Business plans explain what a company does, who runs the company and how the company plans on hitting revenue goals, based on competitive advantages and marketing strategies. Some businesses write a business plan for internal review, tracking annual goals. Business plans are also used to seek investor loans or to finance their business. When presenting the plan for financing, it's important to conclude the plan with purpose, but to do so succinctly.
Business owners might confuse a business plan's conclusion with the plan's executive summary. The executive summary is actually the first section of a business plan, which provides a synopsis and a high-level overview of the major sections of the plan. A business owner might confuse this with the conclusion, because many business experts suggest writing the executive summary last, after the necessary information has been fleshed out.
Advertisement Article continues below this adThe executive summary is usually a series of section teasers that give readers a high-level preview of the plan. It's also possible for the business plan to have a formal conclusion at the end of the sections. The conclusion is usually tailored and targets the informational needs of a specific investor or of a specific strategic partner.
If the executive summary states what the plan will be, then the conclusion reviews what the plan has stated. A business plan conclusion redefines the company's needs, the competence of management to achieve the goals and the key points to justify why the business will succeed with funding. Investors are looking for reasons why they should risk money in the venture; this is achieved by highlighting the unique ways in which the company solves problems and how an influx of funding will yield success. Usually, there's a specific call to action in the conclusion.
Advertisement Article continues below this adCreating a business plan requires market and industry research. The larger the company or the more complicated its products or services, then it is even more important that research is needed to verify regulations, industry trends and technology innovations. End notes are the expert resources used in writing the plan and justifying propositions. These are like a bibliography in a high-school research paper.
End notes refer to specific data cited in the plan, listed in order of use by the correlating fact within the business plan. For example, the competitive-analysis section might cite consumer data obtained by public industry reports. If this is the third citation of data, the superscript is the numeral three that corresponds to the third end note.
The business plan's conclusion should rely on facts and maintain a professional tone. Any projections and assumptions are backed by data points, the business' prior success, and management's ability to deliver. This is similar to a scientist using known facts to create a hypothesis for a new study.
Advertisement Article continues below this adFor example, if the conclusion states that funding can scale factory operations by 50 percent more and yield 150 percent more in revenues, the conclusion of growth needs to be backed by those specific data points, which conclude that the assumption is correct.