Writing a business plan summary

After all sections of the business plan are drawn up, contradictions are resolved, and the performance indicators satisfy the requests, you can return to the very beginning and write a summary, summing up the planning in it and visually presenting to the investor all the significant conclusions drawn from the plan. The optimal volume of a business plan summary is 2-4 pages of printed text, on which it is necessary to concentrate all the significant characteristics of the proposed project, intriguing a potential partner or investor to read the plan in its entirety or study the stages of interest.

The summary should begin with a heading that should reflect the essence of the project, for example, “Business plan:

motor transport enterprise";
salon of fashionable haircuts for dogs”;
enterprises for the production of disposable tableware”, etc.

Characteristics of the company implementing the project.
The essence of the proposed project and its specifics.
Description of production possibilities and advantages.
Available personnel potential for the implementation of the idea.
A brief overview of the competitive environment.
Existing advantages in comparison with similar enterprises in the field of production or services.
Long-term goals pursued by the development of a business plan.
Consistency of the essence of the project with what tasks are priority for the state.
Target investment plan.
Key economic performance indicators.
Identified risks and ways to level them.

Business characteristics

When presenting a company, it is necessary to consistently, each sentence from the red line, list the characteristics of the organization or enterprise, including:

Company name registered in USRR.
Organizational and legal form (hereinafter - OPF) with coding.
Form of ownership with coding and the share of participation of the federal budget in the capital.
The average headcount, the calculation of which includes the organizational section of the plan.
The authorized capital of the company, the size of which is determined by the selected OPF.
Product turnover reported for an ongoing business and ignored for a new project.
Details of settlement accounts opened in the bank in the name of the company.
Characteristics of the project manager, including: full name, age, diploma qualifications and last 2-3 places of work.

About the project in essence

The next focus to be made in the summary, after the investor has found out who he is dealing with, is to indicate the short-term goal of developing a business plan that can recoup the investment made in it.

It is also required here to indicate the availability of the required permits, certificates, patents and licenses.

Production capacity

In order to show the lender how the formulated goal will be realized, it is necessary to briefly characterize in the summary the production available or the capacities planned to be launched. The characteristic can take the form of a descriptive statement of the possibilities or their list enumeration:

production areas, including machine tools and / or conveyor;
experience in the market and achieved results;
implemented innovations and innovations;
reconstruction of production and launch of new facilities, etc.

Who will put the plan into action

An important point that any investor wants to see in a resume is the answer to the question of whether the entrepreneur is able to implement his plan. To satisfy the curiosity of a potential lender, it will be necessary to briefly outline the implementation of the management function in the planned project, indicating:

the structure of the administrative staff and the functions of each of them;
education and experience in the implementation of business projects, each of the employees implementing the managerial function;
the share of monetary or other participation of the company's administration in the authorized capital, which will convince the investor of the personal interest of each of them.

Marketing Perspectives

From the personnel issue, you should smoothly move on to an analysis of the market situation, setting out in a summary a summary of the conducted market research, which includes the marketing plan, including:

The potential of the market in relation to the proposed product or service, expressed in the total effective demand.
Presence of competitors and their comparative characteristics, occupied market share.
Project opportunities due to unsatisfied demand or existing levers to squeeze out competitors.

To give the resume more weight in the eyes of the investor, you should indicate sources of information that are trustworthy and participation in the analysis of the market on which the marketing plan is based, reputable marketers.

Competitive advantages

To convince partners or lenders of the ability to carve out a niche market, the summary of the business plan should elaborate a little on the potential to achieve this, including:

innovative technology or unique product properties;
reduced cost, allowing dumping and crowding out a competitor;
wide diversification, reducing risks and increasing the consumer contingent;
experienced marketers who continuously monitor the market and are sensitive to changes in demand and market conditions, etc.

Not stopping there

This is how you can make a business successful and profitable for all project participants, including investors who are extremely interested in this. In order to demonstrate the long-term growth potential of the project, the executive summary should include extracts from the production and marketing sections of the business plan, which show a gradual increase in production capacity and an increase in customer demand, respectively.

What is money for?

The stages of business development and specific activities that require investment, which the plan includes in all sections, for clarity, should be combined in one paragraph of the summary. Detailing of costs is not required, it is enough to indicate strategic directions, such as:

purchase of new equipment, expansion of existing production;
acquisition of innovative technology, a patent for production;
purchase of capital objects;
leasing of equipment and expensive inventory, etc.

By including your own funds and property in the plan, you can convince the investor of openness and purity of intentions.

Performance indicators

It is at this stage of reading the summary that the attention of any investor who has an idea about the financial planning of the project and expects to see:

payback period of the project;
discounted return on investment;
internal rate of return;
the amount of revenue in gross terms;
the cost of producing a unit of a product or service;
net income, etc.

In this paragraph of the summary, when compiling it, you should summarize all the indicators calculated in various sections of the plan, providing appropriate graphs for clarity, by referring to the appropriate application.

Threat Compensation

The business plan ends with an analysis of risks and ways to level them, but the summary should indicate only 2 - 3 of the most significant, the probability of which exceeds 5 - 10%, and briefly outline compensatory measures.

CV preparation

The language used in compiling the summary should be dry, without colorful turns and personal judgments, representing a listing of indicators and conclusions drawn from the results of business planning.

To make the perception of information more visual, you should separately issue a handout, which is a colorful visualization of data in the form of graphs, charts and tables. By providing each of the participants in the consideration of the business plan with a summary and handouts, you can be sure that the information will be perceived objectively, and the validity of the conclusions drawn will not be in doubt.

If the volume of the summary exceeds 4 pages of printed text, it should be shortened by removing unnecessary comments from the text, replacing them with a link to the paragraph and section of the business plan or application.