Reference no: EM133031306

Capstone Business Project

Company - EMPIRE COMPANY LIMITED

Your first responsibility is to choose a company to use for your business plan. You may choose any Canadian company. This project will require you to research and provide a fair share of information about this company, so it is your interest to ensure that all the information you need is accessible to you before starting your project.

1. Define the objectives you seek to achieve by creating this business plan.
2. Allocate enough time and resources to thoroughly research your business plan.
3. Show drafts of your business plan to others.
4. Write your own business plan.
5. Outline the key points you want to make in each section before you start writing.
6. Make sure your financial projections are believable.
7. Do the Executive Summary last

1. CHAPTER: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Executive Summary is a one-page report that outlines the purpose, objectives, and your approach to this project. Perusing this outline should give your teacher a clear idea of what you will be discussing in the project.

2. CHAPTER: GENERAL COMPANY DESCRIPTION
This section examines the nature of your firm and the environment in which you will compete. It should include:

Mission and Vision Statement
Company Values and Ethics
Type of business structure: Sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership or corporation.
What is their Market Structure?
- Monopoly
- Oligopoly
- Monopolistic Competition
- Pure Competition
Company goals: What does your company expect to accomplish over a specific period?
Describe your chosen industry.
Describe your target market.
What are your company's core strengths and competencies?
Does the company have retail stores? If yes, how many? Where are they located?
Who is/are the Top Leader(s) of the company? Name the key people behind the company.
What issues do they face today?

3. CHAPTER: PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Describe in depth your products and/or services. What factors will give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? Include the following:

What is your company pricing strategy and how does it affect their profitability?
Describe its approach to advertising and sales/promotions.
Has it been effective for them?
What image do they want to convey?
How do they attempt to position themselves in the minds of consumers within the market?
What is their current image within the industry and in the minds of consumers?
Is this image working for them?
How does this compare with the image of competitors?
How do they make use of technology (web and e-commerce, supply chain management, information systems, etc.)?
How has technology affected the way they conduct business?

4. CHAPTER: MARKET RESEARCH

Include both primary and secondary research. Primary research consists of gathering your own data (if applied. You can conduct online surveys); secondary research is gathered from published information (ex. demographic profiles, trade journals, literature review). Address the following elements:

Economics. Facts about your industry.

What size is your market?
What present share will you have?
What are the current trends?

Products/Services.

In your earlier description of products/services, you described your products and services as you see them. In this section, describe them from your customers' point of view. For each product or service:

Describe the most important features. What is special about the product/service?
Describe the benefits. What will the product/service do for the customer?
What after-the-sale services will you provide (ex. delivery, warranty, follow-up)?

Customer.

Describe your customers. Construct a profile that includes:

Age
Gender
Location
Income level
Social class/occupation
Education
Other (specific to your industry) 4.4.Competition.
What products/companies will compete with you?
Who are the company's competitors (both direct and indirect)? List your major competitors (provide names and addresses)
How does your company compare to these competitors in terms of size, market dominance/share, sales, profitability, etc.?
What is your company's competitive strength?
How does it attempt to stay competitive?
Are there strategies that have not worked well for your company?

Advertising and Promotion.

Collect data on your target audience's media-consuming behavior - Beware we focus here on the media consumption and not the product/brand consumption;
Choose communication channels based on your budget and the profile of your target audience;
Identify the appropriate platforms according to your channels, your budget, the profile of the target clientele, but also the availability of these platforms;
Establish communication tactics;
Explain how often you will advertise.

Pricing.

Explain your method of setting prices. Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower or the same? Why? What will be your customer service and credit policies?

Proposed Location.

Is your location important to your customers? If yes, how?
Is it convenient?
Is it consistent with your image?
Is it what your customers want and expect?
Where is the competition located? Is it better to be near them or distant?

Distribution Channels.
How will you sell your products or services?
• Retail
• Direct (web, mail order, catalog)
• Wholesale
• Your own salesforce
• Agents

Sales Forecast.

Monthly projection based on historical data, the marketing strategies you described, your market research, and industry data. You may want to include a "best guess" scenario and a "worst-case" scenario that you are confident you can achieve no matter what happens.

Legal Environment.

Permits/Licenses
Health, workplace and environmental regulations
Special regulations covering your specific industry or profession
Trademarks, copyrights, patents

Personnel.

Number of employees
Type of labor (skilled, unskilled, professional)
Where and how will you find the right employees?
Training methods and requirements
Who does which tasks?

Financial. Prepare a start-up financial.

Prepare 1 year, 2-year, and 3-year financial projections for the business including:

• Income statement
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow projection
• Debt reduction statement
• Additional anticipated capital expenses based on market/product expansion.

5. CHAPTER: ANALYZING THE INDUSTRY

PEST Analysis

The PEST analysis framework encourages a strategic overview of external environment characteristics.
Political analysis
Economic analysis
Sociocultural analysis
Technological analysis

Porter's Five-Forces Model

Prof. Michael Porter's famous five-forces model helps identify the forces that determine the basic competitive structure of an industry:

Rivalry
Threat of entry and exit barriers
Supplier power
Buyer power
Threat of substitutes

Create a VRIO model:

Valuable
Rare
Inimitable
Organized

Industry Development

• Describe competitive pressures, changing demographics and buying preferences, consumer behavior issues, image issues, etc. that affect this company and how they conduct business?
• How has your company changed and evolved over time?

6. CHAPTER: ANALYZING THE FIRM

Company Background

This report provides a brief business summary and general information about the background of a company and its senior management. Data elements may include the company history, profiles of business principals, parent company, subsidiary, branch affiliations and operational highlights (including terms of sales, territory, company locations, number of employees and limited financial information).

Ethics and Current Events

How have they built Customer Relationship Management?
• Loyalty Programs
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Programs
Describe any Ethical Considerations related to Marketing.
Describe what they do to be socially responsible?
Do they have a green approach?

Leadership.

How stable has senior leadership been in the years covered by your research? Who are the key executives?

Marketing Analysis

Use the four P's of marketing (product, place, price, and promotion) to assess the company's marketing performance. A purely narrative discussion is not acceptable: select useful quantitative measures to buttress your analysis of these specific points:

• Product:
What is the product, really? Who buys it? Does the product possess brand equity?
• Place:
What are the distribution channels? Direct to the consumer? Opportunity for new channels created by your company? By a competitor? Multiple channels? Who has the channel power? Retailer? Manufacturer?
• Price:
Skimming? Penetration? Value? Low? High? Differential?
• Promotion:
What is the unique selling proposition (USP)? Brand promise? Channels?

7. CHAPTER: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Write a detailed conclusion that includes the main points of your analysis such as your recommendations, suggestions as well as your predictions on the future success of your company. An adequate conclusion should not be repetitive but instead, serve as an accurate and complete summary of your main points and key factors.

Upon reviewing all the information included in this project, you should create a proper SWOT analysis summarizing the key point of the project and the most important aspects of your company. A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a powerful tool used to clarify and expand on your strategic analysis.

Attachment:- Capstone Business Project.rar