Crafting a Business Plan

Part 2: The Business of Managing

Goal of the Exercise

In Part 1 of the business plan project, you formulated a basic identity for your business. Part 2 of the business plan project asks you to think about the goals of your business, some internal and external factors affecting the business, and the organizational structure of the business.

Exercise Background: Part 2 of the Business Plan

As you learned in Chapter 5, e very business sets goals. In this part of the plan, you’ll define some of the goals for your business.

Part 2 of the business plan also asks you to perform a basic SWOT analysis for your business. As you’ll recall from Chapter 5, a SWOT analysis looks at the business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are internal factors—things that the business can control. The opportunities and threats are generally external factors that affect the business:

Sociocultural forces Will changes in population or culture help your business or hurt it?
Economic forces Will changes in the economy help your business or hurt it?
Technological forces Will changes in technology help your business or hurt it?
Competitive forces Does your business face much competition or very little?
Political-legal forces Will changes in laws help your business or hurt it?

Each of these forces will affect different businesses in different ways, and some of these may not apply to your business at all.

Part 2 of the business plan also asks you to determine how the business is to be run. Part of this will require you to create an organizational chart to get you thinking about the different tasks needed for a successful business. You’ll also examine various factors relating to operating your business.

Your Assignment

  1. Step 1

    Open the saved Business Plan file you began working on in Part 1. You will continue to work from the same file you started working on in Part 1.

  2. Step 2

    For the purposes of this assignment, you will answer the questions in “Part 2: The Business of Managing”:

  1. 7-33. Provide a brief mission statement for your business.

    Hint: Refer to the discussion of mission statements in Chapter 5. Be sure to include the name of your business, how you will stand out from your competition, and why a customer will buy from you.

  2. 7-34. Consider the goals for your business. What are three of your business goals for the first year? What are two intermediate to long-term goals?

    Hint: Refer to the discussion of goal setting in Chapter 5. Be as specific and realistic as possible with the goals you set. For example, if you plan on selling a service, how many customers do you want by the end of the first year, and how much do you want each customer to spend?

  3. 7-35. Perform a basic SWOT analysis for your business, listing its main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

    Hint: We explained previously what factors you should consider in your basic SWOT analysis. Look around at your world, talk to classmates, or talk to your instructor for other ideas in performing your SWOT analysis.

  4. 7-36. Who will manage the business? Hint: Refer to the discussion of managers in Chapter 5. Think about how many levels of management as well as what kinds of managers your business needs.

  5. 7-37. Show how the “team” fits together by creating a simple organizational chart for your business. Your chart should indicate who will work for each manager as well as each person’s job title.

    Hint: As you create your organizational chart, consider the different tasks involved in the business. To whom will each person report? Refer to the discussion of organizational structure in Chapter 6 for information to get you started.

  6. 7-38. Create a floor plan of the business. What does it look like when you walk through the door?

    Hint: When sketching your floor plan, consider where equipment, supplies, and furniture will be located.

  7. 7-39. Explain what types of raw materials and supplies you will need to run your business. How will you produce your good or service? What equipment do you need? What hours will you operate?

    Hint: Refer to the discussion of operations in this chapter for information to get you started.

  8. 7-40. What steps will you take to ensure that the quality of the product or service stays at a high level? Who will be responsible for maintaining quality standards?

    Hint: Refer to the discussion of quality improvement and TQM in this chapter for information to get you started. Note: Once you have answered the questions, save your Word document. You’ll be answering additional questions in later chapters.

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