Necessary for the summary properly summarise the entire plan and

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Week One

I enrolled in the Bachelor of Business and Commerce (Accounting) and began my first semester of tertiary education in Spring semester 2013. This journey towards higher education was accompanied by a new job at the company that would ultimately begin defining my career, and moving into the first home I share with my husband.

I print the weekly learning activities and the assessment summary to put up around my desk in my home office. Each assessment for the unit is also entered into my digital diary, with regular scheduled reminders. This ensures I have all the details I need to complete the unit successful at my fingertips.

The Accountant as a Consultant (TAC) assessment summary is limited to the Business Plan and these reflective journals. Though my initial reaction was relief at not having a final exam, particularly as the unit I am doing concurrently with TAC has a notoriously difficult final exam, that relief was replaced with apprehension. This apprehension is a result of the sheer size of the Business Plan and the need to complete it as a group. My experience with group assessments has been negative through the course of my study. I prefer to work and study independently, to my own schedule and not rely on the submissions of others. Historically, there have been issues with previous group assessment groups and I anticipate that this unit will be no different.

 Initiative

 Resourcefulness

entrepreneur and if not, am I satisfied with not being one? I believe I can be satisfied not

being an entrepreneur, so long as I am always a leader within myself.

As with every other group assessment, I am elected group leader. I have natural leadership abilities, which coupled with my desire for control and ensuring only the best quality of work is submitted, often results in me being elected leader.

My first action is to create a Facebook group that everyone can be added to. As we all have other units to study and work schedules, communication via online means is the most effective.

I set the task to the group to go away and research on their own. The parameters are the industry and market research required in the group section of the business plan. Everyone is to bring their findings to the next class. All contributions will be read through and
consolidated; together we will begin working on the initial report findings.

Week Three

The group have not brought their initial findings as requested last week. As such, we use this time to complete the above PEST and SWOT during our class time.

I am not surprised that the group failed to bring their research findings as discussed, despite this however my anxiety over the Business Plan increases. If this is the commitment they show throughout the entire semester I may well end up doing most of the work which is not something I can accommodate.

The lecture pods this week also talk about marketing; the marketing mix and the marketing process. Having done Marketing Principles and Consumer Behaviours previously in my degree this is something that I am already familiar with. As such, I listen to these intently to see if there is any new information that can be of benefit when putting together our Business Plan.

This week in our classes we also had a visitor from the Library to assist us with our
secondary research. She was quite insightful. She went through the e-resources on the Library website and the various databases available for our research. This is both encouraging and disheartening. It is encouraging as a direct result of her insight has provided us with all the research we require for our industry and competitor analysis; disheartening because I have become aware of such a great resource so late in my degree. Though in the past I had been invited to workshops about the library where I would have undoubtedly learnt about these, because they are held during the day in a work week, as a full time employee, I have always been unable to attend.

Week Five

TAC this week is progressing well. The lecture this week focuses on the finance section, the section perceived most difficult. These lecture pods were enlightening and I feel better equipped to appropriately complete the finance portion of our business plan.

I am slightly less apprehensive about the business plan now. There were no questions form the group that had me doubting their understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. I do feel the class time is somewhat wasted however, because we are working on these individually, the other group members are not inclined to come in and contribute in a group approach. I am concerned that the cohesive nature of the report and business processes/practices may suffer but will have to address that in future meetings.

Week Six

Notes taken from these lectures have given me a checklist of sorts, of criteria to include in our business plan:
 Ensuring the premises we select is appropriate for the business
 When structuring the production and management processes, remember to include the

appropriate laws and regulations
 Ensuing our Finance section includes profitability ratios, efficiency ratios and any

Unfortunately, I am unwell this week and unable to attend class. As such, I upload the plan to our Facebook group and ask if another member is able to print and take to class. I also ask if they are able to note down any feedback that is given by Stanley so we can incorporate it as we continue.

This doesn’t appear to be a problem until after the feedback is given. Stanley advised we should do up to the Sales Forecast and provides us another week to resubmit. One member of the group deems this oversight to be a result of my non-attendance and attacks me over Facebook, demanding to know why I wasn’t in class.

business processes
 Logical – the sequence of ideas needs to appeal to logic
 Concise – do not be overly explanatory
 Fit for purpose – is the plan working well and meeting requirements Consistent – all concepts need to be maintained throughout the report

The lecture pods also emphasise the importance of the executive summary. It is necessary for the summary to properly summarise the entire plan and to do so, it must include:
 A description of the service we are offering
 An explanation of how the service will be marketed
 The strategy for management of the business
 Financial projection

Despite the struggles faced within my group, everyone managed to submit their piece and the changes made by myself were limited.

I have learnt a lot about how a business plan is formed and the inner workings of a small business. In my professional career I have worked on projects before, however never to this kind of depth. When working in a professional environment, a lot of the research is already done and you work off the findings. I have a greater understanding of the importance and the extent that initial research must go to.