Creating Your Market Analysis/Industry Overview – Part 1

Creating Your Market Analysis/Industry Overview – Part 1

This section of your business plan is your assessment of the customer groups you've targeted, other customer groups you might pursue, the competition, and an overview of the industry as a whole. Is the market growing, how fast is it growing, and what evidence do you have that it is interested in your product or service?

After completing this unit, you will create a Market Analysis/Industry Overview for your business plan. It should adhere to the following objectives.
Objectives:
1. Describe the industry, industry trends and factors influencing the trends.
2. Write a demographic, geographic and psychographic profile of the company’s target market.
3. Describe the historical growth, current market size, and the growth potential of the market.

Before you begin to write this section of the plan you must understand the concept of market analysis. To do this, begin by reading Chapter 6 in the Entrepreneurship textbook. Be sure to pay close attention to all key terms and concepts. Take notes on your reading. Title and number these notes accordingly and retain them for a future notebook check. As some of you may notice, this is a chapter we studied earlier in the year- if you saved your notes on them (as advised) you may use them for this assignment.

Click here to access Mrs. Raaker’s Ch 6 Power Point Presentation shown in class.

Creating Your Market Analysis/Industry Overview – Part 2

Creating Your Market Analysis/Industry Overview – Part 2

Read the following articles. Take some notes, title/number accordingly and retain for a future notebook check.
How To Research Your Industry & Competition
Conducting A Market Analysis For Your Business Plan

Click here to access Mrs. Raaker’s powerpoint presentation on
“Using The Census 2000”

Web Resources:
www.business.gov
www.census.gov

Using your notes from the reading and some secondary research, you should now be able to write an industry overview (brief) and a market analysis for your business plan.

Objectives:
1. Describe the industry, industry trends and factors influencing the trends.
2. Write a demographic, geographic and psychographic profile of the company’s target market.
3. Describe the historical growth, current market size, and the growth potential of the market.

Click here to view samples of the market analysis/industry overview.

Click here to view the grading rubric for this section of your business plan.

Creating Your Product Service Plan – Part 3

Creating Your Product Service Plan – Part 3

Now it is time to write the first draft of your product/service plan for your business plan project. Remember, this is the section of your plan that clearly defines the product(s) or service(s) you are offering. Your efforts must be clear, concise, and easy to follow. It is important that your plan provides compelling information on why your product/service is unique.

Take the information gathered in the (worksheet from the) previous step and use it to create your plan. If you word-processed a chart, you may be able to insert it into your plan. If you do include a chart, table or graph, be sure to include a narrative that ties it all together.

Click here to view some product/service plan samples.

Click here to view the grading rubric for this section. Carefully review the objectives of you plan before you begin.
Good luck!

Creating Your Product Service Plan – Part 2

Creating Your Product Service Plan – Part 2

To help you prepare your product service plan, read the following helpful articles and take notes to be used for future reference.

Writing Your Product or Service Description-American Express Business Plan Resources

Product/Service Plan- Mistakes To Avoid

Title and number it accordingly, add it to your assignment log, and retain it for a future notebook check.

Next, you will begin to organize pertinent information about your business’ products/services and those of your competitor(s), using the worksheet below as a starting point. The competitive portion of this worksheet will be completed on an offsite class day. Both pages of the worksheet should be completed and retained for a future notebook check.
Business Plan Project Workbook Worksheet 3-1, 3-2, 3-3 (combined)

Creating Your Product/Service Plan – Part I

Creating Your Product/Service Plan – Part I

Key Terms:
features
benefits
tangible benefits
intangible benefits
value proposition

Overview: The product/service plan defines the core products/services that the company will offer, and describes how they will be produced. The plan explains how the company’s products and services will meet potential customer needs. Review of the products and services currently being offered in the marketplace helps a company define how its features and benefits will be unique. It is important to clearly communicate the unique selling proposition (USP) of a company’s products or services to the target market. The USP should be based on the value proposition that the customer groups have.

Assignment: Read Chapter 3 in the Business Plan Project Workbook. Take notes on your reading, outlining the chapter, defining the key terms and paying close attention to the concepts introduced. After you finish the reading and notes, complete the vocabulary review (pg 31) & the reading review questions (pg 32). Title and number it accordingly, add it to your assignment log, and retain it for a future notebook check.