2.1. Executive Summary

The success of a business plan starts with the first page. Just as every book has a cover to sell it, the business plan needs an attractive and meaningful cover page with the following information:

-       Company name and logo

-       Legal form

-       Responsible

-       Formal company data

The content of the business plan should begin with a summary or executive summary of the most important statements of the business concept Decision-makers, managing directors and investors want to be informed briefly and concisely about what the business plan is about. They should get an idea of the economic viability. They want to know why the business goals can be successfully realised.

The summary should describe the object of the business idea and the company in a concise and summarised way. The name, legal form and logo of the company are used to summarise the business idea. The character of the business concept should be presented.

The summary should briefly and competently describe the service that is produced and offered as well as the customer benefits. The quality of the products and services must appeal to the customer. It should characterise the nature of the market and the prospects for success incompetition The sales forecast defines the prediction for economic success. Marketing focuses on the way of selling. The key business data such as investments, turnover and profit as well as liquidity are to represent the business volume.

A summary is not about an "introduction" or a theoretical problem. It is about the facts of the business plan. The clearer the better! The decision-makers must be won over for the business. In this respect, the summary can be compared to an application. The summary should give the decision-maker a positive "mental" attitude. Just as the economic process is supposed to be "half psychologically" motivated, decision-makers always have a subjective assessment of the success of a business idea in addition to the factual examination of the facts. The decision to take a risk is a question of entrepreneurial weighing, which is positively or negatively motivated.

The summary should not exceed two pages. The quality of the summary lies in the ability to describe the business in precise words in such a way that the decision-maker gets the essentials. The essence is defined, on the one hand, by the fact that there are necessary facts that explain a business concept; on the other hand, by the way of writing to bring things to the point.