Business Plan

Economics - Business Plan

Throughout your Economics course this semester, you will apply your classroom knowledge to real business world tasks. You will simulate actions of a true entrepreneur as you create a portfolio of projects that involve gathering current business information and interacting with your community. The information you obtain and decisions you make will allow you to complete your primary portfolio goal: to design a small business plan for a product or service that you can successfully sell to consumers in the current economy. Many of your tasks will serve as actual components of your small business plan; others will guide you to make decisions about these components. All the projects will help you answer countless questions as you prepare to operate a business, such as: • What type of product/service should I sell? • Who will purchase my product and why? • Who are my competitors? • How will I advertise or market my product? • How will I determine the price of my product? • What kind of business will I operate and manage? • How much money and capital do I need to start my business? • What are my short and long term goals for my business?

Although this portfolio will conclude with the written business plan, you will ultimately be the one to decide if you wish to launch your plan into action. Part of this portfolio will guide you to assess the qualities that successful entrepreneurs possess and help you decide if you have the interest and ability to promote your ideas into a real business world success. Starting and operating a small business is a difficult task. Many small business attempts fail because entrepreneurs neglect to research their ideas, establish goals or to document their plans. This portfolio is designed to help you avoid these pitfalls by allowing you to gather the ideas, formulate the plans and write the documents necessary to initiate a successful business venture.

This project strongly ties into our unit on business types and will help you to better understand the complexities of business ownership. There were hundreds of factors involved and expenses all over the place. While owning one’s own business is certainly a great experience, it is also labor- and paperwork intensive. The Business Plan project set an order for students to assemble a business plan that would persuade investors to put forward capital for our business. As with other economic's assignments, you will have to assemble a comprehensive selection of information. Your plans included what our business is, how it would operate, and information about expenses. Each plan needed to include information of where and how capital would be obtained, along with how much would be required to start the business.

Grade Level: High School

Subject: Social Studies-Economics

Topics: Real World economics, opportunity costs, wants, needs, scarcity, trade offs, budgeting and life management skills. Students will:

* Formulate a savings or financial investment plan for a financial goal.

* Explain how consumers and producers confront the condition of scarcity by making choices which involve opportunity costs and trade-offs.

* Make strategic use of Digital Media( textual, graphical, audio, visual and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and enhance and add to interest.

* Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing and speaking.

*Describe major revenue and expenditure categories and their respective proportions within a budget.

*Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.

*Write informative/ explanatory texts to examine and convey clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content.

*Practice good time management skills.

* Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

*Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning.

*Compare and contrast the following forms of business organization: sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation.

*Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

_________________________________________________________________________

Start your own Business Project

Mr. Scott Nichols @ Woodsville High School

There are 2 parts to this project: a Business Portfolio & a Presentation

~ As this is an upper level college preparatory class you are expected to know how to manage your time effectively. You are to plan out when you will "get stuff" accomplished on this assignment in the time given. You have ______ weeks. I suggest you write your time management outline in your planner and/or your Google Calender(using your SAU23 Student Gmail). If you are having trouble planning your time please see me and ask for help.

Your Corporate Structure-

1. Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

2. Vice President Records/ Documentation - Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

3. Vice President Advertising/ Marketing/ Website Design

4. Architect/ Interior Design

You will complete a comprehensive and detailed portfolio that includes:

    1. All group members will grade all other members and turn in a sealed paper in the 3 ring binder_______
    2. Part One- Business Plan Portfolio will include:

--

3 Ring Binder w/sectional tabs _____

Professional appearance _____

Colors/ Charts _____

Proofread _____

Easy to read/ Organized _____

Informative _____

List of Product(s)/ Services

With prices _____(should include pictures)

Three page research paper on 4 (four) of today’s entrepreneurs ______________

Advertising/ Marketing

Advertising/ Marketing Budget _____

Website Costs _____

Facebook Page(take a screen shot since Facebook is blocked at school) ______

Twitter handle/ page _____

3 Slogans (ex. Just Do It, The Road Will Never be the Same, Don't leave home without it, etc.)

1 Fully Developed (2-4 pages) S.W.O.T.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats & Trends)(see me for potential report layouts) Report _____

25 Brainstormed Marketing Ideas (B.M.I.) _____

10 Expanded Advertising/ Marketing Concepts _____

* 2 Actual Fully Developed (see me if you are not sure about this) Advertising/ Marketing Concepts_____

How to Write a marketing Plan1, How to Write a Marketing Plan 2 , Creating a Marketing Plan

2-3 Page Target Demographic Report (T.D.R) (Get the demographic information for the town you will be located in and decide how you will target your advertising toward certain demographics). _____

Webmaster-

Full Website Development( Weebly, Google Sites, etc.) _______

Verify domain name is avaliable using Go Daddy

Logo Design __________

Design 5 Banner Ads-

-468v60, 120x240, 120x60, 125x125, etc _____

Records & Documentation (Chief Financial Officer)

Detail the 4 Factors of Production for your company _____

Franchise fees? _____

Daily, weekly, monthly & yearly expense report _____

Start-up Capital Needed Report _____

Business Mgr./ Attorney _____

Corporate/ Organizational Structure Report _____

What form of business organization

(sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation)______

Proofread ALL work done by all other divisions. _____

Detailed Daily expense report _____

Detailed Weekly expense report _____

Detailed Monthly expense report _____

Detailed Yearly expense report _____

Domain name registration, website fees (hosting, design, etc.) _____

Advertising/ Marketing Budget _____

Architect/ Interior Design

      • Design Brick & Mortar Store/ Place of Business
      • Design ALL of Business Interior

Chief Executive Officer

Responsibilities:

Mission Statement _____

Geographic Location _____

4 Factors of Production Report _____

Contact and have discussion with actual business owner of similar business. (Include person’s name/ contact number and/ or email) _____

Ensure that ALL others are on task _____

Ensure that the Business portfolio is complete and turned in on time. _____

Outline of schedule for 30-minute presentation _____

5, 10 & 15-year/ Future Business Goals plan report _____

New Hampshire LLC Info (http://www.sos.nh.gov/corporate/llcleader.htm) ___________

Part Two-Presentations- (date ____________)

Basic Guideline

    1. Minimum of 30 minutes. Q & A will not be allowed until after minimum 30 minutes. Be prepared & organized. Follow Presentation Rubric on this website.
    2. Your group will present your business in an informative and creative manner. All members of the group will have to present a significant part of the business.
    3. The first part of the presentation (1st ten minutes) must be the financial/ organizational information concerning your company (think as if you are presenting to a bank( I am the banker) for loans to actually start this company) (hint: handouts/ charts are usually a good thing here). Each plan needed to include information of where and how capital would be obtained, along with how much would be required to start the business.
    4. Present some services/ products and the pricing and why
    5. Present/ Discuss competitors/ local business owner discussion, etc.
    6. For the remaining part of class you will try to convince the class that your business idea is the best (there will be voting for the top business ideas) Be Creative and Informative
    7. You will present marketing concepts, website, architecture/interior design, etc.
      1. ____________________________________________________________________
      2. __________________________________________________________________________
      3. Project Outline (in Beta)
      4. Step 1: Students brainstorm ideas for businesses
      6. Step 2: Research entrepreneurs of successful businesses and present to class.
      8. Step 3: Form groups of one to three. Groups share business visions with each other. Give intro letter to groups and individuals.
      10. Step 4: Choose a good or service to produce. Decide on a name for your business.
      12. Step 5: Create a business mission statement.
      14. Step 6: Create entrepreneur business background and assign roles of owners.
      16. Step 7: Apply the Circular Flow Model (TEK 8A) including factors of production (TEK 1C) to your business.
      18. Step 8: Research possible government regulations, ordinances, and restrictions pertaining to your product.
      20. Step 9: Research to figure out how much demand there is for your product. Also researching information to learn how your business can have an advantage over competitors.
      22. Step 10: Apply possible scenarios to supply and demand graphs.
      24. Step 11: Decide type of business structure of your company.
      26. Step 12: Research what factors of production are needed, where you will acquire them, and what they will cost.
      28. Step 13: Analyze the national economic situation and how it will affect starting and growing your business.
      30. Step 14: Analyze where productivity can possibly be increased.
      32. Step 15: Research local tax rates in your location.
      34. Step 16: Choose a location for your business. Costs and benefits should be researched.
      36. Step 17: Create an estimated startup budget. Create and estimated annual budget.
      38. Step 18: Figure out the financing costs in paying back the initial loan for startup.
      40. Step 19: Create a marketing plan. Overall strategy, create a logo.
      42. Step 20: Analyze if it will be profitable for your product to be sold outside the country, and if factors of production can be acquired from outside the country.
      44. Step 21: Analyze government trade policies that might affect your business. What government trade policies would benefit your company?
      46. Step 22: Students write formal business plan.
      48. Step 23: Turn in business plan portfolio and present business plan to audience.