Module 7: Planning for Business Success

ABOUT

In Planning for Business Success, students take on the role of manager of NoNaymz, a local band trying to break into the national music scene, and, through case studies and a computer simulation, they learn about marketing and finance. Students apply their NoNaymz experience to create a realistic business plan for a small business of their own. In a closing activity, students present their plans to visitors from the community in an effort to recruit potential “investors.”

In this module, students develop a range of entrepreneurial skills. They identify a business’s target audience, design market surveys and analyze their results, develop a marketing plan to reach a particular audience, determine costs and revenues, calculate profits and losses, conduct a break-even analysis, and analyze the effect of supply and demand on prices. Students also debate ethical issues involved in marketing. The module utilizes Microsoft® Excel as a financial management tool.