Over the past several weeks, we finished our textbook, learned graphing in Excel, and studied how to write letters of application and resumes. Now we’re down to our final week before our presentations, and we’d better concentrate in order to make our business plans as good as possible.
I’ve told you that the business plan and its presentation counts for a lot: 20% of your final semester grade. So it’s important that you do the best you can.
In order to make it more realistic, you have a special assignment you need to accomplish before Friday:
Contact a person, hopefully an owner/partner, who is in the same field as the business you want to start. Ask him or her the following questions:
- Who is your target market? How did you decide on where to locate your business?
- How do you promote your business in order to reach that target market? What kind of advertising? Promotions?
- Is your business a proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation?
- What are your management personnel needs?
- How did you obtain your start-up financing? Investors? Family? Friends? Your own money?
- How much money, approximately, did you need to start your business?
- What were the biggest challenges you faced to succeed in business?
After you get this information, give me a copy of your notes. Of course, use it to help you improve your business plan. Also, give me the name and phone number of the person you talked to so I can call and thank them.
