Interpreting and planning financials is an important part of starting a business (jump ahead and review Supplement A). Research companies in your industry, where you will compete for business and answer the following questions:

1. Google publicly traded companies that exist in your selected industry (or an industry close to yours). Identify three (direct or indirect competitors).

2. Go to Morningstar or Yahoo Finance and find the stock symbol for that publicly-traded company. Identify this.

3. Pull the financial information you can find on Morningstar or Yahoo Finance.

4. Go to one of the company's websites and seek other financial information that may be in the "About Us" or "Investor" sections of the website. List three reports and explain what they identify.

5. Prepare your financial analysis of key line items on the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Recreate these statements for one year and analyze three key line items. (Balance Sheet template) (Income Statement template)

6. Examine the cash conversion cycle. Explain what this is for the company you have analyzed.

7. And lastly (in 200-300 words), explain how this analysis might change your financial plans or funding requirements for your business?