it last, after you’ve put together all the other elements.

To choose your most important points and what should be included in the executive summary, go through your business plan, and pull out single-line bullet points. Go back through those bullet points and eliminate everything unnecessary to understanding your business.

Once you have your list of bullet points narrowed down, you can start writing your executive summary. Once it’s written, go back in and remove any unnecessary information. Remember, you should only be including the highlights—you have the rest of your business plan to go into more detail. The shorter and clearer your executive summary is, the more likely someone is to read it.

2. Use bullet points

One simple way to make your executive summary more readable is to use bullet points. If someone is reading quickly or skimming your executive summary, extra whitespace can make the content faster and easier to read.

Short paragraphs, short sentences, and bullet points all make an executive summary easier to skim—which is likely what the reader is doing. If important numbers and convincing stats jump out at the reader, they’re more likely to keep reading.

3. Speak to your audience

When writing your executive summary, be sure to think about who will be reading it; that’s who you’re speaking to. If you can personalize your executive summary to the personality and interests of the person who will read it, you’re more likely to capture their attention.

Personalizing might come in the form of a name in the salutation, sharing details in a specific way you know that person likes and the tone of your writing. An executive summary deals with business, so it will generally have a formal tone. But, different industries may be comfortable with some creativity of language or using shorthand to refer to certain ideas.

Know who you’re speaking to and use the right tone to speak to them. That might be formal and deferential, expert and clipped, informal and personable, or any other appropriate tone. This may also involve writing different versions of your executive summary for different audiences.

4. Play to your strengths

One of the best ways to catch the attention of your reader is to share why your business is unique. What makes your business unique is also what makes your business strong, which can capture a reader’s interest and show them why your business is worth investing in. Be sure to highlight these strengths from the start of your executive summary.

5. Get a test reader

Once you’ve written and edited your executive summary, you need a test reader. While someone in your industry or another business owner can be a great resource, you should also consider finding a test reader with limited knowledge of your business and industry. Your executive summary should be so clear that anyone can understand it, so having a variety of test readers can help identify any confusing language.

If you don’t have access to a test reader, consider using tools such as Hemingway App and Grammarly to ensure you’ve written something that’s easy to read and uses proper grammar.

How long should an executive summary be?

There’s no firm rule on how long an executive summary should be, as it depends on the length of your business plan and the depth of understanding needed by the reader to fully grasp your ask.

That being said, it should be as short and concise as you can get it. In general, an executive summary should be one to two pages in length.

You can fudge the length slightly by adjusting the margin and font size, but don’t forget readability is just as important as length. You want to leave plenty of white space and have a large enough font that the reader is comfortable while reading your executive summary. If your executive summary is hard to read, it’s less likely your reader will take the time to read your business plan.

What to avoid in an executive summary

While the rules for writing a stellar executive summary can be fuzzy, there are a few clear rules for what to avoid in your executive summary.

Your executive summary should avoid:

Focusing on investment. Instead, focus on getting the reader to be interested enough to continue and read your business plan or at least schedule a meeting with you.

Clichés, superlatives, and claims that aren’t backed up by fact. Your executive summary isn’t marketing material. It should be straightforward and clear.

Avoiding the executive summary no-nos is just as important as striking the right tone and getting in the necessary information for your reader.

The bottom line

While an executive summary is short, it’s challenging to write. Your executive summary condenses your entire introduction, business description, business plan, market analysis, financial projections, and ask into one to two pages. Condensing information down to its most essential form takes time and many drafts. When you’re putting together your business plan’s executive summary, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to write it and to seek the help of friends or colleagues for editing it to perfection.

However, some tools make crafting a business plan, including your executive summary, a simpler process. A business plan template is a great place to start, and business plan software can especially help with the design of your business plan. After all, a well-written executive summary can make all the difference in obtaining funding for your business, so you’ll want all the help you can get.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

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How to Write an Executive Summary

Make Writing Your Executive Summary Easier With This Example

Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance for 18 years. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

What to Include in an Executive Summary

Executive summary example.

The Balance / Jo Zhou

An executive summary is a brief overview at the beginning of your business plan. It should provide a short, concise summary of your business that captures the reader's attention and gives them an interest in learning more about it.

The executive summary is important as it sets the tone for the entire business plan and can often be the deciding factor in whether the reader continues. See an example of a business plan's executive summary and learn the key components of one so you can begin writing one of your own.

The executive summary goes near the beginning of the business plan but is written last. To include a summary of the different parts of your business plan, you'll need to write them first.

When you write the executive summary, keep it under two pages. The executive summary should contain brief summaries of other sections of the plan. 

The idea is to give a brief overview of your business first before going into detail about each of the different parts.

The executive summary should contain all of the important information about your business, such as:

• Business name
• Business location
• Your mission as a company
• A history of the company
• Management and advisors
• Services or products offered
• The market for your offerings
• Your business's competitive advantages
• Your financial projections
• Startup financing required, if any

Format the executive summary clearly and attractively, with headings for each section. Your word processing software may have a template you can use that will make your business plan look good.

It's always easier to write something if you can read an example first, so here's an executive summary example that you can use as a model for your own business plan's executive summary.

This executive summary is for a fictional company called Pet Grandma Inc.

Company Mission

Pet Grandma Inc. offers superior on-site pet sitting and exercising services for dogs and cats, providing the personal loving pet care that the owners themselves would provide if they were home. Our team will ensure that pet owners can take business trips or vacations knowing that their pets are in good hands.

Company and Management

Pet Grandma Inc. is headquartered in the City of West Vancouver and incorporated in the Province of British Columbia. The company is owned by partners Pat Simpson and Terry Estelle. Pat has extensive experience in animal care while Terry has worked in  sales and marketing  for 15 years.

The management of Pet Grandma Inc. consists of co-owners Pat Simpson and Terry Estelle. Both partners will be taking hands-on management roles in the company. In addition, we have assembled a  board of advisors  to provide management expertise. The advisors are:

•  Juliette LeCroix, partner at LeCroix Accounting LLP
•  Carey Boniface, veterinarian and partner at Little Tree Animal Care Clinic
•  John Toms, president of Toms Communications Ltd.

Our clients are dog owners and cat owners who choose to leave their pets at home when they travel, or who want their pets to have company when their owners are at work. Pet Grandma Inc. offers a variety of pet care services, all in the pet’s home environment, including:

• Dog walking
• Daily visits
• 24-hour care for days or weeks
• Administration of medications by qualified staff
• Emergency treatment in case of illness (arranged through veterinarians)
• Plant watering
• Mail collection
• Garbage/recycling

Across Canada, the pet care industry has seen an explosion of growth over the last three years. West Vancouver is an affluent area with a high pet density. Our  market research  has shown that nine out of 10 pet owners polled in West Vancouver would prefer to have their pets cared for in their own homes when they travel rather than be kenneled and six out of 10 would consider having a pet sitter provide company for their dog when they were at work.

Competitive Advantages

While there are currently eight businesses offering pet sitting in West Vancouver, only three of these offer on-site pet care and none offers “pet visit” services for working pet owners.

Pet Grandma’s marketing strategy is to emphasize the quality of pet care we provide (“a Grandma for your pet!”) and the availability of our services. Dog owners who work, for instance, will come home to find happy, friendly companions who have already been exercised and walked, instead of demanding, whiny animals.

All pet services will be provided by animal care-certified staff.

All employees are insured and bonded.

Financial Projections

Based on the size of our market and our defined market area, our  sales projections  for the first year are $340,000. We project a growth rate of 10% per year for the first three years.

The salary for each of the co-owners will be $40,000. At startup, we will have six trained staff to provide pet services and expect to hire four more this year once  financing  is secured. To begin with, co-owner Pat Simpson will be scheduling appointments and coordinating services, but we plan to hire a full-time receptionist this year as well.

Already we have service commitments from more than 40 clients and plan to aggressively build our client base through newspaper, website, social media, and direct mail advertising. The loving, on-site professional care that Pet Grandma Inc. will provide is sure to appeal to cat and dog owners throughout the West Vancouver area.

Startup Financing Requirements

We are seeking an operating line of $150,000 to finance our first-year growth. Together, the co-owners have invested $62,000 to meet working capital requirements.

Key Takeaways

• An executive summary is a concise overview of the business plan.
• Place the executive summary near the beginning of the business plan.
• Before you write the executive summary, you'll have to write the rest of the business plan first.
• The executive summary should contain all relevant information about the business, including name, mission, services offered, market, and financial projections.

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How to write an executive summary in 10 steps

Whether presenting a business plan, sharing project updates with stakeholders, or submitting a project proposal, an executive summary helps you grab attention and convey key insights.

Think of it as a condensed version of a document, report, or proposal that highlights the most important information clearly and concisely. It's like a "cheat sheet" that gives you a snapshot of the main points without reading the entire thing.

Throughout the article, we'll explore some examples of executive summaries to give you a better understanding of how they can be applied. Plus, we'll provide you with ready-to-use templates and best practices for writing compelling executive summaries.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It is typically written for busy executives or decision-makers who may not have the time to read the entire document but still need to grasp its key points and recommendations. 

An effective executive summary should capture the essence of the document, highlighting the most important information in a brief and easily understandable way. It should provide a snapshot of the document's purpose, methodology, major findings, and key recommendations. The summary should be written in a way that allows the reader to quickly grasp the main ideas and make informed decisions based on the information presented.

Why do you need to write one?

For a business owner , an executive summary is one of the most important documents you will have. Like a business plan , they help you lay out the potential value of your business and your potential for success. 

Unlike a business proposal, however, an executive summary is designed to be read in a brief amount of time. That makes them ideal for a variety of uses, like project proposals and research summaries. Sending your strategic plan to a prospective investor or stakeholder likely won’t get you far. But a brief report that clearly states your key findings and what’s in it for them might help you — and your proposal — stand out. It isn't all the details. It's what gets you the meeting to share more.

An executive summary is also a business document that can travel without you. It may be presented to other leaders and potential investors. If it’s written well, it will take on a life of its own. You may find that you get support and resources from places you never imagined.

What should be included in an executive summary?

Your executive summary should include brief descriptions of who your product, service, or proposal is for and your competitive advantage. Be sure to introduce your report concisely yet clearly . Note the most important points and its overall purpose––what do you hope to achieve with this report? 

Also, include any necessary background information and statistics about the industry, high-level information about your business model, necessary financial information, or other insights you discuss in the report. Depending on your proposal, you may want to consider summarizing a market analysis of your target market.

Typically, an executive summary follows a structured format, including sections such as:

• Introduction: Provides a brief background and context for the document.
• Objective or purpose: Clearly states the goal of the document and what it aims to achieve.
• Methodology: Briefly describes the approach, data sources, and methods used to conduct the research or analysis.
• Findings: Summarizes the main findings, conclusions, or results derived from the document.
• Recommendations: Outlines the key recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings.
• Conclusion: Provides a concise wrap-up of the main points and emphasizes the significance of the document.

How do you write an executive summary?

When tackling an executive summary, it's all about following a structured approach to ensure you effectively communicate those crucial points, findings, and recommendations. Let’s walk through some steps and best practices to make it a breeze:

Step 1: Get to know the document

Take the time to dive into the full document or report that your executive summary will be based on. Read it thoroughly and identify the main objectives, key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Step 2: Know your audience

Think about who you're writing the executive summary for. Consider their knowledge level, interests, and priorities. This helps you tailor the summary to their needs and make it relevant and impactful.

Step 3: Outline the structure

Create an outline for your executive summary with sections like introduction, objective, methodology, findings, recommendations, and conclusion. This way, you'll have a logical flow that's easy to follow.

Step 4: Start strong

Kick off your executive summary with a captivating opening statement. Make it concise, engaging, and impactful to hook the reader and make them want to keep reading.

Step 5: Summarize objectives and methodology

Give a brief overview of the document's objectives and the methodology used to achieve them. This sets the context and helps the reader understand the approach taken.

Step 6: Highlight key findings

Summarize the main findings, conclusions, or results. Focus on the juiciest and most relevant points that support the document's purpose. Keep it clear and concise to get the message across effectively.

Step 7: Present key recommendations

Outline the important recommendations or proposed actions based on the findings. Clearly state what needs to be done, why it matters, and how it aligns with the document's objectives. Make those recommendations actionable and realistic.

Step 8: Keep it snappy

Remember, an executive summary should be short and sweet. Skip unnecessary details, jargon, or technical language . Use straightforward language that hits the mark.

Step 9: Review and polish

Once you've written the executive summary, give it a careful review for clarity, coherence, and accuracy. Make sure it captures the essence of the full document and represents its content faithfully. Take the extra step to edit out any fluff or repetition.

Step 10: Dress to impress

Consider formatting and presentation. Use headings, bullet points, and formatting styles to make it visually appealing and easy to skim. If it makes sense, include some graphs, charts, or visuals to highlight key points.

Tips for writing an effective executive summary

• Adapt your language and tone to suit your audience.
• Keep things concise and crystal clear—say no to jargon.
• Focus on the most important info that packs a punch.
• Give enough context without overwhelming your reader.
• Use strong and persuasive language to make your recommendations shine.
• Make sure your executive summary makes sense even if the full document isn't read.
• Proofread like a pro to catch any pesky grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors.

Executive summary template for business plans

Here's a general template for creating an executive summary specifically for business plans:

[Your Company Name]

[Business Plan Title]

Business overview

Provide a brief introduction to your company, including its name, location, industry, and mission statement . Describe your unique value proposition and what sets your business apart from competitors.

Market analysis

Summarize the key findings of your market research. Provide an overview of the target market, its size, growth potential, and relevant trends. Highlight your understanding of customer needs, preferences, and behaviors.

Product or service offering

Outline your core products or services, including their key features and benefits. Emphasize how your offerings address customer pain points and provide value. Highlight any unique selling points or competitive advantages.

Business model

Explain your business model and revenue generation strategy. Describe how you will generate revenue, the pricing structure, and any distribution channels or partnerships that contribute to your business's success.

Marketing and sales strategy

Summarize your marketing and sales approach. Highlight the key tactics and channels you will use to reach and attract customers. Discuss your promotional strategies, pricing strategies, and customer acquisition plans.

Management team

Introduce the key members of your management team and their relevant experience. Highlight their expertise and how it positions the team to execute the business plan successfully. Include any notable advisors or board members.

Financial projections

Summarize your financial projections, including revenue forecasts, expected expenses, and projected profitability. Highlight any key financial metrics or milestones. Briefly mention your funding needs, if applicable.

Funding requirements

If seeking funding, outline your funding requirements, including the amount needed, its purpose, and the potential sources of funding you are considering. Summarize the expected return on investment for potential investors.

Reiterate the vision and potential of your business. Summarize the key points of your business plan, emphasizing its viability, market potential, and the expertise of your team. Convey confidence in the success of your venture.

Note: Keep the executive summary concise and focused, typically within one to two pages. Use clear and compelling language, emphasizing the unique aspects of your business. Tailor the template to suit your specific business plan, adjusting sections and details accordingly.

Remember, the executive summary serves as an introduction to your business plan and should pique the reader's interest, conveying the value and potential of your business in a concise and persuasive manner.

Executive summary examples

Every executive summary will be unique to the organization's goals, vision, and brand identity. We put together two general examples of executive summaries to spark your creativity and offer some inspiration. 

These are not intended to be used as-is but more to offer ideas for how you may want to put your own executive summary together. Be sure to personalize your own summary with specific statistics and relevant data points to make the most impact.

Example 1: executive summary for a communications business plan

Introduction:

We're thrilled to present our innovative [insert product] that aims to revolutionize the way people connect and engage. Our vision is to empower individuals and businesses with seamless communication solutions that break barriers and foster meaningful connections.

Market opportunity:

The communications industry is evolving rapidly, and we've identified a significant opportunity in the market. With the proliferation of remote work, the need for reliable and efficient communication tools has skyrocketed. Our extensive market research indicates a demand for solutions that prioritize user experience, security, and flexibility.

Product offering:

At [Company Name], we've developed a suite of cutting-edge communication tools designed to meet the diverse needs of our customers. Our flagship product is a unified communication platform that integrates voice, video, messaging, and collaboration features into a seamless user experience. We also offer customizable solutions for businesses of all sizes, catering to their unique communication requirements.

Unique value proposition:

What sets us apart from the competition? Our user-centric approach and commitment to innovation. We prioritize user experience by creating intuitive interfaces and seamless interactions. Our solutions are scalable, adaptable, and designed to keep up with evolving technological trends. By combining ease of use with advanced features, we deliver unparalleled value to our customers.

Target market:

Our primary focus is on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that require efficient and cost-effective communication tools. We also cater to individuals, remote teams, and larger enterprises seeking reliable and secure communication solutions. Our target market encompasses industries such as technology, finance, healthcare, and professional services.

Business model:

To generate revenue, we employ a subscription-based business model. Customers can choose from different plans tailored to their specific needs, paying a monthly or annual fee. We also offer additional services such as customization, integration, and customer support, creating additional revenue streams and fostering long-term customer relationships.

Marketing and sales strategy:

Our marketing strategy centers around building brand awareness through targeted digital campaigns, content marketing, and strategic partnerships. We'll leverage social media, industry influencers, and online communities to reach our target audience. Additionally, our sales team will engage in proactive outreach, nurturing leads and providing personalized consultations to convert prospects into loyal customers.

Team and expertise:

Our team is composed of experienced professionals with a deep understanding of the communications industry. Led by our visionary founder and supported by a skilled and diverse team, we have the expertise to drive innovation, develop robust products, and deliver exceptional customer service. We're passionate about our mission and dedicated to making a lasting impact in the market.

Financial projections:

Based on extensive market research and financial analysis, we anticipate strong growth and profitability. Our financial projections indicate steady revenue streams, with increasing customer adoption and market share. We're committed to managing costs effectively, optimizing our resources, and continuously reinvesting in research and development.

Funding requirements:

To fuel our ambitious growth plans and accelerate product development, we're seeking [funding amount] in funding. These funds will be allocated towards expanding our team, scaling our infrastructure, marketing efforts, and ongoing product innovation. We believe this investment will position us for success and solidify our market presence.

Conclusion:

In summary, [Company Name] is poised to disrupt the communications industry with our innovative solutions and customer-centric approach. We're ready to make a positive impact by empowering individuals and businesses to communicate effectively and effortlessly. Join us on this exciting journey as we redefine the future of communication. Together, we'll shape a connected world like never before.

Example 2: executive summary for a project proposal

[Project Name]

[Project Proposal Date]

Hello! We're thrilled to present our project proposal for [Project Name]. This executive summary will provide you with a high-level overview of the project, its objectives, and the value it brings.

Project overview:

Our project aims to [describe the project's purpose and scope]. It's a response to [identify the problem or opportunity] and has the potential to bring significant benefits to [stakeholders or target audience]. Through meticulous planning and execution, we're confident in our ability to achieve the desired outcomes.

Objectives:

The primary goal of our project is to [state the overarching objective]. In addition, we have specific objectives such as [list specific objectives]. By accomplishing these goals, we'll create a positive impact and drive meaningful change.

Our proposed approach for this project is based on a thorough analysis of the situation and best practices. We'll adopt a structured methodology that includes [describe the key project phases or activities]. This approach ensures efficient utilization of resources and maximizes project outcomes.

The benefits of this project are truly exciting. Through its implementation, we anticipate [describe the anticipated benefits or outcomes]. These benefits include [list specific benefits], which will have a lasting and positive effect on [stakeholders or target audience].

Implementation timeline:

We've devised a comprehensive timeline to guide the project from initiation to completion. The project is divided into distinct phases, with well-defined milestones and deliverables. Our timeline ensures that tasks are executed in a timely manner, allowing us to stay on track and deliver results.

Resource requirements:

To successfully execute this project, we've identified the key resources needed. This includes [list the resources required, such as human resources, technology, equipment, and funding]. We're confident in our ability to secure the necessary resources and allocate them effectively to ensure project success.

A project of this nature requires a well-planned budget. Based on our analysis, we've estimated the required funding to be [state the budget amount]. This budget encompasses all project-related costs and aligns with the anticipated benefits and outcomes.

Our project proposal is an exciting opportunity to address [the problem or opportunity] and create tangible value for [stakeholders or target audience]. With a clear vision, defined objectives, and a robust implementation plan, we're ready to embark on this journey. Join us as we bring this project to life and make a lasting impact. 

Is an executive summary the same as a project plan?

While both are important components of project management and documentation , they serve different purposes and contain distinct information.

An executive summary, as discussed earlier, is a concise overview of a longer document or report. It provides a snapshot of the key points, findings, and recommendations. It focuses on high-level information and aims to provide an overview of the document's purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations.

On the other hand, a project plan is a detailed document that outlines the specific activities, tasks, timelines, resources, and milestones associated with a project. It serves as a roadmap for project execution, providing a comprehensive understanding of how the project will be carried out.

A project plan typically includes objectives, scope, deliverables, schedule, budget, resource allocation, risk management, and communication strategies. It is intended for project team members, stakeholders, and those directly involved in the execution.

In summary, an executive summary offers a condensed overview of a document's key points, while a project plan provides a comprehensive and detailed roadmap for executing a project.

Executive summaries vs. abstracts

An executive summary is not the same as an abstract. Executive summaries focus on the main points of a proposal. They highlight when and why a reader should invest in the company or project.

An abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on what the business does and its marketing plan. It typically doesn’t include detailed information about finances.

While it is usually compelling, it’s less of an elevator pitch and more of a summary. The goal of an abstract is to inform, not to persuade. On the other hand, the goal of an executive summary is to give readers who are pressed for time just enough information that they’ll want to look further into your proposition.

When do you use an executive summary?

An executive summary is used in various situations where there is a need to present a condensed overview of a longer document or report. Here are some common instances when an executive summary is used:

• Business proposals: When submitting a business proposal to potential investors, partners, or stakeholders, an executive summary is often included. It provides a concise overview of the proposal, highlighting the key aspects such as the business idea, market analysis, competitive advantage, financial projections, and recommended actions.
• Reports and research studies: Lengthy reports or research studies often include an executive summary at the beginning. This allows decision-makers, executives, or other stakeholders to quickly understand the purpose, methodology, findings, and recommendations of the report without going through the entire document.
• Project updates: During the course of a project, project managers may prepare executive summaries to provide updates to stakeholders or higher-level management. These summaries give a brief overview of the project's progress, achievements, challenges, and upcoming milestones.
• Strategic plans: When developing strategic plans for an organization, an executive summary is often included to provide an overview of the plan's goals, objectives, strategies, and key initiatives. It allows executives and stakeholders to grasp the essence of the strategic plan and its implications without reading the entire document.
• Funding requests: When seeking funding for a project or venture, an executive summary is commonly used as part of the funding proposal. It provides a succinct summary of the project, highlighting its significance, potential impact, financial requirements, and expected outcomes.

In general, an executive summary is used whenever there is a need to communicate the main points, findings, and recommendations of a document concisely and efficiently to individuals who may not have the time or inclination to read the entire content. It serves as a valuable tool for understanding and facilitates quick decision-making.

5 ways project managers can use executive summaries

Project managers can use executive summaries in various ways to effectively communicate project updates, status reports, or proposals to stakeholders and higher-level management. Here are some ways project managers can use executive summaries:

• Project status updates: Project managers can provide regular executive summaries to stakeholders and management to communicate the current status of the project. The summary should include key achievements, milestones reached, challenges encountered, and any adjustments to the project plan. It allows stakeholders to quickly grasp the project's progress and make informed decisions or provide guidance as needed.
• Project proposals: When pitching a project idea or seeking approval for a new project, project managers can prepare an executive summary to present the essential aspects of the project. The summary should outline the project's objectives, scope, anticipated benefits, resource requirements, estimated timeline, and potential risks. It helps decision-makers understand the project's value and make an informed choice about its initiation.
• Project closure reports: At the end of a project, project managers can prepare an executive summary as part of the project closure report. The summary should highlight the project's overall success, key deliverables achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects. It provides a concise overview of the project's outcomes and acts as a valuable reference for future initiatives.
• Steering committee meetings: When project managers present updates or seek guidance from a steering committee or governance board, an executive summary can be an effective tool. The summary should cover the important aspects of the project, such as progress, issues, risks, and upcoming milestones. It ensures that decision-makers are well-informed about the project's status and can provide relevant guidance or support.
• Change requests: When submitting a change request for a project, project managers can include an executive summary to summarize the proposed change, its impact on the project, potential risks, and benefits. It helps stakeholders and decision-makers quickly assess the change request and make informed decisions about its implementation.

Using executive summaries, project managers can efficiently communicate project-related information to stakeholders, executives, and decision-makers. The summaries provide a concise overview of the project's status, proposals, or closure reports, allowing stakeholders to quickly understand the key points and take appropriate action.

When should you not use an executive summary?

While executive summaries are widely used in many situations, there are some cases where they may not be necessary or suitable. Here are a few scenarios where an executive summary may not be appropriate, along with alternative approaches:

• Highly technical documents: If the document contains highly technical or specialized information that requires a detailed understanding, an executive summary alone may not be sufficient. In such cases, it is better to provide the complete document and supplement it with explanatory materials, presentations , or meetings where experts can explain and discuss the technical details.
• Personal or creative writing: Executive summaries are typically used for informational or analytical documents. If the content is more personal in nature, such as a memoir, novel, or creative piece, an executive summary may not be relevant. Instead, focus on providing an engaging introduction or book blurb that entices readers and conveys the essence of the work.
• Short documents: If the document itself is already concise and can be easily read in its entirety, an executive summary may be redundant. In these cases, it is more effective to present the complete document without an additional summary.
• Interactive presentations: In situations where you can present information interactively, such as in meetings, workshops, or conferences, it may be more effective to engage the audience directly rather than relying solely on an executive summary. Use visual aids, demonstrations, discussions, and Q&A sessions to convey the necessary information and capture the audience's attention.

Final thoughts on writing a compelling executive summary

An executive summary isn’t the kitchen sink — it’s the bells and whistles. Geared toward busy decision-makers, these one-pagers communicate your case for action and proposed solutions. When it’s written well, your audience will walk away with an understanding of what needs to be done, why it needs to happen, and why they should help it move forward. 

But writing it well doesn’t just mean spell-checking. It means tailoring your communication to an influential, yet busy and distracted audience. To be effective, you’ll need to write your proposal with empathy and an understanding of what matters to them .

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Allaya Cooks-Campbell

With over 15 years of content experience, Allaya Cooks Campbell has written for outlets such as ScaryMommy, HRzone, and HuffPost. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and is a certified yoga instructor as well as a certified Integrative Wellness & Life Coach. Allaya is passionate about whole-person wellness, yoga, and mental health.

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How to Write an Executive Summary Execs Can't Ignore [+ 5 Top Examples]

Published: May 30, 2024

Early in my career, I was intimidated by executive summaries. They sounded so corporate and formal. But, proper name aside, they’re really just the elevator pitch or the TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) of a document.

Writing an executive summary is an important leadership skill, whether you're an entrepreneur creating a business plan or a CEO delivering a quarterly report.

So, let’s sharpen that skill.

What is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is a brief overview of a longer professional document, like a business plan, proposal, or report. It's commonly at the beginning of a document and aims to grab a reader’s attention while summarizing critical information such as the problem or opportunity being addressed, objectives, key findings, goals, and recommendations.

Ultimately, an executive summary gives readers a concise overview of the most important information in a document, so they don't have to read the entire thing.

Think of it like the SparkNotes of the business world.

Documents that frequently have an executive summary include:

• Business plans
• Research reports
• Project proposals
• Annual reports

How does it differ from other business statements? Let’s compare.

Free Executive Summary Template

Use this executive summary template to provide a summary of your report, business plan, or memo.

• Company & Opportunity
• Industry & Market Analysis
• Management & Operations
• Financial Plan

Download Free

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Executive Summary vs. Business Plan

All business plans have an executive summary, but not all executive summaries belong to business plans.

A business plan includes a company overview, short-term and long-term goals, information on your product or service, sales targets, expense budgets, your marketing plan, and even team information

Business plans are very detailed and comprehensive. They can be as short as a dozen pages or as long as 100 pages. The executive summary is the first section of the business plan.

An in-demand CEO or investor might not have the bandwidth to read your full business plan without first understanding your company or goals. That’s where an executive summary comes in handy.

Note: Need help putting together your business plan? We’ve got a template for you.

Executive Summary vs. Mission Statement

Mission statements and executive summaries are typically found in business plans, but they serve different purposes.

A mission statement defines your organization’s purpose, values, and vision. It’s your company’s North Star and communicates your core identity and reason for existence. On the other hand, an executive summary provides a high-level overview of the document.

I also love how we define key terms to help readers understand the rest of the report. This is an excellent example of setting the tone for the rest of your document in an executive summary and making it easier to navigate.

3. ClickUp: Product Update Release Notes

Now, I know this article is about writing an executive summary, but I love ClickUp’s unique approach with its product release notes videos.

This digital report from research firm McKinsey Global Institute features an executive summary titled “At a Glance.”

Here, the organization recaps the key findings from its 56-page research report in six easy-to-skim bullet points.

It’s compelling, easy to digest, and makes it easy to jump into the full report with download links.

5. UN: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024

Finally, we have a fairly traditional approach to an executive summary from the United Nations (UN) , clocking in at 16 pages.

Now, I know. Sixteen pages seems lengthy, but the full report is just shy of 200 pages.

The executive summary highlights the report’s largest conclusions with headers. Then, it expands on those headers with relevant statistics. It also uses bold font to draw attention to the countries or regions affected (something the reader will likely be most interested in).

The tone and visual design are both formal, which matches the esteem of the United Nations. Overall, this executive summary does an admirable job of making the report's information more approachable.

Make your executive summary memorable.

Make sure your executive summary is strong. Tell your story. Include compelling data and facts. Use easy-to-understand and digest language. If you can, get visual.

An executive summary should be concise, but also memorable. After all, this may be the only part of your proposal, report, or analysis that actually gets read.

Use the guidance above to ensure your executive summary resonates with your audience and opens the door to the opportunities you crave.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Business Plan Executive Summary with Example

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Executive Summary of a Business Plan

The Executive Summary is the most important part of your business plan. This is because it’s the first section in your plan, and if it doesn’t excite readers, they won’t continue reviewing it. Importantly, there is a way to ensure your executive summary is compelling and includes the key information readers expect. In this article, you’ll learn how to craft the perfect executive summary for your business plan.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

Table of Contents:

What is an executive summary, why do i need an executive summary, how long should an executive summary be for a business plan, how to write an executive summary for a business plan + template, sample executive summary, other helpful resources for writing your business plan.

An executive summary of a business plan gives readers an overview of your business plan and highlights its key points.

The executive summary should start with a brief overview of your business concept. Then it should briefly summarize each section of your business plan: your industry analysis, customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan and funding needs.

If presented for funding, the executive summary provides the lender or investor a quick snapshot which helps them determine their interest level and if they should continue reading the rest of the business plan.

An effective executive summary is a quick version of your complete business plan. You need to keep it simple and succinct in order to grab the reader’s attention and convince them it’s in their best interest to keep reading.

As mentioned above, your business plan is a detailed document that requires time to read. Capturing the reader’s attention with a concise format that provides an interesting overview of your plan saves them time and indicates which parts of the business plan may be most important to read in detail. This increases the odds that your business plan will be read and your business idea understood. This is why you need a well-written executive summary.

When structuring your executive summary, the first thing to keep in mind is that it should be short and comprehensive. The length of your executive summary should never exceed 3 pages; the ideal length is one or two pages.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

To write a compelling executive summary, follow the steps below and use our executive summary template as a guide:

State the Problem and/or Business Opportunity

Briefly describe your business idea, provide key information about your company history, conduct market research about your industry, identify the target market or ideal customer, explain your competitive advantage, establish relevant milestones for your business to achieve, develop a financial plan, describe the qualifications of your management team.

To help you get started, you can download our executive summary example business plan pdf here.

Whether you’re a large or small business, your executive summary is the first thing someone reads that forms an opinion of your business. Whether they decide to read your detailed business plan or push it aside depends on how good your executive summary is. We hope your executive summary guide helps you craft an effective and impactful executive summary. That way, readers will be more likely to read your full plan, request an in-person meeting, and give you funding to pursue your business plans.

Looking to get started on your business plan’s executive summary? Take a look at the business plan executive summary example below!

Finish Your Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Shoutmouth.com Executive Summary

Business Overview Launched late last year, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet.

Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Taylor Swift receive over 5 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.

However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.

In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:

• Create personal profiles
• Interact with other members
• Provide comments on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories and videos
• Recommend new music artists to add to the community
• Receive customized news and email alerts on their favorite artists

Success Factors

Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• Entrepreneurial track record : Shoutmouth’s CEO and team have helped launch numerous successful ventures.
• Monetization track record : Over the past two years, Shoutmouth’s founders have run one of the most successful online affiliate marketing programs, having sold products to over 500,000 music customers online.
• Key milestones completed : Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 to-date to staff the company (we currently have an 11-person full-time team), build the core technology, and launch the site. We have succeeded in gaining initial customer traction with 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May.

Unique Investment Metrics

The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.

To begin, over the past five years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this target audience.

The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during a recent test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.

While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes).

Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy

While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.

Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:

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• Writing Tips

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

• 3-minute read
• 19th November 2023

An executive summary is the part of a business plan that gives an outline of the main plan. So to write an executive summary, we first need to read the business plan carefully and understand its key points. These key points are what we will condense to form the executive summary. It’s important to ensure that the executive summary can stand alone because plenty of users will read only that and not the main business plan. We could say that the business plan is the original TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)!

But first, let’s take a quick look at what goes into a business plan so we can focus on the sections we need for our executive summary.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that sets out a business’s strategy and the means of achieving it. The business plan usually contains the following sections:

How to Write an Executive Summary

The executive summary covers the same headings as the main business plan but not in so much detail. This is where our editing skills come to the fore!

The following six steps explain how to approach writing the executive summary.

Consider the Audience

Who will be using the summary? The business plan might be issued only to a very specific group of people, in which case, their needs are paramount and specialized. If the business plan is going out on wider release, we need to think about what a general reader will want to know.

Check That It Makes Sense on Its Own

Make sure the summary can be read as a stand-alone document for users who won’t read the whole plan.

Use Formatting Effectively

Make good use of formatting, headings, numbering, and bullets to increase clarity and readability.

Keep It Brief

One page (or around ten percent of the total word count for a large document) is great.

Avoid Jargon

Try to avoid jargon and use straightforward language. Readers of the executive summary might not have business backgrounds (for instance, if they are friend and family investors in a small start-up business).

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Proofread the Executive Summary

The executive summary will very likely be the first – and perhaps the only – part of the business plan some people will read, and it must be error-free to make a professional impression.

●  Consider the audience .

●  Ensure that the executive summary can stand alone.

●  Use formatting tools to good advantage.

●  Keep it brief.

●  Keep it simple.

●  Proofread it.

If you’d like an expert to proofread your business plan – or any of your writing – get in touch!

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How to Write an Executive Summary (Example & Template Included)

Here’s the good news: an executive summary is short. It’s part of a larger document like a business plan, business case or project proposal and, as the name implies, summarizes the longer report.

Here’s the bad news: it’s a critical document that can be challenging to write because an executive summary serves several important purposes. On one hand, executive summaries are used to outline each section of your business plan, an investment proposal or project proposal. On the other hand, they’re used to introduce your business or project to investors and other stakeholders, so they must be persuasive to spark their interest.

What Is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is a short section of a larger document like a business plan , investment proposal or project proposal. It’s mostly used to give investors and stakeholders a quick overview of important information about a business plan like the company description, market analysis and financial information.

It contains a short statement that addresses the problem or proposal detailed in the attached documents and features background information, a concise analysis and a conclusion. An executive summary is designed to help executives and investors decide whether to go forth with the proposal, making it critically important. Pitch decks are often used along with executive summaries to talk about the benefits and main selling points of a business plan or project.

Unlike an abstract, which is a short overview, an executive summary format is a condensed form of the documents contained in the proposal. Abstracts are more commonly used in academic and research-oriented writing and act as a teaser for the reader to see if they want to read on.

Executive Summary Format & Template

To put all of that information together, here’s the basic format of an executive summary. You can find this same information in our free executive summary template :

• Introduction, be sure to know your audience
• Table of contents in the form of a bulleted list
• Explain the company’s role and identify strengths
• Explain the need, or the problem, and its importance
• Recommend a solution and explain its value
• Justify said solution by explaining how it fits the organization
• A strong conclusion that once more wraps up the importance of the project

You can use it as an executive summary example and add or remove some of its elements to adjust it to your needs. Our sample executive summary has the main elements that you’ll need project executive summary.

How to Write an Executive Summary

The pressure of writing an executive summary comes from the fact that everyone will pay attention to it, as it sits at the top of that heap of documents. It explains all that follows and can make or break your business plan or project plan . The executive summary must know the needs of the potential clients or investors and zero in on them like a laser. Fortunately, we’ll show you how to write and format your executive summary to do just that.

Executive summaries vary depending on the document they’re attached to. You can write an executive summary for a business plan, project proposal, research document, or business case, among other documents and reports. However, when writing an executive summary, there are guidelines to ensure you hit all the bases.

Executive Summary Length

According to the many books that have been written about executive summaries, as well as training courses, seminars and professional speakers, the agreed-upon length for an executive summary format should be about five to 10 percent of the length of the whole report.

Appropriate Language

The language used should be appropriate for the target audience. One of the most important things to know before you write professionally is to understand who you’re addressing. If you’re writing for a group of engineers, the language you’ll use will differ greatly from how you would write to a group of financiers.

That includes more than just the words, but the content and depth of explanation. Remember, it’s a summary, and people will be reading it to quickly and easily pull out the main points.

Pithy Introduction

You also want to capture a reader’s attention immediately in the opening paragraph. Just like a speech often opens with a joke to break the tension and put people at ease, a strong introductory paragraph can pull a reader in and make them want to read on. That doesn’t mean you start with a joke. Stick to your strengths, but remember, most readers only give you a few sentences to win them over before they move on.

Don’t forget to explain who you are as an organization and why you have the skills, personnel and experience to solve the problem raised in the proposal. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy biography, often just your name, address and contact information will do, though you’ll also want to highlight your strengths as they pertain to the business plan or project proposal .

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Executive Summary Template

Use this free Executive Summary Template for Word to manage your projects better.

Relevant Information

The executive summary shouldn’t stray from the material that follows it. It’s a summary, not a place to bring up new ideas. To do so would be confusing and would jeopardize your whole proposal.

Establish the need or the problem, and convince the target audience that it must be solved. Once that’s set up, it’s important to recommend the solution and show what the value is. Be clear and firm in your recommendation.

Justify your cause. Be sure to note the key reasons why your organization is the perfect fit for the solution you’re proposing. This is the point where you differentiate yourself from competitors, be that due to methodology, testimonials from satisfied clients or whatever else you offer that’s unique. But don’t make this too much about you. Be sure to keep the name of the potential client at the forefront.

Don’t neglect a strong conclusion, where you can wrap things up and once more highlight the main points.

Related: 10 Essential Excel Report Templates

What to Include in an Executive Summary

The content of your executive summary must reflect what’s in the larger document which it is part of. You’ll find many executive summary examples on the web, but to keep things simple, we’ll focus on business plans and project proposals.

Getting everything organized for your executive summary can be challenging. ProjectManager can help you get your thoughts in order and collaborate with your team. Our powerful task management tools make it easy to get everything prioritized and done on time. Try it free today.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Business Plan

As we’ve learned above, your executive summary must extract the main points of all the sections of your business plan. A business plan is a document that describes all the aspects of a business, such as its business model, products or services, objectives and marketing plan , among other things. They’re commonly used by startups to pitch their ideas to investors.

Here are the most commonly used business plan sections:

• Company description: Provide a brief background of your company, such as when it was established, its mission, vision and core values.
• Products & services: Describe the products or services your company will provide to its customers.
• Organization and management: Explain the legal structure of your business and the members of the top management team.
• SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis explains the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. They describe the internal and external factors that impact your business competitiveness.
• Industry & market analysis: This section should provide an overview of the industry and market in which your business will compete.
• Operations: Explain the main aspects of your business operations and what sets it apart from competitors.
• Marketing plan: Your marketing plan describes the various strategies that your business will use to reach its customers and sell products or services.
• Financial planning: Here, you should provide an overview of the financial state of your business. Include income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements.
• Funding request: If you’re creating your business plan to request funding, make sure to explain what type of funding you need, the timeframe for your funding request and an explanation of how the funds will be used.

We’ve created an executive summary example to help you better understand how this document works when using it, to sum up a business plan.

Executive Summary Example

For this executive summary example, we’ll imagine a company named ABC Clothing, a small business that manufactures eco-friendly clothing products and it’s preparing a business plan to secure funding from new investors.

Company Description We are ABC Clothing, an environmentally-friendly manufacturer of apparel. We’ve developed a unique method of production and sourcing of materials that allows us to create eco-friendly products at a low cost . We have intellectual property for our production processes and materials, which gives us an advantage in the market.

• Mission: Our mission is to use recycled materials and sustainable methods of production to create clothing products that are great for our customers and our planet.
• Vision: Becoming a leader in the apparel industry while generating a positive impact on the environment.

Products & Services We offer high-quality clothing products for men, women and all genders. (Here you should include pictures of your product portfolio to spark the interest of your readers)

Industry & Market Analysis Even though the fashion industry’s year-over-year growth has been affected by pandemics in recent years, the global apparel market is expected to continue growing at a steady pace. In addition, the market share of sustainable apparel has grown year-over-year at a higher pace than the overall fashion industry.

Marketing Plan Our marketing plan relies on the use of digital marketing strategies and online sales, which gives us a competitive advantage over traditional retailers that focus their marketing efforts on brick-and-mortar stores.

Operations Our production plant is able to recycle different types of plastic and cotton waste to turn it into materials that we use to manufacture our products . We’ve partnered with a transportation company that sorts and distributes our products inside the United States efficiently and cost-effectively.

Financial Planning Our business is profitable, as documented in our balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. The company doesn’t have any significant debt that might compromise its continuity. These and other financial factors make it a healthy investment.

Funding Request We’re requesting funding for the expansion of our production capacity, which will allow us to increase our production output in order to meet our increasing customer demand, enter new markets, reduce our costs and improve our competitiveness.

If you’d like to see more executive summary examples for your business plan, you can visit the U.S. small business administration website. They have business plans with executive summary examples you can download and use.

Executive summaries are also a great way to outline the elements of a project plan for a project proposal. Let’s learn what those elements are.

How to Write an Executive Summary for a Project Proposal

An executive summary for your project proposal will capture the most important information from your project management plan. Here’s the structure of our executive summary template:

• Introduction: What’s the purpose of your project?
• Company description: Show why you’re the right team to take on the project.
• Need/problem: What is the problem that it’s solving?
• Unique solution: What is your value proposition and what are the main selling points of your project?
• Proof: Evidence, research and feasibility studies that support how your company can solve the issue.
• Resources: Outline the resources needed for the project
• Return on investment/funding request: Explain the profitability of your project and what’s in for the investors.
• Competition/market analysis: What’s your target market? Who are your competitors? How does your company differentiate from them?
• Marketing plan: Create a marketing plan that describes your company’s marketing strategies, sales and partnership plans.
• Budget/financial planning: What’s the budget that you need for your project plan?
• Timeline: What’s the estimated timeline to complete the project?
• Team: Who are the project team members and why are they qualified?
• Conclusions:  What are the project takeaways?

Now that we’ve learned that executive summaries can vary depending on the type of document you’re working on, you’re ready for the next step.

What to Do After Writing an Executive Summary

As with anything you write, you should always start with a draft. The first draft should hit all the marks addressed above but don’t bog yourself down in making the prose perfect. Think of the first draft as an exploratory mission. You’re gathering all the pertinent information.

Next, you want to thoroughly review the document to ensure that nothing important has been left out or missed. Make sure the focus is sharp and clear, and that it speaks directly to your potential client’s needs.

Proofread for Style & Grammar

But don’t neglect the writing. Be sure that you’re not repeating words, falling into cliché or other hallmarks of bad writing. You don’t want to bore the reader to the point that they miss the reason why you’re the organization that can help them succeed.

You’ve checked the content and the prose, but don’t forget the style. You want to write in a way that’s natural and not overly formal, but one that speaks in the manner of your target audience . If they’re a conservative firm, well then, maybe formality is called for. But more and more modern companies have a casual corporate culture, and formal writing could mistakenly cause them to think of you as old and outdated.

The last run should be proofing the copy. That means double-checking to ensure that spelling is correct, and there are no typos or grammatical mistakes. Whoever wrote the executive summary isn’t the best person to edit it, however. They can easily gloss over errors because of their familiarity with the work. Find someone who excels at copy-editing. If you deliver sloppy content, it shows a lack of professionalism that’ll surely color how a reader thinks of your company.

Criticism of Executive Summaries

While we’re advocating for the proper use of an executive summary, it’d be neglectful to avoid mentioning some critiques. The most common is that an executive summary by design is too simple to capture the complexity of a large and complicated project.

It’s true that many executives might only read the summary, and in so doing, miss the nuance of the proposal. That’s a risk. But if the executive summary follows the guidelines stated above, it should give a full picture of the proposal and create interest for the reader to delve deeper into the documents to get the details.

Remember, executive summaries can be written poorly or well. They can fail to focus on results or the solution to the proposal’s problem or do so in a vague, general way that has no impact on the reader. You can do a hundred things wrong, but if you follow the rules, then the onus falls on the reader.

ProjectManager Turns an Executive Summary Into a Project

Your executive summary got the project approved. Now the real work begins. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps you organize tasks, projects and teams. We have everything you need to manage each phase of your project, so you can complete your work on time and under budget.

Work How You Want

Because project managers and teams work differently, our software is flexible. We have multiple project views, such as the kanban board, which visualizes workflow. Managers like the transparency it provides in the production cycle, while teams get to focus only on those tasks they have the capacity to complete. Are you more comfortable with tasks lists or Gantt charts? We have those, too.

Live Tracking for Better Management

To ensure your project meets time and cost expectations, we have features that monitor and track progress so you can control any deviations that might occur. Our software is cloud-based, so the data you see on our dashboard is always up to date, helping you make better decisions. Make that executive summary a reality with ProjectManager.

You’ve now researched and written a persuasive executive summary to lead your proposal. You’ve put in the work and the potential client sees that and contracts you for the project. However, if you don’t have a reliable set of project management tools like Gantt charts , kanban boards and project calendars at hand to plan, monitor and report on the work, then all that preparation will be for nothing.

ProjectManager is online project management software that gives you real-time data and a collaborative platform to work efficiently and productively. But don’t take our word for it, take a free 30-day trial.

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How To Write an Executive Summary in 2024 + 4 Real-World Examples

Learn how to write an executive summary that perfectly captures your brand and business strategy.

An executive summary serves as a crucial part of your business plan. Learn how to write one that draws your readers in and shares your company mission.

To launch, promote, and expand your small business, you’ll need to be able to articulate what makes it special to the people who matter, including consumers in your target market, potential investors, and the media. One of the best ways to do this is through an executive summary.

Read on to learn the role an executive summary plays in a successful business or organization, and how to write an executive summary that perfectly captures your brand and business strategy .

Table of contents

What is an executive summary?

When to use an executive summary, how to write an executive summary, 3 executive summary examples, you’re ready to write your own executive summary, executive summary faq.

An executive summary is a short document containing the most important information about your business (or, if you’re just starting out, your business model or idea). Executive summaries often appear at the beginning of a longer report or document, such as a business plan or project proposal .

A good executive summary provides a high-level overview of your business that not only provides essential information about your business, but also grabs a reader’s attention.

Executive summaries are written for and used in a variety of contexts, including:

• Business plan
• Project proposal
• Investment proposal
• Public relations/ media pitch
• Shareholder report

Regardless of the format or audience, a well-written executive summary typically acts as a “front cover,” offering the key points of the entire document in a way that convinces your target audience to buy, invest, approve, publish, or take some other desired step.

• Answer the right questions
• Use AI to help
• Keep it concise
• Ask someone to edit your summary
• Write a boilerplate version

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to writing an effective executive summary, because it always depends on the context and who you’re writing it for. The most important and compelling information changes depending on the scenario.

Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and consider the information most important to them. For instance, the executive summary for a proposal for a prospective investor may be more persuasive and forward-looking, with a focus on how profitable you expect your business to be in the future. Meanwhile, an executive summary for market research should highlight some of the findings or results from a more retrospective point of view.

Whatever your overarching purpose, consider the following tips and common mistakes while writing your executive summary.

1. Answer the right questions

Whether you’re writing an executive summary to customers, your management team , or an entirely new audience, make sure to answer the following questions:

• Who are you? Provide a brief company description that explains your brand. Depending on your audience, you may want to focus on what you’ve achieved, or the value and benefits of your products.
• What will your audience learn? Give readers a quick overview of what follows in the larger document: market analysis, a project plan, or a description of a new business, etc.
• Why should your audience care? Consider why you’ve prepared the larger document. Are you looking to secure funding? If so, what does a potential investor stand to gain?
• What highlights should readers be excited about? Tease some of the most critical information or details to come.

2. Use AI to help

Not everyone’s a writer. AI language processing tools can help if you have writer’s block. You can even use AI to automate the process, especially if you produce a lot of documents that need executive summaries.

AI-powered algorithms can sift through data efficiently, identifying key information and trends, and condensing them into a concise executive summary. This not only saves valuable time but also ensures summaries are data-driven and aligned with the succeeding information.

And as new data becomes available or when reports are updated, AI can automatically revise and update the summaries, ensuring they remain current and relevant. This is particularly valuable in industries where information changes rapidly, such as finance, health care, and technology.

While AI can generate summaries that are coherent and informative, it may lack the context and deeper understanding that a human writer can provide. So it’s always important to review and add your own touch.

3. Keep it concise

The length of your executive summary heavily depends on the context. For example, an executive summary for an entirely new business plan likely will be more detailed than one for, say, a product launch press kit .

In any case, an executive summary generally should not exceed a few pages, or 5% of the overall length of the longer document.

To keep your executive summary short, be sure to include only the main points or key findings of the larger piece, saving any unnecessary background details for later sections. If appropriate, consider using bullet points or graphics to quickly communicate the essentials.

4. Ask someone to edit your summary

Writing an executive summary that convinces decision makers to read your full business plan or proposal is no easy task, and chances are you won’t get it right the first time. With that in mind, editing is an essential step to drafting an executive summary. You might even consider hiring a professional writer to handle it for you.

If you don’t have the time or budget for a professional, consider sending your draft executive summary to a trusted team member, or even someone outside your organization. Be sure to brief them about the purpose of the executive summary and who’s going to be reading it.

5. Write a boilerplate version

As a business owner, you’ll be producing a range of documents, including project proposals, annual reports, press releases , and internal onboarding documents. Rather than reinventing the wheel with each new output, consider preparing an executive summary template to serve as a foundation for each new document. You can then rework this executive summary for more specific purposes.

Remember, your executive summary should set the stage for whatever is to come next. The executive summary is the first impression you give your audience, so think about what you want that impression to be and then craft your summary around that.

Executive summaries can vary from business to business and document to document. Here are a few diverse examples of an executive summary.

• Allbirds sustainability report
• Love Your Melon press release
• Cotopaxi impact report

1. Allbirds sustainability report

Allbirds uses an executive summary to describe its mission-driven company as part of its 2022 Flight Status report . Sustainability is a major value of the Allbirds brand, and this report will be read by consumers and investors who are interested in the company’s environmental impact.

Here, Allbirds devotes just a few paragraphs out of 28 pages to its executive summary, which outlines the company’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and highlights the results of its efforts in the previous year.

The summary is short but sweet, offering a concise analysis of the company’s achievements without feeling too self-congratulatory. As an added bonus, Allbirds includes a graph on the next page to communicate its message visually.

2. Love Your Melon press release

Like most brands, Love Your Melon includes a brief, boilerplate executive summary in every press release, such as this one . Love Your Melon’s executive summary is essentially a company description meant for a wider audience, and has likely been reused for many different purposes.

Here, the executive summary is titled “About Love Your Melon” and describes the brand’s mission to fight pediatric cancer. Love Your Melon also includes specific metrics—always ideal for persuasive purposes, especially because numbers don’t lie—touting its 215,000 gifted hats to children and $8.3 million in donations. Furthermore, the executive summary provides a call to action (CTA) for readers to learn more about the brand on social media.

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3. Cotopaxi impact report

Cotopaxi , another CSR-minded brand, also publishes an annual impact report detailing the contributions it’s made toward social and sustainable goals. For its 2022 Impact Report , Cotopaxi begins with an executive summary divided into two sections. The first section, “About Cotopaxi,” provides a broad overview of the company, including its mission to fight poverty, its corporate footprint, and some financial information.

The second section, “About This Report,” previews what topics readers will learn about in the pages that follow, as well as the sources of the information and limits of the report’s scope and focus.

While relatively dense, Cotopaxi’s executive summary offers readers everything they need to know about the company’s impact and the report’s authority in just a few pages.

Your executive summary is more than just an introduction to a report or document: it serves as the highlight reel that draws your audience in. Writing a persuasive executive summary will undoubtedly take a few tries, but with the advice and examples above, you’ll be well on your way.

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How long is an executive summary?

The exact length of an executive summary will depend on what kind of business document it’s a part of, as well as its intended audience. In general, though, an executive summary should be no more than a few pages, or 5% to 10% of the document’s overall length.

What should an executive summary include?

• An introduction to the document
• Highlights and key points in the document
• What readers can expect to learn from the document

What should not be included in an executive summary?

An executive summary should offer the broad strokes of your business plan, proposal, or report, without including all the details or getting overly technical. The goal is to write an executive summary that draws the reader in and provides just enough context for the document that follows.

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How to Write a Great Executive Summary in a Business Plan

Free Executive Summary Template

• March 2, 2024

11 Min Read

We all know that pursuing investors for funding or entrepreneurs for partnership is a challenging task. But an engaging executive summary makes it easy for you.

A well-written executive summary acts as the first impression in convincing your readers of anything related to your business.

But the question is how to write one!

See, include all the sections in the summary, highlight all the main points of the business plan, keep the language simple & clear, and voila, you will have a nice executive summary.

But if you want to know more about how to write an engaging executive summary in a business plan with all the tips, then hop on, let’s begin.

What is a business plan executive summary?

An executive summary is a concise and compelling overview of the whole business plan. It includes and highlights all the key points of the plan as an introduction.

It should be clear, well-structured, and engaging, prompting the reader to want to learn more. It also should provide enough information to convey the business plan’s purpose.

Simply put, it is an outline of the business plan. And it helps readers to understand your business before making any decision.

Executive Summary vs. Business Plan

A business plan is a detailed document that has sections like executive summary, company’s description, product or services, market analysis, marketing & sales strategy, management team, and more.

Whereas, an executive summary is a concise overview of the whole business plan. It also acts like an elevator pitch with a brief information about the business.

The length of a business plan can range from ten pages to fifty pages longs, while an executive summary is only a couple of pages long. Generally, the executive summary is written after writing the entire business plan.

Now as we know the difference between a business plan and an executive summary, let’s move forward with the actual purpose of the summary.

Purpose of an executive summary

An Executive summary is one of the core parts of the business plan, and it has many purposes instead of just being a section, let’s see:

Concise overview

An executive summary is a short version of your business plan. Since not everyone has time to read the full plan, a well-crafted summary gives investors a quick overview of your business, helping them make decisions right there and then.

Decision-making

Executive summary plays a crucial role in the decision-making journey. As it presents all the facts and key findings of the business concisely, it helps decision-makers get a quick overview in no time. This way, readers do not have that fear of not making an informed decision.

Accessibility

An executive summary makes a document more accessible to a wider audience. Those who are not an expert in understanding all the technicalities of the plan can get the gist of the entire business plan by reading an executive summary.

Now that you know the importance of writing an executive summary, let us move forward with the topic of how to actually write one.

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How to write an executive summary for a business plan

1. introduce the purpose.

First things first, let your readers know what is this all about—meaning what your document is all about and which business you are doing.

Then introduce the purpose your business plan is going to address. This way you are setting the base of your business plan, giving a clear idea to the readers about why this document is important.

2. Give the company description

Here, briefly describe your company. It includes things like business name , location, owners, company history, and other such things of the business that matter.

If you are just starting up, then focus on the qualifications and responsibilities of your team members.

Highlight any key milestones or achievements demonstrating your company’s growth and success. This section should give readers a clear understanding of what your company does, why it exists, and how it has evolved.

3. State the problem and how will you solve it

Mention the problem in the market first that your product or service will help solve. This will make your readers confident about your market research and your offerings.

Then showcase the innovative solution your business will offer. Highlight the unique value proposition of your business along with it. Also, mention how your product or service is a market fit and has demand in the industry.

4. Outline market analysis

Once you have defined the problem and solution, it is time to mention the market landscape for your business. It should include the market size, expected growth, target market, and all other demographics.

Also, highlight your competitive advantage here. And mention the market share you are going to capture.

5. Define your business model

In this section, mention how your business earns the revenue and how it works. It sets a clear picture of how your company will make a profit and cover the costs.

This information is necessary for investors, so make sure to present it engagingly and realistically.

6. Give an overview of your marketing and sales strategies

Once you start the business, one of the most important things investors would want to know is how will you attract customers. Therefore, this section is all about what strategies you will implement to bring in new customers and how your business will retain them.

It includes the brand message, logo, marketing medium, and all other tools you have for marketing. Apart from that, it also showcases the seriousness of reaching the sales goal of your business.

7. Mention the team you hired or will hire

Provide an overview of the organizational structure and current team. Introduce yourself and your team members, along with their qualifications and roles in the firm.

Also, identify any gaps and the needs of other employees in the business. In short, this section gives readers a clear understanding of your team’s capabilities and how you plan to leverage their skills for the success of your business.

8. Mention your financial summary

In this part, you outline your company’s current brief financial summary and future projections. It includes annual revenue, sales and expenses, and milestones for the coming years.

For existing companies, former years’ revenue and sales numbers can act as evidence to support forecasts. For startups, it is suggested to include all the costs as it will help investors to know completely about the financial picture of your company before making any decision.

9. Funding requirement

If you are preparing your business plan’s executive summary for seeking funding, then make sure to include this section. Make sure what you include in this section and what you ask practically.

Some of the questions you need to answer in this section are:

• How much funding do you need in total?
• How much have you already secured?
• How much are you seeking from the current readers?
• Where are you going to use this funding?
• How much will this funding impact your business?

Answering these questions will help investors get a quick look at your funding requirements without having to wait till the end of your business plan. This saves time and is more efficient.

How long should an executive summary be?

Before you write an executive summary, this question might have occurred to you a lot more times what is the ideal length of a summary, right? Worry not, let’s discuss the length here.

Keep your executive summary as short as possible, because your audience has limited time and attention span.

Generally, executive summaries are 1-2 pages long, but you can exceed this norm if necessary. However, it is necessary to consider the length of the business plan too before you finalize the length of the executive summary.

The key over here is to get the reader’s attention and highlight all the essential points of a detailed business plan.

Tips for writing an effective executive summary

Understand your audience.

Before writing the summary, you need to first know and understand your audience. Consider their background, knowledge level, and expectations to ensure that the summary matches their expectations.

Keep it as an elevator pitch

Remember, executive summaries are like elevator pitches. You’re selling your business just by reading the focus points only.

Perhaps readers would want to know every aspect of your business, and with a well-written summary, they can have the essence of the business in no time.

Keep it short and sweet

Ideally, a great executive summary is about a page or two. Whatever length seems ideal to you, make sure to make it a brief and not a detailed one. Keep it as short as you can without missing the needed part.

Prefer to write it last

Though being the first sections, entrepreneurs generally choose to write the executive summary at the end, till then, they have a thorough knowledge of the entire plan.

And it is easier to write the summary after having all the focus points to write about. So, prefer writing the summary in the end.

Use a structured format and highlight the main points first

You have to present your summary in an organized structure, though change the order as per the importance. You can highlight the main things first and then gradually go to the financial plan. In short, in skim reading, your audience should get the crux.

Example of a business plan executive summary

A couple of pages is not enough to give every detail of your business in the summary. So, including everything important and in an engaging manner becomes a challenge.

This even includes writing a compelling introduction to grab readers’ attention. Too much isn’t it? To overcome that, explore the below-given executive summary example as inspiration to write yours.

Business Name: Elegance Bistro Location: Queens, New York Type of Business: Restaurant

Elegance Bistro is a new upscale dining establishment located in the vibrant borough of Queens, New York. Our mission is to provide an elegant and unforgettable dining experience, combining exceptional service with a curated menu of gourmet dishes inspired by global cuisine.

Despite the diverse culinary scene in Queens, there is a lack of upscale dining options that offer a refined ambiance and high-quality cuisine. Residents and visitors seeking an upscale dining experience often have to travel to Manhattan, leading to a gap in the market that Elegance Bistro aims to fill.

Elegance Bistro will provide a sophisticated dining experience that showcases the rich diversity of flavors and ingredients found in global cuisine. Our menu will feature a selection of expertly crafted dishes made from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, ensuring freshness and quality in every bite.

Market Analysis

Queens is a thriving culinary destination, known for its diverse population and vibrant food scene. With a growing number of residents and tourists seeking unique dining experiences, there is a significant opportunity for a high-end restaurant like Elegance Bistro to attract a discerning clientele. There is a competition for the same, but our dining experience with appealing ambiance stands out from all.

Our curated menu includes all the culinary dishes that are popular among New Yorkers and tourists.

Our mission at Elegance Bistro is to elevate the dining experience in Queens by offering exceptional cuisine, impeccable service, and a warm, inviting atmosphere that celebrates the art of dining.

Financial Position

Based on our market research and projected sales, we anticipate generating annual revenues of $1.5 million in our first year of operation, with a net profit margin of 15%. Our startup costs are estimated at $500,000, which will be primarily used for leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, and initial marketing efforts.

Funding Requirement

To fund our startup costs and initial operating expenses, we are seeking a total investment of $750,000. This will allow us to launch Elegance Bistro successfully and establish a strong presence in the Queens dining scene.

So, finally, you know what it takes to write an engaging executive summary. We hope this has been helpful to you in your writing journey.

If you are still confused or don’t know where to start, then you can always rely on good business plan software like Upmetrics—an AI business plan generator . It will provide you with step-by-step guidance and AI assistance, so you don’t have to roam to and fro for the next step. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is executive summary first in the business plan.

Yes, an executive summary is the first chapter of the business plan. Yet, people prefer to write it at the last, after having the full knowledge of the whole business plan.

What writing style should I use?

An executive summary serves as the introduction to the business plan. So, ideally, it should be in a professional tone. However, whichever writing style you choose, make sure it is clear, concise, engaging, and maintains professionalism. 

What are the key elements of an effective executive summary?

Key elements of an effective executive summary are:

• Introduction
• Problem statement
• Market analysis
• Value proposition
• Business model
• Financial Overview
• Implementation plan
• Call to action

By including these key elements in your executive summary, you can effectively communicate the key points of your business and make a strong impression on your audience.

What is the best format for an executive summary?

The best format for an executive summary is one that is clear, concise, and well-organized.

It should provide a brief overview of the main points of the document, including the purpose, problem & solution, market analysis, unique value proposition, business model, financial position, team, milestones, funding requirements, and call to action.

The format should be easy to read and understand, with headings and subheadings to break up the text.

When should I update my executive summary?

You should update your executive summary whenever any necessary changes to your business impact the information in the summary.

If there are no frequent changes, then you should change your executive summary at least once in a quarter, two quarters, or a year.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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10 executive summary examples and how to write one yourself (with ai).

February 14, 2024

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In a world where people have the attention span of a goldfish (or less), we don’t make time to read long, detailed documents unless they are valuable to us. So, how do we convince the reader that the document is valuable? That’s where the executive summary comes in.

What is an Executive Summary?

1. identify the story, 2. bring the data, 3. expand on the benefits, 4. conclude powerfully, best practices for writing executive summary, 1. board report executive summary, 2. research report executive summary example from mckinsey, 3. study report executive summary by the un, 4. project performance report executive summary, 5. payroll report executive summary template, 6. mailchimp content style guide’s tl;dr, 7. clickup release notes, 8. the title and description of a new yorker article, 9. survey report executive summary by harvard, 10. meta executive summary with clickup ai.

An executive summary is a shorter version of a longer corporate document. It summarizes the salient points of a business plan, proposal, or report so executives can get the gist and read further about what matters to them.

In other words, the tl;dr (too long; didn’t read) version.

A typical executive summary includes:

• Problem statement
• Proposed solution
• Expected outcomes

This might vary depending on what you write an executive summary for. Let’s take the example of a project report. You might have to replace the proposed solution and expected outcomes with execution solutions and actual outcomes achieved, respectively. Or, if you’re writing a business plan, research proposal, or market analysis, you might include your methodology, too.

Now that you know the purpose of an executive summary, let’s see how to write one.

How to Write Executive Summaries and Examples

While an executive summary is just a condensed version of a longer report, it isn’t easy to write. It needs to capture the essence of the report, outline the salient points, and tell a story as compelling as the full report. Here are some ways you can achieve that.

Just stating facts and data wouldn’t be a compelling read for anyone. So, identify the story that really impacts people’s lives. While industry terms like workflow optimization or cost control capture people’s attention, they don’t tell the real story behind your efforts. Focus on the latter.

If you’re writing the project executive summary in software development, you might begin with what matters to the reader as follows.

In 2020, the retail major was managing its inventory on spreadsheets. So, whenever a customer asked whether a product was in stock, a staff member had to walk across the 5000 sq. ft. store to check, often with the customer in tow. The new ABC digital inventory management system records stock in and out online in real time. The staff member can check and confirm in a flash. More pertinently, the customers themselves can check at any of the 25 kiosks throughout the store.

While the story is more important, data isn’t useless. Accurate and relevant data helps establish credibility. Your next section might say the following in the ABC digital inventory management system example.

Since the implementation of the ABC inventory management system, the retail major has seen: 85% decrease in time taken to check stock 75% decrease in time taken to find where stock is placed

The data demonstrates that there has been real improvement. However, for the reader to understand its impact, you must explain the benefits. This can be done with real-life scenarios or even quotes. For example,

Adrian, the customer service manager at the Central Park store, says, “Now, from anywhere—a kiosk, the checkout counter, or my mobile phone—I can quickly check stock and confirm we have the products the customer needs. I see that customers are delighted at getting their answers instantly.”

You can also use data to do this. For example, you can explain how the decreased time taken to check stock has increased staff productivity, customer satisfaction, or company revenue. Or you can include your suggestions here. Based on your observations, explain the process improvement methodologies you recommend.

This is the time to complete the story. Here, talk about how your project has delivered the changes in the present and sets up for an even more prosperous future. This could be something like:

The ABC inventory management system marks the first step in the retail major’s digital transformation journey. By Q2 next year, we will link the store solution to the e-commerce inventory platform to give 360-degree visibility into the stock situation. This would also enable a new sales channel in the form of Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPIS), enabling same-day fulfillment.

While you write your executive summary, here are some best practices to remember.

Keep it short and simple : The length might depend on the report you’re summarizing, but it’s best to keep it under one page for quick reading. Also, avoid cliches and jargon; make it easy to read. A quick business plan under one page is the best first impression you can make.

Focus on the target audience : Not all executive summaries are read by business executives. Often, you might want to address your summary to peers, vendors, partners, or even teens. Know your target audience and customize your executive summary accordingly.

Use the right tool : You can, of course, use Notepad or Word doc to write your executive summaries. But give it a boost with modern document software like ClickUp Docs .

• Use rich formatting features without jumping through hoops
• Style the critical information with color-coded banners, buttons, and more
• Collaborate in real time with comments, action items, and trackable tasks
• Securely share with anyone with appropriate access controls

Pick a suitable template : If it’s your first time writing an executive summary, we’ve got your back. Fire up one of ClickUp’s executive summary templates or content writing templates , and kickstart your work.

Get the AI boost : If you’ve thoughtfully created your report, you can write your executive summary much quicker with one of the many AI writing tools . For instance, ClickUp AI offers a single-click summarize option right on ClickUp Docs.

What’s more? ClickUp AI supports you in brainstorming new ideas, writing the first drafts of your executive summaries, and proofreading them for good measure.

10 Executive Summary Examples

Now that we have discussed the theory of executive summary writing, let’s look at some examples to see what it looks like in practice. Here are ten to learn from or emulate.

Periodically, the board would expect to see a report on the organization’s performance. Various departments typically write their reports, which are consolidated into a board report. An effective executive summary of this would include the following.

• Revenue and expenditure
• Key areas of focus
• Critical success factors
• Financial information
• Challenges and roadblocks

This ClickUp Board Report Summary Template brings all these aspects together to get you started on your executive summary right away. You can customize this free executive summary template to suit your needs and fill in the data as appropriate.

McKinsey, one of the world’s leading consulting firms, publishes dozens of research reports annually. For every one of them, they write executive summaries, often called ‘in brief.’

In this report titled, ‘ Performance through people: Transforming human capital into competitive advantage ,’ the executive summary takes a two-pronged approach. It presents key insights in text on one page and data in infographics on the next.

Insights in text : The report begins by directly addressing the primary purpose of the research. Below are the first few sentences.

How does developing talent affect financial returns for firms? This research finds that companies with a dual focus on developing human capital and managing it well have a performance edge.

This section summarizes the key insights from the research. The headlines of each section are presented in bold, making it easy for the reader to skim.

Data in visuals : The text section is followed by an infographic of the key findings from the data. Within one page, it presents all the graphs relevant to the reader engagingly.

Within two pages, McKinsey gives the reader a bird’s eye view of what to expect, customized for the target market, from the 40-page document.

You can read the executive summary of this report on McKinsey’s website .

The Adaptation Gap Report 2023 by the United Nations Environment Programme is a 112-page report with a rather detailed executive summary, stretching eight pages. The depth of information and seriousness of the topics covered demand an extended executive summary.

Yet, the writers make every effort to make it engaging with a combination of typography, design, and graphs. It begins with the following.

Despite the clear signs of accelerating climate risks and impacts worldwide, the adaptation finance gap is widening and now stands at between US$194 billion and US$366 billion per year. Adaptation finance needs are 10–18 times as great as current international public adaptation finance flows – at least 50 percent higher than previously estimated.

In the following pages, it presents graphs to demonstrate the underpinnings of these key findings.

Every project manager creates performance reports at the end of each week, month, or quarter. This typically includes the tasks tracking , burn up, burn down, hours spent, etc.

While this can be written down in a list, presenting this information as a slide with visual elements is far more effective.

One way to achieve this is to use ClickUp’s project summary templates , which offer custom-designed templates for various project management purposes.

The other way is to use the dynamic reports on the ClickUp Dashboard , which brings together all the key metrics and keeps them updated in real time for you to share with anyone you’d like to.

Human resources or people management teams create payroll reports, typically in spreadsheets, for every payment period—bi-weekly or monthly. This data is also helpful for building financial projections. For the senior finance leaders, they often create an executive summary of critical information, such as:

• Total salaries paid
• Deductions across categories
• Year-to-date salary expenses
• Paid time off credits
• Net pay summary

ClickUp’s Payroll Summary Report Template can save time by automatically gathering all relevant data from the platform. When data is unavailable on ClickUp, you can highlight any text to @mention team members who can fill in the correct information.

Once complete, you can update the Doc’s settings for access control and share it with the management team instantly.

A company description or how it projects itself is often important to stand out in a crowded market. Mailchimp stood out with its style guide. The guide is comprehensive and widely used by smaller content teams that don’t yet have their own.

Mailchimp has made it public and available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license for anyone to adapt to their needs.

While every section in this style guide is engaging and valuable, for the purposes of this article, we want to draw your attention to the tl;dr section , which acts as a quasi-executive summary.

It is a bulleted list of seven sub-sections, highlighting the foundations of Mailchimp’s writing style.

The striking thing about this tl;dr version is its simplicity. Even without any visual elements, infographics, or charts, this page gives readers a real and actionable summary of the entire style guide.

When we speak of executive summary, we almost always think of a smaller version of an entire document. It need not be so.

For a software engineering team, the release notes are a kind of executive summary of all the changes/upgrades made in the latest version.

Take the example of ClickUp’s release notes 3.04 . Each release gets:

• An organized yet concise summary of all the changes that have been made
• “ClickTips” to help readers make the best use of new features
• Visuals and app images to show how the changes look
• Links to help pages of each of those features so the reader can learn more
• A list of bugs fixed
• And any other resources, such as on-demand webinars or training

These release notes inform users and developers of the latest upgrades to the ClickUp platform without overwhelming them with the details.

The New Yorker Magazine wrote a 10,000-word profile of Geoffrey Hinton , a computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, for their November 20, 2023 issue, titled ‘Metamorphosis.’ Even in podcast form, it’s over 60 minutes long.

When it was published online, they needed a title and description that summarized the article in a way that attracted a lay reader’s attention to click and read. The headline captures the primary conflict explored in the article. The description introduces the protagonist.

While this is typically not what we’d categorize as an executive summary, it is a fantastic example of capturing the essence of a long article in a few powerful words.

This executive summary serves as an inspiration for writers, irrespective of what you’re writing about, to summarize their main points not just briefly but also powerfully and attractively.

In the spring of 2019, Harvard University conducted its first-ever survey about campus culture. The executive summary of the report on these survey responses makes for great reading. It is also a great example of how to honestly and authentically present key findings, even unpleasant ones.

The executive summary is honest on multiple fronts. It admits that:

• 2019 was the first time in history that Harvard surveyed campus culture
• Three in ten of the Harvard community don’t feel like they belong
• 34% of students disagreed with the belief that Harvard will take appropriate action against incidents of harassment and discrimination
• Those from historically underrepresented and disadvantaged groups reported less positive views

At the end of this, the executive summary outlines the specific steps Harvard will take to address these responses from the community.

Project managers can use this as inspiration for handling executive summaries of projects that have gone awry. It helps leaders take responsibility for what has occurred and build systems to prevent future mistakes.

Not all executive summaries have to be written manually by you. A free executive summary template is also something to explore. Plenty of tools offer it. Dozens of AI tools for automation can summarize text in seconds. Here’s what ClickUp AI returned when we inserted the article above and asked for a summary.

The article discusses the purpose and importance of an executive summary, which provides a brief overview of detailed documents, making them more palatable for readers with limited time. Executive summaries typically include problem statements, proposed solutions, expected outcomes, and a conclusion. To create a compelling summary, it’s crucial to identify the main story, incorporate relevant data, expand on benefits, and conclude powerfully. The use of modern document software like ClickUp Docs and AI tools like ClickUp AI can enhance the quality and efficiency of writing executive summaries. The article also provides practical examples of executive summaries across different fields, showcasing their versatility and applicability. This provides a great starting point for those who fear the blank page. You can now edit this to add details, add images, or insert a quote.

With ClickUp AI, you can choose the tone (from professional, straightforward, inspirational, optimistic, casual, confident, friendly, or humorous) and creativity (low, medium, and high) to customize the summary to your needs.

That’s not all! For project managers and business leaders, ClickUp AI offers a wide range of writing and summarizing tools for scope documents, project briefs, meeting agendas, statements of work, survey questions, and more.

You can tag people to invite input or feedback. You can also convert comments into tasks and manage them effortlessly, all in one place.

Never used AI for writing before? No worries there, too. Here are AI prompt templates that will get you started instantly.

With a custom-built AI assistant tailored to your role, you can work faster, write better, spark creativity, and be significantly more productive.

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• How to write an executive summary, with ...

How to write an executive summary, with examples

The best way to do that is with an executive summary. If you’ve never written an executive summary, this article has all you need to know to plan, write, and share them with your team.

What is an executive summary?

An executive summary is an overview of a document. The length and scope of your executive summary will differ depending on the document it’s summarizing, but in general an executive summary can be anywhere from one to two pages long. In the document, you’ll want to share all of the information your readers and important stakeholders need to know.

Imagine it this way: if your high-level stakeholders were to only read your executive summary, would they have all of the information they need to succeed? If so, your summary has done its job.

You’ll often find executive summaries of:

Business cases

Project proposals

Research documents

Environmental studies

Market surveys

In general, there are four parts to any executive summary:

Start with the problem or need the document is solving.

Outline the recommended solution.

Explain the solution’s value.

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.

What is an executive summary in project management?

In project management, an executive summary is a way to bring clarity to cross-functional collaborators, team leadership, and project stakeholders . Think of it like a project’s “ elevator pitch ” for team members who don’t have the time or the need to dive into all of the project’s details.

The main difference between an executive summary in project management and a more traditional executive summary in a business plan is that the former should be created at the beginning of your project—whereas the latter should be created after you’ve written your business plan. For example, to write an executive summary of an environmental study, you would compile a report on the results and findings once your study was over. But for an executive summary in project management, you want to cover what the project is aiming to achieve and why those goals matter.

The same four parts apply to an executive summary in project management:

Start with the problem or need the project is solving.  Why is this project happening? What insight, customer feedback, product plan, or other need caused it to come to life?

Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives.  How is the project going to solve the problem you established in the first part? What are the project goals and objectives?

Explain the solution’s value.  Once you’ve finished your project, what will happen? How will this improve and solve the problem you established in the first part?

Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work.  This is another opportunity to reiterate why the problem is important, and why the project matters. It can also be helpful to reference your audience and how your solution will solve their problem. Finally, include any relevant next steps.

If you’ve never written an executive summary before, you might be curious about where it fits into other project management elements. Here’s how executive summaries stack up:

Executive summary vs. project plan

A  project plan  is a blueprint of the key elements your project will accomplish in order to hit your project goals and objectives. Project plans will include your goals, success metrics, stakeholders and roles, budget, milestones and deliverables, timeline and schedule, and communication plan .

An executive summary is a summary of the most important information in your project plan. Think of the absolutely crucial things your management team needs to know when they land in your project, before they even have a chance to look at the project plan—that’s your executive summary.

Executive summary vs. project overview

Project overviews and executive summaries often have similar elements—they both contain a summary of important project information. However, your project overview should be directly attached to your project. There should be a direct line of sight between your project and your project overview.

While you can include your executive summary in your project depending on what type of  project management tool  you use, it may also be a stand-alone document.

Executive summary vs. project objectives

Your executive summary should contain and expand upon your  project objectives  in the second part ( Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives ). In addition to including your project objectives, your executive summary should also include why achieving your project objectives will add value, as well as provide details about how you’re going to get there.

The benefits of an executive summary

You may be asking: why should I write an executive summary for my project? Isn’t the project plan enough?

Well, like we mentioned earlier, not everyone has the time or need to dive into your project and see, from a glance, what the goals are and why they matter.  Work management tools  like Asana help you capture a lot of crucial information about a project, so you and your team have clarity on who’s doing what by when. Your executive summary is designed less for team members who are actively working on the project and more for stakeholders outside of the project who want quick insight and answers about why your project matters.

An effective executive summary gives stakeholders a big-picture view of the entire project and its important points—without requiring them to dive into all the details. Then, if they want more information, they can access the project plan or navigate through tasks in your work management tool.

How to write a great executive summary, with examples

Every executive summary has four parts. In order to write a great executive summary, follow this template. Then once you’ve written your executive summary, read it again to make sure it includes all of the key information your stakeholders need to know.

1. Start with the problem or need the project is solving

At the beginning of your executive summary, start by explaining why this document (and the project it represents) matter. Take some time to outline what the problem is, including any research or customer feedback you’ve gotten . Clarify how this problem is important and relevant to your customers, and why solving it matters.

For example, let’s imagine you work for a watch manufacturing company. Your project is to devise a simpler, cheaper watch that still appeals to luxury buyers while also targeting a new bracket of customers.

Example executive summary:

In recent customer feedback sessions, 52% of customers have expressed a need for a simpler and cheaper version of our product. In surveys of customers who have chosen competitor watches, price is mentioned 87% of the time. To best serve our existing customers, and to branch into new markets, we need to develop a series of watches that we can sell at an appropriate price point for this market.

2. Outline the recommended solution, or the project’s objectives

Now that you’ve outlined the problem, explain what your solution is. Unlike an abstract or outline, you should be  prescriptive  in your solution—that is to say, you should work to convince your readers that your solution is the right one. This is less of a brainstorming section and more of a place to support your recommended solution.

Because you’re creating your executive summary at the beginning of your project, it’s ok if you don’t have all of your deliverables and milestones mapped out. But this is your chance to describe, in broad strokes, what will happen during the project. If you need help formulating a high-level overview of your project’s main deliverables and timeline, consider creating a  project roadmap  before diving into your executive summary.

Continuing our example executive summary:

Our new watch series will begin at 20% cheaper than our current cheapest option, with the potential for 40%+ cheaper options depending on material and movement. In order to offer these prices, we will do the following:

Offer watches in new materials, including potentially silicone or wood

Use high-quality quartz movement instead of in-house automatic movement

Introduce customizable band options, with a focus on choice and flexibility over traditional luxury

Note that every watch will still be rigorously quality controlled in order to maintain the same world-class speed and precision of our current offerings.

3. Explain the solution’s value

At this point, you begin to get into more details about how your solution will impact and improve upon the problem you outlined in the beginning. What, if any, results do you expect? This is the section to include any relevant financial information, project risks, or potential benefits. You should also relate this project back to your company goals or  OKRs . How does this work map to your company objectives?

With new offerings that are between 20% and 40% cheaper than our current cheapest option, we expect to be able to break into the casual watch market, while still supporting our luxury brand. That will help us hit FY22’s Objective 3: Expanding the brand. These new offerings have the potential to bring in upwards of three million dollars in profits annually, which will help us hit FY22’s Objective 1: 7 million dollars in annual profit.

Early customer feedback sessions indicate that cheaper options will not impact the value or prestige of the luxury brand, though this is a risk that should be factored in during design. In order to mitigate that risk, the product marketing team will begin working on their go-to-market strategy six months before the launch.

4. Wrap up with a conclusion about the importance of the work

Now that you’ve shared all of this important information with executive stakeholders, this final section is your chance to guide their understanding of the impact and importance of this work on the organization. What, if anything, should they take away from your executive summary?

To round out our example executive summary:

Cheaper and varied offerings not only allow us to break into a new market—it will also expand our brand in a positive way. With the attention from these new offerings, plus the anticipated demand for cheaper watches, we expect to increase market share by 2% annually. For more information, read our  go-to-market strategy  and  customer feedback documentation .

Example of an executive summary

When you put it all together, this is what your executive summary might look like:

Common mistakes people make when writing executive summaries

You’re not going to become an executive summary-writing pro overnight, and that’s ok. As you get started, use the four-part template provided in this article as a guide. Then, as you continue to hone your executive summary writing skills, here are a few common pitfalls to avoid:

Avoid using jargon

Your executive summary is a document that anyone, from project contributors to executive stakeholders, should be able to read and understand. Remember that you’re much closer to the daily work and individual tasks than your stakeholders will be, so read your executive summary once over to make sure there’s no unnecessary jargon. Where you can, explain the jargon, or skip it all together.

Remember: this isn’t a full report

Your executive summary is just that—a summary. If you find yourself getting into the details of specific tasks, due dates, and attachments, try taking a step back and asking yourself if that information really belongs in your executive summary. Some details are important—you want your summary to be actionable and engaging. But keep in mind that the wealth of information in your project will be captured in your  work management tool , not your executive summary.

Make sure the summary can stand alone

You know this project inside and out, but your stakeholders won’t. Once you’ve written your executive summary, take a second look to make sure the summary can stand on its own. Is there any context your stakeholders need in order to understand the summary? If so, weave it into your executive summary, or consider linking out to it as additional information.

Always proofread

Your executive summary is a living document, and if you miss a typo you can always go back in and fix it. But it never hurts to proofread or send to a colleague for a fresh set of eyes.

In summary: an executive summary is a must-have

Executive summaries are a great way to get everyone up to date and on the same page about your project. If you have a lot of project stakeholders who need quick insight into what the project is solving and why it matters, an executive summary is the perfect way to give them the information they need.

For more tips about how to connect high-level strategy and plans to daily execution, read our article about strategic planning .

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How to Write an Effective Executive Summary with Examples

Make writing your executive summary easier with these expert-vetted business plan executive summary examples

Download Business Plan Executive Summary Examples

Download Executive Summary Template in Word Format

Download Executive Summary Template in PDF Format

Download Executive Summary Template in Word

Download Executive Summary Template in PDF

No matter if you are presenting a business plan or an investment proposal, you need to preface your report with an executive summary. Executive summaries serve several important purposes, making them critical documents that can be challenging to write.

Executive summaries are used to introduce your project or business to investors, which is why they must be persuasive to catch their attention. The executive summary should cover your report’s major details, but you shouldn’t bore the reader with detail.

Let the report’s analysis, charts, and glowing reviews speak for themselves. During this section, you should grab your reader’s attention and tell them what you do and why they should read the rest of your business plan or proposal.

This article explains what an executive summary is, what benefits it has, what should be included, and how to write one. To help you accomplish this, we’ll show you how to write an executive summary that sets your business plan apart from the rest.

What is a Perfect Executive Summary?

The executive summary is commonly used by businesses to secure traditional funding from banks and other lenders. Effective executive summaries can quickly and persuasively convey the potential benefits of an investment and help secure capital.

An executive summary is an essence and an essential part of the business plan . It provides a short, concise, and optimistic overview of the business, aims to capture the intended stakeholders’ attention, and provides them with a thoughtful glimpse of business nature. It should describe your business, the problem it solves, your target market , and financial highlights.

The Executive Summary concise the Company’s mission and goals, how a business will start or perform its operations, and how it is looking forward to the future outlook keeping in view the market and industry trends.

Dig Deeper : How to write an effective business plan

Is it Necessary to Write an Executive Summary in Business Plan?

Executive summaries are intended to capture the reader’s attention and encourage them to read further for more information. If your executive summary provides enough value to the reader, then they might be motivated to take action without actually reading your entire business plan.

Many of the people who read business plans, including lenders, investors, and executives, simply don’t have time to read the entire document, so executive summaries let them absorb the key points and quickly assess multiple proposals at once.

How Long Should an Executive Summary be?

An executive summary should be as short as possible. You need to get your business plan across to your audience quickly since they have limited time. Ideally, your executive summary should be under 2 pages , but you can extend it if you have to.

• Introduction –draws a complete picture of the organization’s aims and objectives and how they will be achieved.
• Describe your product or service and the problem your business solves- Explain your product or service and why it is necessary. It’s not essential for your business to solve a larger social issue, but it should address a customer need or market opportunity.
• Target market – Include a clear and concise definition of your target market, as well as the need or pain point that you hope to solve.
• Competition – identifies the competition , competitive advantages, and strategies for getting market share. Do you compete on price, quality, or something else? Describe what makes your company different .
• Marketing and sales strategy – briefly outline the plans for marketing products/services.
• Financial Overview- Here you should make sales projections for the next five years after your business plan is implemented. Identify your break-even point, and inform your audience when you expect to turn a profit.
• Management – The following is a brief history of the organization, its management, staff, and partners. A potential investor wants to know who is behind the business idea and why you and your team are the best for the job. 
• Funding Needs- The executive summary of your business plan should state how much money you are seeking for your business. Investors will want to know this in advance and not have to dig through a business plan for it.
• Evidence of Financial Stability-  A banker will look for evidence of your financial stability, such as your net worth, assets, and financial history, when you apply for a loan.

The Executive Summary includes information about achievements, growth plans, expansion plans, and established business marketing strategies. An executive summary outlined for an established business includes : 

• Business information – Gives a brief history of the business, when and where it was formed, products or services, owners and key employees, statistics such as the number of employees, and business locations.
• Business highlights – define the business’s evolution and how it has grown, including year-over-year revenue increases, profitability, increases in market share, and customer numbers.
• Financial Summary – if the purpose of updating the business plan is to seek additional financing for expansion, it gives a brief financial summary.
• Future goals – describes the goals for the business. If the business seeks financing, explain how additional funding will be used to expand the business or otherwise increase profits.

Get our proven business plan examples to help you create your plan quickly and easily.

8 Tips For Writing an Effective DIY Executive Summary

Whatever your reasons for writing an executive summary are, there are a few general rules of thumb that will make it easier, and ultimately more effective. Keep these in mind as you begin:

1. Attract The Reader’s Attention.

In addition to being informative, a good executive summary should also capture the audience’s attention immediately so that they feel compelled to read the rest of the report.

It should be thorough, but it shouldn’t divulge everything. Investors should be able to read your executive summary and feel like they have a general understanding of your business concept, your abilities, and the kind of information they’ll find inside the plan,” Ferriolo said . “This is your chance to draw them in and make them want to know more.”

2. Consider Revising Your Executive Summary Until It Can Stand Alone.

It should be easy for a person without prior knowledge of your business or industry to grasp the key findings from your research, as well as the primary parts of your business plan , with a tightly informative introduction, body, and conclusion.

3. Write It Last

Your business plan shouldn’t begin with your summary. Many experienced entrepreneurs (including me) like to write an executive summary after they’ve finished their full business plan.

4. Keep Your Executive Summary Short

Keep it short and to the point. I know experts who recommend a single page, just a page or two, no more than five, and sometimes even longer. For me, less is more. Keep it concise without omitting anything essential.

5. Start Off Strong

You can capture the reader’s attention by beginning your summary with a thought-provoking statistic or a related and inspiring quote.

6. Keep A Positive Attitude

The executive summary should highlight only the positive aspects of your research and business plan. You should leave the discussion of risks, obstacles, and challenges to the body of your plan. Maintain a positive tone throughout your summary.

7. Sections Should Be Prioritized Based On Importance And Strength

The most important information should appear at the top of your executive summary. You should begin with the most important item and follow up with items in order of importance. A summary that starts with a problem often inspires drama and urgency , which tees up the solution in your business.

8. Provide Supporting Research.

Make sure you provide research to support the claims you make in the executive summary and cite this in the footnotes of a business plan.

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How to Write an Executive Summary for a Bank Loan

As part of a loan application, a banker needs to know and understand your business in order to provide a loan, but they don’t take risks.

The executive summary must address the main points mentioned at the beginning of this article, plus a few selected points that highlight stability, assets on the balance sheet, and financial history and prove that the loan is not risky.

The banking law forbids banks from lending money to businesses that do not have enough assets to cover the full value of the loan, and then some. Bank regulations prohibit this.

Indicate Your Net Worth

A banker wants to look at the personal net worth of the owners of the firm, whereas investors want to see how much startup experience the management team has. The more collateral, money, or other investments you have, the better chance you have of obtaining the loan.

Your Financial History And Bankable Assets Should Be Transparent

In contrast to investors, bankers want to see past financial history and bankable assets. Provide every piece of financial information about yourself, current investors, and any past businesses.

Pro Tips: Learn how to write a financial plan in a business plan by pros!

Evidence Of Your Potential Stability And Longevity

Bankers want their commercial borrowers to offer future stability, instead of looking at possible exits. You don’t need exact figures, but defining growth, future cash flow, costs, and sales by year can serve as evidence of stability.

Bank Loans Are Risk-Free

Small business administrations (SBAs) in the United States work with local banks to guarantee some of the riskier small business loans, allowing small businesses to borrow money.

Traditional business plans are required for SBA loans, just as they are for bank loans. There should be an executive summary covering the five primary areas outlined in the first section.

Financial stability still needs to be described as you would for a bank. There may, however, be fewer restrictions and more funding will be available to riskier enterprises.

The executive summary is the first thing your readers will see. Moreover, if it’s poorly written, it will also be the last thing they read, as people will place your business plan aside unread.

How to Revise and Perfect your Executive Summary?

You may need to revise your business plan executive summary to make sure it checks all boxes. 

Business debtors and potential investors will look into your business plan executive summary. If it doesn’t catch their attention, they may put your proposal aside and don’t consider you for the loan or investment. 

You can improve and perfect your business plan executive summary by following these simple steps.

Note the Important Points of the Executive Summary 

You will start by reading your existing executive summary. The point is to note all the important points of your executive summary. You will write the headings as well as the description for each heading in only one sentence. 

When you note only the important points, it will force you to rethink your executive summary. As an executive summary works as a preface to your business plan, you’ll see how effectively your executive summary presents your business plan. This exercise will deepen your understanding and improve your presentation. 

Rewrite using the above Important Points 

Let’s get back to the grind and rewrite the executive summary. 

Use the notes you made in the last step. Expand the headings of the executive summary using those notes.

These are the headings you’ll use in the executive summary. 

• Introduction to the Executive Summary 
• Product or Service 
• Target Market 
• Competition 
• Marketing Strategy 
• Financial Overview 
• Management Plan 
• Funding Needs

Don’t look at your existing business plan executive summary. A fresh executive summary based on the points taken from the existing one is the goal of this exercise. 

Read it Loud

Once you have rewritten the business plan executive summary, read it aloud to hear how it sounds. Involving more of your sensory system helps you understand the text better. Also, reading a text aloud helps you notice flaws you might think didn’t exist. 

Use a Beta Reader 

A beta reader is anyone who has some knowledge of the topic and an interest in reading it for you. 

A beta reader can tell you if your business plan executive summary presents your business plan accurately and correctly and if it sounds convincing. 

Explore More Business Plan Executive Summary Examples

Use Wise Business Plans ‘ diverse collection of free business plan examples to find the one that fits your company’s profile, and use the free executive summary examples as inspiration for your own.

FAQs About Executive Summary Examples

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WTO / Business / Proposals / 31 Executive Summary Examples (Guide + Free Templates)

31 Executive Summary Examples (Guide + Free Templates)

A well-crafted business proposal should grab the reader’s attention immediately and make them want to read your entire business plan; this is because there are instances where investors or sponsors make an early judgement and decision based on your business plan. Therefore, it is mandatory to write a great executive summary. By definition,

An executive summary is a synopsis and/or a brief introduction of your business strategy.

It helps to describe your business, the problems identified in the market and the possible solutions your business will provide, your target audience, and the business’s financial highlights. Moreover, this summary highlights the important sections and information in the main business plan document to the readers. 

Therefore, if you are planning on impressing your potential investors or sponsors, it is necessary that you craft a perfect summary that not only helps you over the investors but also highlights the key information contained in the rest of the proposal.

Notably, it can also be used in an already established organization. The executive summary plays a huge role in the formulation and presentation of a new strategic plan or a yearly operations scheme by emphasizing on the important points that are contained in the overall proposal.

Free Templates

Executive Summary Format

Most businesses will have different business plans. Therefore, your summary will heavily rely on the purpose of your business objectives.

Here is a basic format for any executive summary:

• Introduction– Your introduction should be direct to the point. It should state and describe the main purpose of the summary.
• Need– It is mandatory to identify a need or a problem in the market that your proposal will solve; this will help capture the attention of the investors or sponsors into reading or considering your business proposal.
• Solution– Once you have identified a problem, provide an implementable and working solution. By doing this, the investors will be interested in reading more of your summary. As a result, this will boost your credibility.
• Proposal– Provide the investors with the idea of what your business is all about. The this summary should pinpoint a problem in the current market and highlight the best solutions to those problems.
• Conclusion– provide a short and informative conclusion; this will help you leave an impression and urge the investors to read more. In most cases, this part is always a paragraph in length. 

Writing an Executive Summary

It is important to have the potential investors and stakeholders in mind when you are developing an executive summary; this is because most of them will want to get a detailed overview of your business proposal.

Therefore, you will have to break down the business plan into several detailed paragraphs to explain your business plan’s main points extensively.

Executive summary for a startup business

The main aim of those intending to set up a new business is to acquire the startup capital. Therefore, regardless of how you get the finances, it is necessary to make a great impression for your business by writing and capturing captivating information in your summary.

Below is how you can write this summary for startup businesses :

• Discuss the business opportunity– To start with, provide a summary of the problem your business is intending to solve in the current market. It is important to briefly elaborate to the investors the problem you have identified and propose the best ways that you think your business will solve them. Ensure that your business description is clear and straight to the point to avoid boring your potential investors.
• Tell how your startup will take advantage of that opportunity– Clarify how your business will influence and improve the market. It is necessary that you provide strategies and ways in which your business will help in solving the problem that you have identified in the market. Additionally, identify the resources that you require in order to adequately solve the identified problem.
• Explain your target market– Describe your target audience in detail. It is obvious that no matter how good your business proposal is, without an appropriate market, the idea is considered useless. Therefore, introducing your target audience to your investors is really important. It is necessary for them to understand who you are targeting, their needs, and how to get to them.
• Clarify the business sales and marketing– Explain the marketing strategies you will employ when running your business. Any business striving to build its reputation and retain its relevance in the market has to employ sales and marketing strategies that will propel their sales. Therefore it is mandatory to ensure that you brief your investors on the marketing and sales tactics that will help your business proposal become a reality and beneficial at the same time.
• Discuss your business model– Give a rough idea of the products and services you will offer and why they will attract your target market. In this stage, you will show and explain to your potential investors the plans that you have that will make your business a success. Without a concrete business model, most investors will disregard your proposal. Therefore, you will have to provide the investors with your revenue plan, your vision and mission and introduce your team.
• Provide a financial analysis– Briefly provide and explain your financial strategies. The financial information you provide in your summary will be a way to find out the level of interest of the investors. Therefore, highlight your current financial state, the financial support that you need, and the profit margin your business is likely to generate. While doing this, keep in mind what is as stake.
• Describe your management team– Give a brief description of your team, their qualities, and skills. Explain why you chose them and the value they will add to your business. A qualified team will make it easy for the business to grow and gain relevance in the market. Presenting a well-trained and qualified manpower to the investors will help you win them over with ease.
• Provide an implementation plan– Provide the key steps on how you and your team will take the business idea and create an actual business out of it. In most cases, the investors are interested in knowing how the business proposal will be actualized. It is important to have a well-organized and workable implementation plan that will oversee the birth of a successful business.

Executive summary for established business

An executive summary’s main aim in this stage is to highlight the organization’s accomplishments, development plans, marketing strategies, etc.

• State the company’s mission– State and explain the main objective of the business.
• Provide some company information– Briefly describe what the organization does, its location, the number of employees, the products and services it offers, its geographical location, and its statistics.
• Highlight the achievements– Provide a brief history of the organization, the growth of the business over the years, show who your regular and potential clients are, the profits you make, and the market share you own.
•  Include a financial summary– Briefly show how the business earns its profits, how it spends the earned revenue, and its investments; this may prove very important, especially when applying for a loan.
• Describe the company’s future goals– What is the company planning to achieve in the near future. Show who the key players are in this plan and who is targeted by this plan.

Executive summary for marketing proposal

The main aim of a marketing proposal is to allow the potential clients to see beyond the marketing strategies employed and the finances involved in the whole plan. The main purpose is to see how the business will turn out.

Additionally, the summary will provide the client with what to expect both from the business and working with you.

Below are the steps to be followed when preparing an executive summary for a marketing proposal:

• Introduction– Provide a brief explanation of what the project is all about and the main objective of the marketing plan.
• Company information– Give a summary of the company’s history, its objectives, its structure, and the clients it targets and serves.
• Project management team– Provide information of all the key individuals in the management team, their qualities, skills, and the role they play in realizing the organizational goals.
• Market analysis– Briefly describe who you are selling to, the marketing strategies you employ, the current trends in the market, what is influencing these trends, and how they affect your reputation and credibility.
• Products and services– Describe the Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) for the products and services you are offering. Moreover, provide an analysis of the competitive advantage they bring to the organization.
• Marketing strategy– Point out and describe who your potential clients are and how to meet and satisfy their demands easily.
• Financial planning and projections– Provide a brief financial statement that breaks down both the long and short-term financial and marketing activities. Additionally, it will provide data on the prospected budget and the projected Return on Investment (ROI).
• Goals– Break down the aims of the advertising promotion and the approaches that will lead to the business’s success.

Executive summary for a report

Another important use of the executive summary is as a prologue for a report. In this case, this summary will provide you with a breakdown of the information found in the report. It includes the objective, methodology, and major findings of the report.

With this summary, you as the reader can establish and understand what is in the report before even reading the actual report.

Below are the steps that you can use to write an executive summary for a report:

• Write an opening statement– You should provide a short but detailed background on the scope of the report. In this phase, you will be required to briefly introduce and explain the subject covered in the report. By doing this, the reader will have an idea of what the full report is all about.
• Explain the purpose of the research– Point out the objectives of the study you have discussed in the report. This step will succinctly point out the main purpose of the report by highlighting the main objectives of the report.
• Highlight the methodology– Here, discuss the methods that have been used in the report to gather data and the analysis techniques employed. You will be required to point out all the methods that you used to gather data and show what you used to examine the collected data.
• Outline the key findings– When it comes to key findings, elaborate on the outcome of your study and the major takeaways that you would like your readers to know. Additionally, break down the findings in such a way that you only highlight the key points; this will make it easy for the readers to relate and understand what your report is talking about.
• Describe your recommendations– Write the recommendations you made in the report, and you can also add some justifications of the points you have made. In order to justify your points, it is necessary that you provide a brief elaboration of what your future recommendations are depending on the subject that you have covered in your report.

Supplementary Topics to Cover

These are extra details that your summary might need to cover or have as you prepare it.

Evidence of early success

In case you are a young business and are preparing a business plan, you may need to provide evidence of traction in your summary. This involves surveys from customers and sales numbers. You do not have to write much, but evidence of early success is proof enough to show that your business is doing well.

Evidence of early success also shows that your products, business type, and your research about the market are well-established.

Future milestones

It may also be wise to include what your business hopes to achieve in the future in your summary. Businesses with complex structures like drug companies may benefit by writing their plans or milestones in their summary.

You will need to mention your future agendas and establish where you are currently and how you plan to move further forward.

Evidence of financial stability

This is necessary when you want a loan from a bank or any other financial institution. In your summary, the bank might need evidence of financial stability like your finances, your money history, and assets before offering you a loan.

Do’s and Don’ts to Consider

Just like most documents, there are things to do and things not to do when writing them. For you to write an effective executive summary, here are some things you should observe. Stick to the do’s and steer clear from the don’ts to have a successful summary.

Do: Write a shining intro paragraph.

An executive summary is somewhat lengthy, and your potential client might not read the whole proposal. Therefore, you need a strong and shining introduction that will get the client’s attention and trigger him/her to read your summary.

A powerful introduction paragraph will ensure that even though the client decides to skim through your summary, he/she will still spot evidence of your confidence, skills, and abilities as you sell him/her your ideas.

Don’t: Steer clear of sweeping generalizations or false information.

Avoid all repetitive and overused statements. Do not use cliché statements. Try to use creative, unique, and honest information. Professional work makes the client excited and attracted to the plan of your executive summary. 

Do: Provide a thoughtful aim to your audience.

After a powerful introduction, focus on tailoring your summary to address the client’s specific needs and issues. Try and offer well-researched and detailed information that directly addresses your client for you to grasp and keep their attention.

Even if you choose to use a template, ensure you edit it so that the client can relate to your work.

Don’t: Do not get technical.

Avoid in-depth explanations and technical language. Such language will not be able to grab your reader’s attention. Use simple language that will be attractive to the client and will push the client to read the whole summary.

Do: Offer up an identifiable goal.

Clients are mostly interested in the end goal or solutions more than their problems and how you plan to solve them. They appreciate what your results will be. You can focus on the returns or profits the client will make your executive summary more interesting.

Clients focus on the benefits they will achieve; hence, if you want your summary to be attractive enough for them, research the potential gains they will achieve.

Don’t: Do not get carried away

It might be exciting to write an executive summary. However, do not get carried away when writing one. Try and summarize your ideas in a way that captures the attention of your readers. A one-page summary might be more comprehensive than a 20-page one.

Do: Pay close attention to detail.

Avoid mistakes in your summary. Try and focus on the details of your proposal correctly. Ensure you check and edit any errors in your summary before you submit it. Any mistakes might make you look unprofessional and might not get your summary approved. 

Don’t: Do not leave it till last.

Most of us might have been told that it is way easier to write an executive summary after finishing your report. However, do not be tempted to write your summary as the last thing. Write your summary first to avoid having to re-write new points that might emerge. This summary will act as a map and guide you as you make the actual report.

Do: Leave your company history in the past.

Mentioning your previous successes in your summary is not an issue. In fact, it helps to lure potential clients into being actual clients. However, an executive summary is not a place for you to start explaining your business’ or company’s history. Get straight to defining the problem, stating the goal, identifying the issues, and state the solutions. And by doing this, you save your and the client’s time.

Quick Tips for Your Executive Summary

Here are some professional tips that will help you in not only writing this summary but also representing it in front of the investors.

Writing tips

• As you prepare to write an executive summary, think of it as a pitch. It should be attention-grabbing and still powerful.
• Ensure you avoid writing your summary last to ensure you do not waste time changing your whole report in case of new content.
• Have a brief and precise summary . You do not want to bore your client even before he/she reads your full report.
• This summary should be simple. Avoid jargon and technical language.
• Ensure you prioritize your sections based on the importance and strength of the information
• You can also use your executive summary for your summary memo . Since this summary is a brief breakdown of what is in a report, it can be used as a summary memo which also serves the same purpose but is shorter.
• Try to view different summary examples and templates before writing to make it easier. Through that, you will learn different formats and details that you need to write a proper executive summary.

Investor seeking tips

• Prepare a proper executive summary as investors tend to use them to screen for opportunities.
• Remember that investors always require a full business plan to complete due diligence as they review their candidates. A properly written summary will ensure you have a full business plan.
• When writing for investors, ensure you briefly mention your previous experience or industry expertise.
• Inform the investors of the amount of money you intend to raise and inform them how you plan to spend it in your summary.
• Investors would like to understand your exit strategy for them to know when they can get their shares and sell them to get a return.
• Convince the investors to believe in you through your summary. Be persuasive with your facts.
• Save your time and that of the investors by avoiding clichés and obvious statements.

Tips for bank loans

• Ensure you outline your personal net worth if you are to secure a loan from the bank easily. The bank will need proper collateral before you can secure a loan.
• A bank appreciates honesty and transparency when it comes to your financial history and bankable assets. 
• Ensure you provide evidence of your potential stability and longevity for them to determine their exit strategy after a while.
• Banks do not like taking risks when it comes to loaning a business. Ensure you have a properly written summary that establishes your funds and stability.

Frequently Asked Questions

An executive summary should be a full rundown of the whole report. The general rule is that it should be about 7% of the length of the whole document.

The executive summary is the first part of the report, even before an introduction but after the table of contents. It summarizes the entire document, and one can get the gist without reading the whole report. On the other hand, the introduction does not provide a summary but states a brief explanation of what will be found in the report. Also, an executive summary is always longer than the introduction.

If you are writing an executive summary for outsiders, then it is necessary to have one. If your business plan is for internal use, then you do not need to write an executive summary.

Final Words

An executive summary is a document that is used for business purposes. You write it to summarize the synopsis of your business strategy. You should not write a very lengthy executive summary. Make it concise and use simple language which will grab the client’s attention. Whether for a report, a marketing proposal, or a young or established business, an effective executive summary should be powerful and observe the stipulated format. You can download our free Executive Summary Templates today and get yourself a creative and unique executive summary.

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• Write Your Business Plan | Part 1 Overview Video
• The Basics of Writing a Business Plan
• How to Use Your Business Plan Most Effectively
• 12 Reasons You Need a Business Plan
• The Main Objectives of a Business Plan
• What to Include and Not Include in a Successful Business Plan
• The Top 4 Types of Business Plans
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Presenting Your Business Plan in 10 Slides
• 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation
• 3 Key Things You Need to Know About Financing Your Business
• 12 Ways to Set Realistic Business Goals and Objectives
• How to Perfectly Pitch Your Business Plan in 10 Minutes
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 2 Overview Video
• How to Fund Your Business Through Friends and Family Loans and Crowdsourcing
• How to Fund Your Business Using Banks and Credit Unions
• How to Fund Your Business With an SBA Loan
• How to Fund Your Business With Bonds and Indirect Funding Sources
• How to Fund Your Business With Venture Capital
• How to Fund Your Business With Angel Investors
• How to Use Your Business Plan to Track Performance
• How to Make Your Business Plan Attractive to Prospective Partners
• Is This Idea Going to Work? How to Assess the Potential of Your Business.
• When to Update Your Business Plan
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 3 Overview Video
• How to Write the Management Team Section to Your Business Plan
• How to Create a Strategic Hiring Plan
• How to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary That Sells Your Idea
• How to Build a Team of Outside Experts for Your Business
• Use This Worksheet to Write a Product Description That Sells
• What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition? Use This Worksheet to Find Your Greatest Strength.
• How to Raise Money With Your Business Plan
• Customers and Investors Don't Want Products. They Want Solutions.
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 4 Overview Video
• 5 Essential Elements of Your Industry Trends Plan
• How to Identify and Research Your Competition
• Who Is Your Ideal Customer? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself.
• How to Identify Market Trends in Your Business Plan
• How to Define Your Product and Set Your Prices
• How to Determine the Barriers to Entry for Your Business
• How to Get Customers in Your Store and Drive Traffic to Your Website
• How to Effectively Promote Your Business to Customers and Investors
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 5 Overview Video
• What Equipment and Facilities to Include in Your Business Plan
• How to Write an Income Statement for Your Business Plan
• How to Make a Balance Sheet
• How to Make a Cash Flow Statement
• How to Use Financial Ratios to Understand the Health of Your Business
• How to Write an Operations Plan for Retail and Sales Businesses
• How to Make Realistic Financial Forecasts
• How to Write an Operations Plan for Manufacturers
• What Technology Needs to Include In Your Business Plan
• How to List Personnel and Materials in Your Business Plan
• The Role of Franchising
• The Best Ways to Follow Up on a Buisiness Plan
• The Best Books, Sites, Trade Associations and Resources to Get Your Business Funded and Running
• How to Hire the Right Business Plan Consultant
• Business Plan Lingo and Resources All Entrepreneurs Should Know
• How to Write a Letter of Introduction
• What To Put on the Cover Page of a Business Plan
• How to Format Your Business Plan
• 6 Steps to Getting Your Business Plan In Front of Investors

How to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary That Sells Your Idea Here's an easy-to-follow outline to create an impactful business plan executive summary.

By Eric Butow Oct 27, 2023

Key Takeaways

• The purpose of an executive summary
• Common mistakes to avoid

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This is part 4 / 9 of Write Your Business Plan: Section 3: Selling Your Product and Team series.

The first part of your plan that anybody will see, after the title page and table of contents, is the executive summary. This could be considered an expanded table of contents (in prose form) because it's more than an introduction to the rest of the plan. It's supposed to be a brief look at the key elements of the whole plan—and it's critical.

Executive Summaries Sell Ideas

The actual executive summary should be only a page or two. In it you may include your mission and vision statements, a brief sketch of your plans and goals, a quick look at your company and its organization, an outline of your strategy, and highlights of your financial status and needs. If you've ever read a CliffsNotes version of a classic novel, you get the idea. Your executive summary is the CliffsNotes of your business plan.

Related: Executive Summary

Labor over your summary. Polish it. Refine it. Ask friends and colleagues to take a look at it, and then take their suggestions to heart. If your plan isn't getting the response that you want when you put it to work, suspect a flaw in the summary. If you get a chance to look at another plan that was used to raise a pile of cash, give special scrutiny to the executive summary.

The summary is the most important part of your whole plan. Even if a plan is relatively short, it's difficult for most people to keep that much information in their minds at once. It's much easier to get your arms around the amount of information—just one or two pages—in an executive summary. Your plan is going to be judged on what you include in the summary and on how well you present it.

A good rule of thumb for writing an effective and efficient business plan is to avoid repeating information. Brief is better and clearer, and needless repetition may annoy some readers and confuse others. Take extra care when writing your summary. You'll be glad you did.

Related: How to Craft a Business Plan That Will Turn Investors' Heads

Ultimately, you want the executive summary to be as strong as possible because it is also the first thing people read in your plan, and we all know the power of a strong first impression. This is where you want to wow people and make them think. This is like the coming attractions, or trailers, at the movie theater. You want that trailer to be enticing and bring the audience members back to see the film. Likewise, you want your readers to want to read your plan.

Your Business Plan's Elevator Pitch

As Tim Berry writes in his article How to Write an Executive Summary : "The executive summary is like an elevator pitch. You're selling someone on reading your full plan while quickly summarizing the key points. Readers will expect it to cover certain areas of your business—such as the product, market, and financial highlights, at the very least. While you need to include what's necessary, you should also highlight areas that you believe will spark the reader's interest. Remember, you're telling the brief but convincing story of your business with this summary. Just be sure that you're able to back it up with the right details with the rest of your business plan."

Related: How to Write a Business Plan

When Should You Write Your Executive Summary?

Because the executive summary comes first in your plan, you may think you should write it first as well. Actually, you should write it last, after you've spent considerable time mulling over every other part of your plan. Only then will you truly be able to produce a summary of all that is there. Returning to the CliffsNotes analogy, it's impossible to summarize a book until the book is written.

Purposes of the Executive Summary

The executive summary has to perform a host of jobs. First and foremost, it should grab the reader's attention. It has to briefly hit the high points of your plan. It should point readers to questions requiring detailed responses to the full-length sections of your plan where they can get answers. It should ease the task of anybody whose job it is to read it, and it should make that task enjoyable by presenting an interesting and compelling account of your company.

The first question any investor has is, "How much?" followed closely by, "When will I recoup my investment?" Perceived risk and exit strategies are supportive information, and these in turn are supported by the quality of the management team and the proposed strategies.

Related: Why You Shouldn't Send Your Business Plan to Investors

It doesn't much matter whether you are presenting the plan to a family member, friend, banker, or sophisticated investors such as investment bankers or venture capitalists. They all need the same information. Concealing the amount and terms will only lessen your chances of successful financing.

How Long Should an Executive Summary Be?

Five minutes. This is how long an average reader will spend with your plan. If you can't convey the basics of your business in that time, your plan is in trouble. So make sure your summary, at least, can be read in that time and that it's as comprehensive as possible within that constraint. If you are using a deck, limit yourself to one slide and one minute of comments.

Related: How to Create a Business Plan Investors Will Love

Points to Include in an Executive Summary

A suggested format for an executive summary:

The business idea and why it is necessary. What problem does it solve?

• How much will it cost, and how much financing are you seeking?
• What will the return be to the investor? Over what length of time?
• What is the perceived risk level?
• Where does your idea fit into the marketplace?
• What is the management team?
• What are the product and competitive strategies?
• What is your marketing plan?
• What is your exit strategy?

If you can address each of these in two or three sentences, you will have a twenty to twenty-seven-sentence executive summary.

Company Description

If your company is complex, you'll need a separate section inside the plan with a heading like "Company Description" to describe its many product lines, locations, services, or whatever else it is that makes it a little too complicated to deal with quickly. In any event, you provide a brief description, no longer than a few sentences, of your company in the executive summary. And for many firms, this is an adequate basic description of their company. Here are some one- or two-sentence (mock) company descriptions:

John's Handball Hut is the Hamish Valley's leading purveyor of handball equipment and clothing.

Boxes Boxes Boxes Inc. will provide the people of the metropolitan area with a comprehensive source for packing materials, containers, and other supplies for the do-it-yourself move.

Salem Segway Witch Tours offers tourists the only Segway tours of the infamous home of the seventeenth-century witch trials.

Related: Turn Your Business Plan Into Money!

Optional Information

The following items are not a necessity in your business plan: mission statement and corporate vision. If you have honed either down to a clear and concise sentence, by all means, use it in your plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a sentence or two describing the company's function, market, competitive advantages, and business goals and philosophies.

Many mission statements communicate what your business is about and should include a description of what makes you different from everybody else in your field. Mission statements have a place in a plan: They help investors and other interested parties get a grip on what makes your company special. A mission statement should be clearly written. Here are some (again, mock) examples:

River City Roadsters buys, restores, and resells classic American cars from the 1950s and 1960s to antique-auto buffs throughout central Missouri.

Captain Curio is the Jersey Shore's leading antique store, catering to high-quality interior decorators and collectors across the tri-state area.

August Appleton, Esq., provides low-cost legal services to personal- injury, workers' compensation, and age-discrimination plaintiffs in Houston's Fifth Ward.

Related: How to Use Your Business Plan Most Effectively

Corporate Vision

A mission statement describes the goals and objectives you could "reasonably" expect to accomplish. A small software company whose mission statement included the goal of "putting Microsoft out of business" would be looked upon as foolishly naive.

In a vision statement, however, just those sorts of grandiose, galactic-scale images are perfectly appropriate. When you "vision"—to borrow the management consultant's trick of turning nouns into verbs—you imagine the loftiest heights you could scale, not the next step or several steps on the ladder.

Does a vision statement even have a place in a business plan? You could argue that it doesn't, especially because many include personal components such as "to love every minute of my work and always feel I'm doing my best." But many investors deeply respect visionary entrepreneurs. So, if you feel you have a compelling vision, there's no reason not to share it in your plan.

Related: 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation

Extract the Essence

The key to the executive summary is to pick out the best aspects of every part of your plan. In other words, you want to extract the essence. Instead of describing everyone in your company, talk only about your key managers. Instead of talking about all your products, mention only the major ones or discuss only product lines instead of individual products. It's a highlight reel, so to speak.

Article Tools and Summarizing the Summary

Within the overall outline of the business plan, the executive summary will follow the title page. The summary should tell the reader what you are planning to do. All too often, the business owner's desires are buried and lost when the reader scrolls through. Clearly state what you are planning to do (your ideas) and what you are seeking in the summary.

The statement should be kept short and businesslike, ideally no more than half a page. It could be longer, depending on how complicated the use of funds may be, but the summary of a business plan, like the summary of a loan application, is generally no more than one page. Within that space you'll need to provide a synopsis of the entire business plan. Key elements that should be included are:

Financial requirements. Clearly states the capital needed to start or expand the business. Detail how the capital will be used and the equity, if any, that will be provided for funding. If the loan for initial capital will be based on security instead of equity within the company, you should also specify the source of collateral.

Related: The One-Paragraph Start-Up Plan

Business concept. Describes the business, its product(s), and the market it will serve. It should point out just exactly what will be sold, to whom, and why the business will hold a competitive advantage.

Financial features. Highlights the important financial points of the business including sales, profits, cash flows, and return on investment. Current business position. Furnishes relevant information about the company, its legal form of operation, when it was formed, the principal owners, and key personnel.

Major achievements. Details any developments within the company that are essential to the success of the business. Major achievements include items like patents, prototypes, location of a facility, any crucial contracts that need to be in place for product development, or results from any test marketing that has been conducted.

When writing your statement of purpose, don't waste words. If the executive summary is eight pages, nobody's going to read it because it will be very clear that the business, no matter what its merits, won't be a good investment because the principals are indecisive and don't really know what they want. Make it easy for the reader to realize at first glance both your needs and capabilities.

Related: The Main Objectives of a Business Plan

More in Write Your Business Plan

Section 1: the foundation of a business plan, section 2: putting your business plan to work, section 3: selling your product and team, section 4: marketing your business plan, section 5: organizing operations and finances, section 6: getting your business plan to investors.

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Example of Executive Summary for a Business Plan

Starting a business can be intimidating due to the complex web of decisions, uncertainties, and risks that entrepreneurs must navigate through, while ensuring the path to success for their businesses. Business plans serve as a business’s compass to direct a business and drive its growth to achieve its goals and objectives. 

Consequently, a concise but striking executive summary is an essential part and arguably, one of the most critical components of a business plan.

However, people spend only an approximate 48 minutes a day reading about business, according to a study by The Economist Intelligence Unit and Peppercomm. In a week, about 69% of young executives and 43% of veteran professionals read for business for less than four hours. 

Similarly, an article from Time Magazine mentioned that 55% of people only actively read content for less than 15 seconds. This implies that a robust executive summary of a business plan should capture a reader’s interest and show that a business plan is worthy of a reader’s attention in a very narrow timeframe.

As such, it is necessary to know how to craft an impactful executive summary that will communicate the vision of a business. Let’s explore the how-tos of writing an executive summary of business plan, its significance, and some business plan executive summary examples.

What is an Executive Summary?

An executive summary is the first key component in a document such as a business plan, proposal, or report that serves as a concise snapshot that effectively captures reader interest. It also encapsulates vital details that discuss the identified issue or opportunity, market findings, overarching goals, and strategic plans .

A variety of professional documents incorporate executive summaries. Here are some examples:

• Business plans
• Financial reports
• Marketing proposals
• Professional resumes

What is an Executive Summary in a Business Plan?

In a business plan, the executive summary should vouch for a business through a writing that is positive and assertive. The focus should be on factual and practical information that readers want to know, instead of subjective or emotional aspects such as hard work and passion. 

Considering the interest of the target audience in the executive summary will answer their underlying questions about a business and avoid creating new ones that will hold them back from reading a business plan further.

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Executive Summary vs. Business Overview

In general, both an executive summary and business overview play the role of providing a project summary in business plans to give readers a short outline. Both provide essential information but serve distinct purposes. 

The executive summary is a high-level synopsis crafted to capture the reader’s attention, providing a quick understanding of a business plan’s main points. In contrast, a business overview focuses on specifically highlighting a company’s background, mission, vision, and market positioning. This offers a brief description of the business and a comprehensive perspective of its brand and place within an industry.

What Makes the Executive Summary Significant?

The executive summary is that one business plan section that everyone will read. It saves the readers’ time, provides clarity, and assists with document navigation. The benefits of a solid executive summary make it an important portion of a business plan.

Readers look into the executive summary to acquire critical information about a business in a short period to quickly formulate an appropriate decision or course of action thereafter. The contents of the executive summary are important as these outline what the audience will expect to learn while reading a business plan. The executive summary further helps readers navigate the business plan, indicating the main topics discussed in the plan. This makes a business plan more accessible and usable.

What are the Elements of an Effective Executive Summary?

The following will detail the important areas to be included in the executive summary of the business plan:

Business Opportunity: The business opportunity discusses the problem in the existing market that the business aims to address. This section highlights the market need and a business’s plans to meet said demand. The business opportunity will outline the solutions to the market problem and how these initiatives will create a change in the current business scene. 

Target Market: This pertains to the demographic a business intends to reach as its customer base. The target market section in the executive summary will include market research and highlight the consumer group who has potential interest in a business’s product or service. This studies traits such as age, occupation, gender, education level, and socioeconomic status.

Business Model: The business model is the part of the executive summary that zooms into the business concept. This includes the specific products or services a business intends to offer and specific characteristics that allow them to compete in the market.

Marketing Strategy: The marketing strategy presents the methods a business will implement to mold its brand and build brand recognition for its products or services. Marketing techniques such as digital marketing efforts, like Google Ads , and traditional media are discussed in this part.

Competition: This part provides a summary on the analysis of a business’s competitors, industry trends, and customer demand. This highlights the results of a business’s market research and showcases its understanding of the industry. This will allow a business to stand out on a local or international level.

Financial Analysis: A business plan’s executive summary should include how a business intends to control its finances, while generating revenue in the long-term. This section talks about how resources and funds will be utilized to propel the business towards growth and success and how the potential investors will benefit from these plans.

Company Overview: The company overview helps readers understand the growth of a business, its milestones, and how it has evolved throughout the years. This part is a brief description of the business and also includes an introduction of its key members, their qualifications and achievements, and how these people influenced and assisted in the development of the business.

Implementation Plan: The implementation plan is one of the vital parts of an executive summary. This component of the executive summary sketches both a structure and a timeline, starting from a business idea and moving towards launching an actual business.

5 Helpful Executive Summary Writing Tips

 1. Engage Your Audience through Your Story

      As an entrepreneur that steers a business forward, the executive summary should reflect the leadership you want to showcase. Set the tone of the business plan through the executive summary and make your readers understand what your business is about. Tell your story and how that pushed you to start the business that you aspire to build. Using an active voice in writing will demonstrate your proactive role in the business. Ambiguity does not have a place in your business and in achieving your business goals.

2. Highlight Key Elements

Working as a business plan overview, the executive summary focuses on the most critical aspects of your business plan, such as the problem, solution, market research , competitor analysis, and financial projections . While the business plan body elaborates on the details, specific findings will be highlighted in the executive summary.

3. Use a Compelling Tone and Tailor it to Your Audience

      Staying true and accessible is essential to writing an executive summary, similar to the importance of keeping a professional and concise tone in your writing. Discussing information objectively and substantiating it with evidence, projects authority and credibility, while also showing an approachable and engaging side. Avoid voicing out personal opinions and using excessive claims. The key is to strive for clarity and simplicity to resonate with the interest and concerns of your readers.   

4. Steer Clear from Clichés

      Avoiding cliché language is a vital point on how to make an executive summary effective. A good tip to stay true to this is to stay away from using general descriptions in your executive summary. Generalities and clichés tend to create unrealistic expectations that your business may fall short of meeting. Understand and detail the uniqueness of your business by being specific. Do not sell your business short, but stay truthful.

5. Complete it After Doing the Entire Business Plan

      Building the executive summary after completing the whole business plan allows you to have a better understanding of your business and to communicate the vital aspects in the summary. Writing it at the beginning risks the miscommunication of your business’s core concepts to its intended readers. This may further lead to inconsistent and irrelevant details and reduce the precision of the executive summary.

Final Thoughts

Empathizing with business plan readers and grasping the most valuable information to them makes a comprehensive and persuasive executive summary. Overall, keep in mind the following questions before starting an executive summary:

• What knowledge and key takeaways should the business plan reader have?
• What outcomes should the readers achieve after reading the executive summary in business plan?
• Do these expected outcomes align with the business’s mission and long-term goals?

Business Plan Executive Summary Template and Examples

Now, we have established the key elements of and some writing tips on creating an executive summary. If you don’t have a business plan yet, BSBCON has a free business plan template that can help you start with building your own. Looking at an example of executive summary for business plans will allow you to be more familiar with its contents. Below are two examples of an executive summary in a business plan:

Executive Summary Example 1

“ProSecure Squad Corporation” operating as “ProSecure Squad” (The Company) was first incorporated in September of 2016 in Massachusetts, USA and subsequently incorporated in the State of Massachusetts on June 10th 2020. Over the past years ProSecure Squad has developed and patented revolutionary Cyber- security products.  

With digital transformation of industries being hastened by factors such as E-Commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), Connected Machines, Self-Driving vehicles, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), there has been an enormous increase in the amount of electronic data.

Despite strong cyber-security defenses implemented, cyber-criminals have been getting past these defenses at an increasingly alarming rate and the cost for an organization to retain end-to-end cybersecurity professionals has become astronomical.  This has made the Cybersecurity Market one of the fastest growing industries.  

With patented products, an accomplished team of cybersecurity experts, and a clear strategy for product and service deployment, ProSecure Squad is ready to lead the next wave of cybersecurity.  The company is focused on making its world class data security solutions accessible and inclusive; therefore, targeting wide-scale adoption from medium to large businesses, and government organizations across the globe.

What makes the company’s offering so unique is our focus on simplifying data resiliency; making it easy to protect your data from being spied on, stolen or held for ransom even if a hacker or malware gets past the current cyber-defenses. 

With years of research and development, ProSecure Squad has refined our products and has garnered the interests of large corporations in the security and other Industries. With our offering being tailored to meet the current data security demands, ProSecure Squad is well positioned to become leaders in data security. 

ProSecure Squad Corporation is seeking a 15 Million USD capital investment in return for a 15% equity and voting stake in the company.  These funds will be allocated to taking the company’s products and services to market through direct sales, marketing, customer onboarding and customer support.  With this investment the company will execute on established opportunities, further develop its capabilities, and forge a notable position in one of the fastest growing industries.

Executive Summary Example 2

“Silver Studios, Inc.” (herein also referred to as “Silver”, “Silver Studios” and “the company”) was incorporated on January 9, 2021, in the City of Chicago by Founder and CEO, Jamie Malcolm. With plans to expand the company’s operational reach, Silver Studios also incorporated in New York, U.S.A. on April 30, 2022.

Silver Studios has rapidly emerged as a promising record label and music production company following the successful signing of eight talented artists who have achieved impressive results to date. These include charting on the Top Chicago Downloads, Top U.S. Rotation AC Tracks, U.S. Billboard Country Indicator Chart, and the American Billboard Chart. Additionally, the artists signed to the Silver Studios label have amassed a substantial following with over 58,000 collective monthly listeners and a significant number of streams on Spotify alone.

Today, Silver sits at a focal point where there is an abundance of opportunity to discover emerging artists, sign new talent and support existing artists.  In order to complete the development of the studio, acquire a variety of recording equipment, and hire additional staff, the company is seeking a strategic partnership and capital investment of $8.5M. With this partnership secured, Silver Studios will be positioned to welcome an array of upcoming artists and expedite growth within the music production and distribution industry.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Malcolm, Silver Studios has achieved significant success and earned a reputation as a champion for emerging artists. The company’s unwavering commitment to being an artist-first record label, along with a unique approach to equitable contracts and creative expression, has resulted in the discovery and development of exceptional talent. With increased strategic and financial resources, Silver Studios will continue to push boundaries and pave the way for the next generation of emerging artists.

This business plan acts as a strategic roadmap for Silver Studios in terms of operations, marketing, human resources and finance.

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How to Write an Executive Summary

Master the art of crafting an executive summary with our comprehensive guide. Learn to captivate execs, drive decisions, and showcase your business acumen.

Best practices for writing a compelling executive summary

Why is an executive summary important.

The executive summary serves as a concise overview of a more extensive report, business plan or proposal. It covers the main essence of the document, offering key insights, objectives, and recommendations. Crafting a compelling executive summary requires clarity and precision as the writer needs to distil complex information to highlight the most pertinent points of the report. 

The executive summary provides decision-makers with the key takeaways from the document. It can help provide a first impression of the purpose and objectives of a project or research report and help the target audience save time when digesting the report. 

The executive summary lets readers understand what they will learn from the document. It offers a concise way to share your main points without losing the reader's attention. Sometimes, decision-makers use the executive summary to decide whether to invest further attention in a project or outcome.

A summary can also provide all of the vital information your stakeholders need without them having to read the entire report. This is critical because in today's fast-paced business environment, leaders often need more time. The brief nature of the executive summary helps to inform decision-making and create engagement with the whole document.

What are the benefits of including an executive summary in a business proposal?

In summary, the benefits for readers include reduced time, clarity, actionable insights and recommendations.

How should an executive summary be structured?

An executive summary will vary in length depending on the problem, but an effective report typically comprises several key components, including:

The Introduction: Good executive summaries start by introducing your project. Include a brief, engaging overview of the document's purpose and scope to capture the reader's attention.

Problem or opportunity: Clearly state the issues or opportunities being addressed.

Main points: Summarise the main findings, solutions, or recommendations presented in the document and highlight the key point in the sequence.  

Key Metrics: Highlight the most significant data, learnings or outcomes to justify the findings. 

Conclusion: Offer a concise summary of the key points and actionable insights.  

What are the key components of an executive summary?

Identify the need or problem to solve.

Identify the need or problem the report or project aims to solve. Outline the scope of the issues the report or project addresses, how important they are to the organisation, and their current impact.

Outline solutions and recommendations

Give an overview of the possible solutions to the issue and the key recommendations from the report for the project. Give a description of the solution and an overview of what would be involved in the implementation and how feasible it is. You can provide more detailed information in the actual report itself and refer to the location of the detail. 

Summarise the benefits and impacts of the recommendations

Give a short summary of the recommendations, implications and resources needed. Direct the reader to parts of the report that expand on the summary. 

Complete your overall business plan or project plan first:   It’s essential to complete the plan before the summary to establish your main points and recommendations.

Target Audience:  ensure you have an understanding of the target audience for the summary and their requirements. 

Ensure you accurately describe the problem, the solution and the benefits:  All executives must define the original problem to help readers quickly understand the issue, the solution you are proposing and the benefits of that solution.

Check your executive summary length:  As a general rule, it should be about 10% of the length of the entire document.

Be concise:  The summary is intended to save time for busy executives, so make sure each point is as short and transparent as possible.

Include supporting research:  Support the claims you make in your summary with data or research. You can cite these sources of research as footnotes in the summary to refer to later in the document. 

Create the story:  Rather than just a list of data and facts, you need to create the whole story clearly and concisely with a compelling introduction and background to your company or business and the problem you are solving.

Maintain Consistency: Ensure tone, style, and formatting consistency throughout the summary.

Proof and edit: Remember to proofread and edit before sharing with stakeholders.

What common mistakes should be avoided?

Making it too long or too short:  it’s common to make these too long or too short. Ensure you accurately describe the problem you aim to resolve, the solution, and the benefits.

Forgetting key information:  Ensure that you have referenced supporting data and include the feasibility of the solution and benefits.

Lack of clarity:  Make sure your summary is clear and concise, and don’t use flowery language or jargon.

If you need to send your report to the board of directors or stakeholders, you can use Docusign to ensure they have received it. You can also create a template to send a report. Find out more about creating an executive summary template .

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Business Plan Executive Summary

Just like in any reading material, especially lengthy, consolidated ones, it is important to include a summary work plan that will give a background as to what the document is all about. This will help the reader/s prepare for what is up ahead and at the same time entice them to read on. If you are able to present compelling in your summary, it may convince your reader/s to give your document a chance.

Business Plan Executive Summary Template

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What Is a Business Plan Executive Summary?

An  executive summary  is a section in a document that presents the highlights of the discussed topics. This includes the long term goal and the objectives of the business plan executive summary. The executive summary simplifies the discussions as well as state the purpose of the document. It is basically the summary of the entire document that is intended to encourage the reader/s to read further.

How to Write the Executive Summary of a Business Plan

Step 1: the company information.

Although the first paragraph of your executive summary is intended for an introduction , you can also use it formally introduce the business to the reader/s. You should use a compelling intro before you include the information of your business.

Step 2:  The Problem/S the Business Will Solve

If you have a personal mission statement for the company, it is more fitting to put it in this part. Although it is not a requirement in the business plan, the mission statement gives your business direction and defines the character and culture of your company. Your business is only viable if the products and/or services you provide answers or solves an existing problem in the market.

Step 3: The Solution the Business Will Provide

Since you have clearly determined the problem your business will address and solve, explain how your business will be able to do just that. This is where you present the solution your business will provide to the target consumers in order to address and solve such existing issue. However, you have to remember that this is only a budget summary .

Step 4: Concept of the Business

In this part, you need to explain the consumers you are trying to sell your products and/or service to. You also have to explain how your concept fits directly into what they need. This is where you explain and lay out how you will be able to entice your target clients through the concept you have already established.

What are the guidelines of making an executive summary of a business plan?

Writing it with too much or too little information can highly affect your chances of achieving your goal. It should be written once the entire business plan is completed. It should be 3–4 pages in length and should be attached on the first part of the business plan. Its ultimate goals should be enticing and convincing the reader/s to read the entire business plan. It needs to clearly outline the core idea and the main purpose of the business plan. It should be consistent with the contents of the entire business plan as well as the business pitch or presentation. It needs to be compelling, professional, and present the business as well as the owner in a good light so that the reader/s can be convinced to give the business a chance.

What to expect in an executive summary for a business plan?

Here is a list of what you should include in the executive summary of your business plan: name and location of the business, one-sentence summary explaining what separates the business from its competition, overview what problem the business intends to solve, brief explanation of how the business’s products or services solve the stated problem, honest acknowledgment of existing competitors and a short description of your business’s competitive advantages, description of your target customer evidence or proof that the products or services have a target market.

Why do you need an executive summary for a business plan?

It explains the purpose of your business, what you intend to produce or provide, how you plan to sustain it, and so on. Aside from helping you securing funding, a good business plan will also help you run your business since it includes all necessary stages and information needed to start and manage your business.

An executive summary of your business plan will help you present a comprehensive outline of your company’s purpose and goals. It is the part of your business plan that can either make or break your chances to achieving your purpose especially if it meant to help you secure financial aid.

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Management Resume Summary: 15 Examples to Help You Write Your Own

As the first section recruiters see, your resume summary should highlight your top accomplishments and skills, tailored to the specific position you’re applying for. This is especially important for management roles, where a standout management resume summary can help you get noticed in a competitive job market.

Let’s break down what a manager's summary should include and give you templates and resume summary examples to help you create a standout one for various roles.

What is a resume summary?

A resume summary is a concise section at the top of your resume that offers a snapshot of your professional profile. Unlike a detailed resume experience section , a good summary for a resume provides a high-level overview of your most significant accomplishments , skills , and qualifications.

The goal is to capture the attention of hiring managers and recruiters by highlighting your key strengths and achievements in a few sentences or bullet points. It acts as a quick pitch to persuade employers to continue reading and consider you for the role.

Get that resume summary out there! Browse open jobs on The Muse and find your dream job »

Resume summary for management: how is it different?

A manager resume summary is a focused version of a resume summary that highlights qualifications and experiences specific to management positions. It emphasizes your leadership skills , strategic thinking, and ability to deliver results in areas like project management, office management, operations, general management, or retail management.

How to write a management resume summary

Your resume summary should not only showcase your qualifications but also set the stage for the rest of your resume, demonstrating to potential employers why you are the ideal candidate for their management position.

Follow these tips when writing your management resume summary:

1. Keep it brief

A resume summary usually has three to five sentences or a few bullet points. It helps hiring managers quickly see if you’re a good fit for the job without having to dig through your whole resume.

2. Highlight your leadership skills

Emphasize your experience in leading teams, managing people, and overseeing projects or operations. This could include examples of how you motivated your team, resolved conflicts, or achieved team goals.

3. Emphasize strategic planning and execution

Highlight your ability to develop and execute strategies that contribute to organizational success. Mention specific strategic initiatives you’ve led or contributed to, and how they impacted the company’s bottom line.

4. Demonstrate operational management skills

Showcase your expertise in managing day-to-day operations, optimizing processes, and ensuring efficient workflow. This could involve experience with budgeting, resource allocation, or process improvements.

5. Include quantifiable achievements

Include quantifiable achievements that demonstrate your effectiveness as a manager. For instance, if you're writing a project manager summary for your resume, you might mention increases in productivity, revenue growth, or successful project completions.

(Here's how to quantify your resume bullets —even if you don't work with numbers.)

6. Personalize industry-specific knowledge

Tailor your resume summary to reflect the industry you’re applying for. This can include specific industry-related skills, certifications, or knowledge of best practices. It should also include keywords and skills relevant to the job description, making it easier for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) to identify your resume as a match.

Resume summary template

Here’s a general resume summary template you can use:

[Adjective] and [adjective] management professional with [number] years of experience in [industry]. Proven ability to [relevant skill] and [relevant skill] to achieve [specific result]. Adept at [specific management activity], with a strong focus on [key area of expertise]. Looking to leverage my expertise in [desired role] at [company name].

15 resume summary examples for management roles

Need more inspiration? Check out these 15 well-crafted management resume summary examples for different types of managers—one of them might be exactly what you're looking for.

Example #1: Project manager resume summary

Detail-oriented and strategic project manager with 10 years of experience in IT and software development. Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage multimillion-dollar projects to successful completion. Adept at risk management and resource allocation, with a strong focus on meeting project deadlines and budget requirements. Looking to leverage my expertise in agile methodologies at XYZ Tech.

Find project manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #2: Office manager resume summary

Organized and proactive office manager with over 7 years of experience in administrative support and office operations. Demonstrated success in streamlining office procedures, improving communication, and enhancing overall efficiency. Skilled in team management and office software, looking to bring my strong organizational skills to ABC Corp.

Find office manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #3: Operations manager resume summary

Results-driven operations manager with 12 years of experience in manufacturing and logistics. Expertise in optimizing production processes, reducing costs, and improving quality control. Proven track record of leading teams to exceed performance targets and implement continuous improvement initiatives. Seeking to apply my operational leadership skills at DEF Manufacturing.

Find operations manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #4: General manager resume summary

Visionary and dynamic general manager with 15 years of experience in retail and hospitality. Known for driving business growth and enhancing customer satisfaction through strategic planning and team development. Skilled in financial management and operational efficiency, eager to lead the expansion of GHI Retail.

Find general manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #: Retail manager resume summary

Customer-focused retail manager with 8 years of experience in high-end fashion retail. Proven ability to increase sales through exceptional customer service and staff training. Strong background in inventory management and merchandising. Looking to bring my retail expertise to JKL Fashion Store.

Find retail manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #6: Assistant project manager resume summary

Efficient and supportive assistant project manager with 5 years of experience in construction. Known for assisting in the successful completion of projects by managing schedules, coordinating teams, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations. Seeking to contribute to the ongoing success of MNO Construction.

Find assistant project manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #7: Marketing manager resume summary

Innovative and strategic marketing manager with 9 years of experience in digital marketing and brand management. Proven track record of developing and executing marketing campaigns that increase brand awareness and drive sales. Skilled in data analysis and customer segmentation, looking to bring my marketing expertise to PQR Marketing Agency.

Find marketing manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #8: Sales manager resume summary

Ambitious and results-oriented sales manager with 10 years of experience in B2B sales. Demonstrated success in driving revenue growth, developing sales strategies, and leading high-performing sales teams. Adept at relationship building and market analysis, seeking to leverage my sales expertise at STU Corporation.

Find sales manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #9: Human resources manager resume summary

Compassionate and strategic human resources manager with 12 years of experience in employee relations and talent acquisition. Proven ability to develop and implement HR policies that improve employee satisfaction and retention. Skilled in conflict resolution and performance management, eager to join the HR team at VWX Enterprises.

Find human resources manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #10: Financial manager resume summary

Detail-oriented and analytical financial manager with 10 years of experience in corporate finance and accounting. Expertise in budgeting, financial planning, and risk management. Proven ability to optimize financial performance and provide strategic insights. Looking to bring my financial expertise to YZ Finance Group.

Find financial manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #11: Product manager resume summary

Innovative and customer-centric product manager with 8 years of experience in product development and lifecycle management. Proven track record of launching successful products and driving market penetration. Skilled in market research and cross-functional collaboration, seeking to apply my product management skills at ABC Tech.

Find product manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #12: Hospitality manager resume summary

Guest-focused and organized hospitality manager with 10 years of experience in hotel management and customer service. Proven ability to enhance guest satisfaction and operational efficiency. Skilled in staff training and event planning, looking to bring my hospitality expertise to DEF Hotels.

Find hospitality manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #13: Logistics manager resume summary

Proactive and efficient logistics manager with 7 years of experience in supply chain management and distribution. Proven ability to optimize logistics operations, reduce costs, and improve delivery times. Skilled in inventory management and vendor relations, eager to join the logistics team at GHI Logistics.

Find logistics manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #14: IT manager resume summary

Tech-savvy and strategic IT manager with 9 years of experience in IT infrastructure and project management. Proven ability to lead IT teams, manage budgets, and implement technology solutions that drive business growth. Skilled in cybersecurity and network management, looking to bring my IT expertise to JKL Tech Solutions.

Find IT manager jobs here on The Muse

Example #15: Customer service manager resume summary

Empathetic and results-driven customer service manager with 8 years of experience in customer support and team leadership. Proven ability to improve customer satisfaction and reduce response times through effective training and process improvements. Skilled in CRM software and conflict resolution, seeking to join the customer service team at MNO Services.

Find customer service manager jobs here on The Muse

Key takeaways

Your resume summary is a critical component of your management resume, serving as your first impression to potential employers. Use the examples and template provided in this guide to craft a compelling resume summary that showcases your management expertise and sets you apart from the competition.

School Business Plan Templates

Planning on Establishing a Nursery, Kindergarten, Primary School, or a Non-Profit Educational Institution for Underprivileged Students? Then Download Our Sample School Business Plan Templates! They Feature Standard Business Plan Format with Ready-Made Sections Such as an Executive Summary Page and Competition Analysis. Download Anytime for Free Only Here on Template.net!

• School Admission Flyer
• School Agenda
• School Agreement
• School Analysis
• School Assessment
• School Background
• School Banner
• School Billboard
• School Biography
• School Brochure
• School Budget
• School Business Card
• School Business Plan
• School Calendar
• School Card
• School Catalog
• School Certificate
• School Chart
• School Checklist
• School Clipart
• School Contract
• School DL Card
• School Facebook Post
• School FlowChart
• School Flyer
• School Form
• School Gantt Chart
• School ID Card
• School Illustration
• School Instagram Post
• School Instagram Story
• School Invitation
• School Invoice
• School Lesson
• School Lesson Plan
• School Letter
• School Letterhead
• School Linkedin Post
• School Logo
• School Magazine Ad
• School Management
• School Marketing
• School Meeting Minutes
• School Memo
• School Menu
• School Newsletter
• School Note
• School Notice
• School Organizational Chart
• School Plan
• School Planner
• School Policy
• School Post
• School Poster
• School Presentation
• School Program
• School Proposal
• School Quotation
• School Rack Card
• School Receipt
• School Recommendation Letter
• School Registration
• School Report
• School Report Card
• School Resume
• School Rollup Banner
• School Schedule
• School Sheet
• School Sign
• School Snapchat Geofilter
• School Social Media
• School Statement
• School Stationery
• School Student Planner
• School Supply
• School Teacher Cover Letter
• School Teacher Resume
• School Timeline
• School Tri-Fold Brochure
• School Vector
• School Voucher
• School Whatsapp Post
• After School Poster
• Driving School
• High School Brochure
• High School Card
• High School CV
• High School Flyer
• High School Lesson Plan
• High School Letter
• High School Plan
• High School Planner
• High School Poster
• Letter of Recommendation for Graduate School

A winning School Business Plan will keep you on track with your objectives. It will guide you on planning for the future because you already outlined your projected activities. For you to organize all your plans, we offer one of the best school business templates. These files are 100% customizable, easily editable, and printable that will help you save time. Make use of professionally written content. Simply modify some details that will suit your needs. Freely download all these in any file format such as Google Docs , Microsoft Word , and Apple Pages .

What Is a School Business Plan?

A school business plan lays all your school business objectives. It determines how the business intends to function and how it will become financially rewarding.

How to Create a School Business Plan

When attempting to attract finance for your school, a business plan template is very crucial. Your prospective investor will be able to read your well-written business plan discussing all their concerns, addressing their tough questions, and persuading them that your vision is good enough to justify financing.

This short guide will present useful tips and easy to follow instructions that will surely help you how to start a business plan. Read carefully and understand each detail.

1. Create an Executive Summary

Your executive summary must be a short review of the entire school business plan. It requires no more than a page or two in length. Here, you explain how your desired project will work. It has to be a clear and concise overview of the content of your proposal and maintain the same outline as the legal document in its entirety. Generally speaking, your executive summary should invite readers to read more. Make sure it is easy to follow and understand.

2. Write a Business Description

Next step, write a business description. Although a lot of schools like private schools have an operational and strategic plan , it is still quite uncommon for a school to create a business plan. In this part, it provides the background information that describes your school's history, needs, and the scope of business actions that your school is planning to develop.

An article reveals that writing a business description is the most crucial and complex thing to do. This part narrates what your business is all about, how it will be run, and why do you think it will be a successful one.

3. Do Market Research

It has been reported that businesses fall short from time to time and their funders end up losing significant amounts of money. It is because they did not fully understand the industry they were running in and had not taken the initiative to conduct strong and intensive market plans and research before building a business. Knowing the market means understanding who are your prospective clients, what are their needs and the like.

The more guided your actions are, the greater the possibility of success for your school businesses.

4. Build Management and Structure

In any company conducting big or small business , management is accountable and responsible for its success and failure. It is essential to operate certain matters. A set of individuals pursuing a shared goal must perform together and they might need to manage their personal intentions to obtain that particular objective. For each individual in a position of accountability and responsibility, you must be detailed in defining their official professional experience, their expertise in a specific functional environment or industry, and a record of their accomplishments throughout their careers.

5. Make a Financial Plan

Financial resources evaluate the situations in which capital is obtained, the use of the capital as well as the scheduled payments and stake in economic activities. A financial report is accounting's entire picture. It essentially sums up the company's financial condition. The specific details are important to the management and other interested parties such as investors, shareholders or owners.

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