The very first thing you are going to do when you decided to start a new business should be your business plan and that applies to both traditional and online business ventures. Your business plan is designed to outline your business strategies, how you plan to make your business a success, your marketing goals, your financial needs, and your overall blueprint to success.

It will be used by you as the business owner to stay on your business path and it will be used by potential investors and lenders to help them decide whether your business venture interests them, whether they think your business venture is a viable investment opportunity for them. For that reason alone, you should make sure you take the time to create the best business plan you can.

An online business is generally much different than a traditional business and your business plan needs to reflect that. In addition, your business plan must make sure that it details the nuances of your online business that investors may not be aware of or may not understand.

You can begin writing a business summary. If your business is strictly online then you need to break down all the components of operating an online business You need to include things like what you will offer, how will you get customers, who will run your business, where will your business be located?

Next you want to create your marketing plan that will delve into the research behind your market and include pricing, markup, advertising, building your brand, etc. Make sure the information is current and relevant.

You will also want to include all the details related to your management team and their various duties. Often with online businesses this is a minimal number of people. You’ll also include your business schedule both current and long term. This would be things like when is your site going live, will you be getting a loan? Basically, you want to outline the key growth points to give the reader a picture of where you visualize your business going.

Of course, you’ll need to cover your financial plan. Your startup capital, and whether you need to borrow some or all of it, your operating costs, your projected sales and profits in six month increments for at least a couple of years, but five is best.

Finally, you need to write your executive summary that pulls the main points into a summary that helps the reader decide if they want to learn more by reading the full report.