Essay on Evaluation of the Business Plan of Quality Training

An evaluation of the business plan of Quality Training shows that, overall, the plan is weak because it lacks important aspects of an effective business plan. The Executive summary of Quality Trainings business plan lacks clarity, conciseness and effectiveness because reading this summary cannot give a clear idea of what the business will be doing. Although the summary provides a brief overview of the proposed business, it fails to outline and describe the essential points. When it comes to describing the proposed business, Quality Trainings business plan does a poor job. The plan has a vague business description that the author has not developed adequately; this description provides minimal details about the prospective product/service that the proposed business will deal in, and it does not mention the strategic elements of the product/service offering.

In addition, it is not clear what business model the proposed company is planning to employ, and the business plan does not set out the value proposition of the prospective product/service offering. Without a clear value proposition, one cannot discern how Quality Trainings service offering will address consumer needs; in this regard, if the prospective company does not have a clear idea of how its services will help address consumer needs, it is doubtful if there is a market gap that warrants the provision of this service. Without outlining the motivation for starting the proposed venture, the business plan for Quality Training fails to provide a compelling articulation of the customer value proposition.

Quality Trainings business plan does not provide adequate analysis of the industry in which the proposed business will operate. The little industry analysis covered in the business plan omits significant aspects. The business plan fails to evaluate some important industry aspects that will influence its performance, and there is limited analysis of the market and the potential competitors. While the business plan attempts to mention some of the competitive advantages that Quality Training hopes to develop, it does not show how those advantages are valuable and sustainable. In addition, the business plan does not evaluate the impact of the competitive advantages that Quality Training hopes to develop.

Quality Trainings business plan comprises a section detailing the modalities of managing the proposed business, although the description of the management plan seems inadequate. While the business plan attempts to identify key stakeholders - the two owners of the proposed business, it does not explain how their expertise will enable them to run the proposed venture. It is also not clear how the two owner-managers will split various roles and responsibilities in the running of the proposed venture. Start-up firms require a good management team that can help them gain a foothold in the market; however, for Quality Training, the business plan has not set out a compelling rationale for such a team. From the business plan, it is not clear how the proposed firm is going to engage external service providers to augment the efforts of the management team, although it is undeniable that Quality Training might occasionally find it necessary to seek professional services such as, among others, customer service support and financial accounting.

The Quality Training business plan attempts to outline a marketing plan but it fails to provide a comprehensive description of important elements. The marketing plan has summarized the strategy that the proposed venture will use to market its products, but the plan lacks some specifics of the marketing strategy. For instance, it is not clear how Quality Training plans to promote and advertise its services, neither is it apparent if the proposed venture will employ other marketing channels such as public relations or social media platforms. Another weakness of the marketing plan component of the business plan is it does not provide a budget detailing the resource outlay that the venture will need to implement the marketing plan. In addition, while the marketing plan outlines the tentative pricing strategy, it does not specify the minimum prices at which the firm expects to earn sufficient revenue to break even.

Quality Trainings business plan lacks an operational plan. It is not clear what the resource needs of the proposed business are, especially with regard to human resources requirements, operational facilities, and the technological infrastructure necessary to support operations. Without a clear perspective of the resource needs of the proposed venture, it becomes doubtful that the proposed venture is viable, and this reinforces the earlier observation that there does not seem to be a market gap that the proposed venture will try to fill.

The lack of a financial plan is one glaring weakness of Quality Trainings business plan. The author of the plan has not developed analyses of essential elements of the financial plan, such as the sales projections, break-even analysis, income forecasts, and a capital budget. It is not clear what the funding sources are, and the business plan does not discuss alternative funding sources either. The absence of a financial component of the business plan reinforces the earlier doubts about the viability of the proposed business venture the lack of an unfilled market gap.