Writing Your Company Profile: A Step by Step Guide

A company profile basically shows your potential clients what you do, your eligibility and the competency to do it. It is written for the purpose of advertising your products/services or if requested for, especially when bidding for a given job.

A company profile for a service provider may differ from a supplier or manufacturer, however, the difference is minor.

Following is a general guide for easily writing an effective company profile using a step by step approach.

Step 1:       Coming up with the cover page      

Think clearly about the appearance of your cover. It may contain a design, an artwork or a photograph which reflects what you do. It could be a project you have done before or an innovative item which would force any one who sees it to pick interest of knowing more. Make sure that the title (Company Profile) of the document and the company name and logo are well placed and clearly seen. You can strategically place the key services/products of your company and finally the company address, especially at the bottom of the page. If you have any standard certificates or accreditations, they may be revealed on the cover page.

Step 2:       Compiling the introductory matter

You can start with a nearly blank page with only your company name and logo, most preferably placed in the middle or at the top of the page. This can then be followed by the table of contents. Write the company background, vision and mission statements. End the introductory matter by stating important company information like office location, subsidiaries or sister companies, if any; legal status-Registration number, tax registration – VAT, TIN, Trading Licenses; Bankers and account details.

Step 3:       Writing the body of the company profile

Company organizational structure  

Show your company organization structure starting from the top level management to the lowest level staff members. You can work revealing the different departments and the responsible persons involved. This can easily be shown on an organogram. Show the list of the key personnel including their positions, qualifications and experience.

Company products/services

Show the scope of services you provide or your products. Service providers could be insurers, bankers, contractors, consultants, schools and so on. Producers may include cloth makers, electronics equipment manufacturers, cement manufacturers, food processors, and so on.

At this stage the prices can also be shown, especially for products and rates for some services.

Company experience

Show all outstanding projects you have done before. It is also paramount to supplement your projects with pictures if applicable. You can also give the volumes of works you have handled in terms of cost/value.

Company machinery, plant and equipment

If it is necessary to supplement your ability to handle some kind of work requiring machinery, plant and equipment, please state them by listing. You can even further elaborate them by use of photographs.

Step 4:       Others

There are many other items you may need to involve, however, in most cases they are first requested by particular clients or projects. These may be annexed to the company profile.

·          Bank credentials: These may be required in order to assess whether   the company possesses a sound financial base to successfully accomplish a given type of project. Bank statements may be involved. 

·         Audited accounts: These may be required to assess the ability of the company to handle the funds of the target project. Specialized companies make audit reports for other companies.

·         Legal documents: These are required to establish whether your company is legal and legally allowed to execute such type of project being applied for. Certificate of incorporation is an example of legal documents.

·         Tax documents:     These are required to assess the tax paying trend of the company. Most clients are not be interested in tax defaulting companies.

·         Cvs for key personnel:  Full curriculum vitae of the key personnel to handle the target project are necessary.

Be very careful with the nature of company profile you intend to write. Understand what you require and what you don’t, then proceed. Always remember that writing a company profile is not story telling, so limit the wording as much as possible and use photos as much as possible.  

Please try your first company profile, give it to a friend to comment and assess yourself to find out how much you have achieved.  

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