Entrepreneurship. Rhonda Abrams
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Название: Entrepreneurship

Автор: Rhonda Abrams

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Поиск работы, карьера

Серия:

isbn: 9781933895673

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ any hard numbers to back up your assertions, so much the better: “Census figures show that families with young children are moving into this area at a rapid pace (up 27% over the previous decade), and those families will require housing.”

      ■ Your ultimate goals for the business. Do you want to eventually run a multinational corporation, or do you want to keep it relatively small and contained? You should be prepared to articulate your vision for the business’s size and reach.

       See page 97

      You may prepare a business plan for a class assignment or to enter a business plan competition (often with significant cash awards). One major difference in preparing a business plan for a class or competition is that you’re much more likely to work with a team—as equals—rather than have one entrepreneur with a vision driving the process and making the final decisions.

      Another major difference from the “real world” is the way your plan will be judged. Professors and competition judges typically place more emphasis on the quality of the written plan itself than potential funders do. And in the real world, potential funders will base far more of their decisions on the capabilities of the key founders than competition judges or professors will.

      One of the major challenges of developing a business plan for a class or competition is working with a team. Mastering the dynamics of working together in a group—how to reach decisions, allocate tasks, communicate, and so forth—will help prepare you for the very real situations you’ll face when developing an actual business. The following key steps will help you manage your competition process.

      ■ Choose your team. Your people determine your success. Unlike with an actual business, you don’t always have the option of jettisoning members of your class or competition team. So choose carefully, and look for balance among the functional areas you’ll put in your plan: Having four great marketers may be overkill, leaving you without sufficient depth in operations, technology, or finance.

      ■ Make decisions. The first decision any group must make is to decide how they’re going to make decisions. Devising a clear and fair decision-making process makes every other decision easier and the group interaction more pleasant. The important thing in devising a decision-making process is that all team members “buy in” to the process.

       See page 101

      ■ Choose your project. Some classes or competitions may limit the kinds of businesses you can select as a project, but more often you have a universe of options from which to choose. You’ll probably start your selection process with a brainstorming session of team members, to come up with a list of possibilities. In fact, some professors require you to submit a number of potential business plan projects. Refer back to Chapter 2 to help you focus your selection process.

      ■ Identify key issues. Once you’ve decided which business you’re going to plan, you need to identify the key issues you’ll have to address in developing that plan. Go over the “Basic Business Concept” worksheet on page 40. Be critical: Don’t be afraid to tear your business idea apart. Ask yourself all the tough questions that a reader—whether a professor, judge, or potential funder—will inevitably ask.

      ■ Assign tasks. When apportioning tasks, you can choose to either divide up tasks based on functional areas or share all tasks among team members. Because it’s generally helpful to have one key person act as the focal point for reporting in, setting meetings, and so on, you’ll also need to choose a group leader. The group can then decide the nature and extent of the leader’s responsibilities.

      ■ Reevaluate assumptions. Toward the end of the planning process, before putting the written plan and presentation together, reassemble the group to reevaluate your original assumptions and readjust your business concept or strategy. As a result of your research and data into the industry, market, and competition, you’ll have a much better idea of what might actually succeed. Take the time to do this step, and be willing to change as well.

      ■ Integrate the work. Even after each member of the team has completed their section of the plan, you’re far from finished when they turn their sections in. You’ll likely find that you have a very uneven document: some sections more thorough than others, some more clearly written than others. Put one team member, or at most two, in charge of completing the written plan. It’s difficult to write an excellent document by committee.

      ■ Prepare and present the plan. Finally, decide who’ll give the presentation of the plan, if an oral presentation is required or is an option (take it!), and then practice that presentation. You don’t want to be caught fumbling at the last minute, figuring out who’s going to stand up.

      REAL-WORLD RECAP

       The team process

       The following key steps will help you manage your competition process:

      ■ Choose your team

      ■ Make decisions

      ■ Choose your project

      ■ Identify key issues

      ■ Assign tasks

      ■ Reevaluate assumptions

      ■ Integrate the work

      ■ Prepare and present the plan

      Although each business plan competition has its own rules and requirements, you can improve your odds at winning by adopting these strategies.

      ■ Understand the nature of the competition. A competition sponsored by M.I.T. will have a different emphasis than one sponsored by a business association that helps launch small businesses.

      ■ Find team members with complementary backgrounds and skills. Judges often look at your depth of expertise. If your background is in marketing, balance your team with team members skilled in other functions, such as technology, operations, or finance.

      ■ If possible, talk to past winners or entrants for insights. If the competition sponsor shares examples of previous years’ winning plans, look at a number of entries—not just at the first-prize winner; you’ll get a better feel for how they distinguish among entries.

      ■ Research the judges. What areas of interest and expertise do they have? If they’re investors themselves, what types of businesses do they invest in? Such information gives you a sense of the level of industry and technology knowledge they’ll bring to their judging.

      ■ For university competitions, call on alumni members for advice or information. In fact, this may be the perfect opportunity to СКАЧАТЬ