An effective business plan actually consists of six different categories. The first category is the executive summary which is usually no longer than two pages and is a basic synopsis of everything that will be said in the body of your business plan. After that there are four major categories, they are operations, management, marketing and finance. In the operations section you will need to cover everything people will need to know about how your business is going to function. In the management section you will need to cover all of your personnel and how you manage them. Also you will need to cover how much you are going to pay your personnel and who they are including their job descriptions, marketing. This section includes how you will plan to market your goods and services that you are promoting to the general public. The final section is the finance section. You should be very short in the body of the business plan but in this last, the appendix, is where the actual financials will be. In the finance section you should go over your break even point and also when you think your business will make money. Finally you should have credit and any addendums that need to be included.