How to Develop a Business Description
Developing a business plan is an important step in helping any company launch, grow and thrive. It provides a clear vision and strategy to potential investors, lenders and partners. It also outlines the structure and goals of your business. But where would you start and what exactly should you include?
Drafting a business plan is done step by step. The first step is an executive summary or company/business description. This section gives a “snapshot” of your business plan but is typically short, concise and powerful. The exact elements included can vary but some elements are more common than others. Examples of common elements are:
● Company Name: the official name of your business as registered in the state where you do business.
● Business Structure: type of business structure such as sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership or corporation.
● Location: where your company is located and where customers can find you.
● History: what inspired your business, when did it start and what need does your business fulfill?
● Mission Statement: a clear, strong statement that represents your business purpose.
● Products/Services: a brief overwhere of what you sell and to whom.
● Objective: an outline of what you would like to accomplish in the future.
● Vision: how you envision the future of your company.
Once you have organized the information and elements you would like to include, you will need to write something that is appealing to readers. Other than providing factual information about your business, it is important to let your passion and excitement show in the description. By explaining why you started the company and what you hope to accomplish, readers will likely believe in what you are pitching. Your excitement should show in the tone of your writing and your aim should be to get the reader interested in reading the rest of the business plan.
While it is important to get your message across and to show how passionate you are about your business, it is crucial to stick to high-level information. Most of the information in your company description will be included in other sections of your business plan. For this reason, simply provide a high-level overview and leave all the specific details for later sections. Again, this section should be clear and concise.
In short, this section should capture all of the vital information about your business. Imagine that you are giving an elevator pitch about your business, you would want to express the key characteristics in just a few sentences. Use that same thought process when drafting your business description. There is no right or wrong way to write a business description, simply describe the vision and direction so that potential lenders and partners can develop an accurate impression of who you are and what you are looking to accomplish.