Having an interest in business, you have undoubtedly thought about your perfect job before. A large number of you, though, have indicated your perfect job is to start your own business! In order to do that, you have to have a good overall grasp and understanding of basic concepts to start and run a business, similar to what you have been exposed to in this course.
In addition to that, if you want to go into business for yourself, you have to have “the idea” … the “thing” you are going to sell. Following that, you have got to have a plan! You have to have a clear understanding of your goals, a roadmap for how you will achieve your goals, and a host of other components that will help you address the various aspects of starting a business. This collection of documents that will help you to get your business started … is called a Business Plan.
THE SITUATION: You are a recent summa cum laude Business Major graduate from TopTenBusiness University. You have come up with a KILLER business concept and are eager to get it going. Despite the skeptical market for starting new businesses, you are confident if you have a good business plan, you will be able to secure the funding that you need to get your idea off the ground!!!
THE CONCEPT: Watch Out Kara’s CupCakes, Here We Come!
In your spare time, you and your teammates have gotten really good at making gourmet cupcakes and everyone who’s tasted your stuff says you should go into business, because it tastes much better than anything out there now! You seem to have a knack for putting together unlikely flavors that taste really good together.
Your task is to draft a business plan to request support to start up a single store to make and sell your cupcakes
THE MINI-BUSINESS PLAN OUTLINE (16 Points): For this project, you will be asked to write seven components of a business plan as indicated below. For each section, use the questions and actions listed to help write the sections:
Write an ELEVATOR PITCH that targets venture capital firms in an effort to convince them to support your idea. Remember to answer the 5 key questions for an Elevator Pitch.
Write your MISSION STATEMENT. Write one standard and one socially focused mission statement for your company
Describe your BUSINESS MODEL, answering the key question how you will make money?
Perform a brief COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS. For this analysis, identify 2-3 competitors who are selling the same or similar products/services, conduct a brief comparison of their strengths and weaknesses relative to your business, and state how you can compete with them
Describe two TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS for your business, including rough estimate of size and revenue potential. Describe the primary characteristics (demographic, psychographic, behavioral) of customers in this market, making sure that the characteristics you identify are relevant to the business. Clearly state the reasons that make them the ideal target for your product/service.
Conduct a SWOT ANALYSIS, identifying at least 2 strengths, 2 weaknesses, and so on. Based on your SWOT analysis, indicate how will you use your strengths to exploit your opportunities, and protect against your threats? How will you address your weaknesses?
Conduct simple BREAKEVEN ANALYSIS to tell me when you expect to break even. Make sure that you clearly identify your fixed costs, variable costs and unit variable costs. List any assumptions or constraints that you made to complete the calculation.
DELIVERABLE GUIDELINES
MINI BUSINESS PLAN FORMAT
The document must be no more than 6 pages in length, double-spaced, not including the Title and Table Of Contents Pages.
On your Title Page, include:
Document Title
Date
You must follow the outline as indicated above, i.e. the sections in your Report must match the sections above exactly and use the guidelines above to write your paper.
