Introduction

The Executive Summary is a condensation of the entire business plan. At most it should only require one or two pages. The purpose of the Executive Summary is to present information contained in the various sections of the business plan in a that allows the reader to quickly understand your business concept and encourages them to explore the plan in more depth.

When writing the Executive Summary kept in mind that potential investors may review several thousand business plans during the course of the year. For this reason the Executive Summary may be the most important part of the plan. If it doesn't create an interest on the part of the reader to look at the plan in more detail then there is little chance of its receiving financial support. One tactic that might convince the reader to explore the plan further is to emphasize its positive aspects whenever possible. For example, point out those things that differentiate your product or business from the competition. If your management team has special skills be sure to mention them. If investors are likely to receive an exceptional return on their money, indicate the approximate return. Examples such as these suggest to investors that you have done your homework and are confident the business will succeed. This will increase the likelihood that they will pay further attention to the plan.

Topics

• Executive Summary

Objectives

• To condense the business plan into an Executive Summary that will stimulate the interest of potential investors and encourage them to read it in detail.

Lesson Description

Students will use information from each section of their business plan and present it in a condensed form that persuades the reader to explore the total plan in more depth. The focus of this lesson will be on identifying and giving emphasis to the positi ve features of the business plan. The instructor should allow students to spend approximately one half of the period writing summaries of each section of their plan. The summaries will be used to write the Executive Summary.

Materials

• Activity 10-A: Executive Summary Worksheet
• Visual 10-1: Executive Summary Outline

Procedure

1. Lead a discussion focusing on the purpose of the Executive Summary.

2. Referring to Visual 10-1: Executive Summary Outline, review the different sections of the summary. Point out that there is no one correct way to organize the summary and depending on their business they may want to modify the outline presented here.

3. Hand out Activity 10-A: Executive Summary Worksheet. Have students use the worksheet to develop summaries based on the information included in the various sections of their business plan. These summaries should emphasize the strengths of the business and what differentiates the business from competitors. Ask several students to read their summaries for different sections of the plan. Ask the class to critique the summaries in terms of how well they focus on the strengths of the business and the extent to which they differentiate the business from competitors.

Closure

Reiterate the importance of emphasizing the strong points in each section of the plan along with those factors that differentiate the business/product from competitors. Also remind students that this is not a simple task, but one that requires careful thought since the summary should not go much beyond two pages.

Assessment

Using the summaries developed in class students should write the Executive Summary for their plan. Finally, they should assemble their entire plan along with a title page, table of contents, etc., and turn it during the next class period.