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University System of Maryland

Applied Entrepreneurship 2: Acceleration Plan Development and Evaluation

University System of Maryland via edX

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Overview

Applied Entrepreneurship II is a follow-on course from Applied Entrepreneurship I. You’ll dive even deeper into developing a plan to accelerate your business, doing some research to pull together facts and figures to develop a more complete acceleration plan to help you understand the more intricate details of how to iterate certain parts of your business model togrow your business. In this course you will:

  • Create an outline of your acceleration plan:
  • Define and size your market based upon your new view
  • Develop and implement a market research plan
  • More fully understand what marketing entails
  • Learn more about adding to your entrepreneurial team and how to lead it effectively
  • Develop a detailed financial plan for your business and, if needed, how to obtain outside financing

You can then enter an exciting competition where you could win a cash prize that you can use to help grow your business, presenting to a panel of judges who will not only determine winners, but will also provide you with guidance for moving forward.

Syllabus

Week 1—What is a Plan?

Objectives:

  • Learn about business plans
  • Create a table of contents for your acceleration plan
  • View business pitches
  • Learn about the exciting competition
  • Activities:
  • Create an outline/table of contents for an acceleration business plan

Discussion:

  • What went wrong?

Week 2—Market Sizing

Objectives:

  • Refine and size your market based on your new plan of attack
  • Identify any new competitors that you may encounter and develop a competitive analysis
  • Refine your competitive advantage

Activities:

  • Create an initial market research plan
  • Analyze your competitors

Discussion:

  • Concerns about performing market research

Week 3—Marketing

Objectives:

  • Understanding what marketing entails
  • Promotion
  • Building your brand
  • Understanding the nuances of e-commerce

Activities:

  • Develop a preliminary promotional plan for your business

Discussion:

  • What do you think of the marketing mix?
  • What is the best way to brand your company online?

Week 4—Operations

Objectives:

  • What it means to be an effective leader
  • How to build an entrepreneurial team
  • Coordination among all functional areas

Activities:

  • Prepare an organizational chart and interview potential employees

Discussion:

  • How difficult have you found hiring so far?

Week 5—Financial Plan

Objectives:

  • Determine additional investment needs given your acceleration plan. Estimate the investment and return on that investment expected to execute on your acceleration plan.
  • Develop a profit and loss statement with projections
  • Develop a form of cash flow statement
  • Cash management
  • Ways to finance your business
  • Putting a plan in place

Activities:

  • Put together a cash map or cash flow cycle for your business
  • Draft final presentation

Discussion:

  • What is the toughest part for you when it comes to financials?

Week 6--Competition

Objectives:

  • Final presentation

Activities:

  • Final presentation

Taught by

Mark Grovic, JD and Michele K. Masterfano, DBA

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