Capability Statements & First Impressions

Most service-based businesses have some kind of capability statement. Whether you call it a company profile, tender introduction or capability statement – they all have the same goal. They can be the first document another business sees of you (and often, a bigger business or government organisation) – so it’s important that it gives an amazing first impression.

You might have stressed over the wording for ages, and finally got it reading as you hoped. Then you put it into Word, try to format it…and it doesn’t look as awesome as you had planned. Yours might be a short profile that needs to catch people quickly, but it looks like a formal letter. Or it might be a really long publication, but looks like a novel.

Our biggest tip is to make your whole capability statement match your brand. Every page should feel like your brand. This might include colours from your logo, fonts you regularly use, and maybe even an element from your logo. Below is an example of a capability statement – we designed this one for Aegir Divers.

Don’t be shy to break up content with big headings, graphs/tables (where relevant), lists and blocks of colour. Make the most important information on each page stand out. Air Connect had a small company profile they needed to stand out, so we used blocks of colour and highlighted text.

Capability statements are often perceived as “premium” documents. Make sure to use professional photos wherever possible. A bold front cover with a big photo for that first impression is a perfect place to start. This is the cover we designed for Peninsula Civil Solutions:

Sometimes, another company is only going to have a short space of time to read your capability statement, so make it one they want to pick up and keep reading.