With Florida named the best place to start a business by personal finance company WalletHub, now is a good time to remember every successful business begins with a plan.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, a good business plan “guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business” and entrepreneurs can “use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business.”

The SBA said business plans can help prospective business owners get funding or bring on new business partners.

“Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return on their investment,” the agency said. “Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you — or investing in your company — is a smart choice.”

According to the SMA, there is no right or wrong way to write a business plan. Most business plans fall into one of two common categories: traditional or lean startup.

“Traditional business plans are more common, use a standard structure, and encourage you to go into detail in each section,” the SBA said. “They tend to require more work upfront and can be dozens of pages long.”

However, lean startup business plans are less common but still use a standard structure.

“They focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan,” according to the SBA. “They can take as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.”

Aspects of a traditional business plan include an executive summary, stating the company’s mission statement, product or serve as well as basic information about the leadership team, employees and location. Other common elements of a traditional plan are company description, market analysis, organization and management, marketing and sales, financial projections and an appendix for supporting documentation and other materials.

SOURCE: U.S. Small Business Administration