Demo: Creating a Business - Additional Options
The worksheets provided in this simulation are designed so that participants can better communicate their business plan to others. Most of the questions on each worksheet require short descriptive answers, percentages, or data estimations. They are meant to describe how a company will operate by asking owners (students) to share priorities and perceptions about their business.
Taken alone, these worksheets provide ample data to run the entire simulation. However, they do not provide the most effective way to evaluate the quality of the participant's ideas. For instance, it is one thing for a student to state in writing that he will "produce creative educational toys for children" or "successfully market (advertise) the toys on the internet". It is much more compelling to actually see a computer-developed or hand-drawn design of the toys themselves, or to watch an internet advertisement for the product. Besides developing real-world skills, both of these examples ask participants to demonstrate the quality of their business or product. The ideas presented below represent some of the ways in which participants can further describe their company.
- displayed in the classroom?
- saved on a local server or website?
- displayed through customized assignments?
- Create business cards
- Create web pages (or a homepage for an entire website)
- Draw and explain design details of a product
- Market products with a brochure
- Create a newspaper or magazine advertisement
- A company logo
- Based on basic research with a similar business, create charts and graphs using real data to display trends in various product sales, regional markets, suppliers and prices, or other factors useful in business operations.
- Based on basic research with a similar business, define an employment compensation plan that will attract and retain the best people within a reasonable budget.
The options are endless. Each of these aspects aims to allow students to become familiar with some real-world aspects of developing a business and share their findings and analysis through a specific application in a quality, real-world manner.