Entrepreneurial Planning G
Course code BUSS 5315.
This course is also an elective in the MBA program.
Next scheduled: We regret that this course is not scheduled in 2008. Check this web site for the detailed timetable for other entrepreneurship courses.
Prerequisites: Entrepreneurial Foundations or equivalent.
Course co-ordinator: Peter Balan.
Course home page: follow this link Please note that the key dates (census and withdrawal dates) for all courses are on the "Class Timetable" page that you can access from the course home page.
Teaching and learning arrangements
The course is taught in intensive mode (what is intensive mode?) and adopts an action learning approach using lectures, workshop, and interactive sessions. Students form into small teams to develop a comprehensive written business plan that is orally presented at the end of the course. Formal sessions are supplemented by independent study, and students are expected to apply theoretical insights to their own work or social environment as a living laboratory. We regret that this course is not available in external or online mode.
Aim
The aim of this course is to provide students with a framework for understanding the processes involved in developing plans for new venture start-ups or for existing businesses that would be suitable for use as a blueprint for developing an entrepreneurial venture or as a document for raising finance. At the end of this course, students will have developed a comprehensive business plan for a real business venture.
On completion of this course, students should be able to:
describe the components of an entrepreneurial business plan
explain why many business plans fail
develop a high quality entrepreneurial business plan and be able to advise others on how to do
this, and
present their business plan effectively to decision makers including angel or
venture financiers.
Syllabus
The strategic planning process;
- the business planning framework;
- feasibility planning;
- undertaking a strategic analysis;
- developing strategies for the marketing, production, organisational, and financial aspects of the business;
- innovation strategy planning;
- financial forecasting for entrepreneurs;
- presenting the deal.
Assessment
Assessment takes the following form:
- Individual case report (1000 words): 15%
- Individual written business plan (30 pages max.): 70%
- Individual Presentation: 15%
Textbook
This course is based on a book of readings that are drawn from the research into business planning for new venture start-ups.
You may find it useful to refer to the textbook for Entrepreneurial Enterprises, the prerequisite for this course (Timmons, JA & Spinelli, S 2007, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, 7th edn, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY). The book is useful background material, but doesn't have a lot of detail on business planning. It will therefore be supplemented with other course materials, particularly the readings, but also:
Noel Lindsay, Justin Craig, and Gail Geronimos (2005). Business Opportunities Made Investor-Ready. Extracts from this book will be available on the course website.
Additional reading
There are many textbooks and handbooks on business planning. They are all quite similar, and none really stands out. Most are from US publishers, and the information they contain is not all relevant to Australia. There are about 10 such books in the City West Library, mostly classified under 658.4012, on the 4th floor. Why not go and browse through them?
One excellent Australian book is: Max Coulthard, Andrea Howell, Geoff Clarke (1996). Business Planning: The Key to Success. Macmillan Australia. 5 copies in the City West library, 4th floor, 658.4012 C855. This is one of the clearest books of all, but is now somewhat out of date. Though the principles of business planning in Australia haven't changed in the 10 years since the book was published, a lot of details have changed.
There are also a number of online manuals on business planning. One of the best is the US government's Small Business Administration startup guide ( a series of web pages). Another is Writing an Efffective Business Plan, from Deloittes (546kb PDF - Click here to download Adobe Reader).
Software for business planning is also widely available. Much of this takes the form of Excel templates: you simply fill in the blanks, and the software creates all the necessary documents. While very convenient, this approach doesn't provide any understanding, so we don't recommend using it until after you have completed most of the course.
Prize
All students who have participated in undertaking a business plan as part of an UniSA course are eligible for the Pank Prize, valued at $10,000.