Order instructions

You are allowed to assume that you start with a notional £5,000 capital. You are allowed to bring in additional external funding, either debt or equity, in which case this must be costed at market rates, and must be discussed in the business plan.

It is expected that the business plan will cover, but is not necessarily limited to, the following areas:

Executive Summary
The Business
The opportunity, including description of the product or service.
Description of the business, including explanation of the proposed business model.
Competitive advantage
Industry analysis, including competitor analysis and likely competitor action.
Market analysis, including discussion of the target market, estimate of market size and predicted sales, together with a discussion of key assumptions made.
Marketing plan, including consideration of the marketing mix: particularly plans for promotion and distribution and pricing strategy.
Operations plan, including the nature and location of the production/service process; and operations and service management issues, e.g. capacity.
Costings, including discussion/calculation of fixed/variable costs and unit costings, together with a discussion of key assumptions made. Referencing / audit trail should be provided.
Financial plan, a narrative to include an explanation of sources of finance if used (see above), and exit strategy, together with a discussion of key assumptions made.
Cash flow forecast and break even analysis (drawing on market analysis and costings sections above)
Capital requirements
Payback and exit strategy (if external finance is used)
Critical risk factors, including intellectual property issues and potential ethical issues, if any.
Generic requirements: All business plans MUST also meet all of the following generic requirements:

i) Economic sustainability: The essence of the Enterprise Project is that we want you to write a business plan for an economically sustainable enterprise. This could be a conventional for-profit enterprise that creates economic value which is then appropriated by the founder (and others). Alternatively it could be a social enterprise where economic value is created but where the aims of the business are focussed more around creating social value. However, even in the latter case, the business would be expected to be sustainable in economic terms.
ii) Income generation: we expect the proposed business to generate enough cash for you to live on.
iii) Legality / reputational risk: Business plans should not be based on or around any activity, product or service which is illegal in the local jurisdiction, or which is illegal in the UK, or which could bring the University into disrepute.

NB: We will expect you to use primary AND secondary data as appropriate as supporting evidence to justify or support ANY claims that you make. ALL evidence should be referenced to provide a supporting audit trail.