BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION COURSE
- Sonja Blom
- Dec 9, 2017
- 4 min read
In this article, I am going to tell you about our Business Plan Competition course, our business ideas, and what I learned.
Our first business idea was Runko, a platform for planning your trip to Finland. The site includes information about different destinations in Finland, popular attractions, articles, events, basic vocabulary, and a forum. The main purpose is to help travelers plan and organize their trips day by day. In the plan my trip section, you find all the attractions, restaurants, hotels, sanitary facilities, free WIFI, and shops that you can add to your daily plan. You can also find areas of traditional food and drink specialties. Our goal is to help travelers to find everything they need in one place. Our motto is "With you before, during, and after."
We also want to develop an application for Runko. The app would have the most important features, such as a map, daily plan, and dictionary. You could use it on both Android and iOS. Our goal is to make the application easy to use and support travelers' on their trips.
FinnMe logo & example of products & FinnMe Kids logo & example of products
Our second business idea was FinnMe, a souvenir kit. It helps people in hurry to get souvenirs from one place. The package would include products made or designed in Finland, such as Fazer's candy, design products from Iittala, Vallila, and Marimekko, candles, and dish brushes. There could also be rye chips and other Finnish specialties. There would also be seasonal packages. Each package would also contain a description of the content and an explanation of the product's purposes.
Our third business idea was FinnMe Kids, which is a souvenir/surprise package for kids. It would also include Finnish products and designs such as Angry Birds, Moomin, and Fazer. This package helps adults who travel with kids, there would be games, coloring books, and pencils, so kids get something to do. We would also include healthy choices, for example, xylitol toothpaste and gum.
Both of these packages would be sold in popular attractions, airplanes, airports, etc. The package would also be possible to pre-order. Possible target groups would be travelers, kids, and Finnish travelers who want to bring a piece of Finland abroad.
BUSINESS IDEA FAIR & SEMIFINALS
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Our school had Business Idea Fair on October 11th where all the teams presented their ideas and collected feedback from the other students and teachers. Three of us introduced our ideas, while two others were around the fair giving feedback.
On our stand, we had a laptop for Runko and example boxes of our FinnMe and FinnMe Kids boxes. We did not practice our sale pitch beforehand, but we did well and evolved our speech during the day. Most of the feedback was positive, and we got new improvement ideas for our products and services.
The Business Plan Competition semi-finals were hosted on November 23rd. All the teams presented their best business idea.
The idea that we choose was Runko. I and my teammate presented our idea. When we had to do a practice presentation to our class, I had real struggles doing it, partly because we didn't write anything down at first. So, when the competition day came, I was so nervous. Luckily the pitch went well, and we answered all the questions well. It was a good experience for me. For the finals, we voted the best four teams, but this time our team did not make it. Even though we could not make it to the finals, I was really satisfied with all the work we did, and how well we worked together.
We also entered the AFTA Student Competition 2018 with our idea. We made a video about our business idea and website. Next week we should know if we made it to the finals.
MY GOALS AND COMPETENCES
GOALS
We learned a lot about entrepreneurship during this course. I have seen what it takes to be an entrepreneur from my fiancé’s parents, who own their shop. It is hard work, and you need to have passion for it. I also learned a lot about how to plan and start your own business.
Designing a profitable business was hard, but in the end, I learned to think of different ways to make our idea profitable. We researched how much different things would cost and what kind of outside services we would need. It was a long list. So, alone our idea would not work, but if we could cooperate with different companies, it could make it.
Our team worked very well during the course. We did have some ups and downs, but we talked them through. I could not wish for a better team for this course. My goal was to be less bossy, and I think I did quite well on that. I tried to listen to others more and did not always want my way to be the right way to do things. I think I developed a lot.
I have never considered being an entrepreneur, but after all of this, I think I could do it if I had a profitable idea. I would not believe a couple of years before starting this school that I could do all of this. Even enter a business idea competition! When we entered the AFTA competition, I was excited and nervous, but in the end, very proud of myself and our team.
COMPETENCES
Awareness of basic processes and operations in organizations, I developed this competence when we wrote our final report. It opened my eyes to how different processes are done, and how operations work in the business.
Profitability in focus, I developed this competence in many ways, such as calculating if our business idea makes money, how much money it would take, and what we need to make it profitable.
Entrepreneurial and business mindset, I developed this competence in many courses including the BPC course and the Reading Circle sessions. We read and learned about this subject so many times and learned to change our point of view.
Customer understanding and service, I developed this competence, especially in BPC. We had to think very thoroughly about all the pains and gains, what we deliver to customers, and to what customer segments we will offer our service. The final report helped me to learn more about this competence and think very thoroughly about every part of this competence.
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