Company Identity

This week, we only meet twice, but definitely have enough time to complete all the necessary tasks for our business plans AND operate the business.  Please see below for an outline of the tasks you need to complete and resources associated with the tasks. 

Please use this blog, the PowerPoints from our Google Drive, and Google search as your guide through your daily assignments.  Keep all notes in your master file (and back it up to a cloud or other storage device) and make sure to date all your work for organizational purposes:

Task 1: Company Logo & Tag Line
If I asked you to describe the company logos for McDonalds or Chevrolet, I'm sure you could all do so without hesitation.  Much like tag lines ("Creating confections made to perfection," for example), a logo is an integral part of your brand identity.  Please use today's class to brainstorm and make note of a clear description of your company logo.  You will also make note of at least three tag lines your business will use.  This, combined with your vision you created last week, will help transition into your tasks for the rest of the week.  Please remember to date your work on your working document and keep everything in one master file (Google docs, MS Word, etc.).

Task 2: Mission Statement and Company Goals - These are Two Separate Items

Now that we have completed our marketing plan, we can devise a list of goals for the organization, along with a company mission statement.  For those of you who prefer to write in bullet point fashion, feel free to create a list of your company goals/objectives.  If you are more comfortable writing goals and objectives in paragraph form, go for it!  Have at least 5 measurable, easily identifiable goals for your first year in business.

For your mission statement, it wouldn’t hurt to see a few well-written models.  Use the business plans in my classroom and check out this link for some solid examples of well-written mission statements.  A few of my favorite from the link are from Advance Auto Parts, Applied Materials, and of course, Starbucks.

Below is an explanation of each component, taken directly from the scoring rubric:

• Company description: origination date, industry, legal description, location, brief history (if an existing company).

·      Mission statement: A brief statement that represents what company stands for; narrow enough to give direction but not so vague that it could apply to any other organization.

Task 3: Management Function - Planning and Organizing

Management can be broken into 4 main components: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling.  Today we will focus on the first 2 components. 

For the Planning Component, you will need to have your company goals in mind.  Address how you plan to achieve each goal in a few (3 to 5) sentences.  From the rubric:

·       Planning: What are the goals of the business? Identify strategies to achieve each goal.

For Organizing, you will need to break down the number of employees, identify a chain of command, and describe the job of each position in the organization.  From the rubric:

·       Organizing: How is the firm organized to be able to meet objectives? Organization chart to specify what jobs need to be done and by whom.

Task 4: Management Plan - Leading and Controlling

Leadership is an important aspect of running a successful business.  Have you ever noticed that most pets take on the personality of their owners?  Have you ever heard the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and realized it to be true?  The same applies in business.  Read this article about corporate culture, and explain how you will lead your employees.  If you are a 1-person operation, how will you direct yourself in terms of staying on task and holding yourself accountable to the highest standards necessary to succeed? From the rubric:

·       Directing: How are directions, assignments, instructions and information provided to employees?

With respect to controlling, think back to your lesson about performance evaluations.  How will you measure employee productivity?  Will you use measurable performance indicators?  Will you use 360-degree feedback?  Will you be the only judge of their performance? How will you make your employees happy to come to work and know when they’re doing well, or how to improve upon their shortcomings?  From the rubric:

·      Controlling: How does the firm monitor progress toward achieving goals?

Task 5: Blog

I understand we have done a lot this week, but with block periods, you can knock out numerous tasks in a single day.  Once you’ve completed the tasks for the week, write a blog about your work, using the following questions to guide you.   Feel Free to copy these questions, bold them, and answer each below the question to make the blog easy to read.

1. ·      How well have you stayed on task? 
2. ·      After thinking about the management function, especially the leadership component, how well do you think you will lead your organization to success? 
3. ·      What topics, if any, helped you with this portion of the plan? 
4. ·      What part of the plan did you absolutely nail?  Feel free to copy/paste that into your post.

Again, feel free to separate your blog entry into sections by addressing each question.  This will make the entry easy to read and will ensure you touch upon everything properly. 

I hope you had a great week!

The Marketing Mix - Take Two!

"Baseball, it is said, is only a game.  True, and the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona."

-George Wills

“I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning.  I think about it all day, and I dream about it at night.”

-Carl Yastrzemski

Since only one group shared its 5 Ps with me last Tuesday, and since we again have a week that begins on Tuesday, we are going to give this another try.

The above quotes describe an unparalleled love for baseball that two men have.  They describe a passion for the game that consumes them, and provide a great example of what it takes to succeed, not only in sport, but also in business.  When I assigned the task of completing a business plan for my VE class, I prepared them by showing videos and providing articles that detail how passion for something can be the difference between an average business and a thriving one.  Students were encouraged to create a business in an industry in which they have that passion so that they could remain focused and productive.  Thus far, I have seen glimpses of it, but now we need to turn up the heat. 

Through the first week of preparation, many students have fallen behind, and I estimate about 80% of them are in need of stepping up their game.  Because I understand that plans sometimes need to change, and that the process isn’t always right on schedule, I have moved last Friday’s task (the 5 Ps) to this Tuesday.  Also, since the marketing mix and management plan account for more than 50% of the grade, we will take the next 2+ weeks to finalize these areas of the business plan.  I will also provide a framework for the purpose of the plan and how to set goals for the business once students have completed the “vision” of their ideal business.

So, without further adieu, here is a breakdown of this week’s tasks.  Again, you’ll find Tuesday’s task identical to last Friday’s so that students can get back on track and be in the right mindset for completing an excellent business plan.

Tuesday:

First, complete the departmental tasks (if applicable) assigned on the doc viewer.  Once you finish  your tasks, work on the assignment below.

Look at the 2 quotes at the beginning of my blog entry this week.  Think about things that occupy your mind all day and dream about at night.  Is your business plan designed around something you have this much passion for?  When you graduate, your focus for your career or major in college should be just as strong as this.  It will certainly help you succeed in whatever endeavor you choose.  This is just some advice.  I hope you find it helpful. 

Now, do some research about the 5 Ps of marketing.  Refer to this article (which describes 7 Ps) along with the rubric I’ve shared on my Public_Faculty folder, which details 5 Ps.  Use your answers to Friday’s questions about your specific vision for your business and the explanation of the 5 Ps to break down:

1.     Product (or service)

2.     Price

3.     Place

4.     Promotion

5.     People

In your Google Doc, you will type a description of each of these aspects of your business.  Once complete, you will have a rough draft for the first piece of your business plan!  

Wednesday:

Today we will focus on our target market.  If you are creating a business plan, you must know who your customer will be.  You’ve touched upon this in previous assignments, but today, it’s time to really define who it is you plan to have as a customer.  Here are 2 aspects of your target market that you will need to address:

o   Identifies a specific group of consumers toward which firm directs its marketing efforts.

o   Separates layers of market according to some of the following: demographics, geography, psychographics, benefits, etc.

Though today’s assignment is only 2 simple questions, your analysis and work will take you the entire period to complete.  Think smart, work smart, and put your thoughts into coherent, complete sentences.

Thursday:

Today’s focus is on your industry.  We will complete an industry analysis by answering the following questions:

o   Demonstrate an understanding of the real world industry by providing information about size, profitability, current challenges, competitive pressures, etc.  Use information found on the internet to analyze and critique how big you will be at inception, how large you wish to grow over time, and what barriers to growth exist in your industry.  Today’s lesson will be very helpful when completing part of your SWOT Analysis as well.

Friday:

Today is all about knowing your competition.  While you have outlined some strengths and weaknesses of direct competitors already, today we will refine that analysis and add to it by doing the following:

·      Competitive analysis: Identification and examination of characteristics of competing firms. (If there are no direct competitors, analysis of indirect competitors.)

·      How does the competition earn business?

·      How do they keep business?

·      Why would someone want to switch their allegiance to your business instead of theirs

Now, you can probably expect to complete today’s task pretty quickly.  That’s great!  You will use the last 15-20 minutes of class to blog about your progress on this week’s tasks.  In today’s blog, detail 1) How you may/may not have changed your focus so that you could get caught up (did you start to think about how your passion translates to this project outside of class?), 2) How much more clear your vision has become for the business, 3) are you on schedule? Behind schedule? Ahead of schedule? And 4) On which aspect of this week’s tasks did you absolutely nail it? Feel free to include a portion of that work in your entry.  You can complete this entry, and future entries, by listing each question and addressing them individually or just write your entry in paragraph form.  Just make sure to use complete sentences, and take pride in your work.

The Marketing Mix Begins

"Baseball, it is said, is only a game.  True, and the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona."

-George Wills

“I think about baseball when I wake up in the morning.  I think about it all day, and I dream about it at night.”

-Carl Yastrzemski

The above quotes describe an unparalleled love for baseball that two men have.  They describe a passion for the game that consumes them, and provide a great example of what it takes to succeed, not only in sport, but also in business.  When I assigned the task of completing a business plan for my VE class, I prepared them by showing videos and providing articles that detail how passion for something can be the difference between an average business and a thriving one.  Students were encouraged to create a business in an industry in which they have that passion so that they could remain focused and productive.  Thus far, I have seen glimpses of it, but now we need to turn up the heat. 

Through the first week of preparation, many students have fallen behind, and I estimate about 80% of them are in need of stepping up their game.  Because I understand that plans sometimes need to change, and that the process isn’t always right on schedule, I have moved last Friday’s task (the 5 Ps) to this Tuesday.  Also, since the marketing mix and management plan account for more than 50% of the grade, we will take the next 2+ weeks to finalize these areas of the business plan.  I will also provide a framework for the purpose of the plan and how to set goals for the business once students have completed the “vision” of their ideal business.

So, without further adieu, here is a breakdown of this week’s tasks.  Again, you’ll find Tuesday’s task identical to last Friday’s so that students can get back on track and be in the right mindset for completing an excellent business plan.

Tuesday:

First, complete the departmental tasks (if applicable) assigned on the doc viewer.  Once you finish  your tasks, work on the assignment below.

Look at the 2 quotes at the beginning of my blog entry this week.  Think about things that occupy your mind all day and dream about at night.  Is your business plan designed around something you have this much passion for?  When you graduate, your focus for your career or major in college should be just as strong as this.  It will certainly help you succeed in whatever endeavor you choose.  This is just some advice.  I hope you find it helpful. 

Now, do some research about the 5 Ps of marketing.  Refer to this article (which describes 7 Ps) along with the rubric I’ve shared on my Public_Faculty folder, which details 5 Ps.  Use your answers to Friday’s questions about your specific vision for your business and the explanation of the 5 Ps to break down:

1.     Product (or service)

2.     Price

3.     Place

4.     Promotion

5.     People

In your Google Doc, you will type a description of each of these aspects of your business.  Once complete, you will have a rough draft for the first piece of your business plan!  

Wednesday:

Today we will focus on our target market.  If you are creating a business plan, you must know who your customer will be.  You’ve touched upon this in previous assignments, but today, it’s time to really define who it is you plan to have as a customer.  Here are 2 aspects of your target market that you will need to address:

o   Identifies a specific group of consumers toward which firm directs its marketing efforts.

o   Separates layers of market according to some of the following: demographics, geography, psychographics, benefits, etc.

Though today’s assignment is only 2 simple questions, your analysis and work will take you the entire period to complete.  Think smart, work smart, and put your thoughts into coherent, complete sentences.

Thursday:

Today’s focus is on your industry.  We will complete an industry analysis by answering the following questions:

o   Demonstrate an understanding of the real world industry by providing information about size, profitability, current challenges, competitive pressures, etc.  Use information found on the internet to analyze and critique how big you will be at inception, how large you wish to grow over time, and what barriers to growth exist in your industry.  Today’s lesson will be very helpful when completing part of your SWOT Analysis as well.

Friday:

Today is all about knowing your competition.  While you have outlined some strengths and weaknesses of direct competitors already, today we will refine that analysis and add to it by doing the following:

·      Competitive analysis: Identification and examination of characteristics of competing firms. (If there are no direct competitors, analysis of indirect competitors.)

·      How does the competition earn business?

·      How do they keep business?

·      Why would someone want to switch their allegiance to your business instead of theirs

Now, you can probably expect to complete today’s task pretty quickly.  That’s great!  You will use the last 15-20 minutes of class to blog about your progress on this week’s tasks.  In today’s blog, detail 1) How you may/may not have changed your focus so that you could get caught up (did you start to think about how your passion translates to this project outside of class?), 2) How much more clear your vision has become for the business, 3) are you on schedule? Behind schedule? Ahead of schedule? And 4) On which aspect of this week’s tasks did you absolutely nail it? Feel free to include a portion of that work in your entry.  You can complete this entry, and future entries, by listing each question and addressing them individually or just write your entry in paragraph form.  Just make sure to use complete sentences, and take pride in your work.