For this project, students will write a Personal Business Plan (PBP) and highlight how entrepreneurship and innovation could play a role in their personal and career paths. The entrepreneurial process is at its core concerned with “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources already under control.” This process is as applicable to your career as it is to start a company. The goal of this assignment is to identify where you want to be and how you will get there. Do not worry about your current resources. Think entrepreneurially! Your personal business plan should include a long-term vision statement, the “external” opportunities that exist, your “Internal” (personal) strengths, and a strategy for yourself and your life over the next three to five years. In addition, please share at least one “failure” from your past and what you learned from it in terms of maximizing your potential for the future. The assignment should consist of about one page (up to 600 words) that summarizes as many of the areas below as possible, as well as the one “failure” wherever you feel it best fits. To sum up this assignment, an oral presentation will be due in week 15 in order to back up understanding and allow students a chance to justify their choices and further discuss their Personal Business Plan.

Part A: Written Report – Worth 100 marks
Consider the following topic areas and questions as you work on your Personal Business Plan Report.

1. Vision and Opportunity
• What are your goals (career and/or educational) after you leave your university?
• What are your purpose, your values, and your mission? List the 3 key questions that guide your choices. These should be essential questions that serve as touchstones to direct your life and work. For instance, how can I have an impact? What do I love? What do I fear? What engages my passions? How do I want to be remembered? The answers to these questions may well change over time, but when the questions themselves are fundamental they tend to last a lifetime.
• What are the market and opportunity that align with your goals? Don’t restrict yourself to matters of career or work; think more broadly about your opportunities to make a difference.