Business Brief

Whiteboard with red text and a persons hand writing on the board. The writing contains a box tree outlining a process.
Business Briefs are written to compel an audience towards action. They are often used to help managers or executives make a decision about a specific issue and frequently contain ranked recommendations to address the issue.

How do I write a business brief?

Briefs are short, usually no more than one or two pages. Because briefs are decision-making tools, the recommendations they contain are heavily researched.

After you’ve compiled your research, you should formulate recommendations to address the issue. The first paragraph of the brief will often provide some context to establish the importance of the issue and an engaging summary of your recommendations. The body paragraphs will then detail the specifics of your recommendations and, if applicable, the implementation plan and/or next steps.

Like all business writing, briefs should be front-loaded and tonally aware.

What does a brief look like?

While formatting may vary from company to company, the first page of a business brief often looks like this:

Annoted sample business brief

This resource was prepared by the Business Communication Lab at the Sam M. Walton College of Business

View All Resources   Business Writing Resources