Business Plan Reflective report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Plan Reflective report - Essay Example People now seek to consume food as they shop down the town streets. We had a brain-storming session where we invited some friends over who are not from this industry. We wanted different perspectives and wanted to challenge our own assumptions. People sought something different from the standard menus of Mcdonald’s and Burger King. At the same time people also wanted the freedom to choose their salads and fillings. This immediately led us to the concept of Subway and then we were overwhelmed. We decided to combine the concept of Subway with the road-side concept but we would not restrict ourselves to sandwiches. We decided to include several snack-based food items. We believe this would create a point of differentiation, which according to Porter can provide competitive advantage. This prompted us to fill the gap and set up a fast food joint in Kingston, which has very few such outlets. We then started evaluating where we have the necessary skills and expertise. We found that all four members of our team for the proposed venture have sufficient experience in the fast food industry and have served in various capacities with renowned corporations. The formation of the team itself can affect subsequent performance (Owens, Mannix & Neale, 1998) and hence we made sure we were a team that was comfortable to work with. To ensure high level of effectiveness, we ensured that each member contributed to necessary technical skills, knowledge, expertise and ability. This was because we recognized that each individual would be able to contribute their knowledge or expertise to solve a jointly owned problem which would be difficult for an individual to solve on his own (McGreevy, 2006). We had defined individual roles, and rules of interaction as well as an agreed system of decision making, as this would help enhance learning for the team members as well as others in the organization (Macneil, 2000). While each member of our team contributed diverse skills and knowledg e, we also ensured that we shared the same values, beliefs and attitudes which could facilitate coordination and communication. However, we soon realized that setting up a business is far different from designing and thinking of a business plan. We first tried to think whether we really needed a business plan. We decided to prepare a business plan as this would help us evaluate the business opportunity (Chwolka & Raith, 2012). Besides, we needed external funding and investors need to see a business plan before they decide to invest (Mason & Stark, 2004). We knew we had the resources such as technical know-how and experience but we realized that putting our thoughts on paper would help us understand whether we can achieve what we expect to. Ideas were fragmented since none of us had experience as entrepreneurs before this and we needed to assimilate and evaluate our thoughts. A business plan was just the right tool to organize out thoughts on paper. A business plan can be informal or a formalized plan, and is essential for both internal and external purposes. It defines how the venture would operate in the current business environment but we also needed to evaluate performance after five years because we planned to expand in about five years, when more funding would be needed. Business plan is a strategic planning document that serves to guide the business and also act as a monitoring device as the business progresses (Richbell, Watts & Wardle, 2006). Presenting the plan has helped us