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Preparing your business plan 

Introduction
Capitalizing your business is a full time endeavor.   Developing your business plan is the single most important step you can take toward your success. To maximize your potential to receive capital, it is vital that you develop a business plan that will guide your company and allow outsiders to picture where you are going and how you plan to get there.  Take great care in preparing your plan, it is the road map that will lead you where you want to go.

Lenders or Investors, which way do I go?   They tend to look at transactions from very different perspectives.  Lenders are mostly concerned with "Can you repay?".  

While investors are more interested in "How far can you go?"  There are certain items of information common to both.   That will be the information to be disclosed at the start. 

A business plan is a selling document. It should demonstrate that a business can sell enough of its products or services to generate a profit and thus attract investors or lenders. The overall objective of a business plan is to sell the theory of the business to potential investors or lenders as well as to assist the entrepreneur in planning for all aspects of his or her growing business.

The Business Plan should be according to the following criteria: 
The writing should be clear and concise
The writing should include the important factors but should not be too long 
Special attention should be given to the layout 
The Executive Summary is the most important part of the document as it is usually read first to get an overview of the document
Proper management qualifications should be highlighted to create a feeling of confidence 
The plan should indicate that you are aware on market happenings. 
Indicate who the competition is
Should not have an unusual accounting format

Recommended further reading:
Loans on a world wide level 
Project finance 
The executive summary 
International construction loans 
Interesting project financing links 
Suggested Banks in the USA
Books on Project Financing
Business Plan information and resources