Assignment: OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION AND PLANNING

Assignment Overview

For this assignment, you will be reviewing two sample business plans. One plan is for Water Works, Inc., a retail food service operation, and the other is for Software Solutions, a software manufacturer. Take a look at these two plans, and focus mostly on the general idea of each plan and what kind of market and competition they will face. Don't worry so much about the details of their financial projections. The two plans are:

The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. (2015). Appendix A: Business plan for a retailer seeking start-up capital. Write Your Business Plan: Get Your Plan in Place and Your Business off the Ground. New York: Entrepreneur Press. [EBSCO ebook collection]

The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. (2015). Appendix B: Business plan for a high tech company seeking financing for growth. Write Your Business Plan: Get Your Plan in Place and Your Business off the Ground. New York: Entrepreneur Press. [EBSCO ebook collection]

Case Assignment

Once you have finished reviewing the background materials for this module and have carefully reviewed the two business plans, write a 3- to 4-page paper addressing the following questions:

1. What do you think is the "unique selling proposition" or "competitive advantage" of each proposed new business? Use the Pearson tutorial on competitive analysis in your answer.

2. What is the precise market segment that each proposed company will be selling to you? Do you think it is a good segment to market to? Use the Pearson tutorial on market segmentation as part of your answer.

3. Based on your answers to Questions 1 and 2 above plus some SWOT analysis, which of the two business plans do you think is more promising? Use Background readings as your guideline on how to do the analysis.

Assignment Expectations

• Answer the assignment questions directly.

• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.

• List supporting references and cite sources in proper format.

• Use appropriate writing style in essay form (organization, grammar, and spelling).