Entrpreneurship Advantage

Strategic Growth Planning Series ― Emerging Businesses | EA–3000A

More and more people are starting businesses to provide financial freedom and security. Some out of necessity, some out of passion and some a combination of both. More often than not, these businesses are started on a shoe string, with sheer guts and instinct. Many of these entrepreneurs are earning revenue, paying their bills and maybe even paying employees. But now they are 6 months to 2 years down the road, and they feel it is time to take a breath and start putting some structure around the organization they are building. Now the focus for these courageous entrepreneurs is to develop a plan to grow the business.

The Strategic Growth Planning Program is a concentrated and tactical development program for entrepreneurs to revisit their business strategy, and to develop a comprehensive plan to grow their existing business. The program provides practical, relevant and hands-on training for businesses to develop a strategic growth plan. The program starts with an in depth internal analysis: i.e.; customers, operations including HR policies, IT strategy. We provide a hands on financials analysis workshop providing tools and methodologies to understand financial statements and to develop financial strategies to support the strategic growth plan. The program then focuses on an external analysis: the competitive forces, industry trends and competition. From there a strategic plan with specific measurable and quantifiable goals is developed, along with resource requirement allocation and implementation timelines.

Methodology

The Strategic Growth Planning Program is conducted in 8, three hour sessions, (6:00 - 9:00pm on Wednesdays for eight weeks. During the eight week program, up to sixteen business owners will be selected and will be provided the knowledge, tools and resources to develop a strategic plan for 2006. These sixteen business owners with the instruction and facilitation of a highly skilled entrepreneurs will form a peer-to-peer "think tank", if you will, to shape, challenge and validate business plan assumptions throughout the strategic planning processes. Entrepreneurship Advantage, Inc. (EA) Strategic Partners, i.e., experts representing key strategic business functions such as accounting, legal, insurance, marketing, small business lending, etc., will support classroom sessions to provide guidance and resources for business growth issues and challenges. Break out groups, informal discussions and presentations will be utilized to enable students to define and refine strategies and tactics. One-on-one consulting is provided twice during the eight weeks to set direction and maintain focus. The result is a measurable and executable strategic plan for 2006.

General Flow of the Course

The Strategic Growth Planning Program is structured around the internal and external analysis required to develop a strategic plan. The class builds, week by week in a logical and progressive manner. It should be understood that the program is structured, but no two classes are alike. EA customized each program in real time, based on the unique needs of the business owners in the class. Generally, the course will flow as follows:

Week One - Setting the Stage

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process
The key components of the strategic plan
The process for developing the strategic plan
Internal Analysis - Customers
Analysis of existing customers, customer segmentation
Analysis of unique selling proposition
Identification of high potential customers - corporate accounts
Strategy and tactics for targeted account acquisition

Week Two: - Internal Analysis - Operations

HR
Administration/Operations/vendor relationships
Sales process
IT Strategy

Week Three and Week Four - Internal Analysis- Financials

Overview of financial analysis
Review of existing financial statements
Hands-on workshop on ratio analysis utilizing a new diagnostic methodology:
- The tool relates financial performance to specific and tangible operating functions from which to improve overall profitability and stimulate growth
- The tool provides a framework to test and validate strategic assumptions
- It is a forecasting tool that measures the impact of changes in strategy across the organization over specific time horizons

Week Five - External Analysis

Economic characteristics of the industry
Trends impacting your industry
Industry Driving Forces
Competitor Analysis
Identification or development of sustainable competitor

Week Six and Seven - Strategic Plan Development

Define strategic goals for 2006
Quantify specific objectives and tactics to achieve strategic goals
Understand interdependencies and resource requirements
Develop systems for monitoring and controlling results
Develop timelines and accountability

Week 8 - Peer to Peer Strategic Plan Review

Group peer-to-peer review
Development of EA consulting plan for implementation phase of strategic plan

Post Class Consulting

We are committed to helping EA Graduates execute their strategic plans. Each graduate will be provided with 6 hours of consulting with EA Strategic Partners over the next 3 months to help implement the strategic plan. After the initial three month period EA-2000 graduates will have access to all EA Strategic Partners and Consultants at a 40% discounted rate for the next 3 months.

Schedule
Because of the intensity of the course, Start–Up Business Intensive EA-1000 is only offered 3 times a year. See Schedule .

Limited Class Size

To maximize the benefit of our “think tank” training methodology, only sixteen new entrepreneurs are selected to participate in each class.

The Ideal Candidate for the Program

Candidate has been in business 6 months to 2 years business concept.
Candidate may or may not have a business plan
Candidate is a team player, values the exchange of ideas and is willing to support others.
Candidate must be proficient in Microsoft office: Word, Excel and PowerPoint