Believe in Ohio Stem Business Plan Template

BELIEVE IN OHIO STEM BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE NOTE: DELETE ALL TEXT IN BLUE BEFORE SUBMIITING TO YOUR TEACHER.

Expectations of plan report: Reports must be typed. Clear and concise writing is expected. Please avoid using personal pronouns in the text. Do not use cute project titles. Title should reflect the contents of the report. Edit text sharply removing needless words, and proof carefully. Expect to write numerous drafts. Number all pages except for the cover sheet (which is page 1). If requested to submit your plan in electronic format for regional and state competition, use your last + first name as the file name (e.g. SmithCarol.pdf). The electronic version of your plan that you submit must contain the entire report in a single Adobe PDF file.

Format of report: The written report shall not exceed 12 single-spaced, typewritten pages. Reports may be single or 1.5-spaced. Type all pages "flush left” with 1” margins. Do not justify paragraphs. Optional indentations for first lines of paragraphs. Please keep type size reasonable, at least 10 points; preferably 12 points for better legibility except in tables or on graphs, sketches or engineering drawings. We recommend 10, 11 or 12 point Times New Roman, Century Schoolbook, Arial, Calibri or Myriad Pro.

NOTE: Reports generally follow the Ohio Roadmap to Future Jobs and Prosperity Mileposts. Report must include and follow section headings, below, but do not break pages between headings. Section headings (Parts) need not be numbered. Type continuously, starting on page 2 immediately (on the same page) following the Executive Summary.

SAMPLE FORMAT FOR COVER SHEET – INSERT YOUR ACTUAL INFO ABOVE IN BLACK Type all flush left, ragged right; do not justify. Do not type line instructions. Although the Cover Sheet is the first page, do not type page number on Cover Sheet

Part 1. Cover Page with Elevator Pitch Line 1 Type your full name (if team, type name of each team member separated by a comma) Line 2 Type your current grade level (if team, type grade of each person as above with commas) Lines 3-4 Type your project title (i.e. Plan name) in Italics Line 5 Judging category Line 6 Type plan type here (Either Commercialization Plan or Business Plan) Leave Line 7 blank Lines 8-10 Type Elevator Pitch here (add additional lines as needed, maximum of 3 sentences)  An elevator pitch is a short, engaging statement that describes your idea sufficiently to interest a potential investor or collaborator in it. It’s called that because it can be said during an elevator ride.

The following is an example for someone competing as an individual: Part 1. Cover Sheet with Elevator Pitch Ms. Carol A. Smith 11 Prosthesis Safety Device Medical Devices, Products & Services Commercialization Plan

Elevator pitch: Prosthesis Safety Device provides audio and visual signals to an amputee when a residual limb is correctly locked in its socket. The device works with traditional prostheses for upper and lower extremities. As a result, the patient will be aware if the prosthesis is properly applied and safe to use.

The following is an example for a group competing as a team: Part 1. Cover Sheet with Elevator Pitch Ms. Carol A. Smith, Mr. Conner H. Jones, Ms. Sally R. Brown 11, 12, 10 Prosthesis Safety Device Medical Devices Product & Services Commercialization Plan

Elevator pitch: Prosthesis Safety Device provides audio and visual signals to an amputee when a residual limb is correctly locked in its socket. The device works with traditional prostheses for upper and lower extremities. As a result, the patient will be aware if the prosthesis is properly applied and safe to use.

2 Part 2. Executive Summary: This part includes your discussion at Milepost 12.

An Executive Summary provides a concise summary of your plan and its most important points. The Executive Summary must be written in a manner that a person, who may not be familiar with your topic, can understand what your plan is all about.

 Write this part last after you have completed all the other parts of your plan.  The Executive Summary should include 250 or fewer words. (250 words is about half page).  As a suggestion, pick up the lead sentences of each part and weave a coherent summary of the entire project. It’s unlikely that a first draft will be competitive. You will likely have to write this numerous times and edit sharply to be competitive. Omit needless words. Self- edit and seek help from others to edit.  Ask several other people who know nothing about your project to read your Executive Summary to see if they understand it. If they don’t, we suggest that you re-write it until your plan’s message is easily understood.

Part 3. Problem Summary and Proposed Solution: This part includes your discussion at Mileposts 1 and 2.

In this part provide a short summary (couple of sentences) that describes your Problem Statement/ Pain Point/ Market Opportunity (Milepost 1) and another short summary that describes your proposed solution (Milepost 2). Be as clear and precise as possible. Describe the “scope” of the problem. For example, how many people does the problem affect?

Part 4. Summarize the STEM Concepts and Principles Underlying the Overall Plan: This part includes your discussion at Mileposts 3 and 9

This part of your plan should summarize, then explain the application of the key STEM concepts* underlying your solution and demonstrate to the reader that you have a reasonable working knowledge of the key STEM concepts*. This part includes your discussion under Milepost 9. Milepost 9 is essentially an expanded discussion about the STEM concepts underlying your plan first noted at Milepost 3.

 If your idea is based on existing or developed science that has not previously been applied in the way that you propose, discuss how that science provides a feasible basis for your product, service or other concept idea.  Also discuss what additional science research or development may be required to bring your idea to fruition.  If your proposed solution is based on several STEM concepts, focus on 1-3 key concepts.

3  Summarize in 500 or fewer words (about one page).

* These are the big ideas in science, technology, engineering and mathematics on which your solution depends. For example, in science: gravity, laws of physics, electromagnetism, atomic theory.

Part 5. Commercialization Assessment of the Overall Plan: This part includes your discussion at Mileposts 1 & 2 and 4 – 8

Include at least a brief discussion of each of the topics discussed at Mileposts 1 & 2 and 4 - 8, followed by your assessment of your plan’s overall commercial feasibility. (Note: The topics discussion at Milepost 3 are included in Part 4 above, and not in this Part 5.) This is a key part of your plan and may be 1-2 pages long. Write convincingly. Briefly discuss the following topics:

Problem, pain point or market opportunity:

Proposed solution:

Target customers and intended users:

Competitors:

Customer value proposition & competitive advantage:

Principal revenue streams expected:

Principal startup and operating costs expected to be incurred

Part 6. Business and Financial Proof of Concept: The purpose of this section is to provide an assessment of the business and financial feasibility of your proposed business venture, which effectively provides a proof of concept for your idea. This part should be the core of your Business Plan. As such it will likely need to be several pages in length to adequately cover all the information required relative to the discussion points listed below:

Marketing, sales and pricing strategies to bring your product or service to market:  In Part 5 you discussed who you believe your potential customers are and should also have discussed their demographics. In that light, what is your marketing and sales strategy and marketing tactics for reaching your target market?  Based on your estimated cost of producing and distributing your proposed product or service, what will your pricing strategy be? What price will you set for your product? How

4 will that price compare to any competitive alternative that exists in the marketplace? How much profit margin do you expect to earn?

Discussion about your operational plans for developing and making your product or service into a tangible commercial venture:  Think through and develop an operating plan of action for sourcing your product or service. This may entail developing and making your product or service yourself, or else potentially outsourcing the making of your product to an existing manufacturer or service provider that might wish to do the work for you for a price. In any case, you need to develop an operations plan to get you to where you want to go. Please discuss your plans here.  Consider preparing a timeline that outlines the major activities contemplated in the development of your venture from idea conceptualization to opening for business. This information cannot only help you develop an operational plan for getting your venture started, but it can also help you prepare your financial projections as will be required later.  Discuss what will be the material, labor and other costs needed to make and/or develop and distribute your product or service. Give thought to what it will take and how much it will cost. In doing so, you need to consider: the cost, availability, skills and needed training of employees you will require, the cost, availability and proximity of needed materials and services, as well as the distribution costs of actually getting your product or service into the hands of customers or end users. Discuss in meaningful detail what you need to do and what it will cost.

Significant risks and uncertainties you expect to face in bringing your venture to market: In discussing your risks and uncertainties, consider such questions as: . How sure are you that consumers will actually buy or use your product? Is the competitive risk well understood and acceptable? . Can the product or service actually be delivered with the necessary quality at a reasonable cost? Can the necessary human resources, materials and suppliers be reliably sourced? . Can the needed financial resources (personal investment, investor capital and/or loans) be secured? . Can all government regulations be met and legal liability risk be adequately managed?

Amount and type of investment expected to be required to bring your idea to market:  Once you have decided whether you are going to try to make/develop your proposed product or service yourself, or outsource that work to an existing manufacturer or service provider, discuss what facilities, equipment, software or business systems you believe will be required to bring your product or service to market and what you believe it will cost to obtain those assets through lease or purchase.  There are many initial or one-time costs needed to start a business. These may include: an initial amount of working capital to get a business started, the cost of buying a building or equipment, the cumulative amount of first year losses while your business ramps up, the cost of buying a franchise, the legal costs of establishing a company, etc. List and summarize these investment costs on the template provided. Then, if your plan is for a commercial business as opposed to a philanthropic enterprise, compute the annual return

5 on investment (profit divided by investment) for your business for its first three years of operation.  See also additional discussion about start-up costs in the instructions to the three year financial projection that follows.

A three year financial projection that confirms the financial feasibility of bringing our venture to market on a sustainable basis: While we aren’t trying to turn you into accountants, we do want you to at least put together a basic financial projection in support of the development of your business plan. Your projections should bear in mind all the points that you have discussed on the preceding pages. They should also reflect the reality that it usually takes some time for someone to build up their business. Consequently, at a minimum we are asking you to develop sales and revenue and expense projections for the first four quarters of year one, as well as your second and third year after your business is started. While you may provide revenue and expense projections in more detail or for a longer period of time, we ask you to provide at least the basic information requested on the financial template that we have provided. (Although from an accounting perspective there is a difference between this financial projection and a profit and loss statement, for purposes of your business plan we will assume that they are essentially the same.) (See following additional instructions for completing the financial projection for your business plan.)

Additional Instructions: Sales and revenues - Provide an estimate of your projected revenues from product sales and/or service income for the first four three-month periods after you begin your business (the first four quarters make up the first year of your operations) as well as your estimate for at least the second and third year of business. Cost of sales – This category of expense includes the cost of any products that you sell and/or the direct labor and materials costs of the people who are directly performing the work for which you are receiving revenues in return. For a product sales business, this would include either the costs of another company making for you the products that you are selling, or the material, labor and other costs for your company to make the products. For a service business, this would include the costs of staff and any other direct expenses of performing the services for which you are receiving revenues. Selling, marketing and advertising costs - This category includes all the costs that you expect to incur to market, promote, advertise and sell your product to your target market and customers. Include in this category any staffing costs, marketing programs, advertising costs, product distribution costs, etc. related to these types of costs. Space and occupancy cost projections – This category of costs includes the cost of renting building/space for your business as well as the cost of utilities and other occupancy costs. Should one propose to buy or build their own building or office, the actual cost to build or buy should be shown as part of the proposed investment needed to get your business started and not be included in this expense line.

6 Management and administrative cost projections - This category of costs includes all the costs of managing and controlling your business, including costs such as: the staffing costs of business managers (including yourself), accountants, information technology staff, legal and auditor costs, and any other costs not otherwise included elsewhere. (Note: While income taxes are also an expense, for simplicity sake, we will exclude those costs from our financial projections.) Investments required to start up your business – In addition to the business operations costs that are discussed above, there may be many initial or one-time costs to start a business. These may include: an initial amount of working capital to get a business started, the cost of buying a building or equipment, the cumulative amount of first year losses while your business ramps up, the cost of buying a franchise, the legal costs of establishing a company, etc. List and summarize these investment costs on the template provided. Then, if your plan is for a commercial business as opposed to a philanthropic enterprise, compute the annual return on investment (profit divided by investment) for your business for its first three years of operation.

Part 7. Acknowledgements: Identify and thank those who helped you and describe what they did.

Part 8. References Cited:  Provide both In-Text citations as well as a list of cited references at the end of your Plan.  Do not use the term Bibliography.  Use either MLA or APA citation formatting, the formatting should be consistent for the entire paper.  There should be a 1:1 concordance between your in-text references at the end of your plan.  In your references cited, arrange entries alphabetically by last name of first author.  All web references must cite accessed date and include a fully retrievable URL. Here is an example of how to cite a web reference that you might access online through search engines such as http://scholar.google.com/ :

Daniel, M-C & Didier, A. 2003. Gold Nanoparticles: Assembly, Supramolecular Chemistry, Quantum-Size-Related Properties, and Applications toward Biology, Catalysis, and Nanotechnology. Chem. Rev., 2004, 104 (1): 293–346. Accessed 01 Dec 2014: http://faculty.washington.edu/markeh/MSE599/Daniel_Chem_Review_2004.pdf

 This is how an entry would appear if you actually had a physical copy of the publication:

Daniel, M-C & Didier, A. 2003. Gold Nanoparticles: Assembly, Supramolecular Chemistry, Quantum-Size-Related Properties, and Applications toward Biology, Catalysis, and Nanotechnology. Chem. Rev., 2004, 104 (1): 293–346.

7  We permit minor variation in citation entry format, but the writer should be consistent and provide full information allowing someone else to retrieve the references independently.