More on DBs

At the end of each unit, DB participation is assessed based on level of engagement and the quality of the contribution to the discussion. DBs allow learners to learn through sharing ideas and experiences as they relate to course content. Because it is not possible to engage in two-way dialogue after a conversation has ended, no posts to the DB are accepted after the end of the unit. Learners must demonstrate an appropriate depth of understanding of course content to receive credit for having submitted substantive posts. Typically, this is achieved with 3–4 strong paragraphs for Main Posts and 2–3 strong paragraphs for Response Posts.

Assignment Details

This assignment has 4 parts.

1. What questions do you have about the overarching Unit 5 assignment?
   Although it is not due until the end of the class, it is important that you begin planning for this project early in the course. What are your initial thoughts about how you will approach this assignment? Explain.  
2. What are the most important elements of a Business Plan? Why?
3. What other elements should be added to the Business Plan to encourage potential investors? 
4. How important is accurate financial data to the Business Plan? Why

RE: UNIT 2 – DISCUSSION BOARD

Fri 8/13/2021 4:11 PMAll Actions

Hello Nitra,

The remarks are very insightful. At this time you do not have any questions on the group project yet your plan to begin digesting all the requirements will help bring clarity to you. My live chats are developed to help the class reach the goal of executing the business objectives for Tools Corporation. There are various areas to make sure the employees’ exhibit financial acumen. Of course, the profit and loss statements are critical to a business operation. In addition, there are billing for sales for small companies that have become much easier, and faster. When customers take advantage of credit card payments, e-commerce with Paypal, and so much more these sales help grow revenues. A lot of research should go into organizing the business and create a budget expenditure. The detailed budget expenditures help the executives evaluate business performance, whether profitable or in the position of loss. The owner is determined to win more customers and grow the business; however, without a clear plan, the cost of capital to be disbursed and income targets to be achieved are not solidified. Furthermore, a full-blown economic situation may worsen the operations such as coronavirus (COVID-19). Having the right strategy in such a crisis situation is needed for business continuity. Mills et. al (2010) assert all financial transactions, both income, expenses and any bill of sale must be well maintained.

Has COVID-19 caused a destructive impact on your industry or business? Why or why not? 

yes here is the unit 5 for question #1 and the three replys to other students

EW

Emjay Williams

Reply

UNIT 2 – DISCUSSION BOARD

Thu 8/5/2021 6:34 PMAll Actions

Hello Professor and classmates,

After looking over the requirements for the Unit 5 assignment I cannot think of any questions at the moment. The assignment appears to be pretty straightforward with what it is asking for. Generally, when I have a big project due, I break it down into smaller and more manageable pieces. For example, I would accomplish this by breaking it down in the following manner:

Week of Aug 16-20: The SWOT analysis and the business plan outline

Week Aug 23-27: Completing the mission statement and the key operating principles

Week of Aug 30-Sept 3: The one-, five- and 10-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one proposal.

This way would allow me enough time to ensure I have all of the necessary information for the project. By using this timeline, it allows time for any revisions to be done and for the project to be submitted on time or potentially early. Since this is a group project this breakdown could still work with some possible timeline revisions.

The most important elements of a business plan are the executive summary, the market research, management and financial reports. The executive summary is important because it is the opportunity to pitch the idea. The summary will give the reader a roadmap to the background of the company by answering what the company does or what service(s) do they offer, identify the problem in the market and how the company will be the solution to that issue and why is now the time to invest in this company. The marketing research will describe your target audience and how you measure up against your competition. This is imperative because you will be able to see the areas in which your competitor is strong and also where they are weakest. The management structure can be included to build the confidence of the investors. If the investors are aware that there are seasoned leaders on board it will potentially cause them to be more confident in their decision to invest in the company. Lastly the financial report because the investor(s) want to ensure that they will have a good return on their investment. In this section, it will be beneficial to show future projections and include a table or graph as a visual aid to assist in showing where the company could go (The Hartford, 2021).

Reference

The Hartford. (2021). The Hartford. Retrieved from thehartford.com: com/business-insurance/str…”>https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/str…

Ian Mccabe

Reply

UNIT 2 – DISCUSSION BOARD

Fri 8/6/2021 7:52 PMAll Actions

Hello all,

What questions do you have about the overarching Unit 5 assignment? As of right now I have no questions I know I will soon. This will be a complex final to say the least.
Although it is not due until the end of the class, it is important that you begin planning for this project early in the course. What are your initial thoughts about how you will approach this assignment? Explain. I do like to begin my final about week three into class. I like to get started by gathering as much information about the topic as possible. I also like to read on the subject. The more information I obtain, the more I can learn and flush out what I don’t need. Brainstorming also comes into effect.

What are the most important elements of a Business Plan? Why? I have done a business plan for my company a few years ago and found that the most important thing for me other than the mission/vision statement. I find that the financial analysis is the most important part of the business plan. Many would say the executive summary is the most important. I agree that it’s a vital part because it’s the first document in the business plan, but financial reports also explain how the company is getting it’s revenue and how it plans to make profits in the future. In my experience a bank or loan company will need to see a business plan at the application stage. “If you’re just starting a business, you won’t have a lot of information to plug into the areas mentioned above. Instead, focus on your experience and background as well as the decisions that led you to start this particular enterprise. Include information about the problems your target market has and what solutions you provide”( (SBA.gov, Arizona district office 2021).

Reference:

Arizona district office. Small Business Administration. (n.d.). https://www.sba.gov/offices/district/az/phoenix/resources/sba-recommended-business-plans-length.

Katie Breiby

Reply

UNIT 2 – DISCUSSION BOARD

Wed 8/4/2021 10:46 AMAll Actions

What questions do you have about the overarching Unit 5 assignment?
Although it is not due until the end of the class, it is important that you begin planning for this project early in the course. What are your initial thoughts about how you will approach this assignment? Explain.

Questions I have now about the Unit 5 assignment:

1. Where do I locate the list of who is in our group?
2. How many people will be in each group?
3. Where do we go to cooperate?

I think it is a good idea that we do get started as soon as we can so we all understand which parts each will focus on. Depending on how many people to a team we will have to collaborate what our main focus is for the company and divide the parts to each person. If we have three people than each gets two bullet points allow with one person have a bullet point and writing the Executive Summary.

What are the most important elements of a Business Plan? Why?

The key elements of a Business Plan include:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Market Analysis
• Organization and Management Structure
• Product/Service
• Marketing Strategy
• Financial Plan

These key elements are important to a business plan because they help the company run successfully.

The Executive Summary includes brief details of the company, what it does and what needs to be done to successfully run it. The Executive Summary will list the business name, location, products or services, missions and vision statements. It is an overview of the specific purpose of the business plan and its success factors.

The company description will show the overview of the company including the goals and objectives of what it has achieved, problems the company solves, who the customers are, and other areas of success. This is where you can brag all about the company. It shares information including the location, legal structure, overview of products, services, customers, and suppliers. It will also highlight the financial and marketing aspects of the company.

The market analysis is the section that summarizes market research that shows the analyses of the industry, target consumers, and competitors. It will show what success means in the industry and how competitors achieve goals and what our company does better. These are things like the industry description and statistics that shows the profile of targeted customers and their demographics. Also can include Marketing data for the products and services for the past, present and future as well as detailed evaluations of its competitions and strengths and weaknesses.

The organization and management structure is important because it defines how the company will be run. It will descript the legal structure of the business and can include an organizational chart that shows the hierarch of the company and what departments there are and who manages them. This can include the profiles of team members, advisors, and describe roles and responsibilities and how they contribute to the company.

The products and services area will describe in detail of what the company offers and how the product or services benefits the customer. This includes the costs, net revenue from sales, lifecycle data, research and development, and what the company’s advantages are over their competitors.

The marketing strategy will describe the plan and how it will reach the target customers, gets its leads, and how it makes sales. The results are reviewed periodically through a certain time.

The financial plan is the section that shows how you are soliciting funding for your company and is used to prove the company’s viability to its investor. It will identify how the company generates revenues and highlight the key ways that they govern the financial projects. This will show documents that show the companies forecast, projected income, balance sheets, cash flow, and capital budgets.

com/9-key-elements-of-an-e…”>https://orcuttfinancial.com/9-key-elements-of-an-e…

Unit 5 assignment

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located in Tennessee. As members of the senior management team of ToolsCorp Corporation, your group has been asked to prepare a neat and organized report for the Strategic Officers Steering Committee (SOS-C) of ToolsCorp Corporation. The purpose of this paper is to obtain permission from them to go forward with the next step (developing a full-blown business plan) for ToolsCorp’s strategic initiative to break into the global marketplace.

Your group’s paper should discuss the following (at a minimum):

• A complete strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (including at least 5 factors from each category and full explanations of why each factor is important and why it was placed in the category) of the environment that exists within ToolsCorp and the environment that ToolsCorp is proposing
• An outline of the business plan to be developed for ToolsCorp’s strategic initiative
• A full mission statement containing the nine components and presented in a well written paragraph
• Key operating principles as you will apply them
• A preliminary market analysis of the market(s) into which ToolsCorp expands
• The one-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one strategic proposal for each time frame (3 strategic proposals in all), complete with implementation plans, potential ramifications, and feedback mechanisms
• The additional material that your group considers necessary to support the case for going forward with ToolsCorp’s global strategic initiative (This is not optional, you must input additional material.)

Background Information

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located it in Tennessee. It builds power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. All products are manufactured locally and sold through large retailers that place sales papers inserted in every Wednesday and Sunday paper. Although they have a thriving business in the United States and Canada, ToolsCorp is trying to break into the global marketplace.

Deliverable Length

The deliverable length is at least 15 pages (cover page and reference page not included). As graduate business students, you are required to provide a well-researched and analyzed comprehensive response to every assignment question. Brief, vague, generic, or nondefinitive responses will not earn good grades.

This group project requires a minimum of 15 scholarly sources, a minimum of 1 per page. You are welcome and encouraged to use the David textbook and the course materials for this course, but other viable research sources are required.

For references, use the APA guide that is available as shown in the Virtual Campus under “Interactive Learning.”

Remember that any paper longer than 10 pages requires the submission of an Executive Summary.