SBA CORE Assignments

BUSINESS PLAN SBA

CXC/CSEC School Based Assessment

Mechanical Engineering Technology

Small Business Plan

Due Date: ______________________                                   Date Given:     _________________

You are required to write a small Business Plan preferably in the area of Mechanical Engineering.

Your business may do any of the following:

1. manufacture and sell a simple product,
2. offer a service such as welding, servicing and repairing of equipment;
3. trade in Mechanical Engineering product(s)

A business plan is an essential roadmap for business success. This living document generally projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the route a company intends to take to grow revenues.

Business Plan Outline

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Your executive summary is a snapshot of your business plan as a whole and touches on your company profile and goals.

1. Description of Business

In this section you are expected to describe the business.  This includes: the name of the business, type of business, location, description of the production, and cost of the product/service, and mission/objectives etc. The mission/objectives is a short statement explaining the overall purpose of this business and what the business hopes to achieve.

State what customers should expect from the product being offered, highlighting special features and what makes it different.

NB:     You can also state if your business will be a Sole Proprietorship or Partnership

• Justification of Location

A major decision that all firms have to take is to choose a location to operate their business.  A variety of factors will influence this decision, such as:

1. Raw Materials – if the location is close to raw materials that the business needs.  Being located close to raw materials, it helps to reduce transportation cost for the business, therefore the business can use more of its profits to invest in the business rather than paying expenses.
2. Transportation Access – if the business is near the road, rail, sea or airports, to allow for easy transport of raw materials to the business and finished goods to customers, or allows for easy transportation to and from the business place both for workers and customers.
3. Market Pull – if the location is close to a lot of potential customers. For example – in residential areas, on plazas, near hotels, schools, business places etc. to attract customers.
4. Government influence – government can influence the location of the business, for example to prevent overcrowding in some towns/cities.
5. Environment – climatic conditions are important to some businesses especially agricultural. (e.g. Wisynco is located near to a well and uses well water to make “WATA” and other products, while many makers of orange juice in Jamaica are located near to, or on orange farms where their main raw material “orange” comes from.  They would therefore need to be in a parish that orange grows well in, like Bog Walk, St. Catherine).
6. Land – availability of large enough, reasonably priced, attractive land space for the business.

• PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
• Description of the product – Make the description as clear and as detailed as possible.
• Give the key benefits of the product to the customer
• State the projected price and why you are using that strategy
• Comment on how the business will be developed moving into the future.  For example; opening of new branches, reinventing the product, etc.
• MARKET AND COMPETITION
• Do an analysis of the market
• State the type of market you are going to be operating in.  For example; furniture manufacturing
• Describe your target market (potential customers).  Potential customers may include; business offices, householders, etc.  This target market would be ideal for persons doing furniture manufacturing.  Give an approximation of the size of the target market.
• Do a SWOT analysis.  This is basically doing an assessment of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the business environment.
• MARKETING AND SELLING STRATEGIES
• Sales and Promotion Strategy

Describe how you will get the product to the customer through the different marketing activities.  These marketing strategies include; market research, pricing, promotional activities, advertising, selling and distributing.

• Assessment of Competitors Through Barriers to Entry. – Barriers to entry are obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market. These hindrances may include government regulation and patents, technology challenges, economies of scale, high start-up costs, or education and licensing requirements.
• OPERATION PLAN
• Product and Delivery of Product
• Supply and inventory of raw materials.  You must answer the following questions in this section:
• Who will be your supplier (s)? 
• What terms will you establish with your suppliers as it relates to shortages?  Will they source materials or recommend alternatives if there is a shortage?
• Will you establish a line of credit with your suppliers?  What will be the conditions of credit?
• Product Process
• Describe the steps in production. If there are any steps which you have to outsource, state to who and why.
• State the technologies used in production
• State how long it will take to produce one (1) unit.
• Describe how will you distribute and sell your product or service. And if it’s a product you’re selling, in what stores will you sell them? Consider any arrangements that are already in place, and how you will get your product to the stores. You should also consider how and why these arrangements will work. Give examples of the stores.
• F.     MANAGEMENT
• Give a brief description of the organizational structure. State who will be in charge of what.
• Give the required skills and certification needed for each level of workers along with their job title.
• Give the qualifications of each person as well.

NB: Explain how you will locate potential employees and what qualifications they must meet, what jobs they will perform, how you will compensate them.

• FINANCING
• State how you will source funding to start up the business.  Make sure to include the amount in dollars.
• Give a projection of the cash inflow and outflow.

You may use this link to assist you:

            F          APPENDIX

Give supporting documents (photos, receipts, bank statements, diagrams, etc)

https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/write-your-business-plan

Marking Scheme/Rubric for the Business Plan

Please note the information that is given to write the Business Plan. Please follow it closely. Please note the formatting rules not given on the paper.

• Font: Times New Roman 12
• Heading 1: ALL CAPS, Underlined, Centred, Bold

HEADING 1

• Heading 2: Left Aligned, Italics, underlined, Bold

Heading 2

• Heading 3: Left aligned, Italics

Heading 3

• Insert page # at top right
• Use Page Breaks to separate pages.
• Cover Page should not have on any #, but  i is to be assumed
• Then ACKNOWLEDGEMENT page be # ii,
• Then TABLE OF CONTENTS page be # iii
• At the end of TABLE OF CONTENTS insert ‘SECTION BREAK NEXT PAGE’
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY should then be Page # 1
• Please GENERATE the TABLE OF CONTENTS, If you don’t know how to do it, ask someone.

To view the other assignments click on the PAGE NUMBERS below here.

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