A crucial part of the business plan is the start to your executive summary. In other words, the summary in the summary.

This is the moment of truth. You can lose your audience very quickly or you can really whet their appetite.

Depending upon where you’re going to, the reader could very well be someone who sees hundreds of these a month and has a very short attention span. If you don’t grab them quick, you’re going to lose them.

So, what do you need in that summary part of your summary to get them juiced?

It should be pretty clear to them what you’re about. It shouldn’t be hard work for them to sort out what is going on. To make that happen cover the following points:

1. What is the pain out there that your customers are experiencing? Make it emotional. Get your reader to feel the pain. Make it something they can relate to, if at all possible.

2. How large is the market? You want to establish that this something large enough for them to be interested in.

3. Why are you the one to solve the problem? What have others done that has failed? What is different about you?

4. How do you solve the problem? What does your management team bring? How will you produce the product/service (or have you already)? How will you reach your customers? What sales do you have?

Make it exciting, make it emotional, show your passion and grab your reader. Do a great job with each one of these and you’ll be on the way towards getting the reader eagerly looking to the rest of the plan.