Rules
Part of Company descriptions: reading yours as a lender, then as an investor
Company descriptions format: signal versus noise
Company description format: where the section sits, a labeled fact block before prose, writing to a portal's fields, and the print check that finds the rest.
Format is the part of this section people spend time on when they are avoiding the harder part, which is getting the facts right. It still matters, because a reader who has to hunt for the legal name forms an opinion about the rest of the document before reaching an argument.
What follows is about the company descriptions format and nothing else: where the section sits, how it is laid out on the page, and what to do when the reader supplies a form instead of asking for a document.
What to take away
- Facts belong in a labeled block, not dissolved into paragraphs a reader has to mine.
- Find out whether your reader wants a document or a form before you format anything.
- Print it. Half the format faults in this section are only visible on paper.
Where the section sits and what to call it
It goes after the executive summary and before the market work. That is where readers expect it, and there is nothing to gain from an original order.
Name it plainly. Company description, business description, or the heading your reader's own template uses. Something like "Our story" moves the section from identification to marketing before a word has been read, and reviewers who work from a checklist have to translate it.
If your reader supplied a template, use their headings exactly, including any you find redundant. Completeness against their list is often scored, and yours is not.
Block first, prose second
The layout that works is a labeled fact block followed by two or three short paragraphs.
Fact block layout choices
Two-column table
- Use when
- Document you control
- Watch for
- Long values wrap in print
Label/value lines
- Use when
- Pasted into a form
- Watch for
- Form strips alignment
Facts in prose
- Use when
- Narrative requested
- Watch for
- Entity type hard to find
Bulleted fields
- Use when
- Short, few fields
- Watch for
- Bullets run two lines
Whichever you pick, keep the field order stable between versions of the plan. A reader comparing your resubmission to the original should find the same facts in the same places.
What goes in the block
The block is a short list of labeled fields, and the order holds:
- Legal name as filedexactly as it reads on the formation document, entity suffix included.
- Entity typeLLC, corporation, limited partnership, or the state's equivalent.
- Formation datewith the month named in full.
- State of formationplus the filing that created the entity: articles of incorporation, a certificate of formation, or your state's version of it.
- Registered addresswritten the way the state business registry holds it.
- Owners and percentageswhole numbers, totaling one hundred on the page.
- Industry codeNAICS, with SIC beside it only when the reader's form asks for both.
- Registration numberthe EIN or state registration number is named rather than printed: say which record holds it and how the reader can obtain it.
On the page that reads as label-and-value lines, then two or three short paragraphs of prose. Nothing in the block is a sentence, and nothing in the prose repeats a field. That split is what signal versus noise means for this section: the checkable facts stay in the block, and the prose carries only what a field cannot.
Take a line like "started several years ago by a small group of industry veterans who saw a gap in the market." It names no entity, no date and no owner, so a reader can check none of it. Written as fields, the same material becomes entity type, formation date, state of formation, and owners with their percentages — each one answerable from a document the owner already holds.
The address field and the formation field come straight from a public record, so copy them from it rather than from memory. Pennsylvania's Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations provides a New Entity Docketing Statement, form DSCB:15-134A, for filing, and the Texas Secretary of State offers online business filings and searches through the SOSPortal. Either way, the address on your page should match the record the state keeps.
The details that get missed
- State the legal name once, exactly as filed, and use the trading name everywhere else in the document. Switching between them at random is how a reader concludes there are two businesses.
- Write dates in full, with the month named. Numeric dates are read differently in different countries and this section travels.
- Give the address in the form the state business registry usesthe Secretary of State's office in most states — not the informal version you say out loud. The certificate of formation or the articles of incorporation is where that version lives.
- Do not print identification numbers.Say the record exists and supply it through the channel the reader specifies.
- Keep percentages to whole numbers where they are whole, and make them total one hundred on the page, visibly.
- Put the version and date on the section, not only on the cover, because this section gets extracted and sent on its own.
When the reader gives you a form
Portals and application forms usually collect this material as fields with character limits, and the limits are frequently short.
Get the field list before drafting. Then write to the shortest field first, because the discipline it forces improves the longer answers. Where a limit will not fit the truth, write the essential clause and add one sentence pointing to the attachment that carries the rest, rather than truncating a fact into something inaccurate.
Keep your own full version alongside the form entries. You will need it for the next application, and reconstructing it from form fields is miserable work.
Files, print and the practical layer
Send a single file unless asked otherwise, with the plan in reading order and appendices at the back. Name the file so a stranger can identify it on a desktop: the business name, the document type and the date. A file called plan-final-v3 is an unhelpful thing to receive.
Print check before sending
- Table running off the margin
- Value wrapped onto three lines
- Type too small to read
- File name identifies business and date
- Attachments listed by matching name
Print the page before sending it, even for an electronic submission. Print reveals a table running off the margin, a field value wrapped onto three lines, and type so small it looks like a legal disclaimer.
That section also gets printed most often by readers who want to make notes, because it holds the checkable facts.
If you attach supporting documents such as the formation filing or the lease, list them in the section by name and keep the file names matching that list. The descriptions template and the mistakes list take the same material further, one as a form to fill and one as errors to check.
Accessibility, which also helps the reader in a hurry
Use real headings rather than bold text, so the document has a structure a screen reader and a table of contents can both follow. That is what the federal Section 508 standards require of an electronic document, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) they point to say the same. Keep tables simple, with one header row and no merged cells. Do not rely on color alone to mark anything.
The same choices help a reviewer skimming on a phone at the end of a day, which is a more common reading condition than anyone plans for.
Common questions
How long should the section be?
One page. Two if the ownership structure is genuinely complicated. If it is longer, look for prose that has started selling rather than for facts to cut.
Should the fact block appear in the executive summary too?
No. The summary carries the argument. The description carries the identification. Repeating the block wastes the page a reader is most likely to finish, and the descriptions guide sets out what each section is for.
Do I need a logo or letterhead on the section?
A modest logo on the cover is fine. On every page it takes space and adds nothing. Heavy branding through a plan reads as a sales document, which is the register this section most needs to avoid.
Can I turn the page sideways to fit the fact table?
Better not. A plan that changes page orientation partway through is awkward to print and to read on screen. If the table will not fit upright, the values are too long, which is usually a sign of prose creeping into fields.
