Name:

Shark Tank Information Sheet

 

 

First Deadline: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (10/10/17)

·         On this day your official idea with a description and visual are due in class, typed.

·         When crafting your description you should aim to answer to three economic questions:

o   What is your product? (What problem does your product solve?)

o   How will you produce your product? (locally, internationally, start small, etc.)

o   Who is your target audience/consumer (and why them)?

o   To earn full credit your description should be at least a paragraph (6-8 sentences) and no longer than two paragraphs.

·         Create a visual: you can hand draw the visual or you can create a computer drawing of it.  Either way the drawing must be original…no pictures from clip art!  The drawing should be clearly labeled and explained.  You do not need to necessarily understand the technology behind what you want to do, but you should know whether or not it is actually possible. 

 

Second Deadline: Tuesday November 16, 2017 (11/16/17)

·         On this day, your executive summary is due.  This is the first part of the official business plan.  Remember that there are five main parts to your business plan (executive summary, operations plan, a market analysis, a financial analysis and a marketing plan). We are only collecting the executive summary ahead of time to be sure that you are on the correct path. 

·         Your entire business plan should be a max of 3 pages.  Each section should be a paragraph and a series of bullet points that the sharks can read through quickly during your presentation.  Remember you have just a short window of time to entice them, don't waste it having them read through a 10-page document!

·         Executive Summary: The executive summary is basically a summary of the highlights of all the other sections of your business plan.  You should attempt to answer all of the following questions as concisely as possible: Who are you and who is your management team?  What is the business idea?  Where is your market opportunity? When do you think your business will be profitable? Why will your target customer choose to do business with you?  How much money do you need and what will you do with it?  Remember this should only be one paragraph long, with potentially a few additional bullet points.  The details to the answers of these questions are found within other sections of your plan and your presentation.  You should close with a strong sentence that answers the question of why is this a winning business.

 

**Optional Business Plan Check: Tuesday, Nov. 29**

·         Although this is not a mandatory due date, it might be a good idea to finish your entire business plan early and have the teacher check it with enough time to make any necessary edits before the actual presentation.

 

 

 

Third Deadline: Thursday 12/7/2017: Presentations and Final Business Plan Due

This is it!  It's the day that the sharks will be in the room and you will present your final completed business plans to them along with slideshow presentation.  Here are some notes are how to construct the remainder of your Business Plan Sections:

·         Market Analysis:  This starts with a market summary outlining the business opportunity in order to drill down on what share of the market you believe you can capture.  You should do some research into the trends of your industry. Is this market growing or shrinking?  If you are not in a growth industry then you need to have a full picture of how long you think you can stay in this market before it becomes too saturated.  You need to identify and explain your target customer (age, location, income, and any other pertinent demographic information) and market (what problem are you solving for them, is the market large enough for you to turn a profit, do you have the resources you need to reach your target customer?).  You need to identify who your competition is, what are their strengths and weaknesses and why will customers switch to your product/service?

·         Marketing Plan: What is going to be your sales strategy?  What relationships do you need to build to do so? How will your produce be advertised (online, newspaper, snapchat, facebook, etc.)? What is your signature move? (what is going to make you stand out in the marketplace? Is it your uniforms, an extra free service, the way you greet your customers? People will always remember how they felt when they did business with you so what’s your ‘in’ to harness these feelings?

o   The slogan and the logo: Your slogan is your catchphrase (could be the same as your ‘signature move’) that embodies all your business and that you want all potential customers to remember.  It will appear on all of your advertising.  After discussing your marketing plan in your presentation you should unveil your slogan and your logo and explain why they will be effective

o   You need to create one advertisement either a print ad (must be a digital version that can be a part of your powerpoint) or a television/online commercial (max 25 seconds-embedded in your presentation).  For your ad, be sure to explain why the ad will work with the demographic you are targeting, how does the ad work to convince people that they should want your product/service? Why will your ad be more persuasive than other ads that may attempt to use the same strategies.  What stylistic choices did you make in your ad and why did you make them?

·         Operations Plan: This section explains how you plan to operate your business. What will it take to produce your product or service? Where will it be produced? Who will produce it? How many employees do you need? What kind of suppliers will you have? What kind of capital equipment is necessary? If you are manufacturing a product, it is even more important to track all the raw materials, processes, finished and shipped goods and how to work your way through the many emergencies, large and small. Your business plan should include as much detail as you can so anyone can see how you expect things to work.  Running your business can be as simple as going to a big box retailer and stocking up on more hot dogs, rolls, condiments, napkins, soda, etc. for that week’s business. On the contrary, it can be as complicated as having shirts made by a foreign manufacturer, getting them through customs, price-tagged for sale, stocked in the store, etc.  Other issues include location, business permits, inventory management, power and communications needs, insurance requirements, additional construction needs and zoning requirements. Operations is all about the details, so cover as much as you can, but be sure to be concise….there’s no time to read 10 pages on operations!

·         Financial Plan: This lays out your basic operational budget and sales expectations for your business.  How much money is there to be made from your product (what is your sales goal)?  How soon will your business be profitable? What are all your costs, both one time start up costs and long term costs? How much will it take to distribute your product? Even though many of these numbers are pretend, know your numbers and be able to defend them. 

 

Other Notes!

 

Remember that there is a group grade and an individual grade for this project, the factors that I will be taking into consideration are listed on the back page of the original packet.  You should divide up the writing sections and the presentation sections but also make sure those match (if you wrote the marketing plan, you must also present the marketing plan).  The roles are listed on the back of the original packet.  For groups with more than 5-6 people some roles will be doubled up on, but there can only be 1 CEO in each group. 

 

 

 

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[1] Some text material adapted from https://succeedasyourownboss.com/how-to-write-a-business-plan-part-iii-2/