As part of the course assessment for Entrepreneurial Skill in the Communication Industry, we are required to formulate a Business Plan in groups of 2-5. As such, last class we got a visit from Mr. Colin Coley who works at the JBDC (Jamaica Business Development Corporation) and he gave us a bit of ‘financial coaching’ and general advice for our plans.

For the financial aspect of the plan, my group members and I are going to have to make the following projections:

Sales Forecast - showing how income will be earned.

Cash Flow - showing the movement of cash in and out of the operation over a period of time

Profit and Loss Projection

Schedule of Assets and Liabilities

For the most part, I understood the basics of Mr. Coley’s explanation (which is sufficient for putting together the plan), but the thought had to parade my mind, ‘only an entrepreneurial course could bring back a COMMUNICATIONS major to high school accounts’.

Anyway, for the other aspects of the business plan I gathered that it must tell the entrepreneurs’ story in a focused way!

F - follow

O - one

C - course

U - until

S - successful

My group is in the process of putting together a plan for a business called Market Says! which main objective is to provide feasible information to companies through quality focused research so that they can know and manipulate their industries for success. However, our Product-Services Analysis was what needed the most clarification, and Mr. Coley helped in such a great way. In fact, I’ve heard this before from Gerry, but sometimes I need to hear things over and over and over again to REALLY understand. That’s just the workings of my brain. Anyway, Mr. Coley explained the following:

Core Product vs. Augmented Product:

• Victoria Secret doesn’t sell lingerie, they sell sex-appeal!
• The Gleaner and Observer are advertising businesses! (This statement from him lead to the AHHH effect. Though they are in media and communications industry, they make the bulk of their money from ads.)

This is what we really have to decide on when creating our business model for Market Says!. Our profit formula has to show where the bulk of our revenue will come from and essentially define our service, so whilst our business model will describe us as being in the Market Research industry, our profit formula might say something else.