Business Plan Project Outline

Business Plan
If you can't find work, why not create your own job! You may have the key idea that starts a small business, which not only provides you with a job and an income, but also might provide employment for others in our area.

Task Your task is to get creative, use your imagination, and create a unique small business that you think could work in this area. Using a variety of resources, you will need to look at the information available to determine whether your idea would work or not. Your final product will be a PowerPoint presentation that describes the business you proposed, the information that you found supporting it, along with your business plan.

Step 1
Now do some dreaming about this small business. Complete the following statements, as best you can right now, to help you better visualize your business:

My business is called:

The main thing my business will do is:

Customers will choose my business over my competitors because:

My business is located at:

My business will have this many employees:

The main thing my business will do is:

Per year, I think my business can earn:

Per hour, I would like to pay my employees:

I would describe my business logo as:

The slogan I answer the phone with will be:

Step 2
There are many Internet sites available to assist you in being successful in a small business. Visit the Small Business Administration's website and carefully read the following pages. Record your answers to the questions in a word document. Many of the questions that you need to answer will be useful for your PowerPoint presentation.

Read "Are You Ready?" Record you answers in a word document.

Read all of these Frequently Asked Questions

Record you answers for the following questions in a word document.
FAQ #1
FAQ #2
FAQ #3
FAQ #4
FAQ #6
FAQ #15
FAQ #17
FAQ #23
FAQ #28

Getting discouraged with all of the details and requirements? Don't let it get you down. Remember that you may have THE unique idea that this world is waiting for. Your drive and independent nature will take you far. A lot of the other details will fall in place once you get going. Take a break and read one or more articles about creative entrepreneurs who have gone far. Here is one to start with...

Smile, You're Beautiful!

There is nothing stopping you from doing something like that too! Reading about the unlikely success of other entrepreneurs may help you to develop the persuasive arguments for your presentation.

If you are really getting into this and need more information, then check out the detailed information about starting your own business

Step 3
First, carefully read about the need for business plans. Then you need to go to the text version of the Business Plan Project Template. Save this file, as it will become your “work in progress”. Although this is a large amount of information, it will be very beneficial to you if you can work your way through the material. Remember, don’t panic, we will be working through this in class, step by step.

You will notice that it is designed to be used in conjunction with the worksheets from the Glencoe Business Plan Project Workbook. Using these tools side by side will greatly help you to get a vision of what your business will need.

Look here for an index of sample business plans. Read through a couple that are closely related to your business idea. What can you learn from what they have included?

Step 4
How much do you really know about the businesses that are in your area? Look through these links to get a better understanding of what people do around here:

Yahoo Guide To California
Yahoo Neighborhood Profiles

Don't forget to look through the local and county phone books, and the local newspaper want-ads for existing businesses.

Step 5
Using the information available on the DECA website (for the Entrepreneurship Written Event ENW) Competitive Event Guidelines and the template (mentioned above) Business Plan Project Template, create a business plan for your business. This will be an ongoing project, in conjunction with the class lectures & the Business Plan Project Workbook. Keep all drafts in your Business Plan Project Notebook (set up earlier in the year). See your instructor for the grading criteria.

Step 6
Your final task is to put all of the information that you found into a persuasive PowerPoint presentation. Your presentation should be minimally 10 slides and should include the following:

Cover Slide - The cover slide should offer complete contact info, and a tagline if you've got it. One of the benefits of a PowerPoint plan is that it forces you to perform the critical exercise of describing the business in very few words.

Mission Statement - (if you have one and it is not repetitive of your tagline used above).

Management Team Plan - Introduce the team. On one slide, highlight the backgrounds of the key members of the team, and any directors or advisors (not too many) who bring something special to the startup. Explain verbally whom you intend to add to the team in the next year. (If that includes a CEO, say so up front, without waiting to be asked.)

Business Opportunity - Without yet getting into your product or service, describe the nature of the problem you address. Describe the entrepreneurial opportunity and the unique selling proposition your company will have to capitalize on the opportunity.

Marketing Plan

Product (or Service) Description - Introduce your product, and the benefits (which should obviously address the market problem you just described). Elaborate on the technology or methodology you have developed to enable your unique approach. If appropriate, mention patent status.

Price - Describe your pricing strategies (psychological techniques, discount pricing etc.). What are the price needs of the market? How will your product’s price be positioned to meet those needs? Will you use cost-based pricing? Competition based pricing? Demand-based pricing? Why?

Place - Explain your overall distribution strategy, including use of sales staff, wholesalers, brokers, franchise agents, retailers, catalog brokers, Internet, trade associations, or agents. Explain how your product will be stored and transported. Explain your order processing system. If you are using a sales force, explain how they will be recruited, trained, & compensated.

Promotion - What are your marketing objectives and how do you plan to accomplish them? What is the promotional message? What media(s) will you use to convey your message? Describe your promotional mix. What is your promotional budget? Include any logos, slogans or other promotional efforts that has been created thus far.

Competitive Analysis - Be sure to anticipate competitive responses (before the VC does), and never deny that you have competitors, no matter how unique you think you are. Really, it's okay to compete.

Financial Plan - Develop a plan that projects the future profitability of your company. Explain how much capital you will need to get started (or expand) your business. Explain how you plan to use the capital. Project sales, expenses, profitability, and equity for three years in the future.

See your instructor for a rubric on how your presentation will be graded.