This section provides strategies teachers and administrators can use to augment the learning students derive from an SBE once it is up and running. These strategies also are designed to have a positive effect on the enterprise's profitability, which in turn determines the SBE's ability to generate revenue for social benefits.
Five strategies are discussed:
| 1. | Periodic replanning: rewriting the business plan each school year so that each group of students has an opportunity to "create" the business. The Sno-Isle Skills Center's Business and Management (BAM) program's approach is examined in detail. |
| 2. | Intrapreneurial ventures: identifying, researching, and implementing specific projects with the potential to improve how the SBE functions. |
| 3. | Setting and assessing learning objectives: SBEs, like any educational experience, can and should be accompanied by clearly stated objectives for student achievement. |
| 4. | Integrating the SBE with academic disciplines: determining how student involvement in the SBE can contribute to learning across the curriculum. |
| 5. | Recruiting and orienting new students: establishing a coherent approach to bringing new students into the SBE can help the business operate smoothly and improve students' acquisition of skills. The recruitment practices of Food from the `Hood at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles serve as an example. |
At the end of this section, you will find more "Tools" useful in accomplishing the above steps.
"Replanning," or periodically rewriting the business plan for an ongoing SBE, is one useful strategy for increasing the understanding and involvement of students who were not involved in the initial start-up of the SBE. What follows is a profile of the process used by Ann Smith, Business and Management Instructor at Sno-Isle Skills Center, Everett, Washington.
Close Up: The Sno-Isle Skills Center Model
The
Sno-Isle Skills Center serves students from 36 high schools in western
Washington state, north of Seattle. Smith has worked with SBEs for 15 years.
Students operate a number of SBEs in the Business and Management (BAM) class as a way to learn in a practical, hands-on setting about business management and operations. Equipment and facilities are in place for a range of enterprises, including an espresso stand, a promotional products business (which produces screen printing, stationery, mugs, and so on), a craft business, and a clothing/gift shop. Over the past few years, the BAM class has also operated other SBEs, including an outlet for sportswear produced by a local company. One idea on the drawing board entails buying and reselling samples and leftover stock from a local kitchen supply company.
Smith, a firm believer in the ability of SBEs to help students develop a wide range of skills (from entrepreneurship to team building and from employability to leadership and communication) says, "The SBEs provide lots of application for their academic work and provide them with motivation to learn more. And, for some, it's a means of income."
Practical and educational reasons led Smith to design the replanning process she uses in the BAM program. Students come to Sno-Isle from their "home" school for either a morning or afternoon session and participate in BAM for 2 1/2 hours per day, 5 days per week. Usually, they come to Sno-Isle for only one school year. For both these reasons, there is little continuity in the students Smith works with from year to year; therefore, she felt it was important to have a mechanism for allowing incoming students each year to develop ownership of the SBE. Plus, the replanning process is an opportunity for students to learn and practice important skills and be creative. Says Smith, "I want them to have a chance to come up with something better, and I want them to struggle with it a little."
Here's how the process works:
| 1. | Students apply to participate in one of the SBEs, using the Application form found in Figure 5. They then interview with Smith. |
| 2. | Once the SBE groups are chosen, the BAM class spends time learning functions that are generic to all the SBEs such as doing deposits correctly and inventory control. Students, who will rotate through different functions in their SBE, learn about each area: Financial, Merchandising, Operations, Marketing, and the Team Leader/Personnel position. |
| 3. | Before students can begin working in their business, they must write a business plan for the SBE. Smith uses a whole day session--drawing both "morning" and "afternoon" students--to kick off the planning process. At this planning session, the SBE groups start working on the BAM Business Mini Business Plan (see Tool #8 in Section II) for their enterprises, beginning with the enterprise's mission. Morning and afternoon groups work separately and develop different businesses that will be operated out of the same facilities. |
| 4. | Students typically work on their plans in class for two to three weeks (roughly 15 to 22 hours) before submitting a rough draft to Smith. She marks them up ("I play devil's advocate") and returns them to students for reworking, which usually takes another week (7.5 hours). Since they cannot open the business until their plan is finished and approved, they have an incentive to work diligently on the plan. Being open for business on "Family Night" at the end of October is also a prime objective, since it is a good opportunity to make sales and to advertise their business. |
Smith does not show them the plans from previous years. Students do, however, analyze the previous year's financial figures and determine a percentage increase in sales that they challenge themselves to reach. Their sales projections in the plan are based on these figures. If their business is successful in achieving their goal, they receive a bonus in their evaluation at the end of the semester. If they are more than 10% below their projections, their evaluations are affected negatively: "Just like the real world," notes Smith.
The quality of the plans varies, but in general, students learn a great deal from the process. Says Smith,
If I were to give the business plan back to them at the end of the year, they'd find a lot of changes. For example, usually at the beginning of the year, they want to share revenue evenly; at the end of the year, this doesn't seem fair because some have worked harder than others.
Once the business is operating, students rotate among the different functional areas of the business. This helps students develop an overall understanding of the business and the different skills required in each area. Each student also serves as Team Leader for a time, with responsibility for facilitating weekly business meetings and assessing employee performance.
Profits from the Sno-Isle businesses are awarded to students in the form of scholarships. Distribution is based on the profit sharing agreements they create as part of the mini business plan. If they don't complete the semester, they don't get the scholarship. Smith notes that this system provides students "motivation to work hard, to value profit, and it also prevents security problems." Students also usually vote to return a percentage of their profits to the schools (typically 8%).
Once students have learned the basic skills they need (inventory management, cash control, and so on), Smith is committed to preserving the SBE as a learning experience:
I don't tell them how to do anything. For example, sometimes the morning kids complain about the afternoon kids, how they're not cleaning up or leaving the espresso stand a mess. They have to communicate and figure out a way to get the issue resolved. Besides, I don't have the time to, even if I wanted to solve all the problems.
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The fact that an SBE is already established does not preclude the opportunity for innovative activity. As noted in the Preface to this guide, enterprises of all sizes rely on continuous innovation and improvement to remain viable. Intrapreneurial ventures (IVs)--short-term, discrete projects designed to improve some aspect of the SBE--can help students and teachers learn to act entrepreneurially, to "see and seize opportunities" without creating a whole new business.
IVs have the additional advantage of providing students who were not involved in planning or starting the SBE a chance to innovate and act creatively. This increases the chance that the student will be committed to the SBE and will benefit educationally from his or her experience in the business.
One suggested approach to incorporating IVs into the fabric of an SBE is to set the expectation that, in addition to ongoing job responsibilities, each student will identify, research, and implement one IV that improves the business. Adding the IV requirement can keep the SBE experience from becoming "just a job":
| A. | Once student responsibilities in the business are established, students and teacher together analyze the business and identify possible IVs. Two tools to assist with this process are the activity "SWOT Your Business Idea" and use of an Affinity Diagram (Tools #10 and #11, which can be found at the end of SECTION III.) | |
| B. | Introduce the concept of the IV using the handouts "Creating an Intrapreneurial Venture?" (Tool #12) and the handout "School-Based Enterprises: Questions to Consider" (Tool #13). | |
| C. | Students choose an IV to pursue, either individually or in groups. An IV should incorporate several phases: | |
| 1. | Choosing and clearly defining a problem or opportunity facing the business | |
| 2. | Researching and writing a proposal to undertake a project to address the problem | |
| 3. | Presenting that proposal orally and in written form to the body responsible for deciding which projects to undertake (This might be the student-owners as a whole, or "senior management," or a group of advisors or Directors.) | |
| 4. | Implementing the project | |
| 5. | Evaluating the project's outcome and preparing a report of its results | |
| D. | IVs will typically involve one of the two following options: | |
| 1. | Reviewing
a section(s) of the original business plan, analyzing the business to see how
it is actually functioning, and researching and writing a proposal for
improving some aspect of the business. Revisions to the plan would most likely
come in one (or all) of four basic areas: (1) finances, (2) operations, (3)
marketing, or (4) social responsibility. For example, a student or group of
students might do the following projects:
| |
| 2. | Identifying
and developing a new product or service to be offered by the business.
The process of introducing a new product or service should incorporate roughly the same steps identified above. The student(s) proposing the new product/service should be required to
| |
In conventional workplaces, employees and owners are motivated to work hard and contribute to the success of the enterprise by a variety of factors. A few of these are job satisfaction, compensation, fear of being fired, and profit-sharing. In school-based enterprises, some of these motivational factors may be missing. It may be difficult or impossible, for example, to "fire" a student. Local or state school district regulations may prohibit students from earning direct compensation.
At the same time, SBEs can make use of one incentive for employees to perform well that conventional businesses may not be able to use: grading and assessment of a student's performance. Teachers have an obligation to identify and hold students accountable for learning objectives. Indeed, conducting effective assessment of student learning is a critical aspect of the educator's role in the SBE. The following case study describes one approach.
The Sno-Isle Skills Center Business and Management (BAM) Program
To
help her assess students, Ann Smith (see "Close Up: The Sno-Isle Skills Center
Model" in this section for a description of the SBE process at Sno-Isle) has
developed competencies measuring what students are expected to learn in their
SBE. The competencies cover a wide range of skills and abilities. Some focus on
specific business skills (e.g., "Completes daily cash balancing records");
others assess student demonstration of higher-order thinking abilities (e.g.,
"Provides leadership in maintaining positive and professional atmosphere in
business") or work readiness (e.g., "Manages time productively"). Appendix 1
contains BAM competencies in the following areas:
Smith uses a combination of performance review based on the profiles listed above and knowledge testing to assess students in the BAM program. The BAM Profile Assessment Instructions in Figure 6 describe what students must do to prepare for their assessment. The process begins with making an appointment, to which they bring a notebook containing documentation of their work in a particular area (e.g., finances). Using the notebook, students evaluate themselves first, and then a discussion follows between the student and Smith. She notes, "They are usually harder on themselves than I am." Figure 7 shows the scale used for this component of the assessment. A knowledge assessment (ten questions about the area in which they have been working) follows. A student's grade is a combination of the assessment of his or her on-the-job skills (as demonstrated by the competencies) and the content knowledge he or she demonstrates.
Students also are responsible for evaluating each other and their Team Leader, who in turn prepares assessments of student-employees. Because students are rotating through different jobs throughout the semester, assessment happens frequently.
To create effective assessment for an SBE, teachers may wish to follow the following steps:
| 1. | List the tasks involved in running the SBE. |
| 2. | Group these tasks by functional area. |
| 3. | Identify
other learning objectives by reviewing state content standards, the SCANS
report, or other measures of achievement. |
| 4. | Adopt an evaluation scale. |
| 5. | Design a process by which students can provide feedback to each other. |
| 6. | Utilize, evaluate, and revise the process. |
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Integration--making explicit links between (or combining) different disciplines taught in schools--is one of today's educational reform priorities. It makes sense; after all, the world graduates must operate in is not organized into neat categories. Our actions are not called English, math, or social studies; work, participating in communities, interacting with families and friends, all these draw on a mixture of the "subjects" we study in school.
Achieving integration is harder than recognizing its value. Fortunately, SBEs--because they are multidimensional learning experiences--provide important opportunities to involve a range of disciplines that normally stand apart. The business plan process recommended in this guide is a major research and writing project that incorporates English, math, social studies, and technology. SBEs themselves offer innumerable opportunities to make learning relevant and interesting. Several interesting examples follow:
Teachers working with SBEs can make integration a reality in the following ways:
Meeting social needs in the community may be important for another reason. As the authors of School-Based Enterprisenote, "Avoiding competition with local suppliers is important because a school enterprise operates under the legal authority of the local school governing board, which is accountable to the local electorate" (p. 123). Practicing social entrepreneurship may help an SBE overcome concerns in the private sector by demonstrating the uniqueness of the SBE's mission.
It is a truism that a business' greatest asset is its people. If a business' employees are well-trained, understand the business' mission, and are committed to creating a quality product or service for its customers, the business has a good chance of surviving the stresses and strains of a competitive environment.
The same is true for an SBE. SBEs, whether they serve the school community or the broader community, have the same need for employees who can perform at a high level. However, because SBE employees tend to be younger and to work at the business for relatively shorter periods of time than employees in the economy at large, effective recruitment and orientation of students is especially critical.
The following recommendations can help SBEs recruit and orient students effectively. Following these is an in-depth look at the importance of recruitment and orientation for the SBE Food from the `Hood at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles:
Close Up: Food from the `Hood
Conceived
as a positive response to the riots in South Central Los Angeles in 1992, Food
from the `Hood (FFH) has remained true to a mission of socially responsible
entrepreneurship. Today, students continue to maintain a garden which provides
organic produce for local residents, while creating recipes for salad dressings
which are produced by a local salad dressing bottler. Students learn
horticulture and nutrition along with how to operate a successful business. The
business has provided more than $93,000 in scholarships to its "student-owners."
At the heart of FFH's success is a rigorous process for identifying and developing students who "have what it takes" to carry on the SBE's work. According to Aleyne Larner, FFH's adult advisor, this focus on recruitment and training has come about for two primary reasons. First, as a business in a competitive industry, FFH must attract and retain the best student-owners possible. Second, the business is determined to help its employees develop what Larner calls "thriving skills," those needed for success in business and life. FFH is committed to involving students as much as possible in personnel matters as a way to help them develop these skills.
The SBE seeks to recruit ninth graders (Says Larner, "If we get them for three years, they are more successful in college"), and basic training starts with filling out an application. The application, modeled on those used by McDonald's and Sears, includes space for listing current school activities. This allows FFH to determine whether a student is likely to be able to devote the time necessary to learn the business. Ten hours/week of work is expected, including garden training, office training, and a mandatory weekly meeting. Too many other school activities may mean that a student will not be able to contribute enough. The application also includes an essay.
Existing FFH employees help prospective employees with the application process. The recruitment team comprises fully half of the existing student-owners. Part of the application process is a group interview with three of the student-owners. Applicants must have at least a 2.0 grade point average and cannot be a member of a gang, use drugs, or smoke. Any illegal activity disqualifies a prospective applicant. Larner stresses that this is critical, since each student-owner in FFH reflects on the quality and reputation of the business.
Once accepted, a student becomes an intern for eight weeks. During this period, students work in the garden, learn the history of the business, learn to answer the telephone correctly, and are instructed on the proper ways to interact with clients. Only upon the successful completion of the internship do students become student-owners; about one half of the applicants do not make it through. Once the internship is completed, says Larner, "The real learning begins. Committing time and knowledge to people who aren't going to stick with it is a fool's errand." Students who don't make it through the internship period are permitted to try again; one student finally earned the status of student-owner after three tries.
1996 was the first year that the recruitment process was turned over to the student-owners, with Larner and Tammy Bird (FFH's founder) only providing guidance. Larner relates that she and Tammy were very nervous when they saw the names in the applicant pool. "Four or five were really good friends with the kids on the recruitment team," she recalls. "Some were football players and cheerleaders who already had substantial time commitments."
Larner and Bird were skeptical of the student-owners' ability to make good decisions, but they were determined to let the process run its course. They were startled to find that the students' selections matched their own picks, and that the students declined to accept those individuals they would have avoided. The key, says Larner, was setting clear expectations and making sure that the student-owners understood and agreed with the expectations.
FFH has used this model of turning over authority for key business decisions in other areas as well. As seniors, student-owners serve as mentors and supervisors of younger students and provide up to five hours per week of training. They may have responsibility for key financial tasks such as deposits and managing accounts receivable. (Larner notes that an adult is always involved in accounting for all moneys.) Student-owners can be fired if they endanger themselves or someone else or damage equipment belonging to the business.
Clarity about who makes which decisions is critical to making this delegation of responsibility effective. The rule of thumb is that the advisors hold on to the authority to make decisions that will exceed the students' tenure in the business. Larner and Bird try to evaluate situations on a case-by-case basis. "The hardest part," says Larner, "is telling the difference between when we're being a parachute and when we're just saving our egos! If [a particular decision] is about, say, safety or the long-term profitability of the company, we'll step in. If not, we let the chips fall where they may. Missing a demonstration of the product usually isn't the end of the world, but we might step in if the meeting is with a broker for a major grocery chain."
Tool 10: |
SWOT YOUR BUSINESS IDEA
Purpose:
Materials:
Time:
60 minutes
Procedure:
SWOT
is a method of analysis. The letters in SWOT stand for Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats. In this case, the method will be applied to a
proposed business idea.
|
| 1. | Think
of a familiar business (a franchise business works well) that is not
represented in the local area. We'll use Pizza Hut® as an example, but you
should use an example appropriate to your community. Assume that there are
similar, privately owned businesses of the same type in the area. In our
example, there are 3 independent pizza restaurants in town. |
| 2. | Divide
the class evenly into 5 groups and give each group a SWOT grid. Tell
participants that Pizza Hut® is considering locating in town and that the
class has been hired to assess the proposal for them. Explain to participants
how to complete the SWOT grid, then give them 10-15 minutes to do so. |
| 3. | Ask
for a volunteer group to share the Strengths it identified. After this group
has finished reporting, invite other groups to add to the Strengths. Repeat the
process for Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, asking a different group go
first for each section. (The remaining group will have an opportunity to lead
the discussion in step 5.) |
| 4. | Next,
announce that Pizza Hut® has made its decision to locate in town. They now
want the class to develop strategies or plans of action for the restaurant
based on the SWOT analysis just completed. Allow 10-15 minutes for this step. |
| 5. | Group 5 leads the discussion of strategies, with other groups adding their ideas. |
Reflection:
At the completion of the activity, facilitate a discussion based on questions such as:
| JOURNAL: Give a fresh copy of the grid to each participant and make the following assignment: "Conduct a SWOT analysis of your own business idea. Don't forget the step of listing strategies and plans of action!" |
Bridges:
SWOT
| Proposed Idea: |
| Strengths
| Weaknesses |
| Opportunities
| Threats |
Tool 11: |
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
Purpose:
Materials:
Time:
60 minutes
Procedure:
Making
an Affinity Diagram starts with brainstorming but goes a step further by
organizing the ideas generated into "like" groups. All participants play an
equal role in the process. The technique is especially useful for organizing
complex issues or looking at them in new ways. Follow these steps to construct
an Affinity Diagram:
| 1. | Choose
a complex issue and phrase it in the form of a question. For example:
|
| 2. | Divide
the class into groups of 4 to 6 members, giving each participant part of a pad
of sticky notes or stack of cards. Review the following rules:
|
| 3. | Present the question to the group. Allow the group 10-20 minutes to generate ideas. |
| 4. | At the end of the brainstorming time, ask participants to arrange the ideas into like groups without talking. Allow participants to keep moving the ideas around until everyone is satisfied with the groupings, of which there may be any number. |
| 5. | Then ask participants to discuss and choose a heading for each group of ideas, using a word or phrase from one of the notes in the group, if possible. |
| 6. | Ask a group member to read aloud the headings and the sticky notes in each grouping. Add an "other" or "miscellaneous" group if necessary. |
| 7. | Draw a line around the boundaries of each grouping to designate affinity among the ideas. You may ask group members to sign and date the diagram, signaling their "affinity" or agreement about the results, if having a record of such agreement is desirable. |
If the ideas (or groups of ideas) generated also need to be prioritized (ranked, ordered, or valued), the following are three equitable methods of ranking:
| 1. | Each participant ranks his or her top five groupings in order, giving 5 points to his/her top priority, 4 points to the next most important, etc.. The results are totaled, and the grouping with the most points receives top priority. |
| 2. | Each participant receives a set number of votes (10-15), and then votes for any number of groups in any amount. A person may cast all his/her votes for one item, or distribute them among many items. Tally votes. |
| 3. | Each participant rates each grouping on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Total the results. |
Tool 12: |
CREATING AN INTRAPRENEURIAL VENTURE
One definition of an entrepreneur is "one who sees and seizes opportunities." Typically, an entrepreneur is someone who comes up with an idea and starts a business or enterprise to capitalize on that idea.
So, what's an "intrapreneur?" Think of it as an entrepreneur who works in an existing business or organization and sees and seizes an opportunity to make some part of business operate more effectively and efficiently. More and more, businesses and organizations of all kinds are looking for employees who can act intrapreneurially. Learning to be an "intrapreneur" can be a great skill in the workplace.
In addition to your on-going responsibilities in your student-run enterprise, you are being asked to develop a plan for an "intrapreneurial venture," or IV. The IV has two main purposes:
| 1. | To help your enterprise run more effectively or efficiently |
| 2. | To help you practice important skills and learn about small business and entrepreneurship. |
Your IV can be either a project to improve the way your business currently functions in one of three basic areas--finances, marketing or operations--or a new product or service to be offered by your business. You can work on an IV individually or with a partner(s). Here are guidelines for developing your IV:
| 1. | Your first job is to narrow your focus and figure out what part of the business you want to try to improve or what kind of product or service you wish to offer. There are three basic areas you may choose from: finances, marketing or operations. The handout "Questions to Consider" poses some questions that may help you identify a topic that interests you. |
| 2. | Set a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Responsible and Timely) goal for your IV. Once you've decided on an area, the next step is to narrow your focus so that you can prepare a plan for your IV that can be carried out within 2-3 months. Suppose that you want to create an IV to make your business more profitable. A focus of "Increase the business' profits" is too broad to be realistic. "Increase the business' profits by increasing profit margins" is better, but if your business has 10 products, it will take a long time to complete this project. "Increase the business' profits by increasing profit margins on products 1 and 2" is even better: more specific, attainable and realistic. |
| 3. | Write
a complete plan for your IV, containing the following components:
|
| 4. | You will present your IV to the other students in the business or class and/or to a panel of "experts." Practice your presentation and be ready to respond to questions about your recommendation. The more specific and thorough your presentation is, the better the decision the panel can make. |
| 5. | If your IV is accepted by the panel, you'll have a chance to implement the change, and your business will benefit from your suggestion. |
| 6. | Keep in mind that your IV might involve more than one area. Marketing or operations changes will have financial implications. A financial project may affect the operations of the business. For example, let's say you are interested in tackling a Marketing IV. You decide that your business needs new advertising to reach different customers. While your IV focuses on creating new ads, you'll also need to calculate the cost to the business and determine who will do the work. |
| 7. | Your IV proposal should be as long (or as short!) as is needed to make your case convincingly. Remember, you must convince the panel that your proposed project is a good one. Do your homework! |
| 8. | Ideally, you should be able to carry out your IV relatively quickly, so that you can observe, learn from, and document the results before the end of the school year. |
Read the sample IV below prepared by Kit Green and Kelly Carson. Their school store at Kancamangus HS uses its profits to buy books for a hospital school (for students who can't attend regular school because they are in the hospital). Consider these questions:
IV Title: Increase our school store's profits by increasing profit on pencils and buttons.
What's the problem?
Our
business is not as profitable as it could be. If we are going to purchase the
books we want for the hospital school, we need to make more profit.
What is our recommended solution?
Increase
the profit margins on pencils and buttons, the products we sell the most of.
What research have we done?
What costs are associated with our recommendation?
Pencils:
We'll have to print a new price list for the store to reflect the new sales
price. That would cost $5.00. Raising the price of pencils may reduce sales.
However, even if sales decrease some (by 20%, for example), we'll still earn
more money:
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What are the benefits associated with our recommendation?
Even
if the sales of pencils drop by 20%, we'll make $23.42 more in the 1st month
(after deducting the $5.00 to reprint the price list) and $28.42/mo. after
that. On buttons, we'd make $ .10 more on each one we sell. We're selling about
200/month now, so we'll make an additional $ .10 X 200 = $20.00/mo. The $7.50
shipping charge would come in the 1st month only, so we'd make an extra $12.50
in the 1st month and $20.00/mo. for the next four months. (We'd have to reorder
in month 6.)
Together, these 2 steps can increase our profit (and the # of books we can buy) for the next 5 months by: $229.60. Calculation: $35.92($23.42 + 12.50) in the 1st mo. and $48.42 ($28.42 + $20) for the next 4 mos.
Who would carry out the recommendation?
The
Finance committee will need to decide whether we have the cash we'd need to buy
buttons in bulk, and will keep track of our financial performance. The new
price list should be handled by the Advertising committee, and the
production/sales department will need to order the buttons.
Tool 13: |
SCHOOL-BASED ENTERPRISES
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Finances
| 1. | Is
your business performing financially the way the business plan projected it
would? What differences do you see? |
| 2. | How
much cash has been generated by your business? How have the profits been used?
Are there other ways to use the profits? |
| 3. | How
much profit is generated by each of the products your business sells? What
could you do to increase the profit margin of each product? |
| 4. | Are
there products that should be discontinued because they are unprofitable? |
| 5. | Can
you project how much cash will be generated by the business? |
| 6. | Are
the business' finances being accounted for accurately on a regular basis? |
Marketing
| 1. | Is
the business following the marketing plan outlined in the original business
plan? If not, why not? |
| 2. | Who
is buying from your business? What are the demographics of your current
customers? |
| 3. | Are
there other potential customers for your business? What kinds of products or
services would appeal to them? Where do they purchase those products/services
now? How could you find out? |
| 4. | How
does your business advertise? Are there other forms of advertising or promotion
that could result in increased sales and profits for your business? |
Operations
| 1. | Is
your business operating as the business plan described that it would? If not,
why not? |
| 2. | What
are the roles and responsibilities necessary to the smooth functioning of the
business? Are there accurate descriptions for the positions? |
| 3. | Is
there a different way to organize the work and/or the workers? |
| 4. | Are
there ways to reduce overhead expenses so that the business can operate more
profitably? |
| 5. | How
will you ensure that the business will have the personnel to operate
effectively in the future? |