How To Use A Business Model Canvas To Create Your Own Assets
By: Fahri Karakas
Tags: Personal Development, Art, Entrepreneurship, Business, Self Improvement

2. Entrepreneurial Business Proposal (Option B)

In this project, you will imagine yourself as an entrepreneur establishing a business after graduation. You will prepare a focused and creative entrepreneurial business proposal for your enterprise. Think of this as an ‘elevator pitch’ where you present your business idea to potential funders.

As you come up with your business proposal, try to identify real problems in society, create innovative solutions, and commercialize those solutions to a target market.

You can create a one-person digital business for example. Or you can learn to sell on Amazon or Etsy. You can establish your freelance company and use online platforms to share your online work. You can start a café, a restaurant, a consulting/training company, a technology company, a social media company, and whatnot. The sky is the limit. Try to demonstrate creativity, insight, reflection, and depth. Innovation, integration, and synthesis are critical. Use your best creative skills and talents. What are you really curious and passionate about?

Your business proposal should have the following sections (each of these should be very focused/brief):

1. Executive summary: Summarize your business idea as an elevator pitch. Where is your unique value proposition?

2. Business description: What is your core or your “secret sauce” which is not easily duplicated? How do you define your sustainable competitive advantage? How does this business idea relate to your passion and goals?

3. Your product /service: How do you design and build your product or service? How do you develop the idea, technology and passion necessary to get started? Think about your impact and contribution you want to make if this business is successful.

4. Market analysis: What about the competition in the market? How do you differentiate your business in this market?

5. Marketing plan: Who are your customers? (A profile of your targeted customer) How do your customers access/reach your product or service? What is the process for acquiring a targeted customer?

6. Financial/operational plan: What metrics need to be put into place to determine if your product/service is successful (or not) early in the process? How do you make money? How do you scale to widen and diversify the revenue stream?

7. Creative advertisement/poster: Create an A4 poster for your business; which will be your advertisement.

Please note that the points above are intended to help you structure and write your business idea, but you do not have to strictly follow this structure or answer all the questions from 1 to 7. It is your business idea, you are the owner and the entrepreneur and it is up to you how to narrate or present it.

The applicable word limit for the written part (main body) of this assignment is 1500 words. Please feel free to use concept maps, figures, tables, and visuals as these do not count towards the word count. Appendices (i.e. seminar and lecture evidence materials) are not counted.

Indicative Notes:

1) At the heart of this assignment is independent thinking and creativity. We want you to take ownership of your ideas and express them passionately and eloquently. The structure is less important. How you visualize and represent your ideas in an engaging and interesting way is more important. Think of it as an exercise in imagination. We encourage you to play, create stories, dream of possibilities, and incorporate your own strengths and passions.

2) There is no one best way to write up this assignment. There is no one right answer. You will need to find and develop your own ‘right’ answer. It is your playground and you are encouraged to play/experiment with crazy, risky, creative, imaginative business ideas. You will need to find your own voice and incorporate that voice into your pitch.

3) This project does not require you to write an advanced business plan with all its functional, operational, and financial details. In this sense, do not think of this assignment as a traditional business plan. It is more like an elevator pitch for your business idea. As we live in a world of information overload, people do not want to read very long business plans or business reports. Try to make it compelling, visual, and creative. Make it interesting to capture attention.

4) Try to illustrate the basics of how you would pitch and initiate your business idea. We do not want you to delve into all the details of your market analysis report or your marketing communications strategies or your projected financial statements for the next five years. Please remember that this module focuses on the big picture, rather than the managerial functions. We want you to conceptualize, design, and integrate your business ideas into an exciting business proposal.

5) Demonstrating evidence of your module learning and engagement with module materials is a critical aspect of this assignment. Therefore, the appendices are very important. You will need to incorporate and apply the toolkits/models/skills we have discussed and learned during the lectures and seminars. Please incorporate these in the form of tables, figures, and visuals. Feel free to apply multiple perspectives, frameworks or toolkits that are relevant (such as business model canvas, design thinking tools, benchmarking, six hats thinking).