Identifying Business Opportunities and Writing Business Plan

Instructions for Final Project
The assignment is a combination of identifying the potential opportunities and Business Plan, to be able to startup a new business.
This project should consist of at least “10 pages”. Do not worry about your current resources. Think entrepreneurially. Use Business model canvas to complete your business plan.
You have to use the following points in your project.
Introduction.

1. Concept and

Where did your idea come from (e.g. a university lab)? Explain what the market opportunity is and how your solution addresses this. What makes your solution particularly compelling? How does it make the world a better place? Do you have personal experiences with this market? Is there existing intellectual property that you must license or new intellectual property you must develop in order to pursue this opportunity? Has anyone tried something like this before? If so, why did they fail or succeed, and why is the opportunity still attractive?

2. Market Analysis.

What industry or sector of the economy are you addressing? Why is this market attractive? What segment of the overall market are you pursuing? What market research can be done to describe this market need? What are the total industry or category sales over the past three years? What is the anticipated growth for this industry? If this is a new market, what is the best analogous market data that illustrates the opportunity? Project the potential market size and growth for your opportunity.

3. Customers and Customer Development.

This is extremely important. You need to have a clear idea of who your target customer is. The only way for you to be able to do this is to “get out of the building” and speak with your potential customers. You will need to answer questions such as: What does the customer need? Why does the customer need it? What is the customer using today? What is the customer willing to pay for your solution? Why? How will you reach this customer? You should include both primary (or first-hand) research and secondary research, emphasizing primary over secondary.

4. Competition and Positioning.

Who else serves this customer need? Who might attempt to serve this market in the future? What advantages and weaknesses do these competitors and would-be competitors have? What share of the market do specific competitors serve? Are the major competitors’ sales growing, declining, or steady? What are the barriers to entry for you? What are the barriers to entry for additional competitors? How could partners and allies best help you overcome competition from established enterprises or other startups?
Business Model
The questions that will help you fill out every column in the business canvas model:

1. The customer

Who are our clients and why should they buy from us?
Who are we creating value for? (You may have a few different types of customers and that’s ok

• see the video on Google’s canvas as an ) Who are our most important customers?

Value proposition (The product and value that you’re creating) What are we building and for whom?
What are we providing to the customer?
What problems are we solving for a specific customer? What needs are we fulfilling for the customer?
What product or service do we offer for every kind of customer?

1. Channels

Through which Channels do our Customer Segments want to be reached?
(e.g website, application, social — Facebook/Twitter, marketplace — iTunes/Salesforce etc.) How do we reach our customers today? How are our Channels integrated?
Which among our channels is the most efficient/cheapest? Which ones are most cost-efficient?
How are we integrating them with customer routines?

• Customer relations (Acquisition, retention and growth)

How will our company Get, Keep and Grow customers (by paid and/or free channels)? What type of relationship do each type of our customers expect to build with us?
What type of relationship do we have already with the customers? How does it combine with the rest of our business plan?
How much does maintaining this relationship cost us?

1. Revenue channels

How will we make money?
What pricing model will work for us (monthly/annual subscription, according to the amount of use/users/time, a one-time payment, trial, freemium, advertising — examples etc.)
Which value do you provide that the customer will be ready to pay for? What are they already paying for today?
How are they paying today (annually/monthly/checks/Paypal/credit card etc.)? How would they prefer to pay?
What are the components of each of our revenue channels from all of our revenue?

1. The necessary activities

What activities are necessary in order to carry out the business model? In other words, which activities will allow us to:
Provide the value proposition? Maintain our distribution channels?
Build relationship preservation with the customers? Build our revenue channels?

1. The necessary resources

What are the resources necessary to carry out the business model (physically, financially, human resources and intellectual property)? In other words, which resources will allow us to:
Provide our value proposition? Maintain our distribution channels?
Build relationship preservation with the customers? Build our revenue channels?

• The required partnerships Who are our necessary partners? Who are our necessary suppliers?

What resources do we need to get from partners?
What activities necessary for us will be performed by partners?

• Cost

What are the most important costs inherent from our business model? What are our most expensive necessary resources?
What are the constant and changing costs? When will our revenue surpass our costs?
What is our monthly rate of expenses or our burn rate? And how much time does the money we raised buy us?
What are the most important numbers for the survival of our company?

6. Risks and Mitigation
   • Apply SWOT Analysis
   • What are the key milestones and checkpoints in your plan?
   • How will you measure/determine if you have successfully attained these milestones? How do you define success?
   • What external factors might affect (positively or adversely) your attaining success?
   • Develop contingency and risk mitigation

7. Entrepreneurial Ethics, Personal “Board of Directors” and 6-Word Summary

• Entrepreneurship is not all about personal financial gain. It concerns crafting a lifelong plan to make a positive impact on society. Character does matter. Failure is OK; unethical behavior is not. True wealth requires the creation of enduring value, which requires integrity and ethics. Entrepreneurship and business are not just contact sports subject to their own arcane rules, but an integral part of life that reflect the values of each participant. How do you plan to practice ethical principles in your daily actions?

8. References
During the class time, each student needs to conduct an online presentation.
For project format that you have to follow while preparing your report is as follows:

• One single-sided A4 paper.
• Ariel or Times New Roman.
• Normally with a 12 point font.
• 5 line spacing.
• A margin of at least 3.5 cm on the left side of the page for both text and diagrams.