Assignment 1 - Opportunity Description
Your assignment is to write a compelling, concise description of your business idea. To ensure you've fully thought through the idea, answer the following questions:
- What is the business opportunity? Choose at least two of the points below to answer this question.
- What are the trends (political, social, legal, etc. that work in your favor)?
- What basic problem are you trying to solve?
- What patterns do you see involving your solution?
- What basic needs are you trying to solve?
- What is your solution?
- Who pays your firm for your product/solution:
- Example: Netflix is an online platform that uses a subscription model (paid by end-users); Canvas is an online learning platform sold to Universities and large corporations, but is used by the University's professors
- Who is the closest competitor? What makes your product unique (the answer should tie back to the opportunity stated above)?
- How does this business make money (profit)?
- Selling price & Cost & Big expenses
Include as many facts and data to support your answers to these questions. Avoid alchemy - no products or services that rely on some "magic." The technology to make or produce the product should be within the "realm of possibility." State what makes you believe that the technology is possible (e.g., variations of it are being used in existing products). I expect you will have done basic ground work to ensure that the exact idea is not already on the market.
These businesses must be based on filling a real demand. Non-profit business ideas will be held to the same standard as for-profit ideas.
Your paper must adhere to the following guidelines:
- The paper should use 12 point type, double-spaced.
- The paper must not be longer than one page.
- You may use bullets points where appropriate, however the rest of the document should be written in full & complete sentences.
The presentation should roughly follow your written outline, and:
- Be longer than 30 seconds but less than 2 minutes long
- Be supported by some energy and salesmanship
- Can use props (including PowerPoint) - this is not mandatory