Entrepreneurship Project Guidelines

Part 1: Individual project:

1. Pick one idea for a business you would like to start. The business can be anything, in any industry.
You may even use your donkey-cart idea. The idea does not necessarily need to be something new,
but it does need to be creative (i.e. have the potential to become a real-time business). You may
also use a business you have already started work on.

2. Prepare an “elevator pitch” describing your idea. Your audience should be potential partners and
investors.

 An elevator pitch is a 1 minute description of your idea. Google details of how to prepare an
elevator pitch.
 Hint: focus on why your idea is important rather than wasting time on how you plan to
implement it.
 Elevator pitch should be written – if we have time at the end of the semester, we might
practice giving the speeches in person, but right now it needs to be submitted on paper.
 Always remember that if you cannot communicate your idea within a single paragraph, (ideally
one sentence!) it is probably too complicated to put into effect.
 You may use this as the opening of your report

3. Expand on your idea. This will require a limited amount of research. Things that you need to focus
on:

 Which business sector and industry does your idea fit into?
(E.g. if you are making ATM machines, your main business sector is manufacturing – but the
industries you will be interacting with are:
 banking/finance (for primary customers, design requirements)
 IT (financial software design, ERP software development, security),
 Manufacturing (Competitors, and supply chain logistics: where do you get your parts and
raw materials from? Who puts them together?)
 What are the opportunities, gaps, and problems your idea solves? What sort of trends can you
identify in both your relevant business sector and the industries that affect you?
 Are there other applications for your idea? (e.g, can you modify your ATM machines for polling
purposes in elections)
 What sort of competitive advantage can you shoot for?
 What kind of human resources are you likely to require?
 What sort of financial requirements are you likely to need?
 What sort of organization setup works best for your idea? (Include ownership issues in this).
What sort of human resources are you likely to require?
 Use the sections on “new-business checklist” and “why businesses fail” in the class lectures as a
helpful guide
4. Prepare a report on your business idea (this is to be submitted later)

5. Put together a group of up to four. This will mean you have 3 ideas to compare with your own. You
will be working with the same team on the second project. Cross-section groups are allowed.

6. Read their reports and pick the idea you think is the best overall, in terms of potential feasibility.
Analyze the pros and cons of each idea. This has to be done on an individual basis.

7. Prepare a report covering their ideas and your own, and your analysis of the relative merits of each
idea and your recommendation of which idea to pick for a future business. Each person must do an
individual analysis and report.

8. You have the following options for submission: (each person must submit their own work. This is
NOT a team project)

 Submit one report which covers all the information together

or
 Submit both of your reports together - as a single two-part report labeled part 1 (information of
your business), and part 2 (comparison of four business ideas, analysis and recommendation)

*Guidelines for the group project will be distributed later. Group project will involve one of the ideas
you select.