management

Individual assignment – Entrepreneurship

Scope: An individual business plan according to the guidelines presented on the Blackboard page.

Word Count: a maximum 2,000 words, excluding appendices

Clarification regarding the scope: When marking, I will be taking into account the individual nature

of the assignment in that you would not have had the benefit of pulling the forces together with

your fellow team members. As such, your analysis is likely to be less detailed.

However, it is still important to demonstrate that your plan relates to a potentially viable and

feasible “opportunity” rather than just an “idea” (among other factors, that

(i) there will be a sufficiently large market for it comprised of customers who

(ii) would be willing to pay for a potential solution to their problem and

(iii) this solution can potentially be delivered (given the current state of technology,

consumer preferences, etc.) in not too distant future.

Clarification re the Opportunity vs. Lifestyle-driven businesses:

The business you are analysing could be based on a more uncertain and remote opportunity (i.e.

based on emergent technology, still developing shift in the consumer preferences, few competing

offerings, etc. ) or could reflect a lifestyle nature (a small restaurant, a bakery, a retail outlet, etc.).

For a more uncertain and emerging opportunity, you would find it hard to articulate your

implementation plan in great detail. Your primary focus should be on convincing the reader that (a)

an attractive opportunity exists (a large or growing market of which you’d be able to capture a

significant part). Secondly, you would need to show (b) that you would be able to secure the key

resources to start launching your business around that opportunity. While understanding your likely

cost structure is still important, the financial return is driven by capturing a large enough chunk of

the market rather than ensuring short-term profitability. Examples of such businesses are large tech

firms or business model disrupters in their early days such as Amazon, Ebay, Uber, etc.

Should your opportunity be more of a lifestyle nature, you would still need to demonstrate that (a)

an opportunity exists. Crucially, (b) you would also need to understand what is required to execute

this opportunity profitably in terms of your operational metrics and the cost structure (e.g.

availability of suitable retail space, likely monthly rent levels, number of employees required, etc.).

These metrics need not be exact, but you would need to put together a set of plausible assumptions

and importantly, identify the most obvious deal-breakers. In this case, it is critical to demonstrate

that, having considered most costs and expenses, required investments and your working capital

timings, you could still become cash-positive promptly. The later is important because external

investors, other than friends & family, are unlikely to support your venture.

I look forward to reading your individual reports.