Development of Business Plans

Tsarouhas Panagiotis

The course focuses on issues related to:

• Business plan: what it is and why I need it
• The concretization and presentation of the business idea
• Technology, Expertise
• Market analysis and research – Marketing planning, Distribution – Sales – Pricing and credit, Brand management (trademarks)
• Business models
• The art of trading.
• Decision making
• Financing and Financial Management: financing, working capital, capital increases, share allotment, performance monitoring, Investment evaluation and planning – budget, Financing for start-ups
• Types of companies, basic corporate legislation
• Potential pitfalls and implementation: business plan success factors
• Human resource management
• Business collaboration

Lectures are combined with workshops.

Students form teams with the aim to develop, submit and present comprehensive business plans, with the support of the course teacher, coaches and mentors. Teams develop and discuss their ventures, plan solutions, surveys and field research.

Students learn-by-doing, applying the methods in the process from business conceptualization to evaluation, pivot and pitching to potential partners or/and investors.

Studentsdiscuss case-studies, visit enterprises, entrepreneurs are invited as guest speakers.

The main goal of the course is to help students acquire the basic knowledge and skills for the effective composition and evaluation of a business plan, for the realization of a business idea.

The aim is for students to be able to use the knowledge they will gain from the first course (Introduction to Entrepreneurship or related title) and to supplement it by focusing on specific areas – such as marketing, financial planning, etc. – in order to be able to develop a complete business plan and present it to stakeholders.

Essay and Public Presentation

Student assessment is largely based on the group work done by students, while the final grade takes into account:

• the written text of the essay
• the presentation of the work at the end of the semester
• participation in workshops
• participation in course activities (lectures, visits, etc.)

The focus, the analysis of the problem, the composition of the solution, the collaboration and the division of work in the team, the completeness of the presentation and the documentation of the arguments are evaluated.

https://eclass.uth.gr/courses/DIB_U_259/