Embedded Resources by Rebecca Gagne

Feasibility Study Assignment & Presentation

Student Instructions: You are to complete a feasibility study as a group. This feasibility study assignment will be completed on your chosen business idea (in the groups you formed earlier in the semester). Your feasibility study should not be less than 10 pages or more than 12 pages. To complete this assignment, you will need to do the following:

Need Identification

• Describe why there is a need for your business to exist

Venture (business Idea) Description and Relationship to the surrounding geographical area

• Have a clear, concise description of your venture
• Describe the type and quality of the product(s) or service(s) to be marketed, including location
• Outline the economic and social impact on local communities.
• Describe the environmental impact (if any) on the surrounding area.

Market

Industry or marketplace description

• Describe the size and scope of the industry, market, or market segment(s).
• Describe the nature of the industry and market. Is it stable or going through rapid change and restructuring?
• Identify the industry's life cycle and market; i.e., is it emerging, growing, mature, declining?

Industry competitiveness

• Who are your major competitors? Describe them. Will you compete directly against them?
• Analyze the barriers to entry of new competitors into the market or industry. Can new competitors enter easily?
• Describe the price competitiveness of your product or service.

Revenue Model

• Outline the general business model (i.e., how the business will make money).
• Describe your revenue model in terms of the revenue streams
• Examine your cost model and determine the key drivers of your costs
• Provide a simple income statement (review fig 9.5, page 221 (financial projections) in our textbook for more information)
  • Supplement A also includes some valuable information about the income statement

Startup Requirements

• Identify the resources needed to start your business (i.e., capital, human resources, equipment, etc.)
• What is essential before a sale can be made?
• What do you need but do not have?

Team

• Names, positions, and a brief description (including qualifications) of all your group members and others identified under the “startup requirement” section.

Decision

• Based on the analysis laid out in the feasibility study, do you want to move forward with your business idea? Why? Why not?

Presentation

• You will create PowerPoint slide deck to accompany a group presentation
• The slide deck should be 12-15 slides and the presentation should be 10-15 minutes, it will be a summary of your feasibility study
• A schedule for presentations will be distributed separately

Scenario: You need to conduct industry and consumer research to develop an effective business and marketing plan. 

Directions

1. Break into your project groups and open this Google Doc
2. Assign each person in the group a different database
3. Once in the database, each person will find at least one report/article
4. For each database, determine:
   • What kind of information is in the database? (reports, company info, industry info, statistics, articles)
   • If there is a citation button or a citation generator? Post the link/citation
   • Any additional questions you have about the database

Databases

• Statista: Pro Tip: explore the tabs in the header & try the search bar

• IBISWorld: Pro Tip: explore the tabs in the header & try the search bar

• Business Source Complete: Pro Tip: Explore the “Browse” column options on the right

• First Research Mergent: Pro Tip: Search by industry, not by company 

• RKMA Market Research Handbook: Pro Tip: Browse table of contents and use CTRL F to search PDF for key terms

• Market Research: Pro Tip: Browse side menu (demographics and find a report)

Which databases can help you with your assignment?

Recommendations:

• Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) 
  • A great place to start for most topics
  • Mostly full-text articles from scholarly peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, popular magazines, and newspapers
  • If full-text is not available, click link to Check for Full Text (Providence) to connect to Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request form
• Business Source Complete
  • Company profiles, SWOT analyses where available, industry profiles, stocks and investment information, management-related articles
  • Harvard Business Review case studies and streaming videos from the Harvard Business School Faculty Seminar Series, and selective full-text articles
  • Note: JWU Library does not have access to Harvard Business Cases
• IBISWorld
  • Industry research for over 700 U.S. industries, hard-to-find U.S. "specialized industries", and some state-level industry research
  • Updated reports: Global-wide industries and industries in China
  • Industry reports include "Key Statistics," "Key Ratios," and supply-chain overviews
• First Research (Mergent)
  • In-depth U.S. and global-wide industry profiles (each report includes an overview of business challenges, trends, opportunities, and ratios)
  • "State and Province Profiles" with a clickable map for monthly updates of local industry, economic, employment, and wage data for each of the 50 states and Canadian Provinces
• RKMA
  • Content updated every two years
  • Reports cover fields such as Consumer Behavior & Marketing, Entertainment & Leisure, Pandemic Impact, Restaurant/Food & Beverage, Retail/E-commerce, Sports Marketing, Travel & Tourism, and U.S. Cities & Communities
  • Use CTRL F to search PDF for key terms
• Statista
  • Statstics, reports, and visual data for a range of topics, countries, industries, trending topics, and more
  • NOTE: Click through any security warnings & pop-up blockers that may appear
  • Expert tools options are unavailable
• MRI-Simmons
  • MRI-Simmons Insights is Simmons Research’s web-based platform for analysis of national consumer and market insights
  • There is a limit of 25 simultaneous users at the same time

How to Start a Search on the Library Website

Step 1: Click the "Articles" tab on the main library website. Then click "Advanced Search" 

Step 2: Input each of your search terms into the search lines. Click 'Search'!

Step 3: Use the Search Filters on the left side of the screen to customize your results. 

Watch the Example Search Below!

Example Research Question: What leadership skills should athletic directors possess? 

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• Organize collections

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