Assignment: Business Plan
Part A: Products and/or Services
1) Describe the products and services you plan to sell.
2) How is your product or service unique?
3) Are you producing a commodity or a differentiated product?
4) How does your product or service compare to other products in Quality? Price? Location?
5) What experience do you have with this product/service?
Part B: Market Assessment
I) Examining the General Market
1) How is the market characterized?
2) Are there clear segments in the market? Describe them.
3) What important customer need(s) is the market not currently fulfilling?
4) What is the growth potential for each segment of the market?
5) What opportunities and threats does your firm face?
6) What does an analysis using the Five Forces model suggest about your industry? Who is your competition (in light of the Five Forces)?
7) What trends, relevant to your business, do you see?
8) What are the drivers of change?
9) What political and legal issues do you face, such as zoning, environmental laws, inspections, etc?
II) Customer Analysis
1) Who will be your customers?
2) What do you sell to each of the customers?
3) How does your product/service solve a key customer problem?
4) How difficult is it to retain a customer?
5) How much does it cost to support a customer?
III) Industry Analysis
1) A comparison of companies is similar.
IV) Strategic Alternatives
1) What can the company do that they aren't doing now?
Part C: Strategic Implementation
I) Production
1) How will you produce your product?
2) What value will you create and capture with your product?
3) What is your competitive advantage?
4) What technology will you use, i.e. reduced tillage, GPS systems, etc.?
5) What processes will you use to produce products?
6) What growth options will you use to develop the business unit?
o Enterprise Expansion
o Replicate
o Integrate
o Network
7) What is the anticipated timeline?
II) Resource Needs
In order to effectively organize your business, you need to ensure the resources are available. Assess those needs here.
• Human
1) What skills are needed?
2) How will human resources be acquired?
• Financial
1) What level of financial resources will be needed?
• Physical
1) What type, quantity and quality of physical resources will be required?
III) Sourcing/Procurement Strategy
1) On what do you base a decision to buy products or services? Price? Quality? Convenience? Extra service? A combination?
2) By what venue will you find suppliers - local dealer, Internet, direct from the manufacturer, etc.?
IV) Marketing Strategy
1) What is your sales plan?
2) What advertising and promotion will be used to increase sales/awareness?
3) Where will you sell products/services?
4) Will you use the open market or contracts?
5) Do you have a preferred market outlet?
6) Are you a qualified supplier for a specific processor or buyer?
7) How will you price the product?
• Hedging, forward pricing, options
1) How will you use these to mitigate your risk?
• Contracting
1) Will you use production or marketing contracting to reduce risk?
• Insurance
1) How will you use crop, liability and other insurance?
V) Performance Standards
1) What performance standards will be used to monitor this enterprise or business unit?
2) What are the acceptable performance standards?
3) What yield or output levels could you attain?
4) What efficiency levels will you reach?
5) What procedures will be used to monitor performance?
6) Who is responsible for monitoring performance?
7) What industry benchmarks will be used to assess performance?
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.