My favorite plan was given to me in Wordpress format.

It was great content and easy to navigate. And the entrepreneur had great links, updates, etc.

This is how it was laid out.

http://tinyurl.com/394ppg

Jason -- I'm 93% done with my business plan (v6 :-) ), but was wondering if you have any blanked out BPlan formats that you'd be willing to post/share?

I'm less interested in the specific wording, and more interested in what folks find very useful -- I feel like there are 4-6 pages of what I'd consider fluff, but when I try to omit it, I've gotten consistent feedback that people like to see it.

Thanks for any / all help -- again, love this blog -- very useful!

Only version 6? You have at least 6 to go, right? :)

I don't have any particular format that I'd tell you was "perfect." I like shorter business plans. The 30 page (or more) plans seems like fluff to me, as well.

Remember, you only have to interest the person enough to ask more questions / ask you about things not in your plan. The plan isn't, by itself, going to get you funded.

Make sure that you have a clear vision of the issue, the solution and the revenue that your company expects. Make sure your financials are reasonable and that you have a clue about competition. This might take 7 pages and it might take 15.

One thing that I really don't care about in a business plan is an exhaustive essay on how the technology works. If I am interested in your company, I'll tackle that during due diligence.

Having recently gone through this phase for our company, myself and my co-founders found that the value of the business plan for us was not what we showed to the investors, but rather the critical thinking that it forced us to do in order to put the plan together. It really made us clarify our vision for the company and get a better handle on what we needed to do to execute on that vision. This in turn made it easier to talk to potential investors since the vision was much more focused and clear. I also think that developing the business plan helps to get everyone on the same page and moving in one direction. So for us, regardless of whether it was needed for investors, it was definitely worth it to us as a business tool.

Having recently gone through this phase for our company, myself and my co-founders found that the value of the business plan for us was not what we showed to the investors, but rather the critical thinking that it forced us to do in order to put the plan together. It really made us clarify our vision for the company and get a better handle on what we needed to do to execute on that vision. This in turn made it easier to talk to potential investors since the vision was much more focused and clear. I also think that developing the business plan helps to get everyone on the same page and moving in one direction. So for us, regardless of whether it was needed for investors, it was definitely worth it to us as a business tool.

I'd love it if anyone writing a business plan tried PlanHQ (www.planhq.com) - No more iterating text, but a much more clever, ongoing, dynamic way to plan your company.
As you may be able to tell, I work for PlanHQ ;) But we've had some really good feedback and are always open for more, especially from people who've done a bit of planning