Business Idea Generation and Evaluation - Essay Example

Process Undertaken

The idea generation stage was the starting point for our so far achieved milestone. The step aided us to transform the various views of the group members into the specific ideas that matched our mission and goals. The idea generation began with a brainstorming process. Brainstorming entails the process of an individual or group for coming up with alternative ideas or solutions on a particular subject matter (Gyamfi & Tontoh, 2007). A sound brainstorming centers on the quantity and creativity of ideas. Focusing on the ideas’ quality is much less significant that encouraging the absolute quantity. According to Friend, (2008), ideas can be grouped, assessed, and prioritized after their generation and then subjected to subsequent consideration. The process that the group undertook to generate and agree the opportunity is as described below.

Our initial stage was identifying the goals, and this is where the group members came up with a decisive idea so as to generate our venture. To do this, a specific goal was to identify and then defined. Thinking about the issue of goal identification was an essential aspect when it comes to a new venture generation as asserted by Roomi (2012). It is the very first stage in business planning which must be known before executing with any other processes. Goal identification can be recommended to the person or group of people who want to set up a venture to put down the plan by themselves as a way of setting specific goals for the venture. In our case, much of accentuation was based on the fact that the specific goal for the venture must be exact, measurable, achievable, viable and timely.

The second stage the group undertaken to generate and agree on the opportunity was shortening planning process. This step relates on how the group has trimmed down the process of planning in a shorter perspective rather than seeking a longer perspective (Duke Entrepreneurship Center, 2011). In this stage, the planning process the time frame for the process ought to be assumed on a minimal view. Moreover, the stage was a way to be familiar with the achievements that the new venture will bring in the future.

Minding the metrics was the third stage and which is also a vital aspect to take into consideration the measures than need to be put in place in the process of planning. It is essentially the way that establishing a new venture must take into account the financial terms as it will pave way for the smooth operating of the new venture as claimed by Krishnan (2012). In the stage, the group members evaluated, assessed and analyzed the financial data that was obtained from past businesses which are already in operations. It was also a stage that signified the preparation phase of the planning process where more assessment of the planning process is well thought-out.

Our forth step was the testing phase in which more of testing the venture is done as a way of undertaking the whole venture idea with particular focus groups to discern what is needed to be changed in the our venture. We tested our idea of the venture at this stage in order to identify both the positive and the negative response from the targeted customers. It is a very important aspect of our idea since the testing allowed us to know the strengths of our venture.

The fifth stage is a review, in which more emphasis is laid to reveal the negative and the positive strengths of the venture. It is a crucial stage since it points out the needs for business evaluation and also the surroundings that the business operates (Duke, n.d). In addition, as the group establishing the venture, it was important to know having a review after the testing the idea of the venture with our focus group to make changes. The idea of reviewing was a vital aspect for our group since there was a need to assess the performance of our business. With this, the group members considered the positive and the negative aspects of the idea. The idea reviewing necessitated for checking the achievement of the venture.

Deciding on actions is the sixth stage of the process of generating and agreeing on the opportunity. In this stage, we chose the existing actions on the basis of the analysis of the venture to establish whether it will offer the best value. This stage is crucial as it is useful for the plan to proceed in its course. Most important and serious actions were taken in this stage to suit the venture. Some of these actions included the updating of some of the aspects of the app and keeping up with our surroundings just to name a few.

The last stage of the process of generating and agreeing on the opportunity was the idea execution and particularly the startup phase. This final stage dealt with the start up of the idea for the venture as a consequence of the various analyses of the negative and positive features of our venture. It is the idea of creating important events for the venture because it is the stage in which the group starts up indicating the venture has earned grounds although in a different perspective (Newmann, 2012).

Individual tasks and the challenges

Writing the business overview was not a challenging and demanding task. The reader of the business plan will want to know the reason why the business should be there. It essentially involves describing the company regarding its goals (SBA, n.d.). It also entailed giving a defensive reason for its uniqueness and the gap it seeks to fill in the market. The assignment of describing the overview of the company also included explaining the many services that we offer for our clients and why they need them (Waring, 2013). Moreover, the task entailed giving a detailed explication of how the App operated as well as explaining the amount they have to pay for the services. An overview of the business is precise a summary of the present situation of the venture. The definition of our business must be given here as well as the main competitive advantage of the venture. The only challenge faced in this part of the assignment finding the professional to validate the section since it was not easy to get especially for free.

Market and market analysis part of the business plan involve analyzing both the current competition and potential competitor likely to come into the market (Haden, 2015). As we knew every business has competition, it is essential for us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our competition or the potential competition. Going through the steps of analysis was quite complicated and time-consuming (Zacharakis, Spinelli & Timmons, 2011). Below is the simple process that we followed in the analysis of our market.

First, the individual doing this section had to identify the types of the organization considered as our competitors. Firms that offer similar products or a substitute of our own product or service in the similar geographical region were our direct competitor (Ehmke & Akridge, n.d.). Indirect competitors are those that provided differently or substitute products. The second step was conducting the research through giving out questionnaires to gain the valuable information pertaining the competition. The third step was to collecting competitive information from the secondary sources of information. The second-hand information provides an excellent beginning point for creating a competitive and market analysis as asserted by Ehmke & Akridge, (n.d). The challenge in using this secondary information is that they were designed for other purposes not for our business idea. The final step was analyzing the collected all the competitive information. The analysis was important because it allowed us to determine the product information, marketing strategies as well as identify our competition strengths and weakness. The challenge that the individual assign this section faced is the availability of a lot of information that is at time useless. The individual found more information than we even imagined and it challenging to select the appropriate

The operation section of a business plan deals with the daily functions of running a business (Schaper, Volery, Weber & Lewis, 2010). For our company, several elements of operations were taken into consideration. The operation plans in our business plan encompassed situational analyzes that aided us to set good targets by looking into our present operations, capacity and productivity. It also involved analyzing human resources, equipment, time and the space we needed as well as the costs in order to allow us devise the plan. The individual accomplished the tasks by giving the information concerning the team of management who should part of the company. The task also centered on the management and technical skills possessed by our staffs and how it will prove to be advantageous for the work process.

Process of Working Together

Putting our business plan together was truly an important step since it called for all the efforts of all the group members as a team. It is also an important step because by going through the various steps of combining and compiling the business plan we were compelled to work together by holding meetings and answering the tough questions concerning our business (McGrath, 2010). The process of working together on the business plan required us to create a schedule in order to achieve our goal as a group.

The first approach in the process of working together was setting aside time for combining our business plan. Setting some time for compiling the business plan was necessary given the busy timetable for the group members. Our tendency was to postpone the task that feels scary and out of the group comfort zones. At first, we thought an individual can undertake the work but due to the complexity of the tasks, we had to put our minds together. We devoted three hours into our agenda to work on compiling the plan.

Working together as a team is one of the main challenges of creating a business plan (Wirtz, 2010). Thus, having that in mind, we had to initiate a way of mastering the dynamics of working together in a group, which entailed arriving at decisions, tasks allocation among others. It really helped us to prepare for the real situations in the market. The important steps taken by the group while working together as a group is as explained below.

For one, it was the selection of our team to partake in the compiling the plan. We primarily focused on putting together a team that was balanced in the various functional areas of that our businesses plan addressed (Neville, 2001). It was not quite a challenge for us since choosing the team entailed putting together the founding members. Since our idea was technology based, the group was formed around at least one technology genius, who understood how the business operated. The second step in working together was to consider how decisions were to be made. The group came up with a clear and fair decision-making process that made all the other decision easy and the communication even more agreeable. The essence for developing the decision-making process was to allow members to buy into the process (Neville, 2001). The challenges in making a decision when working together as a group are the failure to follow the decision-making process devised by the group. Members will also tend to express dissatisfaction in case they all do not agree with the process (Orr, 2010).

The third step in our process of working together as a team to choose our project. We have to work together as a group and decide on the kind business we intended to plan. It is a pretty easy task for us because the team we created was around our business concept of creating an app for the students and locals around the Sussex University. After the deciding on working with our application, the fourth step was to point out the key issues that we had to address in creating our plan (Smucker Company, 2007). The other steps followed when working together include the allocation of tasks to members and even choosing the group leader, re-evaluation of assumptions and ultimately integrating the work, which was preparing and presenting the plan to the group.

Working as a group when coming up with the business plan exposed us to both the strengths and weakness of a group work. The group work presented us with the chance to share one's ideas and to find solutions to the problems making work easier as compared to working alone. Working in a group has also helped individuals to develop key skills such as team working and time management which very important for most jobs toady (Shimazoe & Aldrich, 2010). Moreover, working in a group is useful at the personal level because it help one discover specific strengths and learn to deal with a challenge and conflict. Working together on the business plan presented some weakness to the members. Working as a team means overcoming any problem that may come about.