Skeptics and fans of business plans agree on one point: securing funding almost always requires a formal plan. Companies funded by friends and family may not need a plan, but if you go to venture capitalists, commercial banks, government-backed lenders and most angel investors, you will need a business plan.

Business plans today no longer need the 20 to 40 pages prescribed by classic planners. The shorter it is, the better chance it has of being read. It is recommended devoting no more than five pages to income, cash flow and balance sheets. And don’t have any numbers in there you can’t explain instantaneously.

While investors want to see action, they don’t want to work for it. A modern business plan is more likely to be a modest deck of slick, colorful presentation slides than a thick stack of white paper. Digital slides are easier to distribute to a dispersed audience via e-mail and to present to large groups on an overhead projector.

Business plans today still contain the same basic elements they always have. Typically, most have an executive summary, a marketing plan, a management team description and financials (income, cash-flow and balance sheet projections).

Those who are considering lending your small business money or investing will want to know how you intend to reach your target market and attain the market share you feel you can attain, which you’ve already discussed in the Market Analysis section of your business plan. Your marketing plan will help them understand that.

If it applies to your business, outline your sales strategy in this section when you are writing a business plan. For example, will there be a sales force? Will sales training be provided? Will your sales team be given incentives to encourage them to increase sales and meet or exceed their goals?

It depends on the case, but usually it’s the cash flow analysis and specific implementation details.

Cash flow is both vital to a company and hard to follow. Cash is usually misunderstood as profits, and they are different. Profits don’t guarantee cash in the bank. Lots of profitable companies go under because of cash flow problems. It just isn’t intuitive.

Implementation details are what make things happen. Your brilliant strategies and beautifully formatted planning documents are just theory unless you assign responsibilities, with dates and budgets, follow up with those responsible, and track results. Business plans are really about getting results and improving your company.

Like many entrepreneurs, you can learn to write a business plan from a book. That produces a plan that is accurate in its basic aim: to describe a business model that would allow you to build a successful enterprise. Also it can be helpful to view real sample business plans to get ideas for your own business plan.

Success in business is never automatic. It isn’t strictly based on luck – although a little never hurts. It depends primarily on the owner’s foresight and organization. Even then, of course, there are no guarantees.