Executive Summary Guidelines

Executive Summary Guidelines

You must complete a 200 to 250 word executive summary, which gives a brief look into your business proposal. Your executive summary gives you the opportunity to grab your audience’s attention and keeptheir interest for the duration of your business proposal. In essence, you are summarizing your 15-20 page business proposal into a one-page summary.

Your executive summary must be concise and to the point. It should tell the reader who you are, the purpose of your business proposal, its potential benefits to yourcustomers, and how it will change the current market for your product or service.

You may consider the following structure when constructing your executive summary:

• The first paragraph should introduce you, your potential product or service, and the business proposal you wish to inform your reader about.

• The next paragraph should highlight the important points, such as how your product or service will fill a specific need or demand and how it will perform better than the existing competition in the market.

• Your final paragraph should project your potential sales and profits, your product or service’s potential growth in the market, and the keys to continued future success.

• The purpose of your executive summary is to be “persuasive.” You want to persuade your audience of the importance of your proposed product or service and keep them interested and engaged enough to continue reading your complete proposal.