Step 1 - Business Profile
This section should include your company address, contact person, telephone number, email address, the industry you serve, stage of development, and the amount of capital you are seeking.

Step 2 - Business & Industry
In this section, you will offer a basic description of your company, including your vision and mission. You should provide a description of the industry you will serve, including the growth and/or trends of the industry, along with the needs of the market. This is also where you will explain how your company plans to enter the market and the potential for growth.

Step 3 - Products & Services
Here, you will provide a thorough description of the products and/or services you are offering, the advantages and features of your offerings, your development activities (including secondary and tertiary markets), and your service and warranty policies.

Step 4 - Design & Development Plan
Describe the tasks associated with the design and development of your products and/or services, the difficulties and risks you expect to encounter, and the anticipated costs.

Step 5 - Market Analysis
Your market analysis should include your market demographics (who are your customers?), the size of the targeted market (all potential customers), the competition (those who currently serve your market), the advantages you have over your competition, and what barriers you can create to keep other businesses from entering the market.

Step 6 - Market Share & Sales
In this step, you will outline your market plan and strategy for reaching your customers. This should include your market test results, the percentage of the total market you plan to capture, your sales process (how you are going to sell your product), your sales team, advertising, public relations and promotion strategies.

Step 7 - Operations Plan
Your operations plan should include where your business is located, its facilities and any proposed improvements to them. It will also incorporate your strategy and plan for operations. You'll outline your entire process, including raw materials, manufacturing and distribution. You'll detail the full life cycle of your product or service from demand to consumption, define the labor (human capital) that is required to operate the business. Also include in this section the organizational structure of your business, including its management team, directors, advisors and consultants.

Step 8 - Overall Schedule
Your schedule should include all events that will take place in the launching and operating of your business, including milestones, objectives and goals of operation.

Step 9 - Business Risks
In this section, state the risks involved in your venture, including financial, legislative, legal, operational and brand building factors.

Step 10 - Financial Plan
Your financial plan should include a 5-year financial summary, all financial ratios and forecast, current ownership of the business, funding requirements (how much you need and how it will be used), proposed company offerings (how much of the business you are willing to relinquish control of in order to obtain the funding you need), exit strategy (how investors retrieve their investments if they want to pull out of the business).

Step 11 - Appendices
Your appendices will include documentation that is referenced from elsewhere in your business plan.

Step 12 - Executive Summary
Your final section offers an overview of the entire business plan. Even though this is the last section of building the plan, it is the first that will be seen by the investor and is, therefore, the most important section of the plan. For this reason, it must be created last, after all of the information is collected and assembled in the rest of the plan. Because most investors will only read this section, this will likely be your only opportunity to capture their interest and entice them to read about your venture in more detail.