What is a capability statement and how is it different from a sales brochure?
A capability statement is a designed PDF and printed document that shows off everything your business can do. Think of it as a resume or portfolio for your business. It covers your experience, past projects, team, and the types of work you handle.
A sales brochure is essentially the same document. The difference is mostly in language. The term capability statement is common in construction, so builders and developers will recognise it. A Strata company or a hotel group might not, and would respond better to the word brochure. Start with the capability statement because roughly 90 per cent of the content carries straight across if you later want to build an industry-specific brochure.
Why does having one give you an edge over competitors?
Most trade business owners have nothing like this. When you walk into a meeting or land in someone's inbox with a well-designed document that clearly shows what you do, you immediately look more professional than anyone who shows up empty-handed.
It also gives you a reason to make contact. Whether the approach is cold or you already have a loose relationship, a capability statement is a legitimate, professional reason to be in front of someone. It answers the question "what do you actually do?" in a way that a phone call or a quick email cannot.
What should you actually put in it?
Work through these sections and delete anything that does not apply to your business. Less is more. A shorter document with strong content beats a padded one.
- A personal intro page. Say your name, your role, and something real about yourself.
- Testimonials. One or two strong ones from businesses you have worked with are better than eight from anyone. If you have no business testimonials yet, a private client review is fine. The quickest way to get a testimonial is to phone the person and ask them on the call.
- Company highlights or awards. If you have no awards, use this section to list your best selling points, things like Google review counts, project management experience, or specialist qualifications.
- Team bios. Be specific. If a team member has tiled for 19 years, say that. If your ops manager led a team of 45 people in a previous role, include it. Mention their qualifications and even their interests. Generic descriptions get skipped.
- Services. List everything you do. People often do not know the full range of what a trade business covers.
- Major projects or highlights. Show a range of the work you have done. If you are new to business, you can refer to work completed in previous roles, just be honest about the context.
If you are a sole trader or brand new to business, none of that disqualifies you. You still have experience worth showing. Remove the pages that do not fit and keep what is genuine.
How do you make it sound like you instead of every other trade business?
Most capability statements and about-us pages sound identical. Everyone claims to be the premier business in their city and passionate about customer service. That language means nothing because everybody uses it.
What people do not write is anything personal. If you love kicking the footy with your kids on weekends, say so. If you are a family-first business on a mission to build the best team culture in your city, write that instead of a generic tagline. A small trade business is never a faceless corporation, so do not write like one. Connection and being memorable matter in sales, and personality is how you achieve both.
If writing does not come naturally, do a brain dump of everything relevant about your business into a tool like ChatGPT. Include specifics: how long you have been in the industry, what you genuinely care about, what your team does well, a detail or two about your life outside work. Ask it to write a short bio of around 150 words and use that as a starting point.
What tool do you use to build it and how hard is it?
Canva is the recommended tool. It is a drag-and-drop graphic design platform with thousands of templates for brochures and business documents. You do not need design experience. Upload your photos and logo, drop them into the template, match your brand colours using the colour picker, and the document takes shape quickly.
A free Canva account is enough to get started. If some features are locked, a free trial of Canva Pro covers everything you need to complete the document. Templates for capability statements come up under searches like "business proposal" or "business document" inside Canva.
Once the document is complete, print a small run of physical copies and keep a PDF version ready to attach to emails. Both formats serve different situations and both are worth having.
