Reference no: EM133077723

Assessment brief: The formative task is there to help you complete the summative assessment task successfully. The formative process is important because it will help you address the task more fully and therefore contributes to your learning and understanding of the challenges facing SMEs and help you develop your business development & planning skills in relation to SMEs.

You will be required to undertake a detailed evaluation of an existing SME and then design and growth/development strategy for the business. You will present your findings in a report and make clear and coasted recommendation

Students will need to research a small, or medium sized business. You should try to determine the following during the research:
• The nature of the entrepreneur behind the venture.
• The SME start-up processes.
• The business concept and any sources of competitive advantage
• The current level of demand and the competitive environment
• The growth and development of the business to date
• The challenges of managing and running the business
• The SMEs current growth and development strategy
• Any government support measures that may be available to help the business overcome the challenges faced

You are required to complete a 'reflective journal' as part of your assignment; it will account for 10% of the marks. Entries should be made weekly based upon the course content covered and should be relatively short in nature; around 200 words per week will suffice although students are free to write freely in any style that works for them. The entries need only cover the 'key points' from each week and not be detailed in natureThe entries are private, accessible to you, your personal tutor and the instructors on the course. They will become a useful starting point for your assignment. These four questions will help to act as a catalyst for your journal but you may record and write anything that feels right for you:

1. What thoughts were prompted in your mind with this weeks' material?

2. What did you find interesting in this weeks' material?

3. What did you learn this week?

4. How might this learning help you with your assignment?

You should make use of all available sources and current thinking on SMEs should be central to your analysis and illustrated with reference to current articles from relevant journals and from broadsheet newspapers. Use should be made of the library's electronic databases such as Summon, Emerald, etc. You should apply theoretical concepts and models relating to the entrepreneurial process and to the various stages of growth and development of the business.

Once you have done your research you will need to write your report in which you will present your findings and your recommendations for the future growth and development for the business. You are advised to adopt the following structure for the report

• Title page. Include module title. the names of the SME discussed, student ID number and the total word count (excluding bibliography)

• Contents page

• Introduction: this should include some background on the SME and entrepreneur(s). You may wish to include details such as the type of business. size, how long it has been trading, etc_ Students should also give a brief account here of the research process (focusing pnmanly on the secondary data collection). The aims and objectives of the report. or the terms of reference should be dearly spelled out and should obviously relate to the assessment bnef above. with 8 components.

• Findings: here the results of the research need to be presented. This section should follow along the lines of the aims and objectives highlighted in the introduction. The purpose in this section is to set out the elements covered as part of the research set out above. This should include the nature of the entrepreneur, the start-up process. the business concept and competitive advantage, the current level of demand the competitive environment, the growth and development of the business to date. the challenges of managing and running the SME, and your assessment of current growth and development strategy Students should also highlight appropriate government support schemes that may be available to the business.

• Conclusions- this should follow logically on from the findings and provide a concise summary of them No new information should be presented here.

• Recommendations: hers students should present their proposals for the future growth and development of their SMEs and these should be coated, compelling and persusive. Work should be supported with reference to appropriate sources.

• References and Bibliography, you should be disceming about your sources of information and ensure that all references conform to the Harvard convention.

Note: SME - Realza Capital: December 2006