Applied Entrepreneurship 2: Acceleration Plan Development and Evaluation

Applied Entrepreneurship II is a follow-on course from Applied Entrepreneurship I. You’ll dive even deeper into developing a plan to accelerate your business, doing some research to pull together facts and figures to develop a more complete acceleration plan to help you understand the more intricate details of how to iterate certain parts of your business model togrow your business. In this course you will:

• Create an outline of your acceleration plan:
• Define and size your market based upon your new view
• Develop and implement a market research plan
• More fully understand what marketing entails
• Learn more about adding to your entrepreneurial team and how to lead it effectively
• Develop a detailed financial plan for your business and, if needed, how to obtain outside financing

You can then enter an exciting competition where you could win a cash prize that you can use to help grow your business, presenting to a panel of judges who will not only determine winners, but will also provide you with guidance for moving forward.

Week 1—What is a Plan?

Objectives:

• Learn about business plans
• Create a table of contents for your acceleration plan
• View business pitches
• Learn about the exciting competition
• Activities:
• Create an outline/table of contents for an acceleration business plan

Discussion:

• What went wrong?

Week 2—Market Sizing

Objectives:

• Refine and size your market based on your new plan of attack
• Identify any new competitors that you may encounter and develop a competitive analysis
• Refine your competitive advantage

Activities:

• Create an initial market research plan
• Analyze your competitors

Discussion:

• Concerns about performing market research

Week 3—Marketing

Objectives:

• Understanding what marketing entails
• Promotion
• Building your brand
• Understanding the nuances of e-commerce

Activities:

• Develop a preliminary promotional plan for your business

Discussion:

• What do you think of the marketing mix?
• What is the best way to brand your company online?

Week 4—Operations

Objectives:

• What it means to be an effective leader
• How to build an entrepreneurial team
• Coordination among all functional areas

Activities:

• Prepare an organizational chart and interview potential employees

Discussion:

• How difficult have you found hiring so far?

Week 5—Financial Plan

Objectives:

• Determine additional investment needs given your acceleration plan. Estimate the investment and return on that investment expected to execute on your acceleration plan.
• Develop a profit and loss statement with projections
• Develop a form of cash flow statement
• Cash management
• Ways to finance your business
• Putting a plan in place

Activities:

• Put together a cash map or cash flow cycle for your business
• Draft final presentation

Discussion:

• What is the toughest part for you when it comes to financials?

Week 6--Competition

Objectives:

• Final presentation

Activities:

• Final presentation