Writing a Business Plan

It really depends on why you are writing the plan. If it's to seek investment, visit some venture capital sites, some will have guides or comments regarding what they want to see in a business plan. You may have to dig, but you'll find some good stuff. They typically don't care as much about pro-forma numbers because they know your guessing any way. If you're going after bank or family money, they'll probably be more interested in pro-forma stuff.

If you're going after investment, focus on the market and how you/your offering is uniquely qualified to capture significant share. Spend very little time on periphery stuff, investors don't really care about what type of copy machine you're planning on buying. They're also more concerned with the team vs. the product/service. Investors will always prefer an A team with a B offering vs. the other way around.

Personally I prefer a format that looks something like this...

I. Executive Summary
II. The Market
III. The Team
IV. The Solution
V. Strategic Plan
VI. Financial Plan
VII. Additional Information

This shouldn't be more the 10 pages.

SCORE is a good place too.

LINK

Although I am a little disappointed that I signed up for a SCORE mentor online, chose one based on my industry and his experiences and have yet to hear a peep from him.

Be sure to include projected financials for 5 years.
cash flow forecast, income statement, balance sheet

This does 2 things

1. shows that you know what these numbers mean which is important because it's what you'll be graded on by investors

2. shows that you have planned on the financial side for growth and know how to budget.

Numbers are what financial dudes look at, all the trumped up language in the world won't get you the money over sound financial planning.

Here are some areas you should cover in no particular order:

The Industry
Your Customer
Your Competition
Your Company and Product/Service
Marketing
Operations
Management Team
Critical Risks
Financial Plan