MHR 423 Creating the Business Plan Fall 2003 Dr. Stan Abraham MHR Dept.

Principal Course Objectives To understand what goes into, and write, the major parts of a business plan To make a five-minute convincing presentation of that business plan Two Prerequisites MHR 320 or EBZ 306 MHR 321

Required Texts Marc Dollinger, Entrepreneurship: Strategies and Resources, 3 rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2003 David E. Tooch, Building a Business Plan, Pearson Education (Prentice-Hall) 2004, bundled with Business PlanPro 4.0 software (get from cashier because of software) David E. Gumpert, Burn Your Business Plan! What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs, Lauson Publishing, 2002

Value of the Course Most entrepreneurs have no formal education in entrepreneurship Some even have no formal education! Many have never written a business plan Many are engineers, scientists, artists, or other professional that have no business experience or acumen whatever Epitomizes Cal Poly Pomona’s philosophy of “learning by doing” You will actually write the major parts of a business plan and present its highlights in five minutes!!

My Expectations of You To take more responsibility for your own learning You won’t learn as much if you don’t To commit to having a very good group experience Your workload and stress level will increase exponentially if you don’t, and your grade will suffer proportionately To plan carefully and organize well There is a lot to get done in the quarter To help other groups with feedback And get participation points in the process

My Role as Professor To create a friendly and fun environment for learning To act as a resource, coach, expert, and sounding board for you as you develop your business plan To provide useful feedback and grade your assignments To give mini-lectures on each topic based on my experience Will supplement the texts nicely

The Business Plan Done in groups Based on a business idea you come up with Written in stages Improved through feedback from the prof and the class at key stages Culminates in a 5-min. dazzling presentation Marketing Plan Financial Projections and Investment Deal Environmental Analysis Final Business Plan

Participation Grade (10 pts) Nothing happens until I know all your names (week 3 or 4) Attendance gets four points Remaining six points for asking questions and giving feedback during intermediate and final presentations Unexcused absences over two lose a point for each absence More than five unexcused absences gets an automatic ‘F’

Written Work First drafts must never be handed in Always edit them once or twice Groups should assign someone this critical task Business writing is concise and clear If you find writing difficult, you must go to the University Writing Center for help Take pride in your work—a quality business deserves a quality business plan Final reports poorly written will lose points

Key Due Dates Tu Oct 21– Group presentation of business overview Th Oct 30– Group presentation of marketing plan – Group written marketing plan Th Nov 6– Environmental Analysis written report Tu Nov 18– Group presentation on financial results/investment deal Tu Dec 4– Final group business plan Tu Dec 9– Final 5-min. presentations

Any Questions?