Business Planning, Ideation, Innovation, and Opportunity Search

A set of vocabulary flashcards defining key concepts, sections, and legal definitions related to business planning, opportunity identification, ideation, creativity, and innovation.

Business Plan

A written document that describes in detail how a business—usually a startup—defines its objectives and sets out a roadmap from marketing, financial, and operational standpoints to achieve its goals.

Executive Summary

A brief overview and clever snapshot of the entire business plan featuring its most important parts; it should be no longer than 2–3 pages and is written only after the complete plan has been finished.

Business Description

An element of a business plan identifying the venture's name, industry status and future trends, proposed potential, and competitive advantages such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, or technological strengths.

Marketing Section (Business Plan)

An element of a business plan that includes Research and Analysis (target market, market size and trends, competition, estimated market share) and a Marketing Plan (sales and distribution strategy, pricing, advertising, and promotion).

Operations Section (Business Plan)

An element of a business plan detailing the location (labor availability, wage rate, proximity to suppliers and customers, community support), operational procedures, personnel needs, and supplies.

Management Section (Business Plan)

A business plan element covering the management team, key personnel positions, responsibilities, qualifying career experiences, the entrepreneur's role, and identified advisors, consultants, or board members.

Financial Section (Business Plan)

The business plan section that demonstrates potential viability by presenting three basic financial statements: the Pro forma Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement.

Appendix (Business Plan)

A non-mandatory section of a business plan that provides room for supplementary documentation such as diagrams, blueprints, financial data, and curriculum vitae of management team members.

Market Research

The best method for evaluating business opportunities, guiding entrepreneurs to identify profitable markets, saleable products, competitor strengths and weaknesses, business risks, consumer trends, and realistic objectives.

Steps in Market Research

The seven-step process consisting of: defining the problem, making a preliminary investigation, planning the research, gathering data, analyzing data, reaching a conclusion, and implementing and evaluating the decision.

Capital

A critical resource factor that serves as the fuel keeping a business operating, requiring that fund availability matches the specific type of business organized.

Linkage of Resources

An opportunity-seeking process in which an entrepreneur chooses to produce their own inputs rather than purchasing them from external suppliers.

Rack Jabber

A company or trader that establishes an agreement with a retailer to display and sell products within a store.

Ideation

The beginning of a business endeavor and the initial investment of an aspiring entrepreneur, with consumer needs and the general market acting as the primary sources of ideas.

Confidentiality Agreement

A legal method for protecting business ideas ensuring that a signer cannot share the idea with anyone else.

Patent

A form of legal protection granting an inventor exclusive legal rights to exclude others from manufacturing, selling, importing, or using an invention during the life of the patent.

Trademark

A word, name, symbol, or device used by manufacturers or merchants to identify their goods and distinguish them from other products sold in the market.

Copyright

A legal protection granted to creators that safeguards the creative works of composers, authors/writers, artists, and others.

Creativity

An essential element of innovativeness and the starting point of a process that brings an idea into innovation; an innate individual characteristic shaped by social environmental influences.

Innovation

Doing something different, introducing something new or different, and exercising the capacity to create ideas and develop them into usable products or services.