discussion

You are Susan Dean, a 35 year old woman who has always been interested in owning your own business. You graduated from Gorham HS, attended SMCC, eventually transferring to USM where you earned a bachelor's degree in Business with a major in Marketing. Eventually you went to graduate school and earned a Master's of Business Administration (MBA). For the last 10 years you have worked as a marketing specialist/management specialist with Yum! Brands, Inc. where you helped management open several Taco Bells and Pizza Huts in southern Maine. In addition, you evaluated several underperforming stores that had to be closed. After contacting several major corporations you find that McDonalds is the only major brand looking to open another store in the town of Gorham near the USM campus. There is a Burger King in the area. You in fact actually worked at McDonalds when you were a youngster. You have decided that you would like to open a McDonald's franchise in this area near USM. Your grandparents have left you with a significant amount of money for which you are grateful. You would like to use this towards your new business adventure. But you will need to finance the remaining balance. You apply for a business loan to a local bank. The bank requires you to submit a detailed business plan. This business plan will include projections for operating costs, revenue stream, profits, human resource needs, your business strategy, etc. There are multiple topics that have to be analyzed and for which projections have to be made. Because of this you will have to conduct a survey(s) in the Gorham region to assess multiple demographic, supply/demand issues, and other topics.

Discussion Question/Directions:

You are Susan Dean. You need to discuss issues for which you think a statistical study would be helpful (in obtaining the information needed for your business plan). Post (begin) at least one (1) discussion and reply to at least one (1) other separate discussions. This could be demographic information, assessing the desire for a McDonald's in the region, traffic studies, household make up, what the projected demand would be, etc. There are hundreds of topics to zero in on.

What topics doyouthink are important to know before you invest your money into such an important undertaking? What type of statistical study should be done? What types of data will you need to collect? How will you collect your data? How much do you think it will cost to gather your information?