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Your company overview is the key introductory part of your business plan. It delivers an insight into who you are as a company, what you do and how you do it.
It should be short, concise, and descriptive, and communicate what makes you stand out from your competitors and address your core values as a company and a brand.
Your company overview will be made up of 6 key sections. It should be informative, concise, and communicate your business and brand accurately and effectively.
Let's take a closer look at each of these important sections and what details we need to consider for each area.
For each section, you should start brainstorming some ideas and think about what you can communicate about your business.
This is where you give your reader the core basics of your company structure. Provide clear factual, accurate information.
Official company name as registered or intended.
Your reader will want to know if you are a sole proprietorship, limited company, corporation etc
Define your current key locations. Where is your company based, and where does it operate from?
Detail the ownership of the business, directorships and any associated shareholders.
Identify the key contributors to the running of your business. Your reader will want to see a rounded approach where a collaboration of required skill sets is present. They will want to feel confident that your business has the internal support to achieve the goals at hand.
Your company history is part of what makes you unique. This is your opportunity to communicate your journey to date and bring your reader into the mindset of your business and brand.
If you are just starting up, detail to your reader how you got to the point of starting your business. What brought you to this point? What motivates the company ethos?
If you are an established business, think about major milestones for your company. What has happened along the way? Achievements and challenges are all important to offer an accurate representation of your business.
Your mission statement is your opportunity to communicate to your reader the purpose of your business and what you aim to achieve. This mission will often be supported and driven by the core values of your company, so this is your chance to express your ethos and passion. What is the problem you have come to solve, and how are you going to achieve that?
Your mission statement should be fairly concise and would usually comprise of a short paragraph detailing the following points;
What is your company's reason for being? What is it that you provide which solves a particular problem for your target market? What is the "pain point" you want to address for your customers?
What is it that you, as a company, hope to achieve in the future?
What is important to your company? What are the values, ethics and ethos that motivate you to deliver the services you do? Express your passion and drive!
You now need to provide our reader with an overview of the products and services that you are offering. You'll need to give a clear and concise description, along with the USP's of what makes you stand out from the crowd in your industry.
What is it exactly that you are providing for your target market? How do your products and services meet the needs of your customers?
What sets your offering apart from your competitors? What is your competitive advantage in the industry?
How can your services meet customer needs better than others in your space?
You may want to include some brief numbers, for example, if your price points are particularly attractive in comparison to your competitors, it is worth your reader knowing that early on in your plan.
You may wish to include some summarised statics with regards to the demand for what you offer, or growth within the sector. Just remember to keep it catchy and brief. You can expand on all of this later in your Sales and Marketing Plan. But it certainly doesn't hurt to include attractive figures early on.
Give a clear breakdown of your target market. You can identify them by the qualities that make your products and services particularly relevant to them. What are the demographical attributes of your ideal customer?
Here you can also touch on the statistics and / or data relating to your potential customers. What is the volume of people who seek your services? What are their buying behaviours and what is most important to them?
Now you can detail what the short and long term goals and objectives of your business are. Whilst the reader will be interested in your current position, they will be equally keen to understand where you would like to take the business.
Consider where you would like the business to be in the next 12 months. What is it that you would like to achieve within this period? Consider factors such as revenue, fulfillment, reputation, market position and business size.
Now consider those factors in the context of your long term vision for your business. What kind of growth and expansion would you like to achieve?
Remember, this is a promotional piece of content designed to catch the reader's attention and give them an insight into your company. It should address all the key points in an exciting and way without the reader having to make it through pages of text. Short paragraphs, segmented clearly, easy to digest snippets of information.
Keep in mind your target audience when writing your company overview. Keep your content and writing style relevant to them and highly relatable. Think about your brand and business style, and communicate directly with the customer base you are looking to attract.
No one wants to read a boring, half-hearted view on a company. Excite and engage your user with passion and infectious enthusiasm for your brand, products, and services.
Make sure your company overview is proofread to check for spelling and grammar. Have the members of your team read it over, take on board suggestions, and amend your draft accordingly to formulate the final copy.
A great way to write your company overview for your business plan is to explore existing ones in action. The links below will provide you with some great examples of company overviews where you can find some inspiration for your own.
This important piece of content can also be adapted consistently across promotional areas such as your website “about us” page, social media profiles, business directory listings as well as marketing and promotional materials.
So be sure to keep it clear and malleable to use across different mediums. This "about us page" from Nestle is a great example of a company overview that has been adapted - visit Nestle >>
Some other great places to find examples and inspiration for your company overview and its uses include;
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