Introduction to the Portfolio Task In your seminars, you will be invited to develop a business idea that in some way involves the university. This can be anything at all and you are encouraged to build your idea around something you are interested in and already have some understanding of – perhaps a hobby, a family business or a business sector where you have some employment experience. The business may be based anywhere (does NOT have to be sited on university premises) but you might, for example, wish to set up a business that targets students or perhaps supplies something of importance to the university. It is essential that your business could, if successful, be scaled up across other universities both in this country and abroad, so avoid any ideas that truly rely on something unique about your current place of study. You are encouraged to think creatively but be realistic. You may make any reasonable assumptions. For example, if you wanted to set up a Krispy Kreme franchise stall somewhere on the campus it would be reasonable to assume that A) you can get the franchise from Krispy Kreme and B) that the University would allow you to do so and it does not conflict with its existing catering contracts. In practice this may or may not be true but it is would be acceptable for you to assume these things for the sake of carrying out this assignment. All assumptions MUST be clearly stated in your assignment submissions. The tasks that follow all relate to this business idea and build upon each other to produce a set of outputs that form a portfolio of structured outputs that could be of some use to someone launching this business for real. Task 1 – MANDATORY Please note that once a business idea has been chosen, it cannot be changed. The same business ideas has to be used for all portfolio tasks that follow. Part A What is your business idea? Clearly state with justification the business, the sector, location, how the business is going to operate (e.g. online, high street, both). Also, briefly state the reasons you think the business is a good idea, how it is going to meet the needs of its customers in a new and innovative way that is not already met by existing businesses. Include a table that identifies some of your key competitors, explaining why you consider them competition. Note that this first part is all about justifying WHY you want to do this and should be supported with evidence wherever possible. Word limit: 300 (guide) Part B What are the four most important objectives for your new business? • Objectives should start with the word to. For example: To make it easier for people to find copies of older books and specialist literary novels • Objectives should be relevant to your business idea. Each objective needs to be briefly explained and the justification of the importance of each objective should also be given. Out of the different forms of ownership (e.g. sole trader, partner), which ones is the most suitable for your business and why? • State why this form of ownership is the most suitable, giving at least two referenced examples to support your justification. Failure to do so will not score a pass mark Word limit: 300 (guide) Task 2 As part of portfolio task 1, you have clearly defined what your business is, its objectives and the form of ownership it will have. The next step is to complete a PESTLE analysis. Political Technological Economic Legal Social Environmental Complete a PESTLE analysis for your chosen business. For each of the PESTLE headings, one or two or factors that could potentially influence how your business will operate need to be identified. However, only writing a list of factors would not be acceptable, discussion regarding impact and significance that each factor could have on the organisation is needed. Word limit: 500 (guide) Task 3 This assessment builds upon the activities assigned for portfolio tasks 1 and 2, where business ideas and objectives were established and a PESTLE analysis of the external environment was carried out. This task is concerned with the launch event of a business. This is the moment you introduce the market and the media to your business, what it does and what it has to offer. This type of event can be very expensive, however, and it is important that you keep a tight control of costs. To help achieve this it is important to establish a budget for the event. It would be helpful for you to review the lecture and seminar on budgeting and managing cash flow. Both the lecture and seminar contain example budget templates that you could use to guide your launch event budget. Consistency with previous portfolio tasks is needed. For example, if one of your objectives was about high quality then you should make sure that your marketing plan is consistent with this objective. It is recommended that you re-read the portfolio submissions for tasks 1 and 2 before starting this task. Part A Defining your Launch Event You should write a statement that describes the launch event you intend to hold. This should include what format the event will take (e.g. what form of social gathering, will there be a business presentation and or a celebrity opening, will food be served), when (day time evening weekend) and where the event is going to take place (on site off site). You should make sure that you justify the choices you make in the context of your business description and its objectives that you submitted in assessments 1 and 2. • If you intend to spend a lot of money on food and entertainment, for instance, how is this compatible with the business objectives and image? • If you chose to invite a celebrity, for example, why have you invited them and how they will help you achieve your business objectives? You should also explain whom you intend to invite, including overall numbers, and why they should be invited. Answers that just describe will not score high marks. It is really important that you justify your choices in relation to your proposed business. Part B Producing a budget The lecture on budgeting and cash flow introduced you to the concept and importance of budgeting. Using the budget templates provided to you in this lecture and its accompanying seminar, please construct a budget for your event. These templates are only a guide and you will need to modify them to make sure the budget items included are relevant to your event. Your budget will be judged on both whether it includes all of the major cost items your event will incur together with whether the costs you include are realistic. You will need to carry out research to find realistic costs to include in your budget. Whenever possible you should give notes at the bottom of the budget to explain and reference where your costs have come from. For example, imagine you had a line in your budget (for a party of a hundred people) that stated £ 3 course luxury meal5,0001 You might then have a note at the bottom of your budget that stated: 1Food costs based on an average cost of £50 per head based on a mid-range catering firm (www.Eat Well.com/prices). Total Word limit (for Part A & B): 500 (guide) Task 4 The lectures will have introduced you to marketing, marketing plans and how the marketing mix (the 4Ps and the 7Ps) could be used to drive sales. It would be helpful to review this material, particularly the exercise on building a marketing plan and the exercise on constructing a marketing mix. In the lectures you were introduced to the key sections of a marketing plan. In this assessment you are going to develop content under some of the key headings for your proposed business. The headings are Marketing objectives Target Markets Marketing Mix Marketing strategies for each target market Below are some notes to help you with each of these headings. You should note that for all of the headings it is really important that you explain why you are making the choices you are. Answers that just state what you are doing will not score highly. Marketing Objectives How do you intend to position your product/service in the market? Is it a luxury or a mass market offering? What are the key brand messages you want to convey to customers, e.g. quality, service, low cost, value? You should make sure that what you write here is consistent with your business description and objectives as stated in assignments 1 and 2. Word limit: 100 words (guide) Target Markets What are your target markets and why? Are you, for instance, targeting young people, people with a particular belief (e.g. green consumers) or is the targeting based on wealth or gender (e.g. luxury clothing for men). If you are going to be offering products that target all segments in a market then please state why. Word limit: 100 words (guide) Marketing strategies for each target market For ONE of your target markets please explain your marketing strategy. How are you going to communicate with customers in your chosen market segment and why? What forms of promotion and advertising are you going to use and why? Do you need to make any specific modifications to the marketing mix to reach the customers in this segment and why? Word limit: 100 words (guide) Marketing Mix For each element of the marketing mix describe what your approach is going to be. You should also explain for each element why your chosen approach is the right one. You might find it helpful to set up a table like the one below (an example is given for place for a business selling pizzas that are delivered to your door within 15 minutes).
Assessment Details The assessment process for this module involves a single coursework submission made up of four equally weighted components. Coursework submission is worth 100% of total marks available for the module and each component is worth 25% of the total. Component Tasks – General Guidelines Students will be issued with a set of four discrete tasks and students must hand in a portfolio of all four tasks together. More than four tasks will be issued (probably six) but you will still be required to submit exactly four tasks, including the first task which is compulsory. Word count and ‘size’ information will vary from task to task but guidelines are specified later in this document. Each task is worth 25%, making the portfolio worth 100% in total. The set of four tasks must be submitted as a single MS Word document by 2pm on Monday 30th April 2018 using the Turnitin link provided on Moodle. The document MUST: 1. Include a table of contents 2. Be presented using Arial 12 point as the main font for body text (other fonts and sizes may be used for headings, subheadings, emphasis, etc. 3. Use 1.5 point line spacing Submissions that fail to adhere to these requirements will be penalised. This coursework is individual: Students should work individually on each of the all four tasks. Your submission must have only the title and your student number. Feedback The target feedback date is Monday 28th May 2018. Portfolio Tasks: Business Essential (Introduction) Instructions: This coursework is individual. All submission of coursework will be online via Turnitin on the module’s Moodle site. For formative assessment (informal feedback) you should bring them to your seminars to discuss with your seminar tutors. The Roehampton Harvard Referencing system should be used for any resources used as part of your research. Final summative (formally marked) submission deadline for the portfolio of tasks is 2pm on Monday 30th April 2018. The final submission of the four tasks should be as a single MS Word file containing all four tasks, along with a title page and contents page that lists each task. Please consult the module handbook for rules and regulations regarding submissions. Please ensure your document is saved as: “student number and project title” as the name of the file before you upload it to Moodle, for example: “1234567 Casto Coffee” Formatting • Main text Arial font Size 12 • MS Word document (not a pdf) • 1.5 point line spacing Referencing Requirements Note that as indicated in the marking schema, it is expected that you will use references to support your work and you will be taught about this in your English Academic Skills module. These references may be in the form of examples of similar work that you have used and based your own work on (for example another marketing plan), theory discussed in articles or text books, a relevant case study that has helped inform your answer or something else that has helped inform your answer. These references may be found in a variety of places but you are expected to use at least one non-web-based reference per task as well as any number of additional references that may be useful. These should be listed and referenced using the standard Harvard referencing system you will have been taught in your English classes but your seminar tutor will also be able to help with this. Failure to reference correctly will result in substantial loss of marks.