Starting Your Own Business
Pretend that you are starting your very own business.
Before you start the business, you need to determine and write the requirements of operating a successful business. Please focus on the dollars as you apply concepts covered in the course so far. You are writing an essay that captures all of your initial thoughts and projections for a business that you will start up. Your essay should address everything in the six (6) sections outlined below.
An ESSAY TEMPLATE that includes the EXCEL WORKSHEET, is provided to support you in organizing your assignment.
NOTE: A separate version of the worksheet is provided in the Course Resources if you would like to experiment with preparation of the Balance Sheet.
Please access the ESSAY TEMPLATE here.
SECTION #1 –INTRODUCTION OF BUSINESS: Explain and describe the business you will start.
What will your business sell?
Why is this business interesting to you?
SECTION #2 – REVENUE & PROFITS: Discuss how your business will generate money.
What are your projected year #1 sales? Provide detail.
What are your projected year #1 expenses and costs? Provide detail.
What portion of your sales revenue will be consumed by expenses? Express in fractions and in percentages.
What portion of your sales revenue will be profits? Express in fractions and in percentages.
SECTION #3 – PRODUCT PRICE & COSTS: Explain the products/services that people will buy from your business.
Provide detail on the prices you will charge (be specific for each product/service you will sell);
Provide detail on the costs for each of your products
Explain your price mark-up in percentages and in dollars
SECTION #4 – INVESTMENT REQUIREMENTS: Discuss your banking and loans.
What business accounts will your open? Explain your banking requirements? Describe the bank(s) you would use.
Assume that you need to take out a business loan to cover your initial costs and expenses. The amount of the loan is equal to the amount of your projected year #1 expenses and costs (per item 1b above).
Describe that loan and show your annual repayment schedule over 10 years with 6% compound interest.
Then describe that loan and your repayment over 10 years with 8% simple interest.
How will you reflect the expense or the value of this equipment, supplies and inventory on your BALANCE SHEET?
SECTION #5 – BALANCE SHEET ASSESSMENT:
Prepare a BALANCE SHEET that reports your Year #1 business results in terms of ASSETS and LIABILITIES and EQUITY.
Explain your greatest Asset (versus all other assets) and your greatest Liability (versus all other Liabilities).
SECTION #6 – CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
Summarize your business desires, concerns and expectations based on your content above.
Please use the ESSAY TEMPLATE provided for this assignment.
Please submit your assignment.
Individual Project Rubric
Grading Criteria
Percentage
Deliverable requirements addressed; understanding of material and writer’s message and intent are clear.
40%
Calculation methods, where required, are contextually appropriate, fully explained, and presented in a manner that is easy to understand.
10%
External research incorporated in the paper, if any, supports the writer’s position properly acknowledged and cited; direct quotations may not exceed 10% of the word count of the body of the assignment deliverable (excluded title page, abstract or table of contents if used, tables, exhibits, appendices, and reference page(s).) Inclusion of plagiarized content will not be tolerated and may result in adverse academic consequences.
5%
Critical thinking: Position is well-justified; logical flow; examples provided where appropriate.
20%
Structure: Includes introduction and conclusion; proper paragraph format; reads as a polished academic paper or professional presentation, as appropriate for the required assignment deliverable.
10%
Mechanical: No spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors.
10%
APA: Deliverable is cited properly according to the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.).
5%
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.
