LOFT IN SPACE38

A student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Michael Cain, built a loft for his dorm room bed. Others asked him to build one for them, and he started to think about making a business out of it. He had put together his marketing plan in his head and had even begun to think about operational details that would help make his business more efficient. He knew he needed to get some sort of official approval, since his business would be on campus. So he started checking with university officials about setting up his business, but it was here that he started hitting problems, such as:

He could not run the business out of his dorm room.

• He couldn't use his UN telephone or email account for the business.
• His firm needed a $1 million liability policy to work on campus.

He needed to be able to address these problems and make sure the solutions would leave him with a profitable business

CASE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. If he was going to build a business plan to present to the university administrators, what type of plan should he develop (following the types mentioned in 2 Table 8.5)?
2. What parts of the plan should he make sure are included?
3. What solutions would you suggest for his three problems?