project

Department of Business Administration

Entrepreneurship & Small Business

MGT 402

BUSINESS BLUEPRINT

Assume yourself as an entrepreneur of a small scale business in Saudi Arabia.

Assignment Objectives & Requirements:

1. Owners

a. Your Business Name, Address, E‐Mail  

2. General Business Description (300 – 400 words)

A. What business will you be in? What will you do?

•Mission Statement

•Company goals and objectives

B. Business Philosophy

a. What is important to you in your business?

• To whom will you market your product?

• Describe your Industry: Is it a growth industry? What long term or Short term changes do you foresee in the industry? How will your company take advantage of it?

• Describe your most important company strengths and core competencies: What factors will make the company succeed? What do you think your major competitive strengths will be? What background experience, skills, and strengths do you personally bring to this new venture?

• Legal form of ownership: Sole proprietor, Partnership, Corporation, Limited liability corporation (LLC)? Why have you selected this form?

3. Products and Services

a. Describe in depth your products or services. (Technical specifications)

b. What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Examples include level of quality or unique or proprietary features.

4. Marketing Plan

a. Market Research- Why?

b. Market Research- How? Primary or Secondary Data?

c. In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics, numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the all‐important sales projection.

Facts about your industry

• What is the total size of your market?

• Current demand in target market.

• Trends in target market—growth trends, trends in consumer preferences, and trends in product development.

• Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size.

• What barriers to entry do you face in entering this market with your new company?

• How will you overcome the barriers?

• How could the change in technology, change in government regulations, change in the economy, change in your industry, affect your organization.

Product

• Describe the most important features. What is special about it?

• Describe the benefits. That is, what will the product do for the customer?

Customer

• Identify your targeted customers, their demographics

Competition

• What products and companies will compete with you?

• How will your products or services compare with the competition?

Strategy

• Outline a marketing Strategy.

Promotion

• How will you promote your Product?

• What will be your promotional budget?

Method of setting prices

•Compare your prices with those of the competitors. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?

•How important is price as a competitive factor?

• Do your intended customers really make their purchase decisions mostly on price?

• What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Distribution Channels

How do you sell your products or services?

Legal Environment

• Licensing and bonding requirements

• Health, workplace, or environmental regulations

• Special regulations covering your industry or profession

• Insurance coverage

• Trademarks, copyrights, or patents (pending, existing, or purchased

Personnel

•Number of employees

• Type of labor (skilled, unskilled, and professional)

• Where and how will you find the right employees?

• Quality of existing staff

• Pay structure

• Training methods and requirements

• Who does which tasks?

• For certain functions, will you use contract workers in addition to employees?

Inventory

• What kind of inventory will you keep: raw materials, supplies, finished goods?

• Average value in stock (i.e., what is your inventory investment)?

• Rate of turnover and how this compares to the industry averages?

• Seasonal buildups?

• Lead‐time for ordering?

Suppliers:

Identify key suppliers

• Credit and delivery policies

5. Financial Plan

The financial plan consists of a 12‐month profit and loss projection, a cash‐flow projection, a projected balance sheet, and a break‐even calculation. Together they constitute a reasonable estimate of your company’s financial future.

6. Conclusion

Assignment Workload

· This assignment is an individual assignment.

· The word count for this assignment must be between 3000 to 3500 words.

Assignment Submission

· There will be three submissions for this assignment as the following:

· The submission method will be through blackboard.

Assignment Regulations:

· The answer must be in English.

· Students must include  the following in Assignment copy

·  (Name, Student ID, CRN, Date of submission)

· Answer the ALL questions.

· Assignments should be submitted in MS Word format.

· Font should be Times New Roman with 12 points.

· You are required to work this assignment individually.

· You should submit the assignment via the Blackboard only.

· Students, who submit assignments after deadline, will be awarded ZERO points.

· If any student found engaged in plagiarism, they will awarded ZERO marks in the assignment or course.