Rehearsal Week - The Importance of Preparedness

I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.

Tom Landry

Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck. Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have.

Ed Bradley

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/be_prepared.html#XmIvw2ZKk0C8uK7Q.99

This week, we will prepare for next week’s Regional Business Plan Presentation competition.  Each day this week, our competition team will take aim at each element of the rubric and attempt to knock it out of the park.  In order for them to succeed, everyone needs to play a part.  Here’s a little blurb about what each person should be prepared to do this week:

Clear Target: We can analyze and critique a business plan

Objectives:

• Ø  Analyze business plan presentation
• Ø  Determine appropriate questions to fully understand presentation
• Ø  Critique business plan presentation

Presentation Team:

As presenters, the competition team needs to have lines memorized and be prepared to act on the fly if something goes awry during the performance.  Each presenter also needs to know the business plan and the presentation inside out so that any member can handle a question from the panel of investors.  Review the questions at the end of the file titled “Business Plan Presentation Info for Teachers” in your Google Drive, as well as any other questions you think an investor might ask after hearing you perform.

Non-Presenters:

As the audience, you need to be attentive to what is said by your team.  Listen to the presentation as if you were an investor, or worked for a bank that has $50,000 to lend to a business that you think will productively use it.  Think about things that are presented, and if you require any clarification about important points of the performance, write down questions to ask that will help you better understand the business.  Be critical of each presenter – if someone can’t handle the pressure of speaking to you, think about whether you would trust this person with $50,000 of your money.  Use the questions in the file “Business Plan Presentation Info for Teachers” in your Google Drive to help prepare the presenters for their big day.  Use the rubric to score the team after their time has expired.  We will discuss your scoring and critique the presentation after you have completed your forms.

We will rehearse every day this week, in front of a different teacher/administrator.  Each spectator is free to ask any question he or she wants, so be prepared for anything.  Here’s a breakdown of who will be watching each day:

Monday – just the class and Mr. Spinella

Tuesday – Mr. Bruce

Wednesday – Ms. Ross

Thursday – Mystery Admin Team member

Friday – Mystery Admin Team member

Other Tasks to Complete:

 According to the VE site, our competition submissions are not due until Tuesday @ 6pm.  That said, we are going to assign 1 employee from the Newsletter team (Cody Ruth) to amend our submission based on the rubric elements that are missing.  I am also assigning 1 employee from finance (William Wright) to take care of the weekly finance tasks.  See below for assignments:

Newsletter:

-In order to focus on employee related information and events AND touch upon things going on in the virtual world, I suggest writing a short (200-250 word) article about our plans to introduce our new organization to the virtual network.  Highlight how each department (or at least 3 departments) will contribute to the promotion. 

-To touch upon real-world business news, maybe you can discuss the demand for higher end or specialty catering.  A simple Google search can direct you to a number of articles that might help.

-Discuss our Breast Cancer Awareness cupcake and explain how a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Susan G. Komen or other cancer research.

-Try to create two columns for each page of the newsletter instead of one.  This will enhance the overall aesthetics of the submission.

Finance:

Please continue making inventory records until they are all complete and up to date.  Also, please keep records of attendance and distribute payroll accordingly.  Finally, based on our figures in the business plan, determine monthly rent/utilities and pay them.  You may need to email Lisa Bonelli (reach out to your CEO for her contact information) to get the full details.  When you contact Lisa, explain that you need to pay rent and utilities from July through October and would like to know who to add as a payee. 

By the end of this week, our competition team will be primed and ready for next Monday’s competition.  I look forward to hearing you work and improve each day this week.

Can't Wait to Return From Fall Break!

Welcome Back!  I hope each of you has enjoyed a restful Fall Break.  I certainly took this time off to catch up on some sleep and prepare for the next nine weeks of school, which are chock full of fun activities, including the Business Plan Competition and Trade Fair.  If we take a look at the next few weeks on the VE Calendar, we’ll see how it relates to our tasks for the week of 10/20. 

Hopefully, with this blog entry posted 10/15, some of you can get a head start on these tasks, especially the completion of the Business Plan Presentation!  That said, here’s a quick look at our tasks for the week:

• ·      Work business plan presentation
• ·      Journalize all purchases of merchandise from Marketplace
• o   Cash payments
• ·      Journalize all sales/cash receipts
• ·      Begin making inventory records
• ·      Distribute payroll
• ·      Weekly newsletter
• o   School News
• o   National Business news
• o   Upcoming events calendar (sporting events/tryouts/play?)
• o   Our Business news
• o   Employee spotlight
• o   Anything else included in the competition rubric
• ·      Impact Marketing (billboard) creation

Duties are divided among three teams: Business Plan Team, Finance/Accounting Team, and Trade Fair Competition Team.  Clear target for the week is simple:

Clear Target: We can create promotional marketing materials for a startup business

Business Plan Competition Team

Your job is to have a final draft for the business plan presentation submitted to my email by the beginning of business Wednesday (7:30am).  I will be in contact with Ms. Anderson regarding progress on the draft she submitted to me prior to break, and expect that she will communicate with the rest of the team on ways to have the presentation complete well ahead of the deadline.  By the end of class Monday, CEO is to verbally update me on progress and provide me with a plan to meet the deadline if the presentation is not yet complete. 

Again, please refer to the oral presentation rubric for each slide.  This will allow the judges to follow the presentation more easily.  Of course, in order to win the competition, you must separate yourselves from the rest.  That’s where our opening, slide design (logo, layout, etc.), and script can really differentiate ourselves from the competition. 

Finance/Accounting Team

Your duties are pretty straightforward.  Please create a checklist for the following assignment:

• ·      Journalize all purchases of merchandise from Marketplace
• o   Cash payments
• ·      Journalize all sales/cash receipts
• ·      Begin making inventory records
• ·      Distribute payroll

Once you’ve completed purchases from Marketplace and Inventory Records (a simple spreadsheet for inventory is fine), please contact me to show me what we have.  As we make sales, these records should be updated regularly.  This means that these inventory files are of the utmost importance.  By the end of the week, payroll and daily journal entries should also be complete

Trade Fair Competition Team

If you are not a member of the Business Plan Presentation Team or Accounting/Finance Team, you are a member of the Trade Fair Competition Team.  As a member of this team, you are required to compete in the Newsletter, Impact Marketing, and Website (basic) competition.  Please refer to the “Rubrics” link on the left side of the page in the Portal under “VE Curriculum” for details on each artifact.  Some side information can be found below:

Newsletter

In our Google Drive, you can find two examples of a previously created newsletter.  One is from 2013-14 (titled newsletter #recent[1]) and the other is from 2012-13 (titled 10-11Newsletter).  These newsletters contain only some of the requirements per the rubric, but can show you a rough outline of what a newsletter should look like.  Of course, these have been created in MS Word and I feel as if Publisher might be a better Office Suite for our submission.

In order to tackle this monster, you’re going to have to assign portions of the project among team members.  By end of business each day, please report to me on your progress so you will meet Friday’s deadline.  Each portion of the project should be complete by Thursday so that the newsletter can be assembled and designed on Friday.

Impact Marketing

Please refer to the rubric for this.  I feel as if our Design team, especially Irvin and Harris, will make this really stand out.  You guys already have the logo.  Let’s make something that really gets the attention of onlookers and see what happens.

Please report to me your daily progress so that I know we will meet the deadline for submission.

Website (basic)

We’re in good shape with this.  Ms. Tibbetts should work with the rest of her team to ensure we hit everything on the rubric, but I think we’re almost there.  I expect this to be completed by end of business Wednesday, but please report to me at the end of class each day this week so I’m in the loop on your progress.

This week is going to be busy.  If we remain on task, we’ll knock these tasks out of the park.  I’m pretty sure you’re capable of greatness when you focus up, so please dedicate yourselves to these projects. 

Please don’t hesitate to keep contact with me over break.  I look forward to hearing from you if you’re available so we can hit the ground running when we return to class on Monday.  See you all soon!

Prepare for Takeoff

This week, the blog entry will be short on word count but not so short on what we need to do.  As of Monday, our website needs to go live.  This is an important step in recovering our startup costs, since it allows us to receive a higher volume of orders and reaches globally to potential customers.  There are a few other tasks we need to complete.  Here’s a list of everything we need to get done before end of business Friday:

• Launch website
• Analyze successful business plan presentations
• Review presentation competition overview
• Attached in folder I shared with you Sunday afternoon
• Request contract funds in portal
• Design business plan presentation
• Draft bullet points to be discussed for business plan presentation
• Create promotional emails to convince customers to purchase from us
• Make sales calls to local VE firms
• Keep records of sales/purchases
• Distribute payroll and back-pay
• This will allow us to purchase from other organizations

Here’s a daily breakdown of what we will do and when it will get done:

Monday

Objectives: Launch website, analyze successful business plan presentations, request contract funds in portal, draft an ideal open for our presentation, review presentation competition overview

Clear Target: We can analyze elements of a successful business presentation

We will begin class with a 3-minute bell-ringer.  Students get out their folders and a pencil, write their name and today’s date on top of a piece of blank notebook paper, and then list 2 things that stand out about the opening of the presentations we watched last week + 3 things that stood out about the rest of the presentations.  From here, we’ll share out answers.  After this, students have 7 minutes to draft their own open for OUR business plan.  CEO will collect everyone’s notes and report to me who has/hasn’t completed the task.  After this, I will read through the file titled “Business Plan Presentation Info for Teachers” to have an idea of how the plan will work.  This year’s rules are somewhat different than last year’s so please pay attention as we read through the file.  For closure, we will discuss whether we need a 6^th participant for the competition while CEO requests contract money from the portal.  See below for email from Cindy Boyd regarding this process:

After submission of your plan, you will be able to use the Payment Request Form in the portal to upload your business partner contract request for 75% of your firm's salaries.  I will be able to grant this request if your business plan has been submitted.  Please note 75% salary requests can include several options: for new firms, part of the money can be funded within the seed money. For all firms, funds can come from open house sales to parents, etc, and business partner contracts. All of these options are a part of the 75% of salary funding.  If you request the total 75% of your salary in a business partner contract, you will not be able to receive additional funds if you have a non-ve open house.  If your student enrollment goes up mid-year, we can always revisit your request.

Tuesday through Friday

Objectives: Complete any tasks not finished from Monday, tend to day to day tasks of the business, complete business plan presentation

Clear Target: We can create a business presentation

Suffice to say, I don’t know whether we’ll complete all our tasks on Monday.  That said, we’ll first have to tackle what’s left from Monday’s tasks.  After we finish this, we can proceed with the rest of our weekly tasks.  For the remainder of the week, the business presentation team will split off from the rest of the group so that they can concentrate on creating a winning presentation.  Remaining employees will tend to the following tasks:

Sales

·      Create promotional emails to convince customers to purchase from us

·      Make sales calls to local VE firms

IT/Web Design

·      Create company letterhead

·      Identify “Item(s) of the Week” to highlight on site

Admin/HR

·      Complete employee profile

·      Create company handbook

·      Update display board in class

Finance/Accounting

·      Keep records of sales/purchases

o   Refer to the REFERENCE FILES in the Accounting & Finance section of the Portal for the journals to be used

§  All purchases from the wholesale marketplace to be updated

§  Sales from contract to be updated

§  Cash payment to be updated when we actually pay for our merchandise

§  Cash receipts to be updated when we receive cash (we already received cash when we received our seed money

·      Distribute payroll and back-pay

o   Refer to this file

o   This will allow us to purchase from other organizations

If you have any questions about your tasks, please feel free to ask me for guidance.  The expectation is that you will refer to the portal first for explanations of your tasks, then check with Google.  If all else fails, though, I’m available as I circulate the room.  Please work diligently and focus on the tasks that need to be completed.  There is zero time to waste on non-VE work, so please make sure you are on task throughout class this week. 

Finally, please check your email daily.  Plans may change throughout the week, and we will need to work on a few things outside of class.  Further, there will be some minor tasks to be completed while we’re on Fall Break, so you will need to stay in contact with me even while we’re out of class.