5

Introduction to Business Plans

Goals:

• Discuss the purpose and benefits of planning
• Introduce elements of the Business Plan the students will develop
• Review Sample Business Plan to provide an overview of what students will be doing
• Introduce the concept of structure and discipline as essential elements of creativity

Skills:

• Ability to identify value in planning
• Ability to understand that structure and discipline (in the Business Plan development process) are necessary to achieve new and creative objectives

Overview:

Few students have participated in a long-term large scale planning process. For the most part students are used to accomplishing short assignments (including a term paper) that is graded independently of other work assignments.

The Business Plan presents a very new challenge. First, the plan will be progressively built over a period of months, not days or weeks. Second, the process is both creative and disciplined. The Business Plan development process is creative in that it provides the students a great deal of latitude in selecting a business concept and requires them to make personal decisions regarding how they want the business to operate. However, the data gathering, analysis, and planning steps must be performed in an orderly and disciplined manner.

Students are strongly encouraged to use the Sample Business Plan as a model for developing their own Business Plan.