2014 Business Plan Executive Summary

[DJPagnan]

Hey all.

So we, in the awards group of 781, have been working on various things these past few weeks. With electronic submissions just around the corner, I'd like to specifically talk about the Executive Summary of the Business Plan.

This is our second year of our business plan and we've been working away at updating it. With the new criteria for the ES (which I also noticed is the only part of the BP we submit electronically through STIMS), we have been finding it difficult to fill the spaces in our fields. After three years of worrying about 500 character paragraphs for Chairman's, 1600 characters seems like a lot. As much of a relief to the judges it must be to read something short and sweet, I would like to take this opportunity to say more about our team as our business plan is not only presented to FIRST judges, but also to community members and potential donors to the team.

So, with all that said, I'd be interested in hearing what your team "fills the space" with (Subtopics, useful statistics, ect.). It would be helpful to say which topic you have suggestions for before stating any other information.

Much appreciated, can't wait to hear from you all.

[Cynette]

Thank you for posting this! My team has been updating the business plan, apparently unaware of the submission format change.

We've been collecting statistics through the years on community impact, alumni to college and STEM careers, FLL / JrFLL team growth, etc. I envision those graphs fitting in for some of the graphics with the description of the methodologies and future growth plans for the text boxes for the relevant sections.

[DJPagnan]

We ended up finding information to fill our sections, thanks Cynette.

Perhaps we can keep the discussion going to help out any teams that are just starting their business plans. Its a lot of work, but it is a very helpful resource to have with your team.

[jacobythegreat]

Same thing happenned to us with a week left. Drove us nuts. But to look on it positively you get more time to edit the business plan to have it ready in binders for competition.

[waialua359]

Similar to submitting for the Regional Chairman's Award, I wouldnt sweat trying to fit "everything" in the allotted limited space.
Having team binders with detailed information, team presenters, team video?, team executive summary and/or outline, etc. with an opportunity to present to judges will allow you to describe everything.

[Cynette]

We found it interesting to try to reformat the info of our old business plan / executive summary into the new format.

The question that was most new to us was the one relating to allocation of resources. We just do stuff and have never really thought about what resources are being used to do those activities.

What sort of tracking system do you have in place to help you determine how your resources are used?