Business Plan

 

Pricing is just one part of a marketing plan, but it is a big one. This is where you detail your pricing strategy with regard to the ways it aligns with the needs of your customers (based on their buying habits and price sensitivity) and how the margins you establish will cover operating costs.

Be sure to frame your pricing structure in relation to your competition, with a focus on direct competitors.

Explain your method or methods of setting prices. For most small businesses, having the lowest price is often not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service. Some questions you may want to consider in this section include:

● Is your pricing competitive? Is it a competitive advantage?

● Compared to your closest direct competitor, would you be considered a bargain choice or a premium brand?

● Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?

● Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?

● How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers really make their purchase decisions mostly on price?

● What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Business Plan

 

 

Explain your method or methods of setting prices. For most small businesses, having the lowest price is often not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about price as you think; and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to have average prices and compete on quality and service. Some questions you may want to consider in this section include:

● Is your pricing competitive? Is it a competitive advantage?

● Compared to your closest direct competitor, would you be considered a bargain choice or a premium brand?

● Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?

● Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?

● How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers really make their purchase decisions mostly on price?

● What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Business Plan

 

 

 

 

 

1. Stakeholder Analysis

a. Actual personal experience, education and training in the area/ industry of proposed business for all key stakeholders

2. Industry Analysis

a. A brief overview and long-term outlook for growth

b. Review industry size, trends, and target market segment.

c. Identify who leads the industry in terms of:

i. Price

ii. Quality

iii. Market share

3. Competitive Analysis

a. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each primary competitor.

b. Consider sales, quality, distribution, price, production capabilities, reputation, and products/services.

c. Outline how your product or service measures in the area of pricing and identify your competitive advantage.

d. Prepare a first-year and 3-year sales forecast in dollars and units.

e. Briefly outline your sales and advertising plans.

Business Plan

 

 

 

Business plans provide the information funding sources need to determine whether or not they will invest in your business. For your final assignment, you will prepare a slide presentation with speaker’s notes such as you would use if presenting in person to the funding decision maker you identified in your Obtaining Start-Up Funds assignment. In your presentation, you will need to convince your funding source to provide the funds that your business needs. Your presentation will expand on the outline you created in the Week 4 homework, incorporate the feedback from each of the previous assignments, and include an executive summary, an exit strategy, and speaker notes, plus title and sources slides.

Address the following in your presentation:

Include speaker notes to accompany each slide that emphasize and expand on the key points to the stakeholders. Please be clear and thorough as if you were presenting to the investor in person.
Create a one- or two-slide executive summary that is an at-a-glance overview of your business plan as a whole. It should touch on your company profile and goals, as well as each of the heading topics in your outline, including the business model, target market, and funding.
Tip: Create your executive summary after you finish building the presentation.
Create one- or two-slides that expand on each of the topic headings that you provided in your outline from the Week 4 homework activity, Business Plan Outline.
For the Business Model slide, incorporate the feedback you received from the assignment, Business Models, to describe your selected business model, and explain why you chose it.
For the Target Market Segment slide, incorporate the feedback you received from the assignment, Target Market Segment, to describe your selected primary and secondary target markets, and explain why you chose them.
For the Start-Up Funds slide, incorporate the feedback you received from the assignment, Obtaining Start-Up Funds, to identify your funding sources, why you chose them, and the sources you decided not to pursue and why.
Create a one-slide Exit Strategy slide where you discuss two key factors you would consider when planning an exit strategy. Provide an explanation to support your reasoning.
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The title slide is not included in the required number of slides.
Provide a source slide. The source slide does not count in the required number of slides.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Develop a complete business plan that includes an executive summary and exit strategy.

 

Business plan

Create the final version of your plan. You will include all the previous assignments you have been working on and attach the financials.The key to this assignment is to use the feedback you have received throughout the course to polish your plan to the point that you could confidently show it to investors and potential partners or customers. Therefore, one new piece to include is a 1 page executive summary.
Reminders and Notes

Your company, whether a startup company of your choosing or based on the snack food company scenario, will operate within a 100-mile radius of your home address. Your goal is to reach $1 million in sales by the end of the second year.
Part 1: Business Plan—Final
Notes
The executive summary is a critical aspect of this assignment. Your ability to condense and highlight critical information about your chosen company to investors will determine whether they decide to invest in you and your company or not.
Instructions
In MS Word, construct a 10–20 page business plan in which you:

Write a 1 page executive summary highlighting key aspects of each section of the business plan.
Incorporate feedback to produce a comprehensive business plan for the product or business. Specifically, you will be combining all of the previous assignments and revising them to build your business plan:

Business plan

Create a brief presentation addressing the following:
• Your business plan is now complete. Imagine you are in front of a group of investors, presenting your business idea and encouraging them to invest in your chosen company.
o Title Page with the company name and your name.
o Outline of What You Do.
o Target Market.
o Market Size.
 How big is the market or industry on which you’re focusing?
 What are the growth opportunities?
o Competition.
 Who are your key competitors?
o Your Management Team.
 Who runs the business?
 What are their roles and key skills?
o Business Model.
 How will your business make money?
o Financials.
 What key financial information does your audience need to decide whether to invest in you and your business?
o Funding You Are Seeking.
o Why Will Investors Want to Invest in This Business and in You?

Select one of these formats:
• PowerPoint with notes; no more than 10–12 slides.
• Audio over PowerPoint.
• Video presentation over PowerPoint
• Storytelling (video recording)—no PowerPoint needed for this option.
You have been working with the information for this presentation all quarter in the discussion and assignments. This is not new information. Now is your chance to succinctly show investors what your chosen business is all about and why they should want to invest in you and your company.
Post at least one substantive comment to another student’s post.

1.Post a brief description of your business (no more than 3 sentences). Specify your company name, what business you are in, and the specific product or service you plan to sell. Attach your presentation before you click submit.

2. A substantive comment is at least 4-6 substantive sentences in length, sharing examples, your perspective, resources, your experience, making connections, asking questions, etc.

 

Business plan

Create a brief presentation addressing the following:
• Your business plan is now complete. Imagine you are in front of a group of investors, presenting your business idea and encouraging them to invest in your chosen company.
o Title Page with the company name and your name.
o Outline of What You Do.
o Target Market.
o Market Size.
 How big is the market or industry on which you’re focusing?
 What are the growth opportunities?
o Competition.
 Who are your key competitors?
o Your Management Team.
 Who runs the business?
 What are their roles and key skills?
o Business Model.
 How will your business make money?
o Financials.
 What key financial information does your audience need to decide whether to invest in you and your business?
o Funding You Are Seeking.
o Why Will Investors Want to Invest in This Business and in You?

Select one of these formats:
• PowerPoint with notes; no more than 10–12 slides.
• Audio over PowerPoint.
• Video presentation over PowerPoint
• Storytelling (video recording)—no PowerPoint needed for this option.
You have been working with the information for this presentation all quarter in the discussion and assignments. This is not new information. Now is your chance to succinctly show investors what your chosen business is all about and why they should want to invest in you and your company.
Post at least one substantive comment to another student’s post.

1.Post a brief description of your business (no more than 3 sentences). Specify your company name, what business you are in, and the specific product or service you plan to sell. Attach your presentation before you click submit.

2. A substantive comment is at least 4-6 substantive sentences in length, sharing examples, your perspective, resources, your experience, making connections, asking questions, etc.

 

Business Plan

In the Appendix (Chapter 16 “Appendix: A Sample Business Plan”), you will find the business plan for Frank’s All-American BarBeQue.

This plan examined several possible locations for a second restaurant. Frank and Robert considered several factors when evaluating alternative towns as possible locations. Some of these included population size, average income, travel times, and percentage of the population.

Based on the data, they selected Darien, Connecticut. Do you agree with the decision? Why or why not?

Do you think other factors should have been considered? If yes, what would you recommend and give your reasons (briefly) why? If not, why do think they have used sufficient information to make their decision?

Business plan

 

This final assessment is a written submission exam and will be released in week 11 of the course.
Students are required to provide a final business plan report that they have been working on in the midterm assessment.
Revisit all the research and analysis done in the midterm assessment to improve the first part of your business plan
Include at least the following additional information in your business plan:
o Elevator Pitch – write a speech (1-3 minutes length) where you explain the business and where you try to persuade investors to
participate in your business
o Sales forecast. Use at least two different methods to justify your year 1-5 sales forecast. Indicate what assumptions are you considering
and what real/researched information are you using for the estimation
o Marketing strategy and budget. Explain the main 3 strategies you will use to achieve your sales
o Define the legal structure and the initial capital required
o Define the outsourcing services you will use. Describe all the functions that you have to cover and identify which ones you will hire
employees or you will do yourself and which ones will be provided by a third party. Justify your answer and estimate the cost of it
o Risk & Insurances. Are you planning to hire any insurance policy?
o Basic Financial study:
 Calculate the break-even of your project
 Present a 5-year basic P&L. Explain the main assumptions and calculate the ROI

BUSINESS PLAN

 

Complete the following business plan (for vending machine business) aspects required to help you prepare for your final Business Plan Project due at the end of the term. Be sure to save a copy of your responses to all BizBuilder Plan Activities each week, so you can easily access them when you are ready to compile your final project. Please note the BizBuilder Plan Activities are to be used as a research tool. The following parts are a continuation from previous weekly activities and should be incorporated into the appropriate sections of the final Business Plan.

Executive Summary
Note the full legal name of your organization.
Describe your business idea and the nature of your target market.
Mission, Vision, & Culture
After reviewing several mission statements for actual companies in your industry, write a mission statement for your organization in 21 to 40 words that clearly states your competitive advantage, strategy, and tactics.
Create a vision statement for your company.
Describe the core beliefs you will use to run your organization and how they will be reflected in its culture.
Identify the ways you plan to run a socially responsible organization.
Company Description
What is the company’s legal structure (sole-proprietor, partnership, LLC, C-corp, S-corp, etc.)?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of this structure over the others?
Where will you physically operate the company? What is the geographic reach of the company?
Who will be owner(s), partners, or stockholders? Describe percentages owned by each.