How to Write a Business Plan Course
Teaching others how to write a business plan requires a well thought out course. Business plans are an important document that influences the success of entrepreneurs and businesses, so teaching others how to write them is an important task. Students in a business plan course will likely be entrepreneurs, business owners and technical writers. The course should be broken into units that focus on each step of the writing process and allow students to practice.
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Instructions
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Establish the units. Writing a business plan is a long process that can be broken down into eight units for teaching purposes. The units should be intended products/services, market needs/analysis, organization and management, strategy and implementation, financial planning, executive summary, and cover page/table of contents/appendix. Depending on the length of your classes, determine whether you will complete one unit per class or break it down over several classes.
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Define your SWBATs (students will be able to). It's important for the teacher to know what they want the students to be able to accomplish at the end of each unit or lesson. So before you create any lessons, write down what you want the students to be able to do at the end of each unit. For example, after the unit on organization and management the students will be able to write a clear description of how their business is organized departmentally, and how and by whom each department is managed. Once you have the SWBATs for each unit, write them for each lesson within each unit. Include three SWBATs for each unit and lesson.
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Write your objectives. Each unit and lesson should also include three objectives. Objectives are different than SWBATs in that they are more general. For example, an objective for the products/services unit may be to teach the students to describe their business products and services. A SWBAT for the same unit may be students will be able to explain the need for their product or service.
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Create the lessons. Use your SWBATs and objectives to write lessons for each unit. Include writing examples in each lesson and time for students to practice during class. A great way to learn writing is to have students work in small groups and review each other's work to provide constructive criticism.
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Design an assessment tool for each unit to measure the students' progress. Because it is a writing course, the assessment will likely be writing a certain section of a business plan. The final assessment at the end of the course should be completing an entire business plan. Create your grading rubric before the students write the assessment papers and let the students see it so they know what your expectations are.
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Tips & Warnings
Teach students to revise and edit ruthlessly!
References
Resources
- Photo Credit apple for teacher image by max blain from Fotolia.com
