UBW Business Plan: Assignment Example

Task 1. Describe and explain five of the plan's structural strengths and weaknesses of the current UBW business plan.

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The University Bike Works business plan has portrayed some strengths, one of them being a clear description of the target audience. It is clearly stated that the target audience is the ANZ Bank and the store's major suppliers of new bikes, accessories, and parts who have already provisionally granted continuation and only waiting to review the business plan. The business plan has also clearly stated the need for continuous improvement (CI) as it has mentioned being focusing on the influx of new university students. The plan has also depicted its current and future operational issues where it has stated its current sales strategy and for the future, a full-time employee, Josephine Jays is to be promoted to the assistant manager position.

The UBW business plan has an executive summary that is straight to the point and describes the critical information that needs to be put across. However, the business plan has not addressed its risk assessment that could help the target audience to know its weaknesses and how it deals with them. (176 words)

Task 2. Overall, do you agree with the current UBW plan's section and their position/sequence? If yes, why? If no, why not?

About New Zealand and Australian Government's business plan templates, the UBW plan doesn't seem correct since the sequence of the sections is different from both. The UBW plan starts has the following sequence; executive summary, company summary, competitive comparison, market analysis summary, strategy, and implementation summary and personnel plan. The New Zealand template follows the following order; executive summary, business details, business background, goal/mission, our strategy, current and planned team, market analysis, competitor analysis, SWOT, marketing strategy and budget, assets held and planning, financial plan, business continuity planning and finally, legal and regulatory compliance. The Australian business plan template has five major sections which are; business plan summary, the business, the market, the future, and the finances (Cheah, Amran, & Yahya, 2019). The five sections have subsections that are clearly outlined. (130 words)

Task 3. In the UBW plan, what sections do you think are missing? Explain why you would include them. Where would you get relevant information or data for the missing section(s)?

One of the major parts missing in the UBW business plan is a financial plan. This is important information for the target audience as it needs to understand the cash flow, revenue collected for years it has been operating and the forecast revenue, the balance sheet for the years operated and forecasted and finally the profit and loss analysis and the forecasted one (Reid, Ismail, & Sharifi, 2016). This is important information for the target audience as it enables them to decide on their involvement with the business. This information could be derived from the business's books of record and their market analysis.

The UBW business plan also needs to include its legal and regulatory compliance since every business requires a legal entity for it to operate. For example, the New Zealand business plan template states that it should indicate having carried out the following: registered with the Companies Office, registered with Inland Revenue, registered for GST, registered as an employer, applied for patents or trademark, applied for licenses and permits and finally applied for verification with the following standards bodies and regulators specific to my industry. (183 words)

Task 4. What two sections should be removed or renamed? Explain why you would remove or rename them.

About the two government business plan templates, I would rename the section 'company summary' to be 'business details'. This will help avoid repetition since the first section of the plan is already 'business plan summary'. I would also rename the section 'personnel plan' to 'current and planned team' since it makes it more specific and will gain the target audience interest in knowing who you're currently working with and who you intend to add. (76 words)

Task 5. Identify two sections you think could be improved. Explain why you think the sections you have identified need to be improved?

About the two government templates, the 'personnel team' section needs to be improved since it has just highlighted the employee's name and the duration they've worked in the company. This section needs to show the strength of the people leading the business to capture the target audience. The marketing strategy of the UBW business plan seems to be shallow since there is important information left out. It needs to depict a sense of seriousness to the investors by for example showing coordination of the core segments of a marketing strategy, that is, The Four Ps. (99 words)

Task 6. Describe and explain how you would improve the two sections you identified in task 5 as needing improvement.

Most of the investors make decisions based on the strength of the people leading the business thus the UBW business personnel plan should indicate the following information about the employees: name, role title, key responsibilities, qualifications, experience, and track record. The information is best represented in a table format to make it clear and appealing to read. Since the business indicates a plan for growth, it should also have a section for future skilled personnel. Finally, for this section, it is important to give confidence that the business won't be hamstrung by a high staff turnover thus it should indicate the best practice solutions to be used to retain key staff and compete for skilled personnel in the job market.

Secondly, the marketing strategy of the UBW business plan needs to show coordination of all The Four Ps which are: product, price, place, and promotion. For instance, if the promotional methods are mostly centered on value while pricing emphasizes on quality, it means that they won't complement each other. The marketing strategy should also have a budget that is financially suitable within the cash flow. (187 words)

Task 7. Describe and explain five strengths or weaknesses of UBW's analysis of their current situation.

A situation analysis focuses on internal and external conditions affecting the business. The key conditions are customers, competitors, suppliers and government and legal issues. The UBW plan has been presented strongly since it clearly stated its target audience, which is the university students due to its strategic position and the fact that the university space isn't enough to fit a lot of cars thus making bikes convenient. Secondly, it has indicated its main competitors and also mentioned its advantage over all of them, which is service repairs and packing for students since the university space isn't enough. The situation analysis has also presented its suppliers, their location and the products they each deal with. This portrays seriousness in the business thus giving it an upper hand with the investors.

More so, the business has also indicated its compliance with regulations since it is registered as a limited liability company. The business plan, however, has a weakness as it has not stated its involvement with any advocacy group. Advocacy groups, also known as special interest groups influence public policy, public opinion and company behavior since they use tactics to draw attention. (190 words)

Task 8. Evaluate the current plan's description of five of the business's opportunities, threats and problems or issue identification.

The ever-growing student population in the two universities each year, is a very big opportunity for University Bike Works since they are located on Symonds Street where all students and school staff pass through as they commute to and from school. The primary target being the students, it gives it an upper hand in marketing and competition thus encouraging more purchases. More so, there seems to be a new enthusiasm among the college-age population for retro Cruiser bikes and higher-tech cruiser-style bikes with multiple gears and good brakes. Having one of the largest manufacturers as the suppliers enable the business to meet its customer's demands thus ore opportunity for growth. Thirdly, the business has been up and running for quite some time, therefore, it has been able to maintain a positive image and hence enabling customers to think highly of it.

On the other hand, the business has experienced some conditions that it has no control over. For example, the business sales are influenced by seasons where, at the beginning of summer, sales are usually low as most students are usually out of town. Long school breaks also pose as threats in that few students are around, thus low sales of bikes. However, sales of accessories and repairs are steady. (213 words)

Task 9. Evaluate three of the current plan's proposed objectives, marketing and/or management strategies and operational tactics.

The UBW plan has indicated clear objectives all meet the SMART criteria which are, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with a time frame. One of the objectives being to focus marketing on the new student influx to maintain current growth in sales and service revenue is specifically on new students and also realistic based on the market analysis presented (Mendes et al. 2019). For each of the objectives stated, there are clear strategies outlined to achieve every one of them. For example, one of the objectives is to achieve monthly and yearly sales equal to or better than the previous year under the former owner. To achieve that, they've come up with three large sales promotions for each year; back to school sale, year-end holidays and spring sale where they will be featuring new bikes, and repair/maintenance/tune-up specials as it marks the return of nice weather. To achieve the set objectives, there is also a set marketing program, focusing on back to school specials, spring special, coupons once every month for a service specialist in the university newsletter, a website with downloadable maps and lastly, print advertising. (190 words)

Task 10. Evaluate, propose and defend any three alternative marketing/management objectives or strategies that you think should be included.

For better marketing, the inclusion of some modern methods is necessary. One of them is social media marketing. Other than posting information on the website only, it is important to engage in other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The target market is the university students, getting information on those platforms spreads faster since most of them spend a lot of time on social media. Another marketing strategy is using influencers. This is people with a large following on social media and whose thoughts on certain products are considered. Focusing on building a strong customer relationship is a necessity in every business since it builds customer loyalty (Besana et al. 2018). The customer loyalty results to relationship marketing strategy, whereby loyal customers influence their close friends and relatives on purchasing products from the shop thus increasing sales and creating more relationships. (139 words)

Task 11. Within the plan, identify and discuss any five current or future operational issues.

Current operational issues are the problems rendering a business less profitable at present while future operational issues are the problems that are likely to drain the business's resources in the time to come. (Yang, Tagh...