Course Project: Overview/Idea Evaluation

Course Project: Overview

As previously mentioned, launching a new business venture requires a considerable amount of work and sacrifice. However, work and sacrifice alone are not enough for a business venture to be successful; launching a business requires careful planning and consideration. The more time you spend on contemplating your business strategies and marketing plans, the greater the likelihood of success.

For your Course Project, you will create a simple business plan. This will include a marketing plan, budget, and positioning strategy for a business idea. First, you will brainstorm different business ideas to determine one that is both feasible and of interest to you. Then, you will develop different components and sections of a plan for marketing and implementing the business idea. Your final Course Project will include the following elements:

• Idea Evaluation (Week 1)
• Idea Feasibility (Week 2)
• Business Vision Statement (Week 3)
• Product Positioning Map (Week 4)
• Legal Requirements and Social Impact (Week 5)
• Pulling It All Together—Completion of the Small Business Plan (Week 6)
  • Executive Summary (Week 6)
  • Growth and Marketing Summary (Week 6)

Components of your Course Project are due each week as outlined above.

Course Project: Idea Evaluation

All small businesses start out as ideas in the minds of their owners or founders. These ideas may take on a variety of forms and originate from many different sources. Business ideas could originate from discovering an innovative solution to a problem, noticing an unmet demand or untapped opportunity, or wanting to provide an alternative to existing products or services.

Not all ideas are equal in terms of feasibility, marketability, and ultimate business success. It is up to you, as an entrepreneur, to evaluate ideas and choose the best ones to pursue as business ventures. In this Assignment, you begin exploring different business ideas to use for your Course Project. You may opt to evaluate hypothetical ideas as more of a learning exercise, or you may use ideas you are currently considering for a small business.

Note: You are not required to share your ideas with other students, only Instructors, who will keep them confidential. However, if you would like to share your work and receive feedback from your colleagues, please post your work in the Class Café. If you plan to participate in this optional portion of the assignment, be sure to provide quality feedback to your colleagues. 

To prepare for this week’s Assignment:

• Consider business areas of interest to you and search for potential niches for a new or improved product or service. 
• Identify at least four possibilities.
• Review the “Six Factors of Competitive Advantage,” outlined on page 147 of your textbook.

For this week’s Assignment:

• Create a mind map (or a similar type of graphical representation) for each possibility. You can refer to the handout included in your Resources for a mind map template and instructions on creating a mind map.
• Refer to the “Six Factors of Competitive Advantage” from Chapter 5 of the textbook for your evaluation.
• From your list of four small business possibilities, narrow your choices down to the two that you consider most likely to succeed based on the six competitive factors.
• Write a 1-page paper with a paragraph on each of the two final ideas briefly describing each idea and why you think it could be successful. Refer to your mind map to justify your choices.

By Day 7

This Assignment will be due.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Project using the naming convention “WK1Proj+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 1 Project Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 1 Project link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK1Proj+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.

1. Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Course Project: Overview/Idea Evaluation

Course Project: Overview

As previously mentioned, launching a new business venture requires a considerable amount of work and sacrifice. However, work and sacrifice alone are not enough for a business venture to be successful; launching a business requires careful planning and consideration. The more time you spend on contemplating your business strategies and marketing plans, the greater the likelihood of success.

For your Course Project, you will create a simple business plan. This will include a marketing plan, budget, and positioning strategy for a business idea. First, you will brainstorm different business ideas to determine one that is both feasible and of interest to you. Then, you will develop different components and sections of a plan for marketing and implementing the business idea. Your final Course Project will include the following elements:

• Idea Evaluation (Week 1)
• Idea Feasibility (Week 2)
• Business Vision Statement (Week 3)
• Product Positioning Map (Week 4)
• Legal Requirements and Social Impact (Week 5)
• Pulling It All Together—Completion of the Small Business Plan (Week 6)
  • Executive Summary (Week 6)
  • Growth and Marketing Summary (Week 6)

Components of your Course Project are due each week as outlined above.

Course Project: Idea Evaluation

All small businesses start out as ideas in the minds of their owners or founders. These ideas may take on a variety of forms and originate from many different sources. Business ideas could originate from discovering an innovative solution to a problem, noticing an unmet demand or untapped opportunity, or wanting to provide an alternative to existing products or services.

Not all ideas are equal in terms of feasibility, marketability, and ultimate business success. It is up to you, as an entrepreneur, to evaluate ideas and choose the best ones to pursue as business ventures. In this Assignment, you begin exploring different business ideas to use for your Course Project. You may opt to evaluate hypothetical ideas as more of a learning exercise, or you may use ideas you are currently considering for a small business.

Note: You are not required to share your ideas with other students, only Instructors, who will keep them confidential. However, if you would like to share your work and receive feedback from your colleagues, please post your work in the Class Café. If you plan to participate in this optional portion of the assignment, be sure to provide quality feedback to your colleagues. 

To prepare for this week’s Assignment:

• Consider business areas of interest to you and search for potential niches for a new or improved product or service. 
• Identify at least four possibilities.
• Review the “Six Factors of Competitive Advantage,” outlined on page 147 of your textbook.

For this week’s Assignment:

• Create a mind map (or a similar type of graphical representation) for each possibility. You can refer to the handout included in your Resources for a mind map template and instructions on creating a mind map.
• Refer to the “Six Factors of Competitive Advantage” from Chapter 5 of the textbook for your evaluation.
• From your list of four small business possibilities, narrow your choices down to the two that you consider most likely to succeed based on the six competitive factors.
• Write a 1-page paper with a paragraph on each of the two final ideas briefly describing each idea and why you think it could be successful. Refer to your mind map to justify your choices.

By Day 7

This Assignment will be due.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Project using the naming convention “WK1Proj+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 1 Project Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 1 Project link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK1Proj+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.