INTEGRATED BUSINESS EXPERIENCE (IBE)
PROGRAM
Integrated Business Experience (IBE) project is a combination of a suite of required courses into a semester-long real-world entrepreneurial experience that taught me the process of launching and running the business. My team worked together to apply our knowledge from classes to planning, launching, and operating an actual business. As a result, I gained leadership skills, an entrepreneurial mindset, and hands-on experience.
The process of developing, launching, managing, and closing a business was a real-world experience that allowed me to practice the basics of business, including finance, marketing, sales, operations, human resources, information technology, and general management. Our professors teaching in the IBE introduced us to these basics in a specific sequence that maps to the startup process, exposing us to topics on an as-needed basis so that they are prepared for each stage of the startup experience. At the beginning stage of our business, our main focus was to receive a loan from the bank and use that money to buy acrylic mittens, athletic performance socks, college gameday tailgate blanket from the supplier. To successfully obtain the loan, we worked as a team to present our business idea and the financial reasoning behind it. I have used marketing research to analyze our competitors and estimate our expenses and future sales. To conduct marketing research, the data from competitors’ business websites were collected and presented statistically. To back up my research, a customer survey was created with our target audience of MNSU students. Also, while running the business, we had three different departments: finance, operation, and Marketing. As a Financial Advisor in the finance team, my goal was to make the financial decisions to generate our revenue.
OUR PRODUCTS
01
MITTENS
02
SOCKS
03
BLANKETS
We got 3,236.00$ loan from bank and invested that amount to create a company from scratches. Our target market was MNSU students. As a result of aggressive sales, our Gross Sales were equal to 4,155.00$, and Net Income was 919.00$. We paid off our loan and donated our profit to the local charity.
Download
Marketing Plan
Download
Bank Loan Presentation
So what?
I worked with the leadership team to create a business plan for the company and establish prices for our product. However, halfway through the semester finance and marketing team disagreed with setting the discount for our product. The marketing team was offering to sell products at a discount to boost the sales; however, my team did not think it was a good idea because that would generate less profit. Also, we were consistent in sales and were not planning to order more merchandise by the end of the semester. Therefore, I suggested the marketing team sell our products at a discount by the end of the semester. As a result of the discussion, we decided to offer discounts at the end of the semester. This decision helped us to meet financial goals. I realized that making a decision as a team is crucial for success because the marketing and finance team considered the outcome of the potential decision. Providing feedback in the “Sandwich” method and making a financial forecast for sales helped us to review both sides and come to the collective decision.
Moreover, one of my roles was to create a best, worst, and expected case scenario for sales using an excel spreadsheet. This assessment was important for our company because we could set a realistic financial goal based on our weekly sales. We followed our plan and reached the expected sales revenue thought the semester. As a result, we successfully paid off our bank loan and donated the net profit to a local charity.
Overall, the acquisition of the loan was a challenging process because we put a lot of energy and time into creating a vital business plan and a PowerPoint presentation that includes financial, marketing, operational, and management aspects of the business. Every single detail matter because while collecting and synthesizing the data, I prepared myself to answer the bankers’ questions about company finances. We made sure that our forecasts were reasonably set, graphically presented, and every decimal was accurate.
Now what?
IBE was an experience that allowed me to understand the financial aspect of running the business. I learned how to create a business from scratch, establish sales prices, run excel sheets to keep track of financials and work with leadership and marketing and operation teams to present and business plan and get a loan from the bank to start the business. All of this knowledge and experience will help me to launch my own business or become a financial advisor down the road.