Business Plan Project Outline

ADMN400

BUSINESS PLAN PROJECT OUTLINE

oral presentation and Final written draft due April 23/24

Note separate due dates for part 1 and part 5

PART 1         THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

This part of the business plan should provide four key pieces of information. First, you should present the name of your company and product. Second you should provide a detailed summary of what your product is and how it works (in a basic, non-technical way). Third, you should provide a detailed analysis of the current marketplace for your product – what types of customers will you sell to, what need does your product fill, and what (if any) existing technologies or products will you be competing with or trying to replace. Finally, you should provide a summary of the opportunities and threats your product and company will likely face.

Due: March 12/13 – 3 points

PART 2         MANAGement

Now that you have an idea of what your company will do, it’s time to figure out how to manage your new business. This part of the business plan asks you to think about goals of the business and the organizational structure of the business. You should keep in mind the opportunities and threats identified in Part 1 when developing these goals (make sure they’re realistic) and structure (make sure it fits the environment you’ll be operating in). You should include an organizational chart to show the framework of the business and explain the role of each employee/position in this chart and how each relates to the others.

PART 3         PEOPLE in ORGANIZATIONS         

Now we can start thinking about employees, the jobs they will be performing and the ways in which they can lead and motivate them. Take the different job titles you created in the organizational chart in Part 2 and give thought to the skills that employees will need to bring to the job before they begin. How will you recruit employees and what screening tools will you use to make sure you hire candidates with the right skills? Also consider the training they’ll need to provide employees after they are hired, as well as how you will compensate their employees. In this part of the business plan you also want to consider how you will lead employees and keep them happy and motivated.

Part 4         Principles of Marketing: building relationshps with cusomers for competitive advantage

This part of the business plan asks you to think about marketing’s “Four Ps”—product, price, place (distribution), and promotion—and how they apply to your business. You should list the features and benefits as well as the points of difference for your product. After describing the product, you need to explain how you plan to connect those described features and benefits to your target consumers. This will primarily involve describing the advertising and promotional efforts you plan to use to get the attention of these buyers.

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