The executive summary is the first page of a business plan and, for a surprising number of readers, the last one they read closely. A bank manager with a stack of applications, an investor with a hundred decks a month, an endorsing body assessor working to a deadline: all of them read the summary to decide whether the rest deserves their time.
That makes it the most important page in the document and the one most often written badly, usually because it was written first, in a hurry, before the rest of the plan had settled what the business actually is.
Write it last
The summary summarises the plan, so it cannot be written until the plan exists. Written first, it describes the business you hoped to have before the numbers were done. Written last, it describes the business the forecast supports.
This matters more than it sounds. The most common inconsistency I see in plans is a summary that promises one thing and a forecast that shows another: a summary saying the business will be profitable in year one, and a profit and loss that does not break even until month nineteen. Once a reader finds one of those, they stop trusting the rest of the document.
What it has to answer
A good executive summary answers six questions, briefly, in roughly this order.
- What does the business do? One or two plain sentences. Not a mission statement, not a vision: what you sell, and to whom.
- Why will people buy it? The problem you solve or the need you meet, and what makes your answer better than the alternatives the customer already has.
- Who is behind it? The people running the business and the specific experience that makes them credible. “Twelve years managing commercial kitchens, the last four as head chef” does more work than “passionate and experienced”.
- How big is the opportunity? The market you are going after and the share you think you can reach, with the evidence in brief.
- What do the numbers say? Turnover and profit for the first three years, the month you break even, and the lowest cash point.
- What are you asking for? How much money, in what form, what it will be spent on, and how it gets repaid or what the investor gets in return.
That last one is where most summaries go vague, and it is the one the reader most wants answered. “We are seeking £45,000 as a five-year Start Up Loan and bank term loan, to fund fit-out (£28,000), equipment (£9,000) and working capital (£8,000)” tells a lender exactly what they are being asked to decide.
How long it should be
One page for most plans, two at the very most for a complex business or an equity raise. If it runs longer, it has stopped summarising and started repeating.
A useful test: could someone who reads only the summary explain your business, your numbers and your request to a colleague? If yes, it is long enough. If they would need to turn to the plan to find the funding amount or the break-even month, something essential is missing.
Tailor it to the reader
The body of a plan changes little between readers. The summary should change a lot, because different readers are asking different questions.
| Reader | What they look for first |
|---|---|
| Bank or Start Up Loan assessor | Affordability, security, and whether the cash flow covers repayments |
| Equity investor | The size of the outcome, the team, and what their money buys |
| Visa endorsing body | Innovation, viability and scalability, stated plainly |
| Landlord | Whether you can pay the rent from month one, and what happens if trade is slow |
| Grant funder | The outcome being funded and how it will be measured |
Lead with what your reader is looking for. A lender reading about a ten-year exit strategy before the repayment schedule is being told you do not know who you are writing for. There is more on this in who actually reads a business plan.
The mistakes that make a reader stop
Adjectives instead of evidence. “Innovative”, “unique”, “market-leading” and “passionate” carry no information. Replace every one with the fact it was standing in for.
Top-down market claims. “The UK coffee market is worth billions, and we only need 0.1% of it” is the fastest way to lose an experienced reader. Build the opportunity from your own site, customers and prices instead.
Numbers that do not match the plan. Check every figure in the summary against the forecast after the last change to the forecast. This is where errors hide.
No ask. A summary that describes the business beautifully and never says what is wanted leaves the reader to go looking for it. Some will not bother.
Jargon and acronyms. The reader may know your industry less well than you do. Spell out anything they might not recognise.
A structure you can follow
Use headings or short paragraphs in this order, and keep each to a few sentences:
- The business — what you do, for whom, where, and the legal structure
- The opportunity — the need, the evidence, and why now
- The difference — why customers will choose you over what they already use
- The team — who runs it, and the experience that matters
- The numbers — three-year turnover and profit, break-even month, lowest cash point
- The request — amount, type of funding, what it pays for, how it is repaid
Then read it as the person you are sending it to would, and cut anything that does not help them decide.
Getting the numbers right first
The summary is only as credible as the forecast underneath it. If the break-even month, the lowest cash point and the funding requirement are not calculated properly, the summary will state them confidently and wrongly. SquarePlan’s software builds the monthly cash flow, profit and loss and break-even from your answers, so the figures you quote in the summary are figures the rest of the plan supports. If you would rather have the whole thing done, our business plan writing service writes plans from £499, summary included.