BUSN20032- Capstone
BUSN20032- Capstone
1.2.7 Business Plan Assessment 1 - 40%
Details
As outlined on the"How you will be assessed" page, this task requires you to write a 5000-word business plan (maximum 5,000 words excluding title page, references and appendix) for a new fictitious company. This will contribute up to 40% of your final grade for this unit. Your plan will be marked using the criteriaoutlined in this rubric.
Before you commence this task, you should:
You should have roughly 4 peer-reviewed journal references per 500 words from theCQU library(general web sites are not academic sources). HBR articles are a teaching tool and are not peer-reviewed and should be used sparingly to support your argument. Your references should refer to theories found in all units within the MBA Leadership.
Familiarise yourself withbusiness plansfrom organisations similar to yours.
https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/careers/how-write-business-planWriting a Business Plan
Writing a business plan requires thinking about both the short and long term of a business. For this assignment you need to write a business plan for a fictitious organisation to be based in your home town or city. Business planning requires both observation of the present state of a company's performance where possible, as well as a vision and goal for its success. Being able to contribute to business planning is one way to advance your career and ensure the growth of your organisation. As your business plan is for a proposed start-up company you will need to research as much information as possible but you won't be able to report on its present state.
Instructions
Research publicly available information on the business environment in your home town. Use the theories presented throughout this MBA (Leadership) to analyse the information you gather. Once you have processed this data, using the relevant theories, develop and write a business plan. This business plan will be the product of your research and your synthesis with the relevant theories from all units in this course.
Analyse critically, reflect on and synthesise this complex information. Interpret and communicate this knowledge, skills and ideas to specialist and non-specialist audiences through the business plan you write.
Remember: argue why your proposal is better than other proposals.
BUSINESS PLAN STRUCTURE
1. Cover Page
The cover page should be attractive and clear. It should include the fictitious name of your new business, the year(s) covered by the business plan, and some visual design such as a logo or imagery. It should also include your name as author and your fictitious position in the company (such as CEO, planning consultant, or director).
2. Executive Summary
The executive summary provides an overview for audiences to get a sense of your business plan argument quickly. Make your executive summary brief (around 1/2 a page or 150 words is sufficient) and include the key points of your business plan argument including at least the main recommendation of your opinion. It clearly summarises your scholarly opinion about the way forward for the Business Plan.
3. Vision and Mission
You have studied vision and mission statements during this course. When you write your vision and mission statements, make sure that you summarise your scholarly argument on the essence of what your company seeks to become (vision) and what it seeks to achieve, and how it plans to make money (mission).
4. Company Description
Analyse your company and important details including its location, address, industry, business services or products, and use the founding story to support your scholarly argument (how and why it started).
5. Description of Product or Service(including 4Ps)
All business plans include a marketing plan. While a company might have a detailed separate marketing plan, include here the essential basic elements and refer to the larger scholarly argument if necessary.
6. Rationale/Point of Difference
A rationale and key point of difference is an area that many investors will examine. This is because they want to know that there is a market for your company's products or services. The points of difference show consideration for your business' value proposition, framed as a scholarly opinion/argument.
7. Market, Competition and Positioning
You have looked at targeting, segmentation and positioning in other units. For this section of your business plan, write an analysis of your chosen industry, competing companies, and the positioning of your company. This helps your reader to gain an awareness of your products' or services' viability.
Calculate and write down the potential size of your market, how many consumers or customers are in that market, and include an estimate of the market share of your competitors. Use market research reports and other industry data.
8. Your Team - Experience and RolesBUSN20023,BUSN20027Include the names (possibly fictitious) of individuals you hope to hire and the roles they will fill, arguing (with references to peer-reviewed journals) why certain skills/traits are needed to support your business plan. You could do this by drawing an organisational chart and including the names and positions of people within your team. Don't forget to include yourself if you will have a role. For investors, having real people with identified skills and track records occupying key roles provides a more convincing business case than one without them. Include individuals for your business who will ensure that it can grow. While you may be key to your business, having others with experience and credentials shows that there is depth and competence to your scholarly argument.
9. Marketing and Promotion StrategyBUSN20025While promotion is one of the 4Ps, you will often see a distinct section on marketing and promotions in business plans. Include a scholarly argument proposing your digital promotions strategy, paid or unpaid advertising such as the use of influencers, and promotion strategy proposals over several years.
10. Competitor Analysis: SWOT/Pestle/STEEPLE/Five Forces Framework
Demonstrate to your audience that you have considered all existing competition in the market, by producing a scholarly argument for your proposed path forward. Many inexperienced entrepreneurs say they have no competition but this is usually not true. There is usually someone, somewhere providing a service similar to yours. Even if you are an innovator and your design is unique, it is quite likely you will be selling to a stream of customers who have choices they can make between your product or service and others. You covered competition analysis in marketing units.
11. Financial Statement: Cash Flow Forecast for 12 MonthsBUSN20026Include the three major financial statements for 1-3 years: acash-flowforecast, aprofit & loss statementand abalance sheetto support your overall scholarly argument. The cash flow forecast should take a conservative approach to calculation, and draw on the accounting principles and practices you have studied in this course.
12. Risk ManagementBUSN20029Use a tool such as a PESTLE analysis to evaluate risks and/or other tools such as Porter's 5 Forces Model to explain competitive risks and risk management rubrics. Many insurers want to see a risk management plan before they decide to insure you. Risks are not easily defined and your scholarly opinion in listing the risks should be clearly stated.
13. Summary/Conclusion
Include a summary or final overview of your scholarly business plan argument/opinion to tie up key points and summarise important details for your audience.
Task Conditions
Reference your business plan extensively with content from this MBA (Leadership) and other academic sources using APA style. The best business plan submissions will cite theories from every unit previously studied.
Use only information available in the public domain for your research in this assignment. You are free to make up any specific data that you need and which is not available in the public domain but of course do not copy other business plans or assignments.
Your entire report must not exceed 5,000 words (excluding the title page, references, and appendix).
Submissions must follow the APA 7th edition referencing style as specified
1.2.4 Business Plan Structure
For this assessment task you will write a Business Plan. While you may not need to include every section described below, these are some of the major points that are typically included. As there is no one set format for a Business Plan, you have some scope for including those items that you think are relevant and omitting those that are not. One important point to remember is that Business Plans are meant to be read by others! You may therefore need to tailor your Business Plan depending on your audience. In fact, you may have multiple audiences and may therefore need to include sections that have more relevance for specific audiences (e.g investors/bank managers).
1. Cover Page
The cover page should be attractive and clear and should include the name of your business, the year(s) of the Business Plan, and some visual design like a logo or imagery.
2. Executive Summary
The executive summary provides an overview for audiences to get a sense of your plan quickly. You should make your executive summary brief (around 1/2 a page is sufficient) and include the key points of your Business Plan.
What is the name of our business?
What do you want to start (or change)?
What gap in the market are you filling?
What is the return on the investment?
Why will this business succeed?
3. Vision and Mission
You have studied vision and mission statements in a previous unit of this course. When you are writing your vision and mission statement, ensure that you encapsulate the essence of your company.
What is your vision?
What is your mission?
What are your company goals?
What are your company's objectives?
What is your company's value proposition?
4. Company Description
This section typically describes your company and important details such as location, address, industry, business services or products, and the founding story.
What type of business are you planning?
What products or services will you sell?
Why does it promise to succeed?
Where will the business be located? Why?
What is the growth potential?
How is it unique?
5. Description of Product or Service (including 4Ps)
All Business Plans include a marketing strategy. You may see different marketing sections on Business Plans where all marketing is discussed together, or separate sections exploring different parts of marketing. A Business Plan might also have a brief description of marketing which is treated in more depth in a marketing plan itself.
What is your product?
What price do you plan to sell it for?
Where will customers be able to purchase your product? (placement)
How will you promote the situation?
Which suppliers will you need to rely on to produce your product?
What are the points of parity and points of difference in your product?
What will it cost to produce your product or service?
6. Rationale/Point of Difference
A rationale and key point of difference is a topic that many investors will examine as they will want to know if there is a market for your product based on the key point of difference. Points of difference shows consideration of your business' value proposition.
Why do you want to sell this product or service?
Why will it have impact in the market?
How will it serve a customer's need better than other products in the market?
What is the unique value proposition of your produce or service?
7. Market, Competition and PositioningYou have looked at targeting, segmentation and positioning in your marketing strategy subject. For this section of a Business Plan, an analysis of industry, competition and positioning helps you gain an awareness of the viability of your product or service.
The market size involves calculation of the potential size of the market, how many consumers or customers are in that industry, and an estimate of the market share of your competitors. This market size can often be gained by market research reports or analysis of industry reports and data.
What is the size of the market you are planning to sell to?
How many customers are buying products in your industry?
How many competitors are there in your industry?
How will you position your product or service within the industry and market?
Who are your potential customers?
How large is the market?
Who are your competitors? How are their businesses positioned?
What market share do you anticipate?
What market share do you see that you may be able to gain in the first years of your business?
8. Your Team - Experience and Roles
Your team section may include individuals anticipated to fill roles, or simply an organisational chart and position of people within your team. For investors, having real people with extensive skills occupying key roles provides a more convincing business case than those without. It is assumed that you will also consider individuals for your team who will ensure that you can grow. Whileyoumay be key to your business, having others with experience and credentials demonstrates there is depth and competence within your company.
Who will manage the business?
What qualifications do they have?
How many employees will you need? What will they do?
How will you structure your organisation?
What are your plans for employee salaries, wages, and benefits?
What consultants and specialists will you need? How will you use them?
What legal form of ownership will you choose? Why?
What licences and permits will you need?
9. Marketing and Promotion Strategy
While promotions is one of the 4Ps, you will often see a distinct section on marketing and promotions. This section may include a digital promotions strategy, paid or unpaid advertising, and promotion strategy proposals over several years.
Have you carefully described your design or development?
How will you market your product/service?
Which channels will you use to market your product/service?
How will you analyse and measure the effectiveness of your marketing and promotion efforts?
How much will your marketing budget be?
10. Competitor Analysis: SWOT/PESTLE/STEEPLE/Five Forces Framework
A competitor analysis demonstrates to your audience that you have considered competition in the market. Many inexperienced entrepreneurs will say that they have no competition, which is usually not true. There is usually someone, somewhere providing a service or selling a product similar to yours. While you may be an innovator and your design is unique, it is quite likely you are selling to a stream of customers who have choices between your product or service and another. You will have covered competition analysis in marketing units.
How will you price your product or service?
What are your competitors' strengths and weaknesses?
What competitive advantages/disadvantages do you have against your competitors?
What are the key characteristics of your competitors e.g. revenue, marketing strategies?
What is your digital strategy against your competitors?
11. Financial Statement: Cash Flow Forecast for 12 months
A Business Plan should include a cash flow forecast for 1-3 years. The cash flow forecast should take a conservative approach to calculation, and draw on the accounting principles and practices you have studied in this course.
What is your total estimated business income for the first year? Monthly for the first year? Quarterly for the second and third years?
What will it cost you to open the business?
What will your personal monthly financial needs be?
What sales volume will you need in order to make a profit the first three years?
What will be the break even point?
What will be your projected assets, liabilities, and net worth on the day before you expect to open?
What are your total financial needs?
What are your potential funding sources? How will you spend it?
How will the loans be secured?
12. Risk Management
This section explores risk management. You may use a tool such as a PESTLE analysis to evaluate risks. Other tools include Porter's 5 Forces Model to explain competitive risks, and risk management rubrics. Many insurers would like to see a risk management plan before they decide to insure you, so there is a practical purpose for such.
What potential problems could arise?
How likely are they?
How do you plan to manage these potential problems?
13. Summary/Conclusion
To assist you with a Business Plan
You may include a summary or final overview of your Business Plan. This would tie up key points and summarise important details for your audience.
Have you included all important documents, drawings, agreements, and references?
Tips for Writing a Business Plan
When writing your business plan and before you start using it, consider the following:
Do your research:You will need to make quite a few decisions about your business including structure, marketing strategies and finances before you can complete your plan. By having the right information to hand you also can be more accurate in your forecasts and analysis.
Determine who the plan is for:Does it have more than one purpose? Will it be used internally or will third parties be involved? Deciding the purpose of the plan can help you target your answers. If third parties are involved, what are they interested in? Don't assume they are just interested in the finance part of your business. They will be looking for the whole package.
Do not attempt to complete your business plan from start to finish: First decide which sections are relevant for your business and set aside the sections that don't apply. You can always go back to the other sections later.
Get some help:If you aren't confident in completing the plan yourself, you can enlist the help of a professional (i.e. Business Enterprise Centre, business adviser, or accountant) to look through your plan and provide you with advice.
Actual vs. expected figures:Existing businesses can include actual figures in the plan, but if your business is just starting out and you are using expected figures for turnover and finances you will need to clearly show that these are expected figures or estimates.
Write your summary last:Use as few words as possible. You want to get to the point but not overlook important facts. This is also your opportunity to sell yourself. But don't overdo it. You want prospective banks, investors, partners or wholesalers to be able to quickly read your plan, find it realistic and be motivated by what they read.
Review. Review. Review:Your business plan is there to make a good impression. Errors will only detract from your professional image so ask a number of impartial people to proofread your final plan.
What to Include in a Business Plan?
A business plan provides direction, keeping you on track and is usually a requirement when you seek finance. Depending on your business type, your plan could include the following sections:
Title page:This describes what the plan is for and includes general information on your business. Find out more on what to include in the title page of your business plan.
Business Summary: A one-page overview written after your business plan is finalised.
About your business:This is typically called the management plan or operations plan. It covers details about your business including structure, registrations, location and premises, staff, and products/services.
About your market:This is the marketing plan. It should outline your marketing analysis of the industry you are entering, your customers and your competitors. This section should also cover your key marketing targets and your strategies for delivering on these targets.
About your future:This section covers your plans for the future and can include a vision statement, business goals and key business milestones.
About your finances:The financial plan includes how you'll finance your business, costing and financial projections. See the Finances section for detailed information on what to include on finances.
Supporting documentation:List all of your attachments under this heading in your plan for referral. For example: copies of emergency procedures, maps, resumes, or financial tables.
For a range of useful business templates and tools, including Business Plans, click on the following links from the Western Australian Government's Small Business Website (or search your own state or territory government services):
A Guide to Using the Business Plan TemplateCash Flow ForecastCost of Goods SoldSales ForecastBreakeven AnalysisOperating Expenses ForecastInitial Start-Up Costs
