The first thing a potential investor sees is sometimes a business plan. For that, the first actual thing they see is your business plan cover page. Even though it’s expected that any smart investor would not judge a business plan by its cover, there are some subliminal psychological aspects that could affect the reading experience of the upcoming pages.
So, to improve your odds of impressing the reader, you need to make sure that your business plan cover page passes
a few checkpoints. Also, I’ll attach a sample at the end of this article in case your interested in getting one.
Let’s get to it.
The business plan cover page exists no matter what.
The cover page symbolises the first thing the investor sees. It could be a title page, or immediately your executive summary. The objective of the cover page is to introduce the reader to what’s coming up. You could draw your product’s image there. You could put your team’s pictures. Alternatively, it could be a white page with the company name. Each option you go for will affect how the reader is thinking of your business plan.
For the sake of this blog, we will be discussing the most common options of how to design your business plan cover page.
The Simple Logo Cover Page
This is quite common in many business plans I’ve seen. They’re focused on simply putting the logo anywhere on the screen with the title, date, and possibly contact information. It would look somewhat like this.
This option is one of my favourites as it keeps the reader intrigued. If they already have an impression in mind this is a page that does not affect that impression. Also, a confidentiality sentence would be good if you deem it vital.
The Slightly Artistic Cover Page
Similar to the above, the second option just adds a small addition to the logo by showcasing some design elements. Now this is a two edged weapon. Simply, if the design is not the quality the reader is expecting, then you’ve lost some points. Else, you could gain some extra points if they liked the design.
Changing the above page slightly, here’s the second option.
I’ve seen this quite often as well. Many times I’ve felt quite impressed. Yet, equally, I also felt unimpressed as many times. Hence, if you wish to go with this option, approach with caution.
The Masterpiece Cover Page
Sometimes, yet this is in rare cases, the reader needs to be impressed. For that, putting a Picasso-like painting in the cover page of your business plan could mean an investment. This requires some investment from your end to a designer. However, I usually never go with this option due to the fact that it shifts the focus from the content to the design. Let’s ask Midjourney to show us an example.
If an investor sees such an image, then they’re already expecting darkness ahead. So try not to use such an image.
The Killer Business Plan Cover Page
I’ve seen tons of business plan as I’ve experienced this entrepreneurial world for over ten years. For that reason, I’d recommend that you would use the first option. A business plan is designed to show what a business is capable of. The reader should not get any effects on their initial reaction.
You do not need to impress the reader or the investor with your cover page. You need to do so with your charts and graphs. It’s much more vital to showcase your sales figures than a pretty cover page.
However, in all cases, I further recommend that you research your reader. It’s possible that your reader is an investor who invests in design-related companies. If you can find an answer to the question, “Will that investor care about a designed cover page?”, then you’re good to go.
While you might not get a firm answer, you’ll improve your odds by researching.
Must-Include in your business plan cover page
There are a few things that you do not want to miss in your cover page no matter which option you go for.
Your company name or logo.
Always imagine that this business plan would end up in a pile with other business plans. In order for the reader to be able to find yours easily, then it’s crucial that you brand your cover page with your logo or your company name.
Additional note: It goes without saying that you need to make the whole design coherent. So if you are using a specific font in the cover page, it needs to continue accordingly in the rest of the plan.
The date
A business plan that is five years old is not the same as one that is one week old. It’s crucial to showcase when your business plan was written to not confuse the reader. If you’re in the crypto space, for example, and your business plan is stating statistics of 2019, then the change is drastic in 2023.
The contact information
This is optional. Many put their contact information in the final page of the business plan. In that case, there is no firm requirement to add it in the cover page. However, if there is a moment where the reader is confused in terms of how to reach you, then you made a mistake.
Finally, here’s a sample in Google docs.
The same sample I showed above of a “Google” designed business plan is shown here. The full template of the google docs business plan with the cover is also available here.
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot a comment, I’d love to help out. Additionally, if you’re looking to enhance your business plan, the freelance consultants on this platform could actually help out.
Meet The Author Of This Article
I’m Al Anany, the founder and CEO of Albusi.
Writing in the business industry has shifted my mentality toward entrepreneurship. I started on Medium in 2021 and ended up being a Top Writer of more than 4 categories and had my content viewed more than 213k times.
I always have a single goal while writing: focus on entertaining while adding value.
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