Experience on Business Plan Practice - Coursework Example

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION REPORT ON A GROUP PROJECT al Affiliation) Introduction Our group is made up of five people, guided by a common agenda, which was to undertake a group project. This began by writing a business plan, that could be implemented in the real business environment and generate income. The mission of our business is to purchase i-phone cases at a lower price from overseas and sell it to clients, thus making a profit. In addition our business as indicated in the business plan is guided by objectives; the first objective entails testing the preferences of our consumers through extracting certain characteristics of the products that we intend to offer i.e. color, design or even shapes of the cases and determine those characteristics that are mostly preferred by our consumers. We intend to make our business a success by determining the price of i-phone cases in various shops in the United Kingdom and formulate a pricing strategy that will enable us attract a large number of clients. Consequently, our business shall be guided by a third objective that shall ensure that we take into consideration the freight aspects of the business products owing to the fact that they have to be transported by air from Taobao. This report shall focus on the learning outcome that I gained in the course of undertaking our project, specifically issues ascribed to entrepreneurship, business planning, organizing as well as other issues that may be experienced as one attempts to run any form of business. Moreover the report that shall contain my learning experiences in relation to the relationship that may exist between business operations and entrepreneurship trait theory. My Experience on Business Plan Practice As we performed our project, we began by formulating a business plan; I learnt that any person that intends to undertake any business activity must write down a business plan. The business plan is basically a document that is written by the person, who intends to perform the business process. It indicates the general framework or the business idea. In addition, the business plan involves the formulation of the mission and objectives of the business. Moreover, the business plan involves a documentation of all the resources that are need by entrepreneurs in order to undertake a certain business objectives, for instance; it involves the documentation of the financial resources, human resources as well as the specific products that shall be used or provided by the business. Moreover, I learn that the aspect of planning involves an analysis of various issues that may affect the future success of the business. To begin with, I learn that, in the event of planning, one has to determine the external environment that may affect the success of their business for example in our case, we examined the specific prices that shops offer for i-phone cases in the United Kingdom. Additionally, we took time and conducted a test among users of i-phones to determine which preferences they would opt for in the case that they are provided with i-phone casing products. Another imperative lesson that I learnt while undertaking our group project is that planning involves a lot of forecasting, basically through predicting the future of issues such as market conditions, for instance in our case, we undertook an initiative to forecast the future conditions of the United Kingdom Market with specific regard to the I-phone casing products. On the other hand, I learnt that process of business planning requires proper research and can be facilitated by team-work. I can attribute the success of our project to the harmonious relationship that existed among our group members as we conducted our business project. Throughout the group project, I learnt that business planning is conducted is a specific chronological order. This ensures that there is no information that is left out as one plan for the business activity. Moreover, the process of undertaking business activities in a chronological order also ensures that there is no confusion made with regard to allocation of duties among the project members as they facilitate the activities of the project. The other lesson that I learnt during the process of undertaking our business project is that, successful business operations requires committed individuals as well as those that are ready to face their challenges and device solutions. During the process of undertaking our business project, we were faced by various challenges ranging from time constraints and lack of some resources such as secondary resources for references in the case of financial analysis. However, we managed to overcome the challenges that we encountered and through persistence, commitment as well as developing a spirit of solving challenges instead of shying away from the problems. In this regard, I learnt the process of business planning may be characterized by certain challenges that require commitment and persistence. My Learning Experience with Organising in Business Organising is another important part of business operations. In our project, there were various issues that required organisation in order to ensure efficiency and efficacy. I managed to learn different perspectives of organising within a business enterprise as we conducted our project. My first learning in relation to organising is that, it ranges from defining, grouping of activities to allocation of duties and responsibilities as well as creating working relationships among stakeholders. We allocated various duties among the group from the planning stage of the project to the stage where we had to write the final project. Some of the members were allocated the responsibility of collecting data from different sources of secondary information in order to facilitate our research during the planning process. Moreover, some of the group members were allocated the responsibility of undertaking a preferential test among consumers of the product that our business intended to offer. The entire process of the project was also successful due to the high level of organisation that our group members observed; the first instance of organisation occurred when our members began by formulating the business plan, which was chronologically arranged as it began by a description of the aim of the business, mission and the objectives of the business. In this aspect, I learnt that organising also involves the chronological arrangement of the business processes in order to ensure efficiency. Another learning experience that I gained during the process of the project is that the process of business planning involves various steps. The first step of business plan that I managed to learn is that before one writes any business plan, he/she has to identify the purpose of the their businesses in order to ensure that a proper missions statement is formulated. Moreover, I learnt that the process of business planning entails formulation of the business objectives that gives the entrepreneurs the guidance or the direction of how the business has to be conducted in order to ensure success. In addition, I also learnt that the process of business planning requires one to understand the structure of a business plan. That is, entrepreneurs have to acquaint themselves with knowledge regarding business planning and its facets i.e. the typical structure, which is basically universal and can be applied from one business to another, despite the fact that the contents of the business plan may differ. Another great learning experience in relation to organising is that it extends from a mere definition or the description of organising to allocation of resources that are used in various parts of a business project. For instance in our business plan, we performed a financial planning process whereby, we indicated the specific areas where financial resources were to be used in the process of our business operations. Moreover, we developed a proper working relationship that created a favourable environment for our business plans and the entire project. On the other hand, I also learnt that the process of business organizing does not only require proper working relationships, but also proper communication skills. That is, I learnt that in order to undertake a successful business venture, one has to apply proper communication skills in order to ensure that his/her ideas are properly expressed, thereby avoiding confusion among the members as well as in the process of business operation. The communication skills can also be applied in facilitating the process of allocating duties, responsibilities and handling other issues. Another important lesson that I learnt in relation to business organising is that it is usually undertaken through a series of standardized steps. That is, it is a process that occurs in steps as it involves: Fixing organizational common business objectives as in the case of our business plan where we began by defining the objectives and the mission statement of the business. The second step of business organizing that I learnt is that it involves identification of the processes and the activities that shall be undertaken or performed by the business. Consequently, I learnt that the process of business organizing is made up of a third step that basically entails making of departments or quarters within the business process. From what I learnt, business organizing has 8 pertinent steps that ensure that the objectives or the goals of a business are achieved on time. There are some challenges that I learnt that may occur from one point to another as an entrepreneur formulates a business plan. In our project, there are some challenges that we experienced that created setbacks in the process of formulating the business process. The first major challenge that we experienced in the process of formulating our business planning is conflicts in relations to ideas that were contributed among the five group members. In some cases, when group members were contributing ideas, some of the suggestions that were provided by certain members were rejected compelling the group to spend a lot of time on some issues. Moreover, our group experienced a challenge ascribed to time constraints, in that we had to rush some of the activities in order to meet the deadline of the project. In relation to conflicting ideas, I learnt that people at times tend to have different opinions in relation to the way some of the project activities should be performed. It is not a fact that all of our group members had a similar opinion regarding some issues; the five members had different opinions therefore crating a need for discussion and reaching a common group objective. Apart from learning that projects that are usually conducted in groups are characterized by different opinions, I also learnt that many successful businesses are those that are conducted in partnerships by people with different knowledge base as well as skills. I attribute the success of our project to the great level of contribution of different ideas from the group members, discussion and reaching a common agreement. Reflection on Content Covered During the Module Reflection on Networking This is one of the key topics that were covered in the module; the process of networking among business entrepreneurs entails a scenario where different business personnel engage in the process of exchanging ideas though holding business conferences or even workshops. From the information indicated in the learning module, I learnt that business entrepreneurs requires great networking skills; this includes proper communication skills and inter-personal skill in order to enable an entrepreneur interact properly with other business entrepreneurs i.e. through proper expression of business ideas. In addition, I learnt that networking is an imperative aspect of business operation that is required in businesses that are usually managed through partnerships. The aspect of business networking can also be applied in planning of business activities as well as in the efforts directed towards performing the organising functions of a business. In our group project, the essence of business networking occurred when we met at scheduled times to formulate our business plan, while exchanging ideas in the process. However, I learn that networking is not only meant for entrepreneurs but also in other learning activities where learners are provided with an opportunity to meet in groups and exchange ideas. Moreover, I learnt that the major challenges that may be experienced by entrepreneurs and learners as they network is lack of proper communication and networking skills; this may lead to occurrences of conflicts in relation to ideas, especially in the case that some people within the networking group are not in a position to express their ideas properly. Reflection on Roles of Planning in Business Practices The module also involved discussion on the importance of planning or the roles of planning. To begin with, I learnt that planning enables entrepreneur to document their ideas thereby reducing incidences of confusion. I also learnt that planning enables learners and entrepreneurs to source, organise and allocate resources properly thereby reducing chances of wastage of resources among the entrepreneurs. Moreover, planning just like networking requires proper communication skills in that it requires stakeholders to express their ideas properly and in a chronological manner; this is pertinent for elimination of incidences of confusion among the stakeholders. Another lesson I learnt in relation to planning as discussed in the module is that; it is usually undertaken through specific steps, though the contents of the plan may vary from one organization to another depending on the type and purpose of the organization. In addition, I learnt that in the process of formulating a business plan, one has to undertake proper research related to the business they intend to invest in; this is due to the fact that the information collected can be used to facilitate the planning process i.e. through determining the mode of resource allocation as well as time management. Planning also enables entrepreneurs to project challenges that may affect the success of their business therefore giving them the opportunity to formulate mitigation measures towards the identified risks. Reflection on Marketing in Businesses This is another topic that was discussed in module; marketing entails the process of distributing goods and services through promotion, which basically involves creating awareness about a certain product or service. I learnt that in the process of formulating a business, plan, entrepreneurs should ensure that information related to the mode of marketing their goods or services is included in the plan. Specifically, this information should include issues such as; promotion of goods and services, product placement or even distribution and pricing strategy that shall be employed by the Company or organization. On the other hand, I learnt that before entrepreneurs embark on formulating their project or business plan, they need to research thoroughly on the targeted market by specifically identifying the nature of their targeted markets i.e. the preferred modes of marketing that are currently used as well as rules and regulations that guide operations in the target market. Focused Reflection as a Future Entrepreneur Our project provided us with an important opportunity to explore our skills as future entrepreneurs by enabling us to learn various issues that are associated with entrepreneurship and how they can be applied to facilitate business success. I believe that the knowledge I gained in relation to planning, marketing, organising, networking as well as market analysis, shall enable me to undertake my personal businesses in future. I also learnt the importance of communication and inter-personal skills: I believe that such knowledge and skill shall enable me to participate in networking activities and businesses that are owned through partnerships. Our project was also undertaken in a manner that the targeted market or the community was involved. For instance; we involve a potion of our targeted market in a test that was majorly geared towards determining their preferences in relation to the product that we intended to offer. I believe that I can apply this knowledge as a future entrepreneur in order to ensure that my business activities succeed and accrue the highest profits possible. Learning Experience in Relation to Entrepreneurial Trait Theory Entrepreneurial trait theory is another important lesson that I have learnt as presented in the module. I managed to learn that there are various traits that have been associated with the aspect of being an entrepreneur in the contemporary society. One of the traits associated with entrepreneurs, is the aspect of being hardworking in nature; that is entrepreneurs are persons that dedicate their efforts towards generating and implementing ideologies that would ensure that their businesses become successful. I learnt that, to be successful entrepreneur one has to apply these traits in theoretical as well as in practical aspects. Read More