Entrepreneurship 12 - Business Plan Formulation

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

• develop and evaluate a business plan and operating strategy for a venture
• create a mission statement and objectives for a venture
• compare the criteria used by various sources of venture capital to provide funding

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Have students work in teams to create business plans that form the operational framework for ventures. Ask them to review the business plans and create outlines of the key elements. As a class, students compare the different outlines and combine them into a single generic outline on a wall chart.
• Have students in groups use the generic class outline to create business plans for their own ventures, researching any details they need to complete the plans. Ask groups to present their plans to the class for critical review and to modify them as needed. Discuss how venture capitalists make their decisions and what they look for in a good proposal. Then have each group present its plan for review by a possible source of venture capital and make adjustments as needed.
• Explain to students that mission statements are part of the executive summary of a business plan and are normally written after the completion of all other components. Have students collect several company statements describing missions and objectives and discuss the benefits the statements provide to an enterprise. As a class, students list what these statements have in common, then use the list to write mission statements for their business plans.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• With the class, define criteria for students to use to develop and assess a mission statement. Criteria could include:
  • is succinct (two or three sentences) and clearly written
  • states the purpose and goals of the venture
  • states how the venture will achieve customer satisfaction
  • leads logically to productive business and marketing objectives
• When students develop business plans based on a standard outline, review their plans for clarity, completeness, content, and format.
• Collect the operating strategies groups develop for their ventures. Note whether they have identified the necessary elements in implementing their business plans, including:
  • resource development
  • organizational structure
  • administrative policies
  • operations processes
  • management information systems
  • timelines for implementation
• Have students work in groups to find providers of venture capital to interview about how to obtain financing. As students discuss their findings with the class, ask them to identify which lenders (e.g., venture capitalists, chartered banks, private investors) would be most likely to finance various business plans. Note the extent to which they:
  • recognize variations in lending criteria and the reasons for these variations (e.g., credit rating, security, repayment ability, personal background)
  • accurately relate lending criteria to the specifics of various business plans

• Canadian Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Third Edition
• Co-operative Development
• Co-operative Entrepreneurship
• Creativity In Business: An Entrepreneurial Approach
• Student Venture

• The Advantage: Service Quality
• Competing in a Global Environment
• The Edge: Creating a Winning Business Plan
• Ergonomics
• Evaluating
• Financing
• Inspiration and Motivation
• Manufacturing & Distribution
• Marketing
• Planning
• The Service Business
• Venture: Service, Ha!
• Venture: Shred It

Previous Page Next Page

  BC Ministry of Education Home Page