This summer I attended Boston University’s Summer Challenge Program. Through this program I took two courses in which I may be interested in studying in college. The courses I chose were Mass Communication and Business from the Ground Up. Though I loved both of my classes, the Business course was much more thrilling for me. I found the process of coming up with a business idea and then creating a business plan to go along with it stimulating. In my Business class we were given a book called The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies. The book teaches one how to research the business that one wishes to create and how to formulate a business plan to fit that business. Although most students did not read the book because they were not interested, I found it fascinating. At night after the counselors declared lights out, I would stay up and read so I could learn how to create a successful and understandable business plan. I also was intrigued to read it because I plan on studying business in college and I wish to know as much as I can about business before I proclaim it as my major.
The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies was very beneficial in expanding my knowledge of what I will study in a college business course. I learned key points of the operation, marketing, and finance techniques of a business. My favorite segment of the three was marketing. In the book I read about the four P's. This term is used for marketing strategy. The four P's include placement, price, promotion, and product. It is very important in marketing to find a target buyer for a product and from there it will be discovered how to market it. A good way of finding whom to market a product towards and how to do so is by making a perceptual map. Perceptual maps map out where other products in a similar market compare to yours and who the main consumers are.
The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies was very beneficial in expanding my knowledge of what I will study in a college business course. I learned key points of the operation, marketing, and finance techniques of a business. My favorite segment of the three was marketing. In the book I read about the four P's. This term is used for marketing strategy. The four P's include placement, price, promotion, and product. It is very important in marketing to find a target buyer for a product and from there it will be discovered how to market it. A good way of finding whom to market a product towards and how to do so is by making a perceptual map. Perceptual maps map out where other products in a similar market compare to yours and who the main consumers are.
After exploring marketing the book moves on to the operations of a business. There are four elements of operations; these include operations management, measures of performance, understanding the operation, and elements of operations management. Operation workers focus on how to manufacture a product and how to keep the business running smoothly. They also help with the shipment and delivery of the product. One example of a goal a business operations worker would have is to help find new ways to save money. These ways could include developing a product at a quicker pace, which would also help make larger amounts of the product.
By the second week of the program I reached the chapters that discussed how to shape the structure of a business and how to deal with finances in a business. This includes creating a management team, key employees, and the two common management structures. Through the finance section I learned how to define fixed and variable costs and how to create a cash budget.
This book taught me the complete process of how to create a sustainable idea and make a successful business plan. Overall, I truly enjoyed the book. I feel that there is a wealth of opportunities to create a successful business. By reading this book, I confirmed that business is the major I want to pursue and now I also know it is something that I thoroughly enjoy.
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