Streamlining Communication with the One Page Business Summary

Things move fast and it is hard to keep everyone informed. Distribute a one-page Business Summary at the same time each week that updates company constituents on the business. (I used to send Sunday night before the week started.) This will allow you to communicate with all relevant constituents and eliminate repetitive conversations ad hoc summaries. Your summary also keeps your team on the same page and provides answers in advance that eliminate unnecessary inquiries to you and other managers. Even if you are a one-woman show and have one consultant, one vendor and one advisor, you can benefit from simple repeatable tools like this. Summarizing the week’s progress also helps you analyze and remain aware of your company’s evolution.

“Even if you are a one-woman show and have one consultant, one vendor and one advisor, you can benefit from simple repeatable tools like this.” 

The Business Summary details three bullets (no more) for each department or major area of the company. Tailor it to your organization. It might look like the following:

This update will be unique to your business. Remember that this document is a summary, not a place to vent or a catalogue of details. It should not be longer than one page. The goal is to provide an efficient mechanism for high level updates and to eliminate this communication from your mid-week responsibilities. By consistently distributing this summary, your weekly reports help create efficient information flow. You may decide to distribute to all constituent—employees, consultants, investors, advisors, board members and others—or you may decide to focus on core members of your organization.