Author: Dr. Helen Eckmann

About the author: 

I would like to introduce myself.  I am full-time Faculty and Associate Professor at Brandman University.  I have created this book to assist students to understand how to recognize an opportunity and how to create value from that opportunity - in short, create a Business Plan!  I have worked as a business owner and as a full-time faculty professor for the past fifteen years.  As the current Vice Chair of the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) World Wide Ethics Council, I am in direct contact with the business leaders of today. ISM has over 50,000 members from 80 countries.  Click this link for more details on ISM: www.ism.ws.

I have been faculty at three major universities at Brandman University for eight years and was on the team that developed both, the BBA (Bachelor in Business Administration) and the MBA (Masters in Business Administration) for Brandman University.  Within the scope of my consulting business, James L Consulting http://www.jameslconsulting.com/, I have worked on strategy, leadership, ethics, collaboration, sustainability, and supply chain with over 40 Fortune 500 and 100 companies and over 10,000 people.  In my own business career, I have worked with many great companies including Raytheon, Union Bank, and Jazzercise.

I was given the honor of being San Diego Business Woman of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners in 2000. http://www.nawbo-sd.org/2009-bravo-awards-winners.html 

In both, teaching and consulting, I bring the academic and practical proven business concepts to life.  The Mission Statement for my business, James Consulting, is:

“Offering coaching in the crucial areas of Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability.  We believe that a good organization is one that engages in conversations that matter inside the organization as well as with all stakeholders.  Conversations that focus on the bottom line and challenge all employees to recognize and create new opportunities for the organization.”

About the book: 

Writing a Business plan is an adventure and over 90% of students who begin this journey are amazed in the end at how smart they are!  Application of the learned is intimidating at first as retention, especially after eight-week classes, appears to be questionable.  However, once triggered, and the assignments will do that, students are indeed able to produce the required applications of the course materials.

There will be certain things that are going to be repeated and mentioned continually in this textbook to assist the student with the writing of a business plan.  These critical reminders might be stressed in a few sections so that the student understands the gravity of identifying things like demographics, financial opportunities, the product and/or service, and the need for the innovation.

In this book repetition of critical issues and frequent examples are used for the benefit of the student, but the business plan should not display repetition or examples.  An example is provided in this textbook but the business plan should only have key points and references, supporting pictures, graphs, and references to prove the value of the business, and not, like mentioned, examples.  Furthermore, it is the duty of the writer to be clear and concise.  There should be no surprise questions about the business plan by the reader of the business plan, as all areas of opportunity, industry, and risk have been completely and clearly highlighted in the business plan.

Students will notice that there are very few appendices in this document, which should be the same in the business plan.  The idea is to put all of the information students need right at their fingertips; accordingly, CEOs will not flip back and forth in a business plan as they will want all relevant data that finger tips.  Additions, like appendices, should surplus information, but not essential for understanding the business plan or document.

One of the greatest resources that students will want to engage with for capstone success is the FREE Website from SCORE at www.Score.org.  The Mission Statement for Score is: “We connect entrepreneurs with mentors to help you build your business with free business advice.”  Score also provides all of the templates students will need for the financial section (more on financial reporting requirements in below).  For a preview on the variety of financial templates this is the link: https://www.score.org/resource/business-planning-financial-statements-template-gallery.  Once all the research and analysis for all the papers in this class are completed, students will find that all of the needed tools for the completion of the business plan are indeed available at the Score website.

The following link is to a Business Plan template that the Score website offers: https://www.score.org/resource/business-plan-template-startup-business.  This is a good place to start. Nevertheless, students must meet all course requirements found on Blackboard in the Syllabus as well.  So if Score templates differ from or conflict with the course material, students must always follow the course materials first.

In many of the BBA core classes there was a video within Course Information to help guide the learning for the core classes and how that relates to this class, the capstone.  This video presented the 9 things students need to know about the BBA Capstone: https://youtu.be/vbzmkyiJ6HY.