Business Plan - Guidelines the New Venture - Assignment Example

A1 Author Affiliation Date Table of Contents 1.Brief overview 2 2.Business plan 1-Mindshaker Inc. 3 Three strong components of Mindshaker Inc. business plan 3 1.Effective marketing plan 3 2.Detailed market analysis 4 3.Detailed product analysis 4 Three weak components of Mindshaker Inc. Business plan 4 1. Precise and not well-written plan 4 2.Improper financial assessment 4 3.Ignore the analysis of competitors 4 4.Business plan 2-The College Café: online college bookstore 5 Three strong components of online college café bookstore business plan 5 1.Lengthy and well written business plan 5 2.Detailed executive summary 5 3.Separately described sourcing and technology 6 Three weak components of online college café bookstore business plan 6 1.Precise marketing plan 6 2.No separate competitive analysis 6 3.Ignore industry analysis 6 5.Analysis of both business plans 6 6.Demonstrated competencies 7 7.Recommendations for improvement 7 8.Challenges and lesson learnt 7 9.Conclusion 8 References 8 1. Brief overview An assessment is all about to understand the importance of business plans. A business plan is used to estimate the cost new venture and its feasibility[Akr031]. Business plan describes the different components of the venture. The different components of the business plan include market analysis, competitive analysis, product analysis, financial analysis and detailed analysis of the company[GFr091]. It’s not only giving the detail analysis, but also describe how new venture will execute in the future. The two business plan will be discussed and compared. Two business plans have been selected for this assessment, one is of Mindshaker Inc. and another is of college online bookstore. After giving the brief introduction of both companies. The three strong and weak components of both business plans have been discussed. The analysis of both plans helps in understanding the similarities and differences of both business plans. Moreover, in the section of demonstrated competencies, required potentials and competencies have also been discussed that will help me in with the problems that I may face in future while designing the business plan as a manager of any company. In addition, some recommendation and suggestion have also been given that can increase the effectiveness of the both business plans. Lastly, the challenges and lessons have also been explained, the challenges one can face while comparing both plans and from these challenges what lessons one can learn during this assessment. At, the end precise conclusion has been given which includes the concluding remarks. 2. Business plan 1-Mindshaker Inc. Mindshaker Inc. is a company that provides students and faculty the online access to books, publications and other educational material. The Mindshaker solves the problem of the students by giving them a chance to have an access to the variety of books via internet. The offline bookshops earn lots of markup on the books and educational material that is also provided by the Mindshaker on very minimum markup. Mindshaker Inc. offers access to proven and standard books, academic articles, research papers and other case studies. It offers its services almost to 2.8 million graduates and faculty. The website of the company is very user-friendly. It provides easy features and save transaction option, a customer can purchase the access anytime ant where by paying a little amount as compared to other online bookshops. Mindshaker has maintained its contacts and relations with top 20 universities. The student of that, universities are the main customers of the Mindshaker. The business plan of Mindshaker is based on different components. The components include executive summary, market analysis, company description, marketing and sales, product and sales, management and financial assessment of the company. It does not include all the components of the business, but Mindshaker Inc. has described some of the important components in its business plan[Moo151]. The business plan of Mindshaker has some strengths and limitations as well, in which three strong and three weak components will be discussed in this section. Three strong components of Mindshaker Inc. business plan Mindshaker has an effective business plan. There are three of its strong components discussed below: 1. Effective marketing plan The marketing plan is an important component of every business plan. The marketing plan is a comprehensive plan which explains an overall marketing efforts of the organization. It includes four P’s, price, place, product and promotion[Joh02]. The marketing plan of Mindshaker is very effective. According to Mindshaker marketing plan is a crucial component of Mindshaker’s overall success. The marketing plan includes advertising strategy, sales and marketing strategies, distribution strategy, servicing and pricing. 2. Detailed market analysis The other strong component of Mindshaker Inc. business plan is its detailed market analysis. Market analysis gives clear idea about the future path. It is used to determine the attractiveness of the market[San03]. Mindshaker also explains in detail the marketing analysis. It determines the opportunities and threats of the target market that can help Mindshaker in selecting appropriate strategies to attract them. 3. Detailed product analysis Product analysis is an important business plan component that is used by the organization to explain its product and its useful elements[Phi08]. Mindshaker Inc. has divided its product into two main categories. The first category is textbook and the other is digital learning tool. In this way, Mindshaker explains it’s both products in detail to understand the target market of both the product category. Three weak components of Mindshaker Inc. Business plan Mindshaker’s business plan has also some weak components. Three of the weakest components have been discussed below: 1. Precise and not well-written plan The overall business plan of Mindshaker Inc. is very concise and precise. As, effective business plan must be long and should cover all the important aspects of the future, but Mindshaker business plan is not lengthy. Moreover, it ignores many important components of the business plan like financial assessment is very short, competitor analysis has not been explained and many other components are not fully explained. 2. Improper financial assessment One of the weak components of Mindshaker Inc. business plan is its financial assessment. It does not include a detailed balance sheet of the company. Moreover, it also ignores the evaluation of assets that may be required in future. The sales forecast analysis is also missing without sales forecasting it will difficult to estimate the new venture and its feasibility. Likewise, the valuation of profits is also very precise and it seems improper. 3. Ignore the analysis of competitors Competitive analysis is the most critical component of the business plan. It helps in understanding the attractive components of the product. Moreover, it will also help in analyzing the product feature of the competitor’s product[San13]. In general terms, we can say that competitive analysis compare the product with its competitor’s product. Mindshaker Inc. also ignores the competitive analysis. It does not explain its competitor’s product and how are their competitors. Avoiding competitive analysis can be risky for the Mindshaker because it cannot prepare its marketing mix without completely understand its competitors and their products. 4. Business plan 2-The College Café: online college bookstore The college café is also an online bookshop but it deals student to student. It provides internet marketplace to the student who wants to buy and sell their books. Customer of the website can post their classified ads and can also participate in the auctions. The auctions are organized by the college café online bookstore. The target market of college café is of almost 15 million customers. The customers of college cage are students, teachers and professors. It provides the platform where students and teachers can also interact with each other. Moreover, the most important benefit of college cage bookstore is its auction feature. A seller can sell its books on best possible price. Similarly, on the other hand a buyer can buy on best possible price. It offers benefits for both buyer and seller. Moreover, students can sell their college or university notes, old tests, computer accessories, CD’s and other education related material on college café. Furthermore, college cage also offers other services like classified teacher evaluation and facility of web bog to its customers. The source of revenue of college café totally depend on its customer’s traffic. The more customers post their books and sell their books the more revenue will be collected but college café. The business plan of college café is very lengthy one.it includes different components like an executive summary, company overview, product analysis, market analysis, marketing strategy, sourcing, technology, milestones and financial plan[Bpl151]. Some of the strong and weak components have been discussed in this section Three strong components of online college café bookstore business plan The strong components of online college bookstore’s business plan are many, but only three has been discussed below: 1. Lengthy and well written business plan The business plan of online college café is well-written and well-structure. All the components except some few have been explained in detail. The plan includes all the important components that are required for an effective business plan. Thus, it can be called as a good and effective business plan because it has limitations but very few. 2. Detailed executive summary The executive summary of the business plan is an overview of the whole plan. If executive summary is well-written impressively presented then there will be no need of reviewing the whole plan thoroughly. The executive summary of the business plan of online college café bookstore is also well-written. It gives a detailed overview of the whole plan. It can be a very strong component in attracting the investors. The investor can easily review the whole plan by only reading the executive summary. Thus, well-presented executive summary is one of the strongest components of the business plan of online college café bookstore. 3. Separately described sourcing and technology The distinct and attractive component of online college café bookstore is its sourcing and technology component. As online college café provides an online market place for its customers. In the section of sourcing, online college café have described their relationship with retailer and manufacturers that provides shipping and drop services to the customers. In the section of technology, online college café has explained how online traffic would be managed and controlled. Moreover, it also explains how inventory of the books would be maintained by the website. Three weak components of online college café bookstore business plan Three weak components of online college café are discussed below: 1. Precise marketing plan Marketing plan online college café is very concise. It doesn’t determine new and distinct promotional strategies. The pricing strategy is also missing from the marketing plan. The precise marketing plan is also very risky for venture because there is a tough competition in online book selling and purchasing. It is very important to point out appropriate pricing and promotional strategies that can become a competitive advantage of the company in the future. 2. No separate competitive analysis There is only similar weakness of both the business plans is, they both ignore the competitive analysis. Not a one company explains competitive analysis in the separate component. Competitive analysis has its own importance. It supports the marketing mix and marketing plan in many ways. Competitive analysis helps in determining the weakness of competitors and strengths of the company[Joh121]. Avoiding competitive analysis can prove disastrous for the company in the future. 3. Ignore industry analysis Online college café also did not explain industry analysis component in its business plan. It only identified the market, but not the industry. The industry of online college café is an online bookstore. If it has ignored the competitive analysis at the same time it also ignores the industry analysis. The industry in which online college café operates has very intense competition. There is a need to understand in detail the industry analysis if a company wants to achieve competitive edge. 5. Analysis of both business plans Both plans have their own spirits in their own places. There are some differences and similarities have found in both of them. The differences are the plan of Mindshaker Inc. is very precise and concise. It doesn’t explain the components in detail. On the other hand, the business plan of college café is very well written and fully explained all the components of the business plan. But the Mindshaker Inc. covers large market than the college café. Both deals in book selling and purchasing, but their plans are totally different. The marketing strategies of Mindshaker are very impressive. On the other hand college café is totally ignoring its marketing and promotional strategies. The financial assessment of college café is the backbone of its business plan because it provides clear and detailed overview of cash flows but Mindshaker’s business plans lacks in financial assessment. Moreover, college café has also discussed technology and sourcing in its business plan as the separate component which makes its business plan more effective. The only similarity, I have found is, both business plans ignore its competitors and their analysis that is the weakest component of both business plans. 6. Demonstrated competencies There are many competencies required to design an effective business plan. Some of the competencies are leadership skills, communication skills, critical appraisal skills and ability to generate effective ideas. Leadership skills are required for managing the employees during the task. As, leadership is an art of managing and directing people[Kae812]. Moreover, communication skills are also required because manager also manages the communication process. The effective communication is always required because only through communication a manger can properly address all the requirements of the business plans[Mar14]. In addition, critical appraisal skill is also required because it can help the manger to do critical analysis while developing the business plan. Lastly, a manager must have an ability to generate new ideas. Only new ideas can bring competitive advantage for the organization. According to my opinion, these all competencies that, may I will require in the future while developing an effective business plan. 7. Recommendations for improvement There are some suggestions and recommendations for improvement that can make the business plan of Mindshaker Inc. and online college café more effective and better. First of all, both companies should consider competitive analysis to determine the strong and weak components of the competitor’s product. Mindshaker Inc. should elaborate its financial analysis for making an accurate financial assessment. Moreover, Mindshaker Inc. business plan is very precise it needs more elaboration. The industry analysis is required for online college café bookstore’s business plan. 8. Challenges and lesson learnt Many challenges have been faced while doing this assessment. First of all it is very difficult to determine which component of the business plan is weak and which one is strong. But after comparing both the business plan it has become easier to determine the strong and weak components of each business plan. Moreover, I have learned many lessons while doing this assessment. I came to know about the business plan and other important concepts of the management. Moreover, I have also learned the different components of the business plan. Likewise, the understanding with the components of the business plan also increased. Now, I know how to compare different components, and how to ascertain the strong and weak components of the different business plan. The assessment has proved very informative. Furthermore, it is one of the interesting assessment of the whole course which not only helpful at present, but also help me in my future career of operational manager. 9. Conclusion To conclude this assessment, business plan provides guidelines to the new venture and also shows the feasibility of the new project. The two business plans that has been selected helps in understanding the importance of a business plan for the company. There are different similarities and differences have been analyzed that is used to understand how different business plans of different nature are different than each other. The whole assessment is very useful as it increases the understanding with the concept of project management and business plan. Hence, overall experience with this assessment is very good. As, I have learned lots of new concepts and ideas of business and management. References Akr031: , (Akridge & E.Jay, 2003), GFr091: , (G.Friend & Zehle, 2009), Moo151: , ( Moot CORP, 2015), Joh02: , (Westwood, 2002), San03: , (Burgemeister, 2003), Phi08: , (Kotler, 2008), San13: , (Cuellar, 2013), Bpl151: , (Bplan, 2015), Joh121: , (Czepiel & Kerin, 2012), Kae812: , (Kae & Chung, 1981), Mar14: , (Phillips, 2014), Read More