Tasks

Get together as a team to brainstorm and list all of your collective talents, skills, interests, network contacts and resources. These can include tools, pocket money, transport to get around, things you know how to do, people you know and more.

Make a list of business ideas that could match your collective talents and resources, ideas that could generate money. Choose one, your best idea.

Prepare a basic motivation (a 1-page mini business plan), which you will present to a bank (we’ll let you know which ones are official Biggest Deal Challenge partners). Remember to include why you believe your business idea will work.

Select a mentor from the list provided. It’s important to pick someone that you feel has the skills and expertise to best help your idea to succeed.

It’s also important to pick someone you feel comfortable with. Give them a call and ask him or her to meet with you (and the team if possible) to help you to refine your presentation.

Visit any bank in your area and find out what you need to do to open a business account. Make sure you fully understand the process and requirements.

Take detailed notes. It’s important that the entire team understands what is required.

From a list we provide, make an appointment with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director (MD) or any business person actively involved in a business in your area. Prepare some interview questions. Find out 10 essential things that make his or her business successful.

Choose a business that interests you, one that you feel will help your business idea. When making the call, introduce yourself, say why you’re calling and give the name of the person you’d like to speak to. When arranging an appointment be respectful of the fact the business people are busy. This task provides the perfect opportunity to find out as much as you can about running a successful business.

Revisit your mini business plan and decide how you are going to present it to a panel of experts (potential investors). Prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Your slides must include, but are not limited to:

• Introduction to your team
• Your business idea
• How you intend to roll it out and make it work
• The resources you already have
• What you still need (tools, skills, cash etc.).

Be sure to say how much, how it will be used and what you are prepared to give your investor in return.

By this stage your team confidence should be high and you have numerous high-level people you can contact who want to see you succeed. These include the bank manager you met in Task 5 and your business mentor with whom you’ve been in contact the whole way though. Moving forward, this means two important new networks to help you succeed.

This is the exciting part of putting your business idea into practice. It’s important to work hard. Every cent counts. Be sure to record carefully all income and expenditure on your balance sheet.

In task 5, you will have already come away with a clear understanding of what a balance sheet is and why it is important. Any money that comes in or goes out that cannot be accounted for (not recorded on your balance sheet) will be disregarded.

You need to be able to prove how you make (income) and spend (expenditure) your business money. What’s left over is the profit. This is what determines the winning team. Select someone in the team who is good at mathematics and has strong attention to detail, to be in charge of the balance sheet.