Your business overview template needs these items.
Learn how to use PDFs to customize your own business overview template.
Are you working on your business plan and don’t know where to start? You can consider your business overview as a first step. Think of a business overview as an introduction to your business or like an About page on a company website.
Your business overview can be a part of your business development plan or a standalone document that helps guide your business operation. Learn more below about what you should include in your business overview — and how to easily set up a PDF template to make your life a whole lot simpler.
The business plan overview checklist.
Your business overview should include a few core components. Think through the following while you’re putting together your business overview template:
- Basic company information. Include your business name, logo, tagline, address, contact information, and a brief description of what the business does.
- Leadership team. Introduce any business partners, executives, management, and maybe a board of directors — basically anyone involved in making key business decisions.
- History. Provide some history about your business. When was it founded? And why? How has it evolved? This is a great place to provide context on your reasons for establishing the business.
- Mission and vision statement. Why does the business exist, and what is your goal as a business? A mission statement is a concise answer to that first question. It highlights the problem your business solves, the value it adds, and its reason for being. And a vision statement is a concise answer to the second question. It articulates the positive impact you want the business to have. Vision statements are typically bold, sweeping, and inspirational.
How to make a business plan template.
Learning how to use a business plan template can help you start your business off on the right foot.
What is a business plan template?
A business plan template is a document with prompts and blank spaces for you to fill out in a personalized way for your business. It can help you streamline the process of creating a business plan. It allows you to break down your planning into sections efficiently. Some templates will also include subsections and questions to help you flesh out your plans. Using a template can help you assess the feasibility of your plans and set your business up for success.
When you use a business overview template, you can be sure that you aren’t missing out on any planning that is critical to your success. You have a tried and true system to follow as you sit down with your team to plan. Your business plan template is something that you and your team can refer to repeatedly to keep you on track and focused. You can also use it to adjust your plan as you go.
Once you understand the basics of a business plan template, you can learn to make one that best suits your needs. Here’s what your template will include:
- Executive summary. This will include the information from your business overview, as outlined previously in this article. Try also to include the milestones you’ve reached as a business in your executive summary.
- Analysis. This includes an analysis of the market, the clientele, and the competition. What is the market like at the moment? What are the opportunities and challenges? Who are your customers? What is the competition doing well, and how can you compete with them?
- Plans. Plan for management, marketing, and finances. Who are your team members, and how will their individual strengths and connections help to manage the business? For marketing, how will you bring in and retain customers? Financially, when will your business be profitable? How much more funding is needed?
- Appendices. Finally, create appendices to each of these sections to store important documents associated with the information in the sections. These documents might include things like market reports under your market analysis and leases under your financial plan.
Your business plan overview should include all the basic materials you need to succeed in your plans.
Start your business.
Harness the most shareable file format, and use PDFs to make a template for your business. Explore how you can create and collaborate on customized PDF business overview templates for your business with Adobe Acrobat, the creator of the PDF.
You can also easily convert files to PDF (such as Excel to PDF), create fillable PDF forms, and compress large PDFs before sending them to team members for collaboration. Thanks to Adobe’s online services, you can collaborate remotely in real time on PDFs with your team. Acrobat also allows you to streamline your connection to clients with fillable forms and e-signatures.
