CBA 440 – PRACTICUM IN BUSINESS & MIS
Business Plan
Project Title (Font size 20)
the logo/slogan of your company
Presented By
Name: xxxxxxxxxx GUST ID: xxxx
Name: xxxxxxxxxx GUST ID: xxxx
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
CBA 440 – Practicum in Business and MIS
Fall 2017
Table of Content
Executive Summary 3
Introduction 4
Business Vision 4
Business Mission 4
Business Case 4
Problem Statement 4
Proposed Solution 4
Opportunity 4
Opportunity 5
Competitive Landscape 5
Market Research & Validation 5
Marketing / Growth Plan 5
Legal Landscape 5
SWOT Analysis 6
Funding Requirements 6
Business Model 6
Innovation 6
Key Partners 6
Key Activities 6
Key Resources 6
Value Proposition 7
Customer Relationships 7
Channels 7
Pricing Strategy 7
Revenue Streams 7
Cost Structure 7
Business Launch Project 8
Project Deliverables 8
Work Breakdown Structure 8
Project Schedule 8
Project Cost 8
Project Risks 8
Progress to Date & Potential 9
Executive Summary
Please write the executive summary of the entire project report here. It should be able to explain all aspects of your business discussed in the report.
Introduction
Use a small paragraph to describe your business idea, your logo and slogan (if any). Explain how relevant your business name and logo is to the business idea. Also introduce your group and write a small paragraph about each member of your team. Briefly mention passion / contribution of each member and how each member helped complete the business plan throughout the semester.
Business Vision
Describe the vision of your business.
Business Mission
Write the mission statement of your business.
Business Case
Problem Statement
Describe problem(s), needs or wants of your targeted customer segment and provide an assessment of the current market situation. The problem(s), needs or wants should be significant enough so customers will be willing to pay you money to address the same.
Also, explain why the problem is relevant to Kuwait and this region. Mention how many people are facing this problem and why no suitable solution has been found till now.
Proposed Solution
Describe how your product/service will solve the problem(s) you have described in the previous section.
You must ensure that your proposed solution directly addresses the problem(s). Highlight how your solution is different from any other solutions that address the same problem(s).
Opportunity
Describe how your product/service will solve the problem(s), needs or wants you have described in the previous section.
You must ensure that your proposed solution directly addresses the problem(s), needs or wants. Highlight how your solution is different from any other solutions that address the same problem(s).
Opportunity
Describe your customer segment(s) in detail. Mention the size of each segment along with their likes and dislikes. You should be able to convince the reader(s) that your idea is scalable and has a good potential for expansion. You may use SOM, SAM and TAM figure to make your point. Mention the sources of data you have used to reach your conclusions. Use infographics as much as possible and provide specific numbers. You may use personas to explain characteristics of your customer segment.
Competitive Landscape
Explain the likely demand for your product/service and list down your potential competitors (any entity which may attract your customers away from you is a competitor).
Describe how your product/service is different from competing products and services. You may use a table showing a comparison of features for this purpose.
Try to be as realistic as possible. You must know your competition and their products/services really well to make this section convincing.
Market Research & Validation
Describe your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or equivalent and how it was used to get customer feedback. Also mention how many units of MVP you were able to sell and at what price. If you are only using one single prototype or website/smart phone app/social media page, mention the number of people who to saw/used your MVP or equivalent.
Marketing / Growth Plan
Explain how will you approach your potential customers. You must mention what specific activities will be done to first capture SOM and later expand your customer base to SAM and TAM. This section must be synchronized with the channels section in which marketking channels will be described in detail.
Legal Landscape
Confirm that your product/service is legally permissible according to laws of State of Kuwait. Explain what type of license would you need and what are the pre-requisites of getting that license. List the stakeholders involved and their roles.
SWOT Analysis
List down the SWOT of your proposed business. Mention any market entry barriers or possible legal hurdles. Refer to the later section which has project related risks discussed in detail.
Funding Requirements
Describe the amount of money needed to start your business. The amount should cover all the start-up costs plus the initial operational costs till you are able to pay the same from your own revenue. You may mention aggregate numbers and refer to later sections where details are provided. Also mention the payback period and refer to appendices where the detailed calculations have been made.
Business Model
Innovation
Refer to the slides on innovation and describe how your business will be different given the competitor landscape described in previous assignment.
Key Partners
Provide details of all entities which must support you to successfully sell your product/service. You should mention specific names of partners and type of support needed.
Key Activities
Describe key activities you will do as part of your operations to sell/support your product/service. Please ensure that your entire operation is described in detail.
Key Resources
Describe key resources (human resources, machines, supplies) needed to to sell/support your product/service.
For human resources, create an organization chart of your business. Mention roles and responsibilities of each position.
Add an appendix providing salary and compensation calculations of your human resources. All details should be realistic.
Value Proposition
Mention why should your customers buy from you and not from other competitors. What do you do different than others. Describe your main message to your customers.
Customer Relationships
Describe any existing relationships with your customer segment. If you do not have any existing relationship with the target customer segment, describe what kind of relationships will you try to form with your customers.
Channels
Describe what channels will you use to market/sell/distribute/communicate with each of your customer segment.
Pricing Strategy
Mention what activities were done to decide about the pricing of your products/services and also mention the proposed prices. If you are selling a lot of products/services (more than 40), you may group them in categories and mention the average price of each category. Do provide specific examples of prices for at least one item in each category.
Revenue Streams
Describe how your business will generate revenue. List all possible revenue streams and provide aggregate revenue projections for the first quarter, first year and following three years.
You may use a table to show all the required details. Refer to the sections/appendices where detailed calculations have been made.
Cost Structure
Provide your start-up costs (total of your cost baseline) and also provide a breakdown divided by categories (work packages).
Provide your aggregate operational cost projections for the first quarter, first year and following three years. Do mention the breakdown of these aggregates.
You may use a table to show all the required details. Refer to the sections/appendices where detailed calculations have been made.
Business Launch Project
Project Deliverables
List down all deliverables of your project. Your list of deliverables must include a website, social media pages and marketing material. The remaining deliverables will depend on your idea/business. List the acceptance criteria with each deliverable. Acceptance criteria means what would make them acceptable to you and your customers.
Hint: For deliverables like website and social media pages, I had mentioned the criteria during my classes and you can find the same on my slides.
Work Breakdown Structure
Provide the WBS of your launch project in text or graphical format. It should show all work packages and tasks. Each element of the WBS should have a proper identifier. Mandatory work packages include:
· Research & Validation – includes identifying segments, using MVP to get feedback and defining market size
· Incorporation – all steps needed to have your business registered in Kuwait
· Online Presence – developing website and social media accounts
Project Schedule
Using the WBS, list down duration of each task in a table. You can use the PERT formula to find out the durations of each task.
Project Cost
Using the WBS, list down the cost of each task in a table. You can use the PERT formula to find out the costs of each task.
Project Risks
For the top ten threats, write down how will you respond (handle) that threat. You need to first write the type of response and then the specific action which will be taken. Also mention the risk owner (who will take that specific action). The response types are given on the same set of slides which have the risk matrix.
| # | Risk | Response Type | Response Action |
Progress to Date & Potential
Provide a summary of what activities have you done from the beginning of the semester till now to work on your business idea.
Mention what do you plan to do about your idea in the near future.
Also write a statement why your project should be in the top 10.
Appendices
Your appendices should have the following:
· All the spreadsheets used for financials
· The Business Model Canvas
· Summary of your survey results
· Any other documents which may explain the effort exerted by your group
Please note that all appendices should be properly labelled and separated.
