Company Description Questions
Now that you have learned the main concepts of business plan preparation, you can begin the process of creating a business plan by writing a general company description. In thinking about the key issues in starting a new business, respond to the following questions:
1. When and where is the business to start?
2. What is the history of the company?
3. What are the companys objectives?
4.What changes have been made in structure and/or ownership?
5. In what stage of development is the company?
6. What has been achieved to date?
7. What is the companys distinctive competence?
8. What are the basic nature and activity of the business?
9. What is its primary product or service?
10. What customers will be served?
11. What is the companys form of organization?
12. What are the current and projected economic states of the industry?
13. Does the company intend to become a publicly traded company or an acquisition candi- date, or do the owners want to transfer ownership to the next generation of the family?
**** Submit your answers to the Business Plan Questions, 1-13, Company Description, Pages 194-195 of the e text. This is the business that you will use throughout the course for your business plan development. Be sure to give it careful consideration as you will be required to research, create, and submit answers to many questions about this business during future weeks. This is a small business that you will manage. It may either be an existing business or one you hope to start. This should be at least three full double-spaced pages. Using APA format, reference your textbook and at least one additional scholarly source to demonstrate critical thinking. See note below about non-academic websites.
Non-academic websites are not typically recommended for academic writing. While most of the information generally is correct, it is not always reliable because anyone can change the content and it is not peer-reviewed. For example, its best not to use news websites, Wikipedia, investopedia.com, about.com, smallbusiness.chron.com, ehow.com, forbes.com, cnn.com, online encyclopedias, or similar non-academic websites for assignments and discussions. Instead, it adds much more credibility to use the class text, other related textbooks, and scholarly journals and articles. These are credible sources that are usually peer-reviewed, i.e. scholars have analyzed and evaluated the content for accuracy and reliability. Be sure to use the university library to help you find these types of academic references.
I dont mind if you use a company website for research, say for example if you are researching Starbucks, its ok to use www.starbucks.com to describe their mission, vision, etc. But dont consider this in counting your references in terms of meeting scholarly reference requirements.
