Next Steps in Your Business Venture
| Site: | Saylor Academy |
| Course: | BUS652: Creativity and Ideation in Entrepreneurship |
| Book: | Next Steps in Your Business Venture |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Friday, 18 April 2025, 12:32 PM |
Description
buttons.Instructions
As a final activity in this class, please read through this document and the instructions. While this will not be graded, it is an important first step in applying the information you've learned to hone in on a business idea you'd like to move forward with.
Now that you have gone through the process of brainstorming ideas throughout this course, we will look at how we might decide on one opportunity to develop throughout the rest of your program. Take your time with this, and do plenty of research as you learned about in Unit 3.
This will not be graded; it is for your own use as you own in on an idea.
Here are the steps we'd like you to follow:
- Use the methods you learned about in Units 1 and 2 to brainstorm 5-10 ideas for a business.
- Once you've done this, consider your skills and abilities. Then, complete step one, personal SWOT analysis and the Goals worksheets, to help you understand and narrow down your business ideas.
- Now that you've narrowed down your personal SWOT and goals, please choose three ideas you'd like to focus on and complete the opportunity analysis in step two. Remember, research is required to complete this accurately!
- Once you've completed the opportunity canvas for each idea, perform SWOT and PESTLE analyses on each.
- At this point, review all of the information you've gathered and give yourself time to think about it. Then ask yourself the following questions so you can narrow down to one idea:
- Which idea are you most excited about?
- Which idea do you have the skills and abilities to accomplish?
- Which idea most closely matches the personal goals you wrote down in Step One?
- How much money would you need to start up your favorite idea? Is this realistic, in that you can obtain the funds?
- Do you have the time to implement the idea you've chosen?
- What resources might you need to be successful in this business?
Once you've answered these questions, the business idea you'd like to move forward with should be fairly clear. If it isn't, we suggest going back and looking at different ideas until you find the idea that feels right!
Source: Saylor Academy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Step 1: Your Personal SWOT and Goals
SWOT
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Strengths: What strengths do you have to bring an idea to fruition? |
Weaknesses: What would you like to work on as you move toward starting your business? |
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Opportunities: What opportunities exist for you as you consider your strengths? |
Threats: How might your weaknesses impact your business, and how do you plan to alleviate them or minimize them? |
SMART Goals Worksheet
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Goals |
How is the goal specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and timely? |
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Example: I want to start a business that earns $70k per year by December of this year. |
The goal is specific, in that it addresses how much you'd like to earn which can help direct what type of business to start. It is measurable, because once you've started your business, you'll know how close you are to earning that dollar amount. It is action-oriented because it addresses the action - starting a business. It is realistic in that $70k is a reasonable amount of earnings. It is timely, in that you have a timeframe for the goal, by December of this year. |
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Goal 1 |
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Goal 2 |
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Goal 3 |
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Goal 4 |
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Step 2: The Opportunity Canvas
Idea 1 Opportunity Canvas
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Question |
Answer |
Notes |
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What is your idea? |
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What problem does your product or service solve? |
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Who is the customer? |
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What is the market size? |
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How will I market? |
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Who are my competitors? |
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What makes my product or service better than competitors? |
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Do I have the skills and abilities to implement this business? |
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Idea 2 Opportunity Canvas
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Question |
Answer |
Notes |
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What is your idea? |
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What problem does your product or service solve? |
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Who is the customer? |
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What is the market size? |
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How will I market? |
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Who are my competitors? |
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What makes my product or service better than competitors? |
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Do I have the skills and abilities to implement this business? |
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Idea 3 Opportunity Canvas
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Question |
Answer |
Notes |
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What is your idea? |
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What problem does your product or service solve? |
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Who is the customer? |
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What is the market size? |
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How will I market? |
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Who are my competitors? |
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What makes my product or service better than competitors? |
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Do I have the skills and abilities to implement this business? |
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Step 3: SWOT and PESTLE Analysis on Business Ideas
Idea 1 SWOT and PESTLE Analysis
SWOT
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Strengths: What do you see as the strengths of moving forward with this business idea? What makes you excited about this business idea? |
Weaknesses: What do you see as potential weaknesses in moving forward with this business? What concerns do you have? |
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Opportunities: How do you see this idea as an opportunity in the market? How do you see potential for growth down the road? |
Threats: What things could potentially impact the success of your business? |
PESTLE
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Political: Do you see any political aspects that may positively or negatively impact this business idea? |
Economic: Are there current or future economic factors that could have a positive or negative impact on your business? |
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Social: What social factors, such as cultural trends or demographics could impact your business either positively or negatively? |
Legal: What legal considerations are of concern? For example, additional regulations on your industry? |
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Technological: Are there any technology issues you'd expect to impact this business, for example new technologies that could impact the industry? |
Environmental: Would the weather, climate or other environmental factors impact your business? |
Idea 2 SWOT and PESTLE Analysis
SWOT
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Strengths: What do you see as the strengths of moving forward with this business idea? What makes you excited about this business idea? |
Weaknesses: What do you see as potential weaknesses in moving forward with this business? What concerns do you have? |
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Opportunities: How do you see this idea as an opportunity in the market? How do you see potential for growth down the road? |
Threats: What things could potentially impact the success of your business? |
PESTLE
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Political: Do you see any political aspects that may positively or negatively impact this business idea? |
Economic: Are there current or future economic factors that could have a positive or negative impact on your business? |
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Social: What social factors, such as cultural trends or demographics could impact your business either positively or negatively? |
Legal: What legal considerations are of concern? For example, additional regulations on your industry? |
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Technological: Are there any technology issues you'd expect to impact this business, for example new technologies that could impact the industry? |
Environmental: Would the weather, climate or other environmental factors impact your business? |
Idea 3 SWOT and PESTLE Analysis
SWOT
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Strengths: What do you see as the strengths of moving forward with this business idea? What makes you excited about this business idea? |
Weaknesses: What do you see as potential weaknesses in moving forward with this business? What concerns do you have? |
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Opportunities: How do you see this idea as an opportunity in the market? How do you see potential for growth down the road? |
Threats: What things could potentially impact the success of your business? |
PESTLE
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Political: Do you see any political aspects that may positively or negatively impact this business idea? |
Economic: Are there current or future economic factors that could have a positive or negative impact on your business? |
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Social: What social factors, such as cultural trends or demographics could impact your business either positively or negatively? |
Legal: What legal considerations are of concern? For example, additional regulations on your industry? |
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Technological: Are there any technology issues you'd expect to impact this business, for example new technologies that could impact the industry? |
Environmental: Would the weather, climate or other environmental factors impact your business? |