The Single Most Important Part of Your Executive Summary: The Grab
Bill Reichert from the famous venture capital firm Garage Technology Ventures has seen a lot of business plans and even more executive summaries in his lifetime as a venture capitalist, so when he has something to say about writing a compelling executive summary people listen. According to Reichert "The Grab" is the one or two sentences at the beginning of your plan that conveys to your reader why you have a really big idea. I believe that "The Grab" is the most important part of your executive summary for a couple of reasons:
1. One Chance to Impress - Bankers, investors, and grantmakers see a lot of executive summaries come across their desk, most of which they will probably not fund and will likely forget within minutes of reading the summary. There is an idea that goes around the web design community that says you have 7 seconds to win over a visitor to your website. I think this is appicable when dealing with executive summaries, if you can not hook a reader and draw them in to read more within the first 7 seconds of reading your executive summary you have probably already lost the deal.
2. Trust of the Reader - I believe that if you can gain the trust of your reader within the first couple sentences, you will almost certainly compell them to read on. Trust from an executive summary sounds like a strange thing, but if you can provide clear, concise, and valuable information about why your business is going to be a winner in just a couple sentences your reader will realize that you understand them. Honestly, they are not reading to find out what your mission statement is, or even how big your potential market is. If you start with your mission statement your reader will immediately distrust you because you do not understand your audience. So show that you can be trusted by starting off with a bang.
So how do you write a compelling "grab" for your business, well here are just a couple of ideas:
1. Name Drop - Have you worked with any big industry names, or even local business people that are well respected in your area of expertise? If so now is the time to let the reader know or they may never find out that for example, "Your good friend Tom Cruise uses your product daily".
2. Current Investors - Many of you are just trying to find your first investor, but if you already have one prominent investor make note of that early to put your reader at ease that someone else believes in you and your business.
3. Unique Solution, Big Problem - This is really the key to any successful business, you have developed a unique and protected solution to a big problem. If you have done this make sure your audience understands the problem and why you have a unique solution right away.
If you do these things I am sure you will have at least accomplished your first goal of compelling your readers to take a look at your business proposition.
1. One Chance to Impress - Bankers, investors, and grantmakers see a lot of executive summaries come across their desk, most of which they will probably not fund and will likely forget within minutes of reading the summary. There is an idea that goes around the web design community that says you have 7 seconds to win over a visitor to your website. I think this is appicable when dealing with executive summaries, if you can not hook a reader and draw them in to read more within the first 7 seconds of reading your executive summary you have probably already lost the deal.
2. Trust of the Reader - I believe that if you can gain the trust of your reader within the first couple sentences, you will almost certainly compell them to read on. Trust from an executive summary sounds like a strange thing, but if you can provide clear, concise, and valuable information about why your business is going to be a winner in just a couple sentences your reader will realize that you understand them. Honestly, they are not reading to find out what your mission statement is, or even how big your potential market is. If you start with your mission statement your reader will immediately distrust you because you do not understand your audience. So show that you can be trusted by starting off with a bang.
So how do you write a compelling "grab" for your business, well here are just a couple of ideas:
1. Name Drop - Have you worked with any big industry names, or even local business people that are well respected in your area of expertise? If so now is the time to let the reader know or they may never find out that for example, "Your good friend Tom Cruise uses your product daily".
2. Current Investors - Many of you are just trying to find your first investor, but if you already have one prominent investor make note of that early to put your reader at ease that someone else believes in you and your business.
3. Unique Solution, Big Problem - This is really the key to any successful business, you have developed a unique and protected solution to a big problem. If you have done this make sure your audience understands the problem and why you have a unique solution right away.
If you do these things I am sure you will have at least accomplished your first goal of compelling your readers to take a look at your business proposition.