Executive Summary vs. One Sheet

In my consulting experience I've learned that a simple one-sheet overview can often be the hardest thing for my clients to produce. How does a person take literally YEARS of detailed planning and research and sum it up in a just a few inspiring paragraphs.

I think what often happens with business- is that the original idea was pretty simple... the zipped up concept that inspires business developers to engage in years of work has been unpackaged. Wrapping up all the research and hard work into one page in order to inspire potential funding sources is much harder than you'd think.

Below are some pointers that I see a lot of startup businesses accidentally skipping when designing their pitching plans.

First, its' important to ask some vital questions.

What are the differences between a Business Plan, a Business Model, An Operations Management Plan, and how does an Executive Summary wrap all these things up?
How is the executive summary different than a ‘one-page’?
What things SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be in a One page vs. an Executive Summary?

What I've learned in the marketing and sales world is that there are foundational differences between investments and purchases- it's essential to understand the differences between the two.

Understand the difference between a target market and a target audience.

Are the people you are going to be pitching your concepts to investing or buying something?

Understand what you are selling; are you pitching a product or a service? Are you asking your audience to engage in a venture or give you money in exchange for something that they will have little involvement in developing.

What are the differences between purchasing something and investing in something?

Christopher Mirabile (Chair, Angel Capital Association & Co-founder, Seraf-investor.com) says on his blog post to:

Make sure your one-page includes:

One Line Pitch
Business Summary
Management Team
Customer Problem
Product/Service
Target Market
Customers
Sales/Marketing Strategy
Business/Revenue Model
Competitors
Competitive Advantage

https://www.inc.com/christopher-mirabile/one-page-that-matters.html