Ag Education II
Colorado Agriscience Curriculum
Section:
Intro to Agribusiness II
Unit:
Understanding Entrepreneurial Concepts
Lesson Title:
Understanding product feasibility and business planning.
Colorado Ag
Education
Standards and
Competencies
Standard 10.2 The student will understand entrepreneurial concepts.
Colorado Model
Content
Standard(s):
Student Learning
Objectives:
Competency 2- 3. Understanding product feasibility and business planning.
English Standard 2.2 Conveying technical information in a written form
appropriate to the audience.
English Standard 2.6 Students are writing in various specialized fields such as
career and academic interest areas
1. Students will understand a feasibility study.
2. Students will understand the feasibility survey question and
development.
3. Students will understand the purpose of a business plan.
4. Students will understand the key component of a business plan.
Time:
This lesson will take 50 minutes to present.
Resource(s):
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Second Edition, Glencoe,
2000.
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=feasibility+study&i=43069,0
0.asp
Instructions, Tools,
Equipment, and
Supplies:
Italicized words are instructions to the teacher, normal style text is suggested
script.
For the interest approach you need to find the most odd energy drink to use as a
prop.
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
1
Projector and whiteboard
Interest Approach:
Energy What?
Bring the class together and start with the questioning.
How many of you like to drink energy drinks? What are some of your favorites? Why
is this brand your favorite?
Hopefully one will pick the one you purchased. Bring out the energy drink. Talk about
its different advertised characteristics and ask the students
Do you like the packaging, the advertising campaign, the taste, the caffeine, or even
the image that this drink portrays? Why do you prefer this drink over others? Is a
generic brand OK? Since I’m not really into energy drinks (they are fairly new within
the last five years), what has made them so popular so fast? Who is the number one
consumer in terms of age and sex? Who are they trying to appeal to?
How do you think the company decided on this product, with this packaging, with this
flavor, with this image? Contrary to popular belief, there was a lot of research and
development that went into this product before you even tasted it!
If you were a small business owner, it would be essential that you research your
target audience before you rolled out the product on the assembly line. Has anyone
ever been asked to participate in a survey at the mall? How about on-line?
Companies are looking for ways to pick your brain and find out what you are willing to
spend money on, especially if it’s disposable income, or money that is not required to
pay for the necessities in life. These companies are constantly performing feasibility
studies on their potential products, and you may have played a part in a new product
yourself! Small and large business owners use this tool all the time!
Objective 1:
Students will understand a feasibility study.
Show slides two and three of the PowerPoint defining feasibility study. Students
should capture the following objectives in their notebooks
Why do entrepreneurs need a feasibility study?
 Once you have developed a business concept the next step is to
determine the feasibility of that idea.
 By developing a set of questions to ask yourself and others, you can
determine if the product or service will appeal to set demographics
(target audience).
W hat is a feasibility study?
 A feasibility study is the analysis of a problem to determine if it can be
solved effectively. It takes into account:
1. operational (will it work?)
2. economical (costs and benefits)
3. technical (can it be built?)
aspects are part of the study. Results of the study determine whether
the solution should be implemented.
__________________, could you tell me why a small business would need a
feasibility study before mass producing a product? W hat kind of answers are
they looking for? Now that we understand the need for a feasibility study, we
can begin to look at the structure of a study.
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
2
Objective 2:
Students will understand the feasibility survey questions and development.
Project slides 4 and 5.
W hen developing a feasibility survey one must answer the following questions.
1.W hat is the actual product or service?
2.W ho is the targeted customer?
3.W hat is the benefit of providing your product or service?
4.How will you get the product to the customers?
Form of the Study
 feasibility studies can take on many forms.
simple question and answer performed by you one-on-one with the
customers, or a very lengthy multilevel survey that breaks down the
market and customers to be studied.
As a review, I want you to come up with some questions that one could ask in a
feasibility survey. Before we begin though, I want you to come up with a new
product. W hen I say “create,” I want you to conduct a class discussion, and your
team member __________ is in charge of the discussion. Your “team” will have
five minutes to come up with a new, appropriate product. “Create!”
Great. Share your product with me! Now, in order to simulate a feasibility
survey, I want you to come up with 10 questions you could ask in the
development of this product. These questions need to be written with the idea
that they would be asked at the local W al-Mart to potential buyers. Your leader
will write these ten questions on the board. You have 10 minutes to come up
with the 10 questions. Begin!
Great job developing your potential questions! Now, we are ready to start
creating a business plan, which is a summary of your financial and
organizational plans for the business.
Objective 3:
Students will understand the purpose of a business plan.
Project slide 6.
W hat is a business plan?
 A business plan is a document that explains your product or service in
detail and how you are going to develop and organize your business.
 W hen looking for resource in your community it is the first thing to
present to potential investors.
Objective 4:
Students will understand the key component of a business plan.
Show slide 7-9.
Key component of a business plan.
 There are many items that should be included in a business plan.
 The most commonly accepted components are:
1.Executive Summary – a brief summary that covers key parts of plan.
2.Product or Service – in this section you clearly define your product or
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
3
service.
3. Management team – in this section you describe qualification of you
and other partners or advisory board that will be making business
decisions.
4. Industry and market analysis – in this section you explain the results
of your feasibility study. Go into detail of how it was developed and
where it was preformed.
5. Operation – this section should cover the how to of the business.
Things covered should be production, packaging and delivery.
6. Market plan -this is the section where you explain how you are going
to get the product or service to the customers.
7. Financial – Cash flows are usually included in this section. Here you
explain the financial prediction for the business.
8. Growth – this should be the final section that explains the
possibilities
of growth of the business and future expansion.
Review/Summary:
Application-Extended
Classroom Activity:
Project slide number 10 as a review.
Or
Hieroglyphic Moment
1. Teach the lesson.
2. Present the problem. On unlined pieces of paper have the students
divided it into eight different sections and draw a picture to explain each
part of the business plan.
3. Share. After a given amount of time have them present their drawing to
the rest of the class.
Expand on the idea of having the kids develop their own new product, and create a
two-week unit incorporating product development, marketing, and entrepreneurship.
This would be a neat end-of-unit activity.
Application--FFA
Activity:
Prepare and compete in the agriculture marketing CDE or agriculture sales CDE,
whereby students can come up with a new product and market it to potential
buyers.
Application--SAE
Activity:
Fill out and compete in the agri-entrepreneurship award program, offering one
student with an entrepreneurial SAE $100 from each chapter for filling out the
application.
Evaluation:
See the attached quiz.
Evaluation Answer
Key:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
False
True
False
False
True
False
True
False
True
False
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
4
1. Their answers should include livestock producers, cattle feeders or any
person that would benefit from a new protein supplement.
2. There answer should contain the eight parts of the business plan with a brief
description of each.
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
5
Feasibility and Business Plan
Quiz
Name______________________
True / False
Answer the following question by marking T if the statement is true or F if the statement is false.
1. A feasibility study should be done after you have secured funding from a bank to start a business.
2. Feasibility studies should have question about the possible customers.
3. There should not be any question about the product itself in a feasibility study.
4. You never should know the age of your person taking your feasibility study.
5.
A business plan is usually your first form of communication with potential investors.
6. There is no need to address operation in the business plan.
7. A good executive summary is needed to help obtain credit for starting business.
8. If you have obtained your start up money there is no need to have a financial section of your
business plan.
9. Feasibility studies tell us if a product or service will be liked by consumers.
10. Projection of growth and expansion should not be included in a business plan.
Essay and Short Answer
Write the most complete answer to the following question.
1. If I was going to release new kinds of protein supplement for cattle, where and who would I want
to give a feasibility survey to?
2. List and explain the eight parts of a business plan.
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Understanding product feasibility and business planning
6