Business plan case scenario This assignment assumes that you work for a public accounting firm and that an entrepreneur client requires the preparation of a comprehensive business plan to assist in the start-up, strategy formulation and management of a new business. Your client an ambitious and hardworking individual (you may assume qualifications), entrepreneurial and a risk taker. He desires to leave his job to become his own boss. Your client is seeking to start up a business in the Tourism Industry. However your client is undecided as to what service(s)/ product(s) to offer and what the optimal niche market is. Your client desires to come up with a differentiation strategy to existing businesses and aims to provide value adding product/services to the customers in the industry. Your client sees his savings of $375,000 and $500,000 from the potential sale of property passed on to him from his father as an opportunity to realise his dream and create a ground breaking, successful, new business. As you do not have a real client you will need to brainstorm innovative and entrepreneurial ideas. Your team needs to brainstorm ideas and come up with a business proposal for an innovative enterprise in the industry. Note: Assume that your client has the appropriate qualifications and professional registration to conduct the business. This is your chance to be truly entrepreneurial and creative; you need to role play your client as well as yourselves as accountant consultants. Your tutor will record your team idea and ensure that your thinking is original- you should be able to justify your choice. i Note:If during your research you find that the prospective business will not make sufficient money and not be sufficiently satisfying otherwise for the client, then you must immediately change the “business model” so that it can be viable and worthwhile. Format and lengthThere is no necessarily “correct” format or content of a business plan, although the business plan should be flexible and at least cover operations, management, administration, processes, marketing and finance and be appropriate for the particular needs of the start-up business. Be aware that business plan templates and examples available on the web may not be suitable or adequate for a client’s needs, particularly as they are often designed for completion by the entrepreneur himself/herself for the purpose of raising finance, or are incomplete “teaser” advertisements for consultants who do business plans. This assignment assumes that the client requests your accounting consultancy to prepare a full business plan. The format and content of such a business plan needs to be carefully considered in terms of: - Understandable for the client.
- Internal consistency between sections of the plan.
- Detail versus big and bigger picture.
As the client wishes the business plan to cover everything that he needs to know to set up and manage his business the plan will be detailed and comprehensive. Your team will need to make decisions about: - What is included in the body of the business plan and what is relegated to appendices
- The level of cross referencing in the business plan between sections, within sections and to appendices.
The sections of the body of the business plan should be clearly presented in a user friendly way suitable for the client to use as an information source and guide, especially throughout the start up period. Your written work must be presented in a way that it reads as a single document with a single author. You will need to leave enough time before submission for your team to ensure that your plan meets these professional criteria and so impresses the client as a professional, useful and easy to understand document that answers all his questions and ones he had not even thought to ask. Your plan must be word processed, in 12-point Times New Roman or 10-point Arial font, one and a half spaced with a 2.5 cm margin down the left hand side of each page. iNote:Your full business plan must include an executive summary, table of contents (cross-1referenced to pages in sections of the report), reference list and appendices as relevant. The business plan cover sheet, disclaimers and privacy statements, table of contents, reference lists and appendices are not included in the page limit. There is no overall page limit for the plan as appendices are not included in limits placed on the group and individual sections, and you should not feel constrained in any way in your work by the group and individual component page limits because you may make use of appendices, and refer to them within your components. ASSESSMENT SUMMARY | Business plan components | One formal hand-in group (team) progress check. The full written business plan (integrating group work and individual work into a logical and consistent report to the client). An oral presentation by all the group members to the client. | Document page limits | Executive summary: 1 page. Group component: 10 to 20 pages. Individual components: 10 to 15 pages. Remember the client does not wish to wade through mountains of paper to find what he/she needs, and a page limit imposes a useful discipline on your writing and structuring. Think about your client’s needs and make good use of the table of contents and appendices. | Mandatory meeting | In Week 11 there will be a mandatory meeting of each group (all group members must attend) with their respective tutor to discuss the issue of group dynamics, solve any arising group problems. Tutors will take notes throughout the meeting and all students are asked to sign the document so that no unforeseen sudden complaints or group member accusation will be made the following week prior to submission and the end of the semester. |
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