Business plan

Academic Year 2016/17

ENG402 Communication and ETA

Coursework

Deadline For Submission: 13 December 2016, 23.55hours

Hand-in Instructions: Upload to Moodle

Instructions for completing assessment:

Max 6 pages (sides) - of which 3 pages are for spreadsheets and Microsoft Project table

Examiners: David Wiltshire

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Writing a Business Plan Imagine you are the Managing Director of a small manufacturing business, building specialist bicycles. Encouraged by the company’s success over the past five years, you decide to broaden your customer base to include up-market electrically powered bicycles. Your business enjoys a strong financial base and a small but stable and loyal workforce. You believe that by adding an entirely new product is the best way to expand and improve the long term profitability of your business. But before proceeding any further you draw up a business plan to convince yourself, and any investors whose support you may need, that your passion is not misplaced, that there really is a sound business case for your proposed expansion. Make certain assumptions about the current size of your business, typically as shown below:

 a current turnover of £250,000

 employs three people full time, and one person part time

 there is a marked seasonal bias to your sales You may wish to develop your own name/brand identity. For this undertaking you should consider whether to contract out the design work for the bicycle or have this done in-house, requiring additional skills plus set-up costs, including a software design package. You must analyse the options open to you and decide which approach to take. State the conclusion you reached, together with evidence of your reasoning. Assume your new venture may also require:

 additional skilled workers

 further additional staff in the future as production of the new electric bicycle commences

 targeted advertising To increase the likelihood of success you aim to ensure that prudent assumptions are made about costs and projected sales. Show how you have done this. Your answers should clearly set out how your business growth is expected to happen, in terms of: resources required; projected sales; and timescales. You are to provide a logically compiled and integrated business plan based on the above points and the issues discussed during the unit, and consider the following (% marks in brackets):

 Opening statements (10%)  Marketing plan, including market analysis and strategies (20%)  Annual profit and loss accounts and balance sheets for the two proceeding

financial years (20%)  Detailed costs and break-even analysis for your new product (25%)

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 SWOT analysis (5%)  Gantt chart – ideally using Microsoft Project (10%)  Cash flow forecast – using Excel (10%)

Your business plan should be a maximum of 6 pages (sides) and uploaded to Moodle, on or before Tuesday 13 December 2016, 23.55hrs. David Wiltshire August 2016