Executive Summary Business Description
The Executive Summary is the most important part of any business proposal. Business investors, bankers or potential partners read the Executive Summary to decide whether or not to review the details. This is because, more often than not, business investors have limited time to weed through many proposals in an effort to find the most promising options and the Executive Summary is the document that review or scan to make this decision. For this reason, a poorly written Executive Summary often means your proposal will not advance to the next level of consideration.
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Definition
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An Executive Summary is best defined as a short and concise summary of the most important and interesting points in your proposal. Its purpose is to grab the attention to the business investor or individual who is reviewing your proposal and grab it quickly. After reading your Executive Summary, business investors should know the most important facts of your proposal to the point where they are motivated to review the details and follow-up with you.
Content
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According to Harvard Business School, your Executive Summary should include three primary content areas. It should identify the need or problem you are looking to solve or what market need you are addressing. It should identify your approach to solving the problem or addressing the need and your recommended solutions. It should clearly establish why your company is in a unique position to solve this problem or address this need and how you can do it profitably against your competition.
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Presentation
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Think of an elevator pitch where you only have a minute to pitch a business investor during an elevator ride. In this scenario, you need to maximize the use of visual aids such as graphics, bullet points and graphs to the fullest extent possible. This is the mindset and focus you need as you write and layout your executive summary.
Audience
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Target your executive summary and proposal to business investors who generally invest in or support your type of business. In today's business world, Business investors or venture capitalist often specialize or only invest in business areas they
know.
Results
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After presenting a well written executive summary to the right type of investor, you should expect the investor to advance your proposal to the next stage of consideration. From this point on, the details of your proposal must support the key points you outlined in your proposal.
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References
Resources
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