Many businesses in the past were started on the basis of great business ideas, but quickly vanished from the scene just because they skipped the most important step; a solid working plan! Making investor lend you a bag full of money is one reason, not the only purpose of a business. How you are going to utilize that money to generate revenue and compete with key players of the market is the main purpose of a business.
A well-crafted and researched plan provides a clear picture of business operations and entrepreneurial skills. Investors are always interested to see how aware management team is regarding different aspects of business such as production, marketing, sales and distribution. Remember, lenders only look for three things in your plan:
* How big the business opportunity is? Is your plan answering above questions? There are many online resources such as software and sample business plan available to get you going, but you must take care in choosing the one which best suits your business requirements.

Company Overview: It provides business introduction, concept and past achievements

Product / Service: This section provides details of products or services in which the business is involved

Market Analysis: This section provides comprehensive details of market in which business is operating

Marketing & Sales: Marketing and sales strategies are present here that entrepreneurs are planning to implement in the market

Management Strength: Expertise and skills of management are presented here

Financial Plan: This section deals with financial and statistical information regarding business operations.

Don't Forget create Executive Summary: It is used to have a glance at the entire content of plan!

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Many Internet marketers newbies don't have a business plan. No wonder why they can't make any money online. Today they try pay per click and tomorrow they switch to forum mareting. One week later, he is on squidoo advertising.
What's wrong with this business model?
This is the best way to fail because you don't master anything. You are just trying various method.

How to really make the Internet work for you? You need a marketing plan that works.

Write down your online business goals.
It can be more visitors to your website, more subscribers, more sales, etc...
Be specific and write down the numbers.

Write down the main factors of your success
Are you an expert? Will you use other's expertise?

Identify your customers
How old are people in your niche, how much do they earn? Where are they hanging out? Where are they going for holidays?

Advertising Budget
Calculate your ROI per advance (an estimate), your outsourcing costs, etc...

Marketing model
How are you going to earn money? How you will generate leads? How will you convert those leads to customers?
Now, you have a basic plan. Add deadlines to each of your projects. If you don't do this, you will take to long to complete different tasks because you won't have any pressure.

Don't forget to revise your plan on a monthly basis. This will keep you on track and will allow you to improve your business.

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A business plan's contents are no secret. Many books, articles, and courses describe the major sections of a business plan. Although variations exist, there are key sections common to most outlines in business planning literature.

Executive Summary
An executive summary, generally one page to a few pages at most, covers all of the main points of the business plan to come.

Company Overview or Description
The next section begins with an overview of the current situation of the company.

Market Analysis
Sections detailing research and analysis done on the market for the business come next. Data on the specific customer segments and competitors for the new business follow.

Marketing Plan
A marketing plan then covers what is generally called the 4 Ps of Marketing: Product (description of the products or services offered), Promotion (the promotional tactics to be used), Pricing (the pricing strategy for the business), and Place (the location for a retail facility or other means of distribution for the product or service).

Operations and Management Plans
The next section or sections detail the plan for how the company will operate and be managed. Financial Plan
The business plan continues with a description of the financial results the business intends to see, and the underlying cost and revenue assumptions. The financial section also details the amount of capital needed, what the funding will be used for, and the sources of funding that are being sought.

Appendices
Finally, a business plan concludes with appendices of documents which support the plan further. The appendices include full pro forma financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) as well.

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A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.

Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals.

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