An entrepreneur shares the exact template she used to craft an attention-grabbing professional bio

• Jen Glantz is an entrepreneur and founder of the company Bridesmaid for Hire.
• When it comes to writing a professional bio, Glantz says there are four important topics to cover.
• Include mentions of your unique expertise and add a few personal details to help your bio shine.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

After I started my first professional bridesmaid business over six years ago and officially became an entrepreneur, I found it quite challenging to talk about myself. When people asked questions about who I was and what I was working on, I often found myself stumbling over my words and answering with incomplete sentences.

In addition to the questions, so many people – from business professionals to journalists – asked me for a bio, and I didn’t have one. All I had was an outdated cover letter and resume from applying to jobs years before but I didn’t have anything current that showcased a brief, but comprehensive summary, of my journey, passions, and overall professional mission.

That’s when I realized I needed to craft a bio that could be ready for inquiries from press, investors, brands who wanted to partner with me, and a long list of other people curious for an inside look at my background. Since then, I’ve perfected multiple versions of my bio for every situation over the years.

It takes a certain level of preparation, skill, and strategy to summarize your personal story and share it with an audience. For an entrepreneur, the art of showcasing your background, your current work, and your overall purpose can feel extremely hard to do, especially when you’re trying to condense it all into a few short and concise paragraphs.

Whether you’re writing your story for the about page on your website, a press release, a speaker’s packet for a conference, or to pitch future investors, creating the perfect bio should be high up on your to-do list. Here’s where to start, what you should include, and what you can leave out.

1. Start with a summary

The first paragraph of your personal bio should capture people’s attention, pull them into your story, and give them an overview of who you are. Think of it this way: If they only read the first paragraph, would they be able to understand a glimpse of who you are, what you do, and what makes you unique?

Consider this first paragraph as your tagline or personal brand statement. It should be short and clear – you’ll dive deeper into what you’re currently working on and your professional background later on.

Here’s an example you can use to get started by filling in the blanks. You can change around the information based on your experience and background, but stick to the brevity of length and the summarized format of your personal details.

[Your name] is the founder of [name of company], which provides [services or offerings], to [who is your audience or industry]. [Your name] has [experience, background, skills, etc.] and a passion for [describe your purpose].

Read more: 5 costly and time-consuming mistakes to avoid when starting a side hustle or small business

2. Explain what you’re working on

Whether you’re running your own company, expanding a side hustle, or brainstorming your next project or business, spend a paragraph sharing a handful of details on what you’re currently working on.

Begin with what you are spending your time doing, who you want to impact or influence, what problems you want to solve with your business or project, and what makes what you are doing unique, timely, or unusual.

The template below can be easily adapted to fit your personal experience. Make this paragraph as detailed as you’d like and change what you write here based on who will receive this bio.

For example, you might want to add more details and metrics for investors and remove some of those details for a panel or guest appearance.

[Your name] is currently working on [describe the business, project, idea, life transition, etc.], with the goal of [what’s the reason you’re working on this, who do you want to impact]. [Your name] noticed [describe the problem you want to solve or how you want to disrupt or change the industry you are in] and decided to [explain what you created, built, or did to help solve this problem and touch on what makes it different or unique from what is out there].

3. Share your background and expertise

When people are reading your story, they want to understand a bit about your past experience and work history. Here, you should spotlight your background and any specific professional skills, strengths, or expertise.

Highlight past jobs, careers, courses, degrees, curiosities, volunteer work, and anything else that relates to your purpose and story. Below is a template you can add, edit, and make work for you and your background.

[Your name] has spent [share years of experience, past careers] and has mastered [share skills or strengths]. [Your name] has also [share any additional information on your background, experience, work history, skills, courses, degrees, and more].

4. Provide additional details

When we’re writing our bio, we might shy away from adding in details that don’t directly correlate to what we are working on. However, it’s perfectly OK to add in a few lines about hobbies and passions that might not relate to your business – these details are often extremely memorable and help your bio stand out and sound more like you.

Feel free to add in details about what you enjoy doing in your free time, what past hobbies you’ve done, and what other things you enjoy on a personal level.

[Your name] can be found spending time [talk about hobbies, passions, weekend to-do’s, etc.] and is also known to enjoy [add in any additional details here].