Introduction
Ahmke and Akridge (2015) states organizing ones thought on a business venture as well as developing business plan for the same is the beginning of creating a successful business venture. This is a widely accepted point all over the globe. Proper planning is a must in order to establish a successful business venture. But what does proper planning in relation to establishment of business venture mean? According to Zuckerman (2016) planning for a new business venture involves conducting feasibility research for the business idea as well as organizing the business idea into a business plan.
It is expected that an MBA graduate should be able to develop business ventures. This same expectation is held my university and as such as an MBA student I was required to develop a business development proposal. Basically, in this course, we were given two options. Option one was to prepare a business development proposal for a complete new business venture, while the second option was to prepare a business development proposal for an existing organization. I chosen the first option as this was in line with my career aspiration. Generally speaking, I want to be an entrepreneur and I took this as an opportunity to sharpen my skills and knowledge in the same area. For the last few weeks, I have therefore been actively engage in planning for a new business venture as part of my MBA course. During the exercise, I have learned valuable lesson, skills and have also gain knowledge on different areas involved in Business development. In this essay, I am going to discuss the process I went through in the exercise as well as the lesson, skill and knowledge gains all through.
Research methods and process
The option I choose required one to come up with business idea and do research to establish it viability before preparing a business for the same. I therefore spend most of my time doing some research on the business idea I had settled on.
The research helped me understand and find a viable business idea which is paramount for establishing new business venture.
In the Research two approaches was used, The first approach involved conducting A primary research in order to understand the attractiveness of the product (the business idea) and people intention to purchase it. Specifically, this process involved conducting a survey with potential customers of my product. The first process did actually help me understand how to appraise a business idea. It also helped me come up with a viable business idea which not only forms part of my MBA dissertation but one that I will pursue further as part of my career aspiration. In addition, through the primary research I was able to interact directly with targeted customers for my proposed product and this give me the opportunity to collect feedback regarding the product I was planning to introduce to them. Prior to the exercise, I didn’t understand the importance of conducting a feasibility study until I did one and received very useful feedback and suggestion for product improvement. The feedback and suggestion received helped improve the original product concept making it even better and more appealing to target customers.
The Second approach involved conducting a secondary Research in order to understand whether the market and Industry which I was targeting was attractive enough for establishment of profitable business venture. The process involved gathering data from secondary sources include industry related report, government publication among others. This entire process did actually help me understand the nature of the industry and market I was targeting with my business idea. This understanding was crucial in making decision on whether to pursue my business idea further or to abandon it.
Literature and sources
All the information used was gathered from both primary and secondary sources. In regard to primary sources, a survey was conducted with potential customers to my proposed product. As mentioned earlier, primary research was used specifically to know how people see and feel about the product I was proposing to introduce to the market. Primary sources was very important in this case because it give me the opportunity to interact with potential customers to my products therefore enabling me understand whether my product would appeal to them and whether they would buy. I also managed to get valuable feedback and suggestion for product improvement from this source.