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A business plan can be defined as a formal statement of a set of business goals. The plan explains why the goals are attainable and the procedures that will be used to achieve them. Different business plans have different formats. However, there is certain information that is present in all formats. For instance, the plan should have full background information about the company or the team that will be charged with attempting to reach the goals planned for.

Business plan formats are determined by the nature of the company. For instance, a profit making organization will have a different business plan compared to a non-profit making organization. This is because the goals for the profit making company are inclined towards wealth creation while those of the non-profit may be inclined towards maintaining a certain status. The business plan format will also be determined by the presentation context. Normally the plan can be presented in oral or a written format for a general audience.

The plan can also be presented in an internal operation plan, which may hold no interest to external stakeholders. A typical business plan format should contain some if not all of the following information. It should start with a cover page, which will give a title to the business plan and a table of contents. This should be followed by an executive summary, which is a short overview of the whole plan. The format should also allow for a business description and a business environment analysis.

Other parts should detail the industry background, competitive analysis and marketing analysis. A marketing plan and an operations plan are also necessary if you wish to use the business plan to attain your goals or deal with competition. Finally, the format should include a management summary, financial plan and attachments or milestones. Milestones are a very important inclusion since they help you gauge your performance.

Small Business Administration or SBA is the agency in the United States of America which has been granted the power of deciding when to allow small businesses and under what conditions. The agency is also capable of providing all kinds of support for the small business, including financial help and can act as a security guarantor for bank loans. The agency was started in the year 1953, with the view of maintaining and strengthening the economy of the nation, by helping to establish many small businesses and industries. As we can see that this agency is a huge organisation, with powers to make lives happier than before, we must approach them for grants, loans and for getting guarantor help by means of proper channels of communication.

The most preferable initial step towards this goal is to make a good SBA business plan, which contains information on your business proposals and requests. A standard SBA business plan usually has columns for filling up details about the company and their contact information and tabulations giving the names, addresses, services, hourly rates and amount that is payable and which has been paid till date. All these information should have columns to be filled in with the signatures of the representatives and the principal owner, which is an important criteria for validating the plan and to authenticate it.

The contents in an SBA business plan may vary in different versions available around the world, out of which the most commonly found items will be executive summary, business history, background, objectives, business environment, products, services, present market status for the product, marketing plan, competition, details on the management and the organisation, business resources available for the company, financial plan and data of the entire organisation, targets to be achieved and about the support contracts needed. All these items will make a good small business plan and may be able to win even a higher amount of help from the SBA.