Business plan advice for beginners seems to be available wherever one looks on the Internet at such places (but not limited to) Small Business Development Centers, SBA (Small Business Administration) and certainly S.C.O.R.E. (Senior Corps of Retired Executives).

However – any advice entrepreneurs and small business owners receive should be taken as a guideline and not as an absolute. More than anything; business plans must communicate passion, drive and most importantly, personality. Let’s get the basics out of the way first; here are items to consider when structuring planning documents.

1. Executive Summary: Typically, this gives an overview of items contained in business plans without going into tons of detail. Whether called Executive Summary or Management Summary, it summarizes the plan or proposal. It will usually contain a brief synopsis of the problem, issue or other critical items which form a larger solution. Although most give ideas of the optimum length (two pages, but most say no to more than four), we suggest focusing on how you, through personality, best create it. Write the summary, edit and stay with whatever length which most accurately describes the idea. Write to accomplish goals not to impress readers. Being serial entrepreneurs and having presented business plans and Executive Summaries to top business leaders, we say with authority - IF the idea is compelling enough, readers will stay engaged regardless of length.

2. Table of Contents: A list of the parts of a business plan or document organized within order in which they appear. This list includes titles, divisions of content, page number(s) where content appears, second level sub-categories and other location-based information.

3. Appendices: Can appear as attachments to the larger idea in form of addendums, bibliography or indexed items. Whether images, video, documents or other forms of supporting information, appendices should support ideas and assumptions presented in the business plan.

There are other items which could be added. However, as mentioned before, never get locked into a box which doesn’t allow ideas to be accurately presented. Organization is a must for effectively creating a business plan. Understanding the plan’s ‘end in mind’ is critical for crafting effective writing. Here is another bold statement, if the chief reason for writing a business plan is to obtain funding, the whole point of the process is missed!

Here are items to consider when determining your writing approach:

1. Business plans are continuously evolving, update them to convey current ideas, approach and operating environment. Each idea and/or process shift does not have to be included. Understand the difference between documenting a process for internal improvement and communicating it to readers

2. Gather support, whether customers, investor, partners or others. Business plans are designed to gather support for an idea.

3. Be as concise as possible. The idea, passion for the idea, goals and outcomes should be easily understood by anyone reading the plan.

4. Include visual material, insert the most important visual aids into the plan and include others as appendices. For instance, pie charts or other process images should be included whereas profile photos of management should be included as an addendum item.

5. Be creative and allow your creativity to infuse others with the passion to support your venture.

6. Always highlight past success and milestones. These can be as simple as business launch dates, customer testimonials or other items to show buy-in.

7. Know your market. For the sake of being concise, forego non-necessary items and stick with rich, keyword ideas.

8. Visualize your funding purpose. Whether seeking outside investment, government grants, angel capital or self-funding, the purpose of your business plan must be clearly understood and effectively communicated.

Funding is key to success. When all other items are done effectively, funding will result either from outside sources or internal sources. Here are potential funding sources to consider:

1. Crowd Funding: In our humble opinion, this is the most important (and effective) funding opportunity for small business since the creation of the SBA on July 30th, 1953.

2. Internet business creation: There are many online sales opportunities to not only test product and service idea(s) but to build a solid financial balance sheet immediately. For instance; if thinking about starting a local clothing retail business, there are, no hyperbole intended, hundreds of manufacturers who will stock and ship clothing to online buyers.

3. SBA Loan Programs: Even for home businesses, there is a funding source available and it is much easier to receive them than one could imagine.

4. U.S. Government Grants: There is a myth that grants are only available to non-profits, but this is far from accurate. If your business plan provides community value, you may be eligible for grants which never need to be repaid.

5. Asset-based Loans: More often known as collateral based loans, if a business has equipment, real estate or other capital items, they may use them as collateral to receiving funding. Even websites have value! Make sure any, no matter how insignificant (especially for startups) assets are assigned a value. Got a computer, tablet, office furniture or other?

6. Donations: Let us be clear, this is typically used for non-profit businesses or those who develop products and services available to the public free of charge.

The list can go on forever but whatever funding source chosen; these should be given strong consideration. It may seem we’ve failed to mention either angel or capital investment. We assure all – it only SEEMS that way! Many years ago, our senior partner was a part of the launch of a wrist watch company. In those days, freely available information hardly flowed as it does today but the company had an aggressive angel and venture capital plan.

Although we provide great training and resources for both, here are some additional questions to consider:

1. How much company ownership are you willing to surrender to receive funding?

2. Are you willing to alter company direction to meet investor needs?

3. Are investors ‘friendly’ or ‘hostile?' There is a reason venture capitalists are often referred to as ‘vulture capitalists.’

4. What exit strategy is best to repay investors? Put more simply, such high level investors rarely (if ever) get involved if there is no huge repayment by a company going public (IPO) or major profits from company sale are imminent.

5. Is fulfilling your vision more important than short-term financial gains?

Business planning must be approached with creativity, vision and an end in mind. How that is best communicated will ultimately determine the success of any business venture.