Business Plans for Filmmakers

3. Executive Summary

38 3. Executive Summary In the context of a business plan being prepared for a film or film slate, this section may be called the “Business Plan Summary.” After all, it may or may not be prepared for or read by executives. Thus, again, the “executive summary” language appears to be a carryover from business plans drafted for corporate funding. Executives are closely associated with corporations. Other businessplan preparers also suggest the alternative title of “Statement of Purpose” as either a substitute for the entire section or as a subsection heading within the business-plan summary. This section is a summary of the business plan and focuses just on the main points. It may be thought of as a thesis statement. It leaves out the detail but sets out the objectives of the business, explains briefly who is involved (management or people section), may discuss some of the strengths ofthe planned venture,provides a quick analysis of why management believes the venture will succeed, explains the reason or reasons why investor financing is needed, what it will be used for, how much money is needed and how an investor may benefit from an investment. Some business-plan consultants suggest that a summary ought to be limited to a specific number of sections (e.g., five sections), but it really should be organized in a manner that is similar to the organization of the overall business plan while providing an adequate summary of the plan. If that takes six or seven sections, so be it. Some business plans may require more summary subsections than others. The most commonly recommended length for the business-plan summary appears to be two pages or so. Some business-plan preparers also include an unbound, one-page “summary of the summary” or a “highlights page,” using a bulleted format to send out to prospective investors with an initial inquiry letter (i.e., the highlights page is not bound with the rest of the business plan). The summary of a business plan ought to be formatted differently, that is, set apart from the main body of the business plan. A way to do that is to create Executive Summary 39 headlines for each section of the summary and indent the accompanying text for each headline so that the headlines and the text are more visually separated. Readers can more easily search for the material that is of most interest to them. Underlining and bolding the headlines make them stand out from the rest of the text. Most business-plan consultants also advise that the summary be prepared last. There is nothing wrong with that advice. It is perfectly logical to first draft the main body of the document, then come back and prepare the summary that will appear in the first few pages. But, if that does not work for the filmmaker, he or she should do it his or her way. After all, there is also nothing wrong with taking a stab at the summary, then expanding on each section of the summary to create the body of the business plan. In all likelihood, the preparer of a business plan is going to move back and forth between the two to keep these sections of the business plan consistent. In other words, it is not likely that the filmmaker will only make one pass at the summary, so what difference does it make whether he or she starts the first draft of the summary last or first? None at all. The filmmaker will be revisiting the summary from time to time anyway. So, if it is more comfortable starting with the summary because it helps organize thinking, by all means disregard the chorus of naysayers. Just be sure to come back to it several times and recheck for consistency as the rest of the business plan is constructed and changes. One way to approach the writing of the business-plan summary is to simply draft a brief but factual story about the proposed business venture, without going into detail on any particular topic. Then break out each identifiable subtopic within the story, and recheck the ordering of the thoughts to make sure they seem to logically relate to each other. Then develop each of those thoughts or subtopics into a paragraph, and give it an appropriate subheading. Add enough information for each subsection to create at least a three- or four-sentence paragraph but without covering all of the detail expected in the main body or...