Semester 2 Business Plan

This week, I'm going to go bare bones on the blog.  There will be no images or motivational quotes.  You obviously want to know who your partners will be for the business plan so I'm going to get right to it.  Please see below:

Sara W	Kaitlin H
Ryan H	Makayla L
Brandon W	Tyler I
Katelynne T	Kidell S
Steffan H	Josh H
Rachel T	Gryanna B
Andrew T	William W
Matthew C	Matthew G

Yes, I allowed the vast majority of you to work with your #1 choices.  I had a change of heart when making partners, since I was considering pairing secondary choices.  In the end, I believed you will be motivated to work more efficiently with your #1 choices more than a secondary choice. Hopefully my belief in you is validated and I will get 8 great business plans.

In any event, we will use the presentations from our Google Drive VE Folder to guide us daily through creating the business plan.  In addition to creating the plan, you will also need to operate the business (scaled down) AND blog about your progress throughout the next 5 weeks.  Here's a breakdown of our tasks:

Business Operations:

• Payroll - Finance
• Item of the Week - Sales
• Display Board - CEO and VP of IT/Design
• Newsletter - Admin & HR
• Sports at a glance for week of 1/18
• Article about what makes an attractive company website
• Employee Spotlight - William W

Business Plan Tasks:

Monday:

-Decide on your business

-Discuss how successful individuals thrived working in an industry on something they love

-Work together to create company vision

-Create Google Doc to log your notes about your company vision (Share the doc with me)

Tuesday:

-Read this article about choosing the right industry

-Discuss how successful business people know their industry

-Analyze the industry in which you will operate

-In your Google Doc: Write a short paragraph about your industry and list at least 5 things your business will do to succeed in your industry

Wednesday:

-Find at least one direct competitor and one indirect competitor

-Analyze their businesses

-In your Google Doc, break down the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor (direct and indirect - I suggest you create a table for each competitor and list strengths on the left & weaknesses on the right)

-In your Google Doc, type a short paragraph about how you will differentiate yourself or how your business will not have the same weaknesses as your competitors. Essentially, in a few sentences, explain how your business will be better than your competitors

Thursday & Friday:

-Create a more clear image of your company vision by answering the following questions (feel free to number them as they are numbered below) in your Google Doc:

1. What will the outside of your business look like?
2. What will the inside of your business look like?
3. Where is your business located (use a perfect world scenario, as if you had access to the location you desire)?
4. What do your customers want from your business?  
5. How can you satisfy them as much as possible?
6. How do you differ from your competition?
7. is your product/service more affordable or more expensive than your competitor?  Why?
8. How do you get customers in the door and how do you keep them coming back?  EXPLAIN THE EXPERIENCE A CUSTOMER WILL GET FROM DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU

When finished answering these questions, you will type a 200+ word blog entry about whether you believe your business can succeed and how well you are working with your partner.  Don't forget to share the blog with me.

See you tomorrow!