Business Start-Up Assignment:
Consider the following scenario: Dear Entrepreneur, Congratulations! You are now part of the proud new owners of Sneakers Inc., a company trading in sneakers. Sneakers Inc. is a company selling and developing sneakers for men and women. Under the leadership of the previous owners Sneakers Inc. had a reputation for being a brand that had something for everyone. Not the cheapest but still reasonably priced, not the highest quality but not bad either. This is something the company kept up for a long while, right up until the economic crisis came around. They barely survived that period – many customers chose for either a better-quality sneaker, or one with a lower price. After the economic crisis the old owners decided to sell their company to you. You have taken over all their customers, staff, and relations and now it is up to you to find the way forward. Based on the above scenario, you are required to do the following:
Task 1: Sneakers Inc. Business Plan: Design a business plan for Sneakers Inc. (60 marks, 2000 words) Task 2: Sneakers Inc. Business pitch presentation: Create a 5-minute Business Pitch using a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 10 power point slides (25 marks, 500 words).
Task 1 Further detail: Sneakers Inc. Business Plan You will need to produce a new business plan for Sneakers Inc based on the scenario above, with the inclusion of academic references explaining your business opportunity to the board of directors and group of shareholders. Your business plan must demonstrate the skills required to turn the business into practical applications. Use this to support your 5-minutes Sneakers business pitch powerpoint in Task 2. The business plan will include the following main elements of a plan with the inclusion of academic references: *scroll to bottom for list of citation sources that must be used:
1. Executive Summary – This should include a short overview of the entire business plan. It should provide a busy reader with everything that needs to be known about the revamp venture distinctive nature including summaries of the problem/gap, solution, target market, competitor analysis, management expertise, sales forecasts, financial highlights and amount of finance needed. 2. The Business Concept/Business Model – This section should include the vision and mission statements based on the market problem or gap and SMART overall business objectives. It must demonstrate how you meet the requirements for setting up sustainable business model operating within internal and external competitive environments. 3. Management Team Expertise – Include a brief background profile (what skills would need to be possessed by the c-suite team for your plan to succeed, e.g. educational, industry experience and achievements) of the top management team demonstrating their entrepreneurial capabilities and competences to justify their appointment. – Explain the role that you play as an entrepreneur/owner. Discuss and justify the legal form of business and ownership structure (What type of organisational structure would be most suitable for your plan, e.g. hierarchical, flat, functional).
4. Market and Industry Analysis (Feasibility) – This section should present your market research assessment of the external and competitive environments using appropriate tools. Highlight target market, segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy and competitor analysis. – Investigate the current real-world market, any rea- life factors changing the sneaker market needs? E.g. importation tax increase for China by the USA due to trump. Include citations from news articles.
5. Marketing Strategy – Include overall marketing plan, positioning and differentiating propositions, marketing mix, market entry and sales process. – Look into whether price skimming, price penetration, economy pricing or premium ricing is most suitable for your strategy.
– Consider your product positioning (Boston Consulting Group Matrix) and potentially creating a product portfolio to sit in several market positions.
– Rebranding – how will you reintroduce the company to the market (e.g. look into how ‘Sketchers’ rebranded from a comfort shoe for older consumers, to rebranding as a fashion shoe for young people to attract younger audiences inline with the Y2K fashion trend).
6. Business Sales and Operations Strategy – Keep this short and crisp; outline general approach to operations, sales plan, business location, facilities and equipment and key milestones. 7. Financial Strategy and Risks – This section should include start-up costs, sales forecasts, proforma financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cashflow statement), sources of funds and financing sought and business risks. – Identify your predicted breakeven point.
– Base this on findings from competitor research and research on current economy.
– How financial and operational targets will be met and reviewed.
8. Closing Summary – Summarise key parts of the business plan, draw conclusions from your business plan that are appealing to investors, make it interesting and demonstrate that the proposed business concept will make money. – You must also include: • References – to be AU Harvard Referencing Standards. • Appendix – to include a sharable link to the Sneakers Inc. Business Pitch
Task 2 Further Details: Sneakers Inc. Business pitch presentation
Based on the business plan, devise a 5-minute Business Pitch using a minimum of 5 slides, including the title and reference slides. The PowerPoint presentation will complement the strategic business plan produced in Task 1 but be creative and daring. This is your opportunity to sell your new business venture to the directors, shareholders and potential investors and it should be concise, exciting and grasp the investors’ attention. You are advised to use more visuals and less text in your PowerPoint pitch (relevant images, diagrams, graphs, keywords and no full sentences, use colour with purpose). Where your slides need further explanation, make brief notes in the speaker notes section. Your business pitch should include, as brief and clearly as possible: • The market gap or problem in relation to Value proposition – Where can you mine out profitable areas from your market research/the problem or gap identified (e.g. low level of shoe brands prioritising comfort as well as style, try to identify research/data where it is shown that this is a thing people are looking to spend money on – for example competitors product reviews from customers).
• Market research and feasibility analysis – How possible is it to actually initiate your plan – try to cover all bases (e.g. suppliers capacity, importation, system set up/providers for order collection and deliver etc.)
• The business model (Lean) & minimum viable product • Competition and Differentiation strategy. • Marketing Strategy • The investment/financing and support sought.
Remember your role is not to create the product, your focus is on marketing/selling the concept you come up with.
*Make sure to open the full guide document attached, in there are sources that must be used and some sources that can be used.