Unit 2 Discussion: External Market Analysis
Purpose
Throughout this course, you will be creating and evaluating a business plan for your own new venture. In each unit, you will be addressing various aspects of your new entrepreneurial venture.
To get the best responses to the assignments, you will have help from your classmates. They can help with brainstorming ideas, elaborating on your plans, giving constructive feedback based on the class material, and making analyses. This units analytical session is designed to help you have the best idea of the business ventures actual market as possible. It is essential that you involve yourself in this process to help others as they help you. The faculty member will act as resource and facilitator to the discussion, but the work is about you communicating with your classmates and pooling information to create the best business plan possible. You may just find by the end of the class that you are inspired to go into business for yourself!
Entrepreneurship, at its heart, is creating something new that solves an existing problem. In order to facilitate a successful business, a well-researched business plan is a great tool.
Participating in this discussion will allow you to demonstrate Critical Thinking, Marketing, Innovation, New Product Development, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Planning skills.
Task
For this discussion board, you will continue to work with ideas generated in Unit 1, with the goal of each of you having a unique problem and solution to work toward in his/her business plan. You will need to choose one idea as an entrepreneurial, new business venture and use it going forward through the rest of this course. For this dialogue, you will use Porters Five Forces model to compare entrepreneurial opportunities with the business environment. This is an actual market analysis, so you will need to use outside sources. Be sure to address all elements of Porters Five Forces to consider the market that the product/service will address.
Remember that at this point you still do not need to create an action plan; you need to evaluate the present market conditions, including the possible market for the business venture chosen. Different from Unit 1, this is an analytical assignmentthe purpose of this unit is not to brainstorm or generate ideas but to evaluate the environment and the possibilities it provides.
As you choose your idea that you will use for the rest of this course, you may also opt for some sort of ecommerce venture. Keep in mind that a new idea that was not discussed in Unit 1 will not have the benefit of the feedback given in Unit 1. Remember when making your choice to pay close attention to whether you have an idea that people will benefit from and therefore buy what you are selling. NO business is too small as long as it makes money.
In 350500 words, by Saturday at 11:59 p.m., address the following prompts:
Describe the problem/solution that you have chosen to pursue with your business venture.
Conduct a Porters five forces analysis for the entrepreneurial venture. Discuss negative and positive conditions. You must use outside sources to support your analysis.
What are some possible solutions?
What negative results can be strategically countered? How can the business plan compensate for market issues?
By Tuesday at 11:59 p.m., respond to at least 2 of your classmates. In your response, offer other possible solutions or different perspectives on the problem/opportunity itself. As the focus is creativity and brainstorming, the point is not to analyze but to deepen the ideation of elements of the problem and of possible solutions.
Submission
Your initial post (due Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET), should include:
Your chosen entrepreneurial venture idea from the prompts above
An analysis of the entrepreneurial opportunities within your chosen business environment using Porters Five Forces, addressing all elements of the framework
Possible solutions
Properly formatted in-text citations and a list of full-text citations for all sources used

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