Assignment: Entrepreneurship Research Paper
This is a 2 part Assignment -
Part 1 - Company Research Paper
The next five assignments allow you to: invent an entrepreneurial company and research it; develop financial pro forma; do an executive summary and elevator speech; and, as the capstone of the project, develop an exciting presentation for investors. This assignment is your project proposal. You will propose the company to be formed, provide preliminary information about it, and discuss how you will research its viability and strategy.
Write a paper on the new enterprise that addresses at least the following seven sections:
• Company & Product
• Description
• Industry
• Customer
• Competitor Analysis
• Marketing Plan Research
• Primary and Secondary Research
Make sure paper body starts with a summary where there is a statement of thesis (overview of the points to be made), continues with a discussion (or specific answers to specific questions), and ends with a conclusion. The seven specific sections should be annotated and have specific answers.
All papers should be written in the third person (he, he, it, and they). Make every effort not to shift to second person (you, your) as in, "When starting a company you need money." Try to avoid shifting to the first person (I, we) as well. It is distracting to the reader and bad style to shift persons in a paper-students often do it in the middle of a sentence.
The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:
• Write between 750 - 1,250 words (approximately 3 - 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style, see example below.
References must come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, CNN, online newspapers such as, The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc. Sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. are not acceptable for academic writing.
Part 2 - Financial Plan (First Draft)
You will build your draft financial plan. You will need to do it for the first two years. Use the Comparable method (please refer to chapter 9 of your textbook for further information).
For this week, complete the following:
• Complete a list of key financial assumptions that drive your revenue projections, cost of goods sold and operating expenses. Identify 2-3 companies to benchmark (financial information can be found on their annual reports which are public). Include 3 APA style references for your assumptions.
• An opening day balance sheet (your balance sheet MUST BALANCE)
• A monthly cash flow statement for years 1 and 2
• An income statement for years 1 and 2
• A chart or graph showing growth from start-up through year 2
Use this template to build your pro-forma financial statements. Be aware, the included worksheets do not interact with one another. You will need to enter information on each of the worksheets.
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 include 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.