Budding Entrepreneurs: Starting Your Own Business

Introduction

If you have ever thought you could open your own business, now you can! 

You will use your own creative and innovative ideas to start your own small business. 

Think you can be the boss? Do you have what it takes? Let's find out!

Watch this video for a short glimpse into just a portion of what it takes to become an entrepreneur. 

Proceed to the Task section to find out more about your assignment. 

 

Objectives Met:

  1. Through research, students will discover the challenges of opening a small business.
  2. Students will compare successful and failed business attempts in order to determine what type of business may be right for them to open. 
  3. Students will think creatively about ideas for a business and will create a marketing and business plan to persuade potential investors that their plan will work.
  4. By sharing their presentations with the class, students will learn from one another.
Task

Your Task:

1. What business will you create? Think about what interests you and your talents and decide on a unique small business you would like to create. 

2. Where will it be located? Think about locations for your business and research those places. You may decide you need to find a different locale after your research. 

3. What is your plan? You need to develop a business plan (much like the one we did in an earlier unit) that will be presented to investors.

4. How will you market your business? You need to develop a marketing plan that will be presented to potential investors. 

5. Presentations!! You will present your business plan and attempt to get investors on board to start your business. 

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The following items are required for a complete assignment (more details will be on the Process tab):

  • Notes and a Bibliography -- Keep detailed notes on information you discover throughout the project. Make a note of every source consulted. Submit a proper bibliography with all of your resources.
  • Power Point Presentation -- Outlining your business idea, support for your business idea, brief outline of business and marketing plan (should be persuasive and detailed)
  • Business/Marketing Plan for Business
  • Presentation to "potential investors"

Proceed to the Process tab for more detailed information. 

Process

Steps & Resources

There are many steps to follow:

1. Develop Idea for Your Business

2. Research Community

3. Research Small Business Do's and Don'ts

4. Create Business & Marketing Plan

5. Design Power Point Presentation 

6. Present Your Ideas and Research to Investors

  

1. Develop Idea for Your Business 

Be creative!!!!!

What are your interests? What are your talents? Is there something in particular (a hobby, a sport, a craft, a skill) that you are enjoy and want to turn into a career? 

Is there something that you always thought should be made or be available? Is there some small business that you can imagine would do well?

Think of a problem facing your community. How could you create a business to solve the problem?

At this step, you should:

  1. Open a Word document to keep notes (you will use this for all the steps to keep all your notes and sources together)
  2. Be creative and record all ideas you have -- don't limit yourself. Think outside the box.
  3. Explore some of the websites listed in this section to get ideas about the multitude of businesses that exist. But, don't limit yourself to these - develop your own. Keep track of all notes, ideas and sources looked at in the Word document. 

 

Resources for Step 1

Entrepreneur.com Small Business Ideas - 
http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/index.html. 
Great site from Entrepreneur Magazine that includes advice and ideas on how to generate ideas for a small business.

USA TODAY Small Business News, Ideas, Advice & Blogs - 
http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/default.htm.
Get some ideas for a small business and see some advice and stories from small business owners.

Ideas for Generating Ideas for Online Businesses - 
http://www.pandecta.com/smalidea.html.
Some advice for coming up with ideas, primarily for online businesses but the advice may be helpful for any small business.

Idea Cafe - 
http://www.businessownersideacafe.com/.
Run by small business owners, a place where they share ideas about their businesses and some strategies to be successful.

 

2. Research Community 

Select a community or area of the state or country that you would like to locate and operate your small business (or, if you are proposing an online business, you will research online consumers).

Keep track of all notes on your research and all sources consulted in your Word document.

Research should include:

  • Research businesses (particularly those similar to your company) in the area
  • Look at demographics of the area, including
    • Is it an upper middle class town or is it a working class town?
    • What are some of the most prevalent occupations?
    • What other facts about the people in the community would influence the success of your business?
  • Any other details you feel would influence the potential success of your business

 

Resources for Step 2

HINT: Use a search engine (google) to find the official site for the town or county or state. All of the official sites will have information for business looking to locate there. 

Small Business Administration - 
http://www.sba.gov/.
Excellent site for information, services, and advice for small business owners and potential small business owners.

Realtor.com - Neighborhood Tour - 
http://move.realtor.com/Cities/Neighborhoods.asp?source=web.
Search for your city or town or area of the state. Scroll through your results to find information on specific neighborhoods, including socioeconomic statistics, housing prices, and other aspects of the area.

 

3. Research Small Business Do's and Don'ts 

What makes a company successful? What are the challenges of running a small business? What are the benefits? What are the risks? 

You want to be informed to start a business. Also, this research will help you to design your business and marketing plan and to sell your idea to investors. 

Keep track of all notes and all sources consulted in your Word document. 

Resources for Step 3

Small Business Administration - 
http://www.sba.gov/.
Excellent site for information, services, and advice for small business owners and potential small business owners.

MSNBC Small Business - 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3627254/.
Information, tips and news about small business.

Entrepreneur.com Magazine - 
http://www.entrepreneur.com/.
Great source of information for starting a small business.

 

4. Create a Business & Marketing Plan

You will need to develop a business plan that outlines potential expenses involved, goals for the company, among other items. 

Your plan should include:

  • Marketing Plan
    • What makes product or service unique?
    • Why would people go to you instead of competitors?
    • Who is your target market?
    • How will you market your new business to potential customers?
  • Business Plan
    • Goals for the first year of your business
    • Goals for the first five years of your business
    • Monthly cash flow statement with explanations
    • Simple yearly budget (salaries, expenses, etc)
    • Start-up costs
    • Details of company - number and salary of employees, building, materials needed, etc.
    • Keys to success
Resources for Step 4

You are welcome to use your notes and previous handouts we used in class regarding business and marketing plans as well as these listed below. 

Writing a Business Plan - 
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html
Excellent site for detailed information about developing a comprehensive, effective business plan for your new business. Provides tips and strategies for creating a successful plan.

Business Plan for a New Business - 
http://www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P02_3101.asp.
Discusses purpose and reasons to develop a business plan when starting a new business.

Sample Business Plans - 
http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm.
Good site to see samples of business plans to get an idea of how they are typically created.

Small Business Administration - 
http://www.sba.gov/.
Excellent site for information, services, and advice for small business owners and potential small business owners.

 

5. Design Google Slides Presentation 

Create a Google Slides presentation to show to your potential investors. The presentation should be persuasive and convince investors to invest in your idea and help you to start your company. 

Look at all your notes about your idea, about the community where you want to locate the business, the material about what makes a successful business, and etc. Use the notes to help you to create a persuasive, informative and effective presentation to sell your idea to potential investors. 

Some items/ideas you may wish to include in the presentation:

  • Your idea for the business - show your creative and innovation
  • Reasons why the business should be successful where you want to locate it
  • Your business and marketing plan
  • Why you will be successful running this business - convince investors that they want to support you and your idea
  • Anything else you think may be helpful
Resources for Step 5

Power Point - Help & How-To - 
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/.
Tips and ideas for creating visually appealing and effective Power Point presentations from Microsoft.

 

6. Present Your Ideas and Research to Investors 

Convince investors to support your company. 

Present your power point and any other materials to a group of investors (your classmates). Remember that, in addition to your Google Slides presentation, investors will want you to convince them that your business would be a sound investment. Prepare a 5-10 minute presentation. 

  

 

Evaluation

Your assignment will be graded using the following rubric:

Budding Entrepreneurs: Starting Your Own Business
Category Needs Improvement Satisfactory Excellent

Notes and Sources

 Notes are vague or are not included. Bibliography is either not in proper format or contains less than 3 sources Notes are included that indicate some research conducted. Bibliography either is not in proper format and/or contains less than 5 sources.  Detailed, comprehensive notes indicate all information gathered from a variety of sources every day of the project. Bibliography is in proper format and includes at least 5 sources 

Business/Marketing Plan

 Plan not included or plan is vague and lacks sufficient detail. Plan may not outline idea for business, supporting research, goals or financial aspects of business in detail. Action plan may not be detailed or realistic.  Plan clearly outlines idea for business, supporting research, goals, and financial aspects of business. Detailed action plan for the first year of the business is included and is operational.

Google Slides Presentation - Detail and Creativity of Ideas

 Idea may not be unique, may not be appropriate and/or little detail about business is included in the power point (or no power point submitted). Business idea may not be unique and/or may not be appropriate for intended community.  Business idea is unique, inventive, innovative and shows careful consideration of needs of community where business will be located.

Google Slides Presentation - Persuasiveness 

 Little evidence of persuasion in power point presentation. Persuasive arguments included in power point. May not contain extensive research or extensive supporting materials.  Strong, persuasive arguments to support financing your business. Proposal would encourage investors to invest in your plan. Extensive research and supporting materials back up business idea outlined in power point.

Presentation

 Presentation either not given or no clear details of business presented. Presentation describes business idea but may lack enthusiasm, and not be appropriate to gain investors' interest. Presentation is energetic and enthusiastic, and it clearly describes business idea.
Timeliness  Turned in more than 2 days late. Turned in 1 day late. Turned in on time. 

 

Conclusion

You did it! Investors are ready to support your business idea! You have a solid business plan for a company that is marketable and needed in your community. 

Think about the future - how will you implement your idea for the business? Do you want to start this business "for real"? How will you go about it? 

The world needs innovative and creative new businesses to meet everyone's needs -- yours may be just what everyone is looking for!  Go for it!

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Credits

All images from Google Images. 

Video Clip from YouTube. 

This WebQuest could not have been created without the use of some information used from WebQuest Page: Be Your Own Boss! Opening and Operating a Small Business WebQuest created by Jamie Fauver. 

Teacher Page

Goals

This WebQuest was designed for high school students in business classes who are learning about the entrepreneurship. This WebQuest requires research, analysis, synthesis and application of knowledge. It can accommodate diverse talents and learning styles of students. It stresses creativity. 

Mastery Objectives of Opening and Operating a Small Business WebQuest

  1. Through research, students will discover the challenges and common pitfalls of opening a small business.
  2. Students will compare successful and failed business attempts in order to determine what type of business may be right for them to open. 
  3. Students will think creatively about ideas for a business and will create a marketing and business plan to persuade potential investors that their idea is sound.
  4. By sharing their presentations with the class, students will learn from one another.

Materials

Adequate Internet connections are necessary so that all students have access to the websites and information. Significant time is needed to devote to generating creative ideas, conducting research, creating the business and marketing plan and sharing results with the class.