Create a Business Overview

• Describe the business as specifically as possible. Write about the goals of the company, the legal structure, the status and historical context of the company. You may elaborate on the origin of the business concept or how you came up with the idea for the product or service. Explain why the business will succeed.
• Provide a market analysis when formatting the business plan. Describe the scope of the industry and any expected growth. Identify priority markets and trends. Profile your customer using demographics, such as age, education and income or by corporate profile. Define legal issues. Highlight recent research. Describe the competition in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
• Include a marketing strategy as part of the business plan. Address the details of distribution, advertising, specific sales strategies, customer service and plans for assessing marketing effectiveness.
• Explain business operational procedures as part of the business plan format. Start a new section or subsection of the business overview. Use a heading that describes the contents of this section of the business overview, such as “Operational Procedures,” “Operating Procedures” or simply “Operations.” Outline the steps involved in the production process or delivery of service. Specify the requirements for facilities, equipment necessary and the sources of these supplies. List key members of personnel; summarize the qualifications of each person in one or two paragraphs.

Include a Financial Plan

• Include a loan application, a summary of financial requirements and a loan fund dispersal statement (sources and uses of funds).
• Include a cash flow statement, 3-year projection, a break-even analysis, quarterly budget analysis, a profit-and-loss statement, a balance sheet and a financial statement analysis ratio summary.
• Provide documentation, and cite any sources of assumptions in projections.

Add Appendices to the Business Plan

• Include resumes of members of management.
• Add published media, contracts, agreements and letters of reference.
• Add any additional documents to support the business plan.
• Keep the addition of supporting documents to about 20 pages.

Revise Your Business Plan

• Write the executive summary to the business plan.
• Add page numbers to the business plan document.
• Revise the table of contents. Add the titles and corresponding numbers.
• Add or edit section headings in the text document.