An executive summary is the first section of a business plan or financial report, providing the main point and encouraging readers to continue. It should be tailored to the audience and grab attention with an attention-grabbing first sentence. The beginning and end are important, and the summary should be no more than two pages.
An executive summary is typically the first section of any business plan, proposal, or financial report. It delivers the main point of the entire document and serves as a persuasive statement to encourage people to read the entire report. Before putting this section together, authors should consider their audience, which can be investors or the average customer. Another point to consider is that the beginning and end of the summary are some of the most important parts, so it pays to pay special attention to these areas. The rest of the summary should typically consist of a few sentences from each section of the document.
Many executive briefs are intended to convince readers that the business, new or existing, is valuable, but writers should consider who they are speaking to. For example, if they’re trying to get a loan from investors, they should tailor the executive summary for those readers, with the goal of showing why the company is worth an investment. If, on the other hand, the paper aims to convince customers to give the company a chance, then the summary should typically show how they would benefit from choosing this company over those with similar products or services. Of course, the document itself should be written for the same audience as the summary.
The beginning and end of executive briefs are generally considered to be among the most important parts, so you need to pay more attention to them. Once you’ve determined your audience, the first sentence should grab your readers attention, because they’ll likely want to know why they should give this business a chance. If the business is associated with major brands or celebrities, or has won prestigious awards, this information can be mentioned at the beginning of the executive summary to gain reader interest. Once this is done and the rest of the summary is written, a request should be made towards the end. This tells readers what the business owner intends to get out of the document, such as a certain dollar amount to finance the business.
In most cases, the best way to complete a high-quality executive summary is to write it last, as this allows the writer to extract a sentence or two from each part of the document and easily summarize it. In most cases, this means that the first few sentences after the initial attention grabber should explain the problem, as well as why the company in question has the answer. Also, writers usually find that it helps explain why taking action now is important, because this gives readers a sense of urgency so they are persuaded to read the entire document and follow what the writer is asking. Writing can then summarize other sections of the document, keeping in mind that the summary should be no more than two pages.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
