Reference no: EM132340524

Develop and Implement a Business Plan Assignment -

Assessment Task 1: Written Questions

Provide answers to all of the questions below:

1. Outline three reasons why a company may choose to develop a business plan.

2. Outline the key steps involved in developing a business plan.

3. Outline five common components of a business plan.

4. Outline three areas that the initial business planning process may address.

5. Outline the purpose of a SWOT analysis in a business planning process.

6. Describe the relationship between performance objectives and key performance indicators in a business plan.

7. Explain why it is important for a business to use a range of performance measures within its business plan.

8. If a business plan has an objective of improving customer satisfaction, describe three performance measures that could be used to measure customer satisfaction.

9. Describe the balanced scorecard approach in relation to performance measurement.

10. Outline key stakeholders who may be involved in business planning.

Assessment Task 2: Develop and implement a business plan

Carefully read the following:

Ozhouse Clean is based in Melbourne and offers professional, residential cleaning services, including regular home cleans, as well as spring cleans. The company was established in 2005 and is a family business established and operated by James and Nancy Anderson. James and Nancy are the Directors of the company and finance any business expansion themselves. Their daughters, Amanda and Sarah, are also employed by the company and manage the business for their parents who are not involved operationally. Amanda is the Operations Manager and Sarah is the Administration Manager. You have been brought on as a business consultant to help the business reach its goals.

The company sees its point of difference from competitors as being a small family business, with a focus on quality and happy and contented staff and customers. The management team understands this point of difference may need to change as the business grows. There may need to be more management or administrative staff employed, for example, while Amanda manages marketing, she is not skilled in this area and is very busy with the operational side of the business, so a skilled marketing officer may be needed.

Currently target customers are consumers located in the greater Melbourne area. Target customers are people who want a professional, trustworthy and immaculate cleaning service. Pricing reflects that of competitors.

The company employs 15 cleaners, all of whom are part-time contract staff working between 10 and 15 hours a week. The company currently has approximately 70 regular clients, based around Melbourne inner city. These clients require regular home cleaning, either weekly or once every two weeks for 3 to 6 hours. A standard hourly rate of $40 is charged. Staff receive an hourly rate of $25 per hour. The cost of the products provided to staff for cleaning, including equipment and ongoing supplies such as cleaning products, works out to be approximately an additional $2 per hour on top of the rate paid to staff. The company is also considering whether it may be wiser to move to employing a number of full-time, permanent cleaning staff. This is partly because there is a high turnover of casual staff and little loyalty to the company. Staff costs for employing a full-time cleaner is $55,000 per year, including superannuation payments.

All ongoing cleaning supplies are currently purchased from Total Cleaning Supplies in Melbourne. However, as this company does not currently offer environmentally friendly products for use in cleaning, a different supplier needs to be identified. It is estimated that the purchase of these products will be an additional $10,000 per month. The products cost double the amount of the non-environmentally friendly products.

Sales revenue for the company for the financial year ending 2019 is $360,000 with a gross profit margin of $40,000. Labour costs are a significant part of the business, representing 70% of total costs. Average debtor days are currently 40 days.

Currently, marketing is via a website, but a large proportion of the company's work comes through word of mouth from existing customers. Social media is not used currently to market the business. The new business plan will need to reflect different ways of marketing, especially to attract commercial customers. The company understands that in this period of growth and expansion, it needs clear plans. While it has developed an operational priorities plan, the information in the plan is limited and is for the upcoming year only.

Complete the following activities:

1. Prepare to develop business plan

You are required to prepare for a meeting with the Senior Management Team to consult on the development of the Business Plan.

Prior to meeting with the Senior Management Team, review and evaluate the scenario information and the current operational priorities plan.

You should also review the Business Plan Template.

Based on your review and evaluation, identify the business' vision, mission, values and objectives as these will need to be discussed in detail with the Senior Management Team as a basis for developing the business plan. Note that the management team has advised that the business vision, mission, values and objectives are not clearly advised in the operational plan and they would like you to develop these for discussion. They have also advised that they would like you to propose key performance indicators that can be used to measure performance against objectives identified. Make notes for discussion at the meeting.

Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the meeting.

2. Meet with Senior Management to discuss the business plan

At the meeting with Senior Management, you are required to assume that the management team will need to be provided with general information about business planning, as well as exploring the business vision, mission, values and objectives for input into the plan.

At the meeting you are required to:

• Provide all information in user-friendly terms.
• Explain the purpose of a business plan and its benefits.
• Explain components that will need to be included in the business plan.
• Outline your interpretation of the business' vision, mission and values based on your evaluation of existing information and for discussion.
• Discuss proposed performance objectives and key performance indicators to assess achievement of the objectives.
• Listen to the feedback provided by the management team (your assessor).

During the meeting, you are required to demonstrate effective communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely.
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding.
• Asking questions to identify required information.
• Responding to questions as required.
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding.

3. Develop business plan

Following the meeting, assume that you have been given approval to develop the business plan using the template provided. Your business plan must be written in clear and concise English and you will be assessed on this.

The actions that you include in the business plan should clearly show how the strategic objectives of the company will be achieved as discussed at the meeting and all of the resources that will be needed.

When conducting research and developing your business plan, use the following website: Australian Government developed by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science as your technical advisor and make use of the chat function shown here. Choose an area of the business plan you feel you need some assistance with, for example, customer loyalty initiatives. Select the option "advice and information to help you and your business, including small businesses and independent contractors" when accessing the chat function so the advisor can direct you to the best information that suits your query.

Take a screen shot of your communication with the advisor and submit this to your assessor along with any email communication they may have sent through.

Complete all of the following activities to develop a business plan including:

• Identifying and analysing trends in demand for cleaning services, nationally as well as in the local Melbourne market.
• Identifying competitors in the market for Ozhouse Clean. Include information about at least three competitors, providing a summary of their services, as well as explaining how theirservices compete with Ozhouse Clean and any points of difference that will enable Ozhouse Clean to stand out.
• Identifying and analysing target consumer needs for specific types of cleaning services e.g. environmentally friendly cleaning services. This may be through identifying secondary satisfaction of data or through a review of social media, for example. Make sure you add a customer satisfaction survey to your action plan as an immediate task that the Operations Manager will be responsible for. This is so you can complete an activity further on in this assessment.
• A SWOT analysis based on the scenario information and research.
• Identifying and evaluating alternative pricing strategies to current pricing strategies as per the scenario information.
• Identify potential marketing strategies for existing residential services, as well as commercial and environmentally friendly cleaning services. This may be through reviewing how competitors market their services, as well as identifying effective marketing strategies.
• Identifying any permits or licences that are required for commercial cleaning and environmentally friendly cleaning services.
• Identifying suppliers of environmentally friendly cleaning products that can provide Ozhouse Clean with products. Identify at least three options, including the supplier contact details and summary of products offered.
• Identifying key activities and required financial, physical and human resources requirements based on analysis conducted in the action plan.
• Identifying the additional staff that will be required to manage the expansion into contract cleaning and environmentally friendly cleaning services. Actions included in the business plan should show how this will be achieved in terms of identifying staff needed, the qualifications and experience they require, recruiting the required staff, and inducting staff.
• Identifying key performance indicators that can be used to assess both the financial and non-financial performance of the business.

4. Send an email to the management team (your assessor)

The directors of the company have approved the business plan and have asked you to begin implementation. Your first task is to email the management team the approved business plan.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.

The email text should explain that the business plan is going operational and provide a brief overview of the timelines for implementation and key performance requirements. Your email also needs to ensure that the Operations Manager and the Administration Manager are equipped and prepared to begin implementation of the action items assigned to them.

Attach your business plan to the email.

5. Assist Amanda with an implementation task

Amanda has approached you for assistance with the customer satisfaction survey she is responsible for as she doesn't have a lot of marketing experience. Partner up with one of your classmates and together develop a customer satisfaction survey which you can generate to customers through Survey Monkey.

Create a new Word document for this activity, and name it accordingly. The questionnaire should fit on one side of an A4 page.

Develop between 6 - 8 questions that measure customer satisfaction and can be answered on a sliding scale from 1 (which is don't agree at all) to 10 (which is totally agree).

Use language that is polite and friendly. There should be a space under the questions for responders to give written feedback.

During this activity you need to take turns training each other:

• Part 1 - team member 1 role plays Amanda while team member 2 coaches her on developing a survey in a Word document
• Part 2 - team member 2 role plays Amanda while team member 1 coaches her on how to upload the survey to SurveyMonkey and distribute.

Your assessor will be looking to see that you can effectively coach and train someone by demonstrating, assisting and guiding.

Send your survey to your assessor.

6. Onboard a new employee

Read the following:

Amanda has completed her task and has received responses. Management has discussed it and they let you know that this is related to the reliability of contractor staff as has been previously discussed. The time has come to appoint one of the contractors as a fulltime employee to ensure the business is adequately equipped to deal with current and new customers.

A suitable contract cleaner has been identified and they have agreed to the fulltime job offer and conditions.

Prepare the employee contract template included in your resource folder in the relevant sections using the information below:

Employee: David Smith, 5 Wellington Way, Melbourne 3000

Working hours: 9 am - 5pm.

38 hours per week

Fortnightly payment basis

7. Send an email to the employee (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask them to read through and return the contract if happy with its content. Inform them of a training session they need to attend with Amanda as part of the induction process which will occur next Monday at 9am. Provide a summary of the training as taken from the induction checklist included in your resources folder and let them know they can direct any questions they have to Amanda who will be their direct manager moving forward.

Assessment Task 3: Business performance monitoring

Carefully read the following:

It is one year since the business plan was implemented and as the Operations Manager, you are reviewing the performance of the business against the performance indicators identified in the plan, testing performance indicators used and recommending changes to performance indicators as provided.

You have also been asked to provide an overall evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the business plan to date (this will be the business plan you developed for Assessment Task 2).

Assume that the performance indicators identified in the business plan are as follows:

• A 20% increase in total sales revenue.
• A gross profit margin of 20%.
• Reduction of 50% in debtor days
• 10 new commercial customers in the first year of the business plan.
• Reduction of 10% of workforce turnover based on employing two full-time permanent cleaners, as well as increasing wages to above award.

Data provided by the accountant for this financial year show the following figures:

• Total sales revenue: $450,000
• Total cost of sales: $320,000
• Debtor days: 30
• 15 new commercial customers

The Administration Manager has advised you that at least 10 of the previous residential customers no longer use the company's services, so while sales revenue has increased, the sales revenue attributable to residential sales has declined.

In addition, follow up emails to the customers who no longer used the services indicated the following responses to the question asked about why they no longer use the services:

• Moved interstate: 1
• Dissatisfied with the quality of cleaning services provided (not enough attention to detail, cleaner finishing earlier than time paid for): 5
• Moved to a competitor as better service and price offered: 4

Complete the following activities:

1. Prepare to develop monitoring and evaluation report

Review the scenario information.

Develop an outline for your report ensuring that:

• Your report will address a balance of both financial and non-financial information on business performance as per the scenario information.
• To assist in making the information as user friendly as possible, your report should include visual information to show how the business has performed such as graphs or charts.

Ensure that you provide your report according to the timelines set by your assessor to show that you can provide timely reports. You will be assessed on this.

2. Develop a business monitoring and evaluation report

Your report should include the following:

• An overview of business performance based on the data provided for this year, as well as the data provided for the previous year (as documented in the scenario information for Assessment Task 2).
• An analysis of business performance to determine if the performance indicators have been achieved.
• An evaluation of the non-financial information gained from the survey, impact on the business and variations that could be made to the business plan based on this information.
• A review of additional performance measures that can be used to measure customer retention and customer satisfaction based on the decrease in residential customers as advised in the scenario information.

You will need to research the range of performance measures that could be used and report on performance indicators that you consider to be suitable.

Your report should include a clear explanation of the performance indicators and your rationale for using these indicators.

• An evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the business plan (the plan you developed for Assessment Task 2) and recommended improvements.

Review the information at the link below (paste the link into your browser if the link is not working directly) and for each component of your business plan.

Provide an assessment of your plan, noting that some areas may not have been covered.

Provide an overall assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your plan based on your assessment.

Provide a summary of recommendations for the upcoming year based on your evaluation as above, as well as required changes to the business plan.

Use the Business Monitoring and Evaluation Report Template to guide your work.

3. Send an email to the management team (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.

Attach your Business Monitoring and Evaluation Report to the email.

Assessment Task 4: Coaching meeting

Carefully read the following:

A review of the business's performance against the performance indicators included in the business plan identified that a number of residential customers no longer use the services of the business because of lack of satisfaction with the quality of the service provided, specifically the level of cleanliness and attention to detail.

As the Operations Manager, you are investigating this situation in relation to the contract cleaners who were providing the cleaning for the customers who have ceased to use the services of the business.

You decide to set up a meeting separately with each of the contractors to investigate the situation and to provide coaching on the expected level of performance. For this assessment task you only need to meet with one of the cleaners.

Ozhouse Clean has the following expected level of performance in relation to cleaning services:

• All surfaces, including floors, bench tops and shelves cleaned so that they are free of dust and dirt.
• Rubbish bins emptied and cleaned.
• Shower screens and mirrors cleaned so they are free of soap build up and streaks.
• Only cleaning products provided are used.
• All cleaning services must be provided in the allocated time.

These performance standards are included in each person's contract.

Now complete the following activities:

1. Send an email to the contract cleaner (your assessor).

The objective of the email is to prepare all participants for a meeting.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should advise them that you would like to set up a meeting to discuss identified areas of concern. Identify the date and time of the meeting.

2. Conduct meeting

Conduct the meeting at the specified time on the specified date with the contract cleaner (your assessor will be playing this person), explaining to them what the problem is, why it is a problem and how it impacts on the business. This meeting should be treated as a coaching session to try and get the staff member to understand the issues and meet the required performance standards.

At the meeting you must:

Explain the purpose of the meeting.

Explain to the contract cleaner what the problem is.

Discuss the level of performance expected by the company.

Demonstrate your interpersonal and communication skills by:

• Keeping your communication clear and simple.
• Asking questions to identify reasons for underperformance and to confirm information provided.
• Listening to the contract cleaner and confirming and clarifying information shared.
• Discuss and agree on a solution.

3. Send an email to the contract cleaner (your assessor).

The objective of the email is to prepare all participants for a meeting.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should summarise the meeting and the solution agreed to.

The email should be sent within 1 day of the meeting.

4. Develop a report on actions and solutions

Write a report for the management team explaining the issues and the solutions you have identified.

You should also identify any changes you consider should be made to the business systems or process as well as to the business plan as applicable.

As a guide, your email should be approximately 3 paragraphs long.

5. Send an email to the management team (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

The email text should include your actions and solutions report.

Attachment:- Business Plan Assignment Files.rar