First Step for creating the Business Plan is to create an Outline of the Business Plan. To do this, you will need to work with your team members to come up with a type of business you all would like to create as a team, whether it is for a product or a service. Creating an "Outline" is recommended for you and your team to get started. From the Outline, you can then develop, by creating complete sentences, which make sense about the different sections and then turning it into a Draft to turn in to me.

Second Step is the choosing of the team members who will either be designated by the team or to volunteer themselves to be the individual who posts the completed assignments for the team in Canvas. Of course, if there is a problem with that, please let me know and I will assign an individual for this responsibility. I believe it should be someone, who is willing to make sure the team assignments are submitted on time for the benefit of the team. Being in and working as a team is an essential aspect of all businesses, no matter position you are in within the business. We talk about project work, and project work is about team building. All courses now require a team assignment, except a few of the stem courses. Here is your time to learn how to do this. Please do you best to get along with others, as this is also where you can acquire extra points for participation. This means it is up to all of you, to do your best to work with others. Take the time to get to know your team members, their availability, special needs if any, and how to be able to compromise when times get tough amongst the team members, as it will.

Third Step, as team members, each of you will need to identify your strengths and weaknesses in your abilities and skills. By letting each other know what you are capable of doing, you will only strengthen your team and ability to complete the project. Okay, now, if you are good with research, you should offer to do some review of information about different areas of the type of business your team is interested in. Let's say you are looking into owning a restaurant, and maybe one of you has experience working in a restaurant. Then you are capable of assisting with whatever area of being a restaurant to contribute to completing different sections of the business play, such as daily operations or purchasing of supplies or food. If you were in management, you could have experience with the daily operations and management of the business. Now, if you are great or good with numbers or have an accounting background, you maybe be the person to work on the financial statements and or ratios. Everyone needs to work together on the different sections so that they work together with consistency and flowing information with them, so you all make decisions to complete the first stage of the business plan. You may find yourselves just putting simple comments in each section, which will provide an avenue for building the draft.

Items to Consider

What type of product/good or service?

Create a business name,

What type of business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, franchise, non-profit, etc.),

Mission statement,

Vision statement,

Who are you asking for funding from (angel investor, bank, credit union, family, friends, venture capitalist, etc.)?

How much funding you'll need? Interest rate you are willing to incur (4%, 5%, 6%)? How much will pay it back (monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.) Are you offering equity in the business to the investor?

Who is your target market,

Your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats),

What does daily operations consist of (hours of operation, who is/are the managers -different departments, who opens and closes the doors, how many work during the day)?

Do you have assets?

Timeline of activities for building the running the business.

Financial Statements (Income and Expenses, Cash Flow, and Balance Sheet) & Ratios.

This section for Financial Statements and Ratios carry the heaviest weight of your grade, so please remember to do this to the best of your ability.

Do some research on how expenses occur for your business, and if you need to add sections or remove them for your team's service or goods, then do that, but follow the format to the best of your ability.