Developing a Business Idea: Business Venture Teams Assignment

Required: Document that is detailed in essay style, APA format including Balance Sheet creation. Also power point slides: 8 to 10. Slides must be short points based on Document. Do not  copy document and make slides. Slides are summary points in a few words. Document is elaborate essay sentences. To add credibility to your work, go to linkedin and ask a few professionals for tips and guidances. Professionals in the specific field of business your project is on.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is for students to learn how to work effectively in teams and to apply the skills they have learned about business and entrepreneurship to develop a business idea.  
IMPORTANCE: This assignment will help you to apply your skills in order to explore the entrepreneurial mindset and elements required for a business plan. It will also enable you to reflect on CSR as it directly applies to the business idea that your  group creates. Finally, this assignment will provide you with the opportunity to perform a PESTLE analysis to assess and better understand the operating environment for your business. All of these elements are integral to the new essential employability skills that students need to develop to be successful in today’s business environment.  

Make sure your Report is real and do not make jumps in your thought process till it is complete as asked for BUSINESS VENTURE TEAMS: This is a team project; teams will work as a group to complete the work required for this project over a 6-week period (this period includes the week the assignment has been assigned). Teams have been set up for students in e.centennial, the computer has randomly placed you into a group. To see what group you are in: go to the course shell in e.centennial, select Communications, then click on Groups; you will see a link for the Business New Venture Assignment, click on the number to see the names of the 
people in your group. Use the email icon or the class list to email your group members.  

To ensure that effective online collaboration occurs, each team will use MS Teams to complete this assignment. MS Teams is an app that is accessible through your my.centennial Outlook email. Students in their respective groups, will have to communicate and collaborate regularly online using MS Teams, in order to successfully meet the goals and objectives of this assignment. To learn more about how to use MS Teams, you are encouraged to watch this webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEtOcXdOUNk 

Instructions for Business Venture Teams

IMPORTANT: This is not an assignment that can be competed at the last minute. Teams are encouraged to communicate as much as possible over the 7-week period using the chat feature in MS teams; documents can and should be shared, as well as worked on collaboratively, through MS teams as well – you will also be graded on collaboration in MS Teams as this is an important aspect of team work.  

To ensure that students stay on track for this assignment it is recommended that you follow the steps below: 
STEP 1: MEET YOUR TEAM AND GET ORGANIZED 20 marks – due by the end of week 7
• Go to the discussion board, introduce yourself to your team:

1) let your teammates know what part of the world you are in; along with,

2) a skill that will benefit the team;and,

3) one that you hope to learn over the duration of this assignment. For example, if
you have leadership skills or want to develop that skill set, let your teammates know. (8marks)

• Select a team name & a team leader: In the discussion board, think of a team name that will also be your company name. Then, select a leader who will be responsible for:

1) emailing the professor to let the professor know that they are the leader.

2) The leader will also, set up MS Teams – the professor will email instructions on how to do this simple task when the professor replies to the leader’s email; the leader will notify the team once MS Teams is set up. 3) The leader will submit the final assignment to the drop box in e.centennial (3 marks)
• Develop a Workplan: Use the Planner app; create a weekly schedule for what needs to get done to complete all elements of the plan – to access, click the plus sign in MS Teams and then select Planner. (9 marks)

Step 2: Business Idea, 5 marks – due week 7 and beginning of 8
Now that your team has been set up, you’ll need to come up with a business idea. The quicker you come up with an idea, the quicker you will be able to move on to

step 3. Teams that set up quickly may have their ideas by week 5. To help you with ideas for businesses look at the following website: https://sbs-spe.feddevontario.canada.ca/en/developing-your-ideas - you will need to explain why the team chose the idea you settle on as part of this assignment, in the business opportunity section. 
Step 3: Create a partial business plan 75 marks– start week 8 or 9 beginning, work to be completed weekly   
Once you have a business idea you will need to create a plan. To add a creative element to the plan and to ensure that too much content is not created, students will create a visual report using PowerPoint, see example below.

Step 1: Meet Your Team and Get Organized

Note: Instead of the standard 28 pts used in PowerPoint for the font size, use 14 to 16pts instead Remember, a business plan helps everyone involved clearly understand what the business is about including the business model, target market, costs involved and, in this case, social responsibility & analytical considerations as well.  For the purposes of this assignment we will create a partial business plan following most of the suggested elements from the Government of Canada website. Be sure to follow the elements outlined in the government of Canada website remember, to take note of the sections to be omitted as indicated below. Use the website resources included to help you create the plan and understand the elements required. Include the following headings in the plan, remember to go to the website for the rest of the information.

i. 1. Executive summary (business description) (8 marks)
ii. Include all elements from this section
2. Identifying your business opportunity (12 marks)
iii. Include all elements from this section, except:
• Omit the date the business was registered/incorporated, address and contact information – *if you were doing this for real, you would includethat information
iv. Include CSR aspect here
3. Marketing and sales strategy of the business plan (15 marks)
i. Include all elements
4. Your team (12 marks)
i. Include all elements, except:
• Omit the recruitment, training plans and associated costs

5. Operations (8 marks)
i. Include the first two sections only: Daily Operations & Facility Requirements
• Omit the last two sections
6. Financial forecasts of the business plan (8 marks)
i. Include Cash Flow statements for 3 months
• Omit the other sections
7. PESTLE Analysis (12 marks)
i. Be sure to connect how the PESTLE relates to the overall business idea in the
executive summary.

WHEN YOU ARE DONE, CHECK: 
• that you have completed all sections indicated for the business plan
• that you have used MS PowerPoint to create the plan, export it as a PDF file for submission
• writing: there should be no spelling, typing or grammatical errors in the business plan
• references: use APA in-text citations for any research used in the writing of the business plan, include an APA  reference list as the last slide
• formatting: use headings for each section, balanced images; document presentation looks professional
• Check sample. Check notes from Prof.Shanks class for points he brought up. Check Instructions. Do not leave out any elements.Avoid unnecessary elements of colour,pictures, design elements which are not used in APA. Do not plagarise.

Additional Resources - In addition to the resources needed to complete the business plan, our college library resources on APA & Centre for Academic English for writing, you may find the below resources useful as well; each have excellent examples that 
are very easy to follow or useful information that will help: See Near perfect sample
• PESTLE Analysis: https://pestleanalysis.com/how-to-do-a-pestle-analysis/
How to Write Your Reports in PowerPoint Instead of Word: 
Gett•ing Started: https://depictdatastudio.com/how-to-write-your-reports-in -powerpoint/ Tips  for
• APA Citation Guide, Columbia College:
https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/apa
• ESL Writing Lab, Owl Purdue:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/english_as_a_second_language/esl_instructors_tutors/esl_instructors_and_students.html.