Description

BCOM 3304 Handout

Dream Plan – Business Plan

Portfolio Assignment

Course Objectives

1. Student learns to design a proposal document that models those realistically used in

day-to-day business transactions.

2. Student learns to prepare a document using standard business and university research

formats having distinct sections that organize presentation and information.

3. Student will utilize training in marketing, finance, and accounting to accomplish a

proposal report.

4. Student will exhibit written communication in an effective format displaying strong

content, correct grammar and punctuation.

5. Student will prepare an APA-style business report that includes statistics, graphs, charts,

and other forms of data.

6. Student will learn to address a designated critical audience, i.e. banker / investor.

7. Student will engage in an entrepreneurial business investigation.

8. Student will prepare a document for potential E-portfolio placement.

AACSB Standards

The Dream Plan – Business Plan

1. Requires reflective thinking skills concerning planning and evaluating the organization

and operation of a business

2. Demands ethical and legal responsibilities in setting company goals and procedures,

meeting local, state, and federal requirements, and engaging in business in the public

sphere

3. Requires persuasive communication skills

4. Requires analytical skills to develop products and services, do cost analysis, determine

markets and customer orientation, and study competition

5. Requires access to and skills to use library and Internet sources

6. Must engage multicultural and diversity understandings regarding product and service

offerings, marketing, hiring, and clientele

7. Requires understanding of financial analysis and reporting through charts, graphs, and

spreadsheets

8. Requires marketing analysis of products and services and means to promote these

through surveys and advertising to a demographic target

9. Proposes to create values through the production and distribution of goods, services,

and information

10. Requires thorough understanding of group and individual dynamics in the business

organization and operation

11. Recognizes management technologies, human resource programs, and information

technologies utilized to promote values, business, and reduce cost

12. Endorses involvement in community and global environments to promote prosperity

and goodwill.

DPQ Intellectual Skills

The Dream Plan – Business Plan

1. Shows use of analytic inquiry

2. Shows use of information resources

3. Shows ability to engage diverse cultural perspectives of business communities,

government, politics, and conditions existing in global markets

4. Requires error-free prose and calculations presented to critical audiences of bankers

and investors

DPQ Applied Learning

The Dream Plan – Business Plan

1. Requires knowledge and use of various academic disciplines to evaluate, organize,

and promote individual segments of production, financing, management,

marketing, and delivery inherent in a successful business plan

2. Requires field-based investigations of business locations, suppliers, construction and

remodeling needs, and study of competitors in a select demographic area.

Report Process

1. Student exercises an entrepreneurial spirit in proposing a business plan for a realistic

and local business venture.

2. Student will determine a service or product that has consumer appeal and a viable

market.

3. The student will study a local area (Zipcode) as suitable for locating and opening a business

that will succeed in that locality.

4. The student will determine whether to lease, lease and remodel, buy, or build a facility that

houses the business, including estimated rough costs (monthly – annually / allowance)

for the chosen option.

5. The student will envision the necessary staff and employees necessary to open and run this

operation, including rough estimates of payroll (monthly – annually / allowance).

6. The student will suggest a layout of usable space of building (property) designated to

specific functions and operations.

7. The student will envision furnishings and equipment for the office, floor, showroom, and

customer reception areas (allowances).

8. If operation includes warehousing, work yards, or a manufacturing plant, the student will

provide rough estimates of heavy equipment needs and stocking requirements for these

operations (allowances).

9. The student will envision advertising tactics for local and neighboring communities for

opening and going public (allowances).

10. The student will recognize and account for utility costs, vehicle purchases, signage, and

similar operating expenses (allowances).

11. The student will account for normal legal requirements involved in running a business:

public filings (DBA); state sales and tax registrations; federal EIN; and applicable city,

county, and state licensing and code requirements and adherences, if any, for a type of

business (fee allowances).

12. Student will estimate capital needed to open and run this business until it is established

and producing operating income. This includes owner’s contribution to capital pool.

13. The student will analyze costs and provide charts showing cost / expense breakdowns under

various headers. This also applies to revenue generators that lead to break-even and

profit schedules.

14. The student’s Business Plan will provide an Executive Summary profiling and describing

this business, then prepare a discussion, coordinated with charts, about anticipated

expenses arising within a projected start date to a business opening with staff in place.

Project anticipated costs, revenues, and profit for three years of operation, with

measures and indicators of probable success.

Proposal Format: Basic and Minimal Requirement for a Business Plan

 Title page

 Table of contents showing section page numbers

 Table of figures showing page numbers where graphics, charts, and spreadsheets

are used

 Executive Summary

 Body: Discussion, information/data, charts, spreadsheets, and analysis. See more

details under