You will write an abbreviated business plan for a small business that you select. Please see Table 10.2, Page 244 for an Outline for the Business Plan. Your business plan will include the following key elements from Table 10.2:
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
The Business
Industry/Market Analysis
Product/Service Development Plan
Founding or Management Team
Operations Plan
Organization Plan
Marketing Plan
Note: The Financial Plan, Growth Plan Contingency Plan, Harvest Strategy, Timeline to Launch, Endnotes, and Appendices are not required.
Effective use of material covered in the course (including the weekly assignments and discussion questions) and outside research are bases for grading. A brief executive summary should be provided at the beginning of the paper. At least three scholarly references other than the eText must be used to write the paper. Use proper in-text references to your sources when quoting directly or indirectly, and full end of paper APA-formatted references. Papers must be word-processed and conform to the high standards established in Berkeley English composition classes. The paper should consist of a minimum of 1,500 words of content, including the executive summary, but not including title page and reference page. Business plans will be submitted by no later than Saturday of week 12.
Use scholarly peer-reviewed references rather than websites. Scholarly references are generally more credible and make a more persuasive argument. Non-academic websites are not typically recommended for academic writing. While most of the information generally is correct, it is not always reliable because anyone can change the content, bias is often present, and it is not peer-reviewed. For example, it’s best not to use news websites, Wikipedia, investopedia.com, about.com, smallbusiness.chron.com, huffingtonpost.com, ehow.com, forbes.com, cnn.com, online encyclopedias, or similar non-academic websites. Articles in these types of websites are written by reporters or individuals who may or may not be experts in the field, and consequently may have incorrect or biased information. Instead, it adds much more credibility to use the class eText, other related textbooks, and peer-reviewed articles, i.e. scholars have analyzed and evaluated the content for accuracy, quality, and reliability. Be sure to use the university library to help you find these types of scholarly references. The library has a setting in database searches that allow you to search for peer-reviewed articles only.
