Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Produce a business plan for a hypothetical business you might like to establish. This should be a small
business in scale and should be of your own design. While your business may be similar to other
established businesses it must not be a franchise. For purposes of this assignment the business should
also be a physical one and not purely online.
Your business plan should contain each of the following sections. For an example plan see Chapter 16 of
the textbook “Small Business Management in the 21st Century”.
A: Executive Summary: Create a one page summary for your plan. Appears first but is done last. This is a
very important part of your plan and should include details about marketing, finance and operations.
B: Business Philosophy / Mission Statement: Outline the philosophy of your business and its mission.
C: Product/Service Description: Describe the products and/or services you will be providing. Outline the
customer benefits and why your chosen product/services will be successful. You must also include retail
prices in this section and estimate how many units you will sell for each product on a monthly basis.
D: Self Analysis: Explain why you are a good candidate for starting up your business. Ideas to ponder:
reliability, creativity, teamwork skills, education, list special talents such as computer skills etc
1) Geographic Data: Population description that tells how many people live in a certain area.
2) Demographic Data: Statistics such as age, gender, income and marital status, family size.
You will want to include the data that will have a direct impact on your business.
F: Primary Research: Explain what methods of marketing research you will be relying on such as surveys,
focus groups or both. Include a copy of your draft marketing research survey questions.
H: Market Segment Analysis – Target Customer: Using the secondary data collected previously, help the
reader understand exactly who your target customer is and why this customer would want to purchase
your product/service.
I: Analysis of Potential Location: Please include the following information in narrative form.
1) The location of the business (this may be a town or small city or a neighbourhood/area of a
larger city)
2) Will you rent or buy the property?
3) Are you in a mall, free standing building, home garage etc?
4) What will your hours of operation be?
5) What do the parking facilities for staff and customers look like?
6) What access to mass transit do staff and customers have?
7) Is the area safe?
8) Will you be near one or more complimentary businesses?
J: Ownership Choices: What type of ownership (Sole proprietorship, partnership, corporations etc) have
you selected? Why have you selected this option?
H: Personnel Needs: State who will do what and who will report to whom. Create a simple
organizational charge that will show working relationships.
J: Hiring Strategy: How will you recruit staff members? What salary and conditions do you need to
provide to attract qualified staff?
K: Proposed Product or Service Plan: Describe your business and your products in detail.
N: Place:
O: Income Statement: Produce an income statement based on the projected sales volumes and margins
you have identified in earlier sections. This should include:
Marking
Each item B-O is work 3 points while section A (Executive summary) is worth 8 points. Points are
allocated as follows:
Section A
Section B-O