Business Plan

Instructions for Individual Assignment: Evaluation of a Business Plan

(A Review/Critique/Analysis of an Existing Plan)
Your task is to critically analyze a full business plan provided to you by the instructor. The business plan for your individual evaluation is posted in CourseDen. You should use the contents of your textbook to guide your assessment, and your grade will be based on how well you demonstrate your ability to apply the concepts from this course and explain your analysis. Your work on this assignment is to be individual, and each student submits his or her own report.
The analysis should be approximately two-to-three single-spaced pages in length (or four-six double-spaced pages if you prefer to double space the document). Submit your analysis as a Word document via the assignment folder in CourseDen. Essentially, you are trying to determine if the plan presents a viable business and then, to provide recommendations for ways to improve the plan. You should highlight key shortcomings or open questions with the plan as well as identify some positive aspects of the business and the plan. Papers earning the highest grades will note both positives and negatives about the business plan.
Your report should address the items below. Parts 3 and 4 are the substantive parts of the analysis of the business idea and should represent the largest component of the report.

1) The basic mechanics – grammar, spelling, typos, formatting, order of the sections, and so on.
a. You should assess the plan that you are reviewing for these basic mechanics. You do not have to identify all errors. However, you should identify the nature of the errors, perhaps showing a few examples, and explain whether/how such errors are detracting from the message of the plan.
b. Additionally, you should proofread and edit your own report to eliminate errors in the basic mechanics.

2) Evaluate whether the plan is comprehensive based on the major parts that are typical for a business plan. Provide details of major shortcomings and/or exceptional parts. [You can ignore missing resumes and details about the management team as these have been removed for the anonymity of the authors.]

3) Explain how the business idea described in the plan might be improved, strengthened, and made more relevant to the business environment. Remember that entrepreneurs can become so enamored with their ideas that they have large blind spots which can be evident as overstatements, generalizations, omissions, or quick dismissal of what would seem to outside observers to be obvious concerns – such attitudes and perspectives might be displayed in the plan you are reviewing. Specifically, address the question from the following two angles:
a. What changes would you suggest to the business idea and the plan for implementing it (i.e., not to the written document, but to the ideas it presents)? What effect would those changes have if adopted?
b. In your opinion, is this business likely to be adaptable to changes in environment and resilient when confronted by challenges in the environment? Or is its likelihood of success limited to a particular set of circumstances? We have seen recent examples of environmental challenges with the labor supply and supply chain and inflation, but there are many other types of changes such as economic shifts (from up to down or from down to up), new/disruptive technologies, regulations, and arrival or departure of competitors or substitutes. Do you have concerns about this business’s resilience and ability to adapt? What are some modifications to the business that might increase its chances of operating successfully during challenges or adapting to lasting changes?

4) Does the plan offer a compelling justification for starting the proposed new business? Why or why not? With the changes you proposed in item 3 above, do you think the plan presents an idea for a business that could reach an appropriate scale and sustain itself over time? You can use the list above as the framing structure for your paper, or if a different order better suits your analysis, that is fine.

To help you get started and decide how to proceed with your analysis, below is a list of the major sections of a business plan as well as major traits expected in a plan (e.g., organization, professionalism). Use this list as a reminder of the types of topics and characteristics that an informed reader would be expecting to see in a business plan. It is acceptable if a section is omitted or positioned differently as long as you think that the necessary information is present and well-organized. Also, additional sections could be included if they are relevant to specific circumstances of a business or industry.
 Sections
a. Executive summary
b. Product or service description
c. Industry and market analysis
d. Marketing plan
e. Operations plan
f. Management team plan
g. Company structure
h. Financial plan
i. Growth plan
 Characteristics
a. Detail that is relevant
b. Clarity of explanations
c. Professionalism
d. Appearance and organization
e. Effectiveness