Dorinda Clippinger - Business Report Guides: Research Reports and Business Plans

Business Report Guides

Business Report Guides

Research Reports and Business Plans

Dorinda Clippinger

Business Report Guides: Research Reports and Business Plans

Copyright Business Expert Press, LLC, 2019.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by anymeanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the priorpermission of the publisher.

First published in 2019 by

Business Expert Press, LLC

222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017

www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-94944-372-1 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-94944-373-8 (e-book)

Business Expert Press Corporate Communication Collection

Collection ISSN: 2156-8162 (print)

Collection ISSN: 2156-8170 (electronic)

Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd.,Chennai, India

First edition: 2019

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.

Abstract

Business Report Guides : Research Reports and Business Plans offers strategies for creating two complex reports. Also, it includes a complete replica of a business research report and a business plan. The guides for both reports emphasize thorough planning and preparation and take readers through these essential steps. Additional guides aid readers in writing, producing, and presenting research reports and business plans. This book is for you if you are an MBA candidate or an upper-level student in any professional field OR if you are a business manager or other professional whose career involves (1) conducting business research and generating reports for others in and outside your organization or (2) attracting investors for starting an organization or changing an existing one.

This convenient book includes guides for planning and launching a research project and writing a research proposal; identifying major findings in research data, drawing conclusions from findings, and using them to recommend appropriate action; and managing special features of formal research reports, including citing sources, page numbering, preliminary and supplementary pages, and visual displays.

This useful book also discusses why entrepreneurs need a business plan, objectives of a business plan, and what a business plan contains. Additionally, the book includes an entire award-winning business plan that resulted in a successful organization. This valuable illustration includes insightful annotations and guidelines for creating every part of the business plan.

The crisp writing style, bullet points, and many realistic examples and visuals give you essential information quickly. Chapter summaries include checklists. Business Report Guides: Research Reports and Business Plans gives you how-to information you can use nowand refer to frequently throughout your career.

Keywords

conclusions; entrepreneurs; executive summary; findings; future development; investors; management plan; marketing plan; online formats; operational plan; primary data collection; pro forma financial statements; recommendations; report deck format; report preliminaries; risks and contingencies; source citations; venture strategy; visuals

Contents

Business Report Guides: Research Reports and Business Plans is designed to help business managers, MBA candidates, and upper-level college students develop the distinctive skills that research reports and business plans require.

The book offers solid guidelines for planning and creating these complex reports in keeping with best practices. Many examples and full-report visuals help ensure readers complete understanding.

In two chapters, readers receive practical solutions to reporting situations that professionals are likely to encounter at some point:

• covers the preparation and formatting of research reports. It contains a complete research report, including an appendix showing the data collection instruments used.
• trepreneurs, mind into a reporta business planthat wins the support of (1) prospective co-managers and employees and (2) potential investors.

Business Report Guides: Research Reports and Business Plans can be your go-to handbook for years to come. Reading through it in a couple hours, you can pick up plenty of information that you can apply immediately. Then keep this book handy and refer to it as needs arise in your future.

Thank you, Dr. Debbie DuFrene. Your expert editing transformed my drafts into this reader-friendly book. Also, thank you, Dr. Shirley Kuiper. Your earlier writings and vision underpin this publication. Thank you, too, William Jewell (my husband). Your wit, patience, and love kept me going. Thank you, students and associates who have worked with me during my half century of teaching, researching, publishing, and business managing. You have influenced my thinking about educating for business, business communication, and other business practices.

Please send your suggestions for improving future editions.

Writing Business
Research Reports

Managers must often make decisions such as the following that will have a major impact on the success of their organizations.

• Should a would-be entrepreneur begin the business she has long contemplated?
• Should an advertising agency give a substantial amount of money to a state university to establish a business communication center?
• Should an insurance company change its policy about medical insurance coverage for domestic partners?
• How can an Appalachian mountain resort strive to attract more of the states tourism business?

These and other questions require extensive research before they can be answered with confidence.

Planning Research

The first step in the research process is to create a plan that clearly identifies the problem to be studied and its scope as well as the purpose of the study and the audience to whom the information will be reported. This plan becomes a guide for collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting the results of the analysis. A research plan includes 12 parts as indicated in .

Figure 1.1 A 12-part research plan

*Two-way arrows suggest that a reiterative approach to these parts of the research plan may improve its overall quality.

The following list describes each planning step.

• Authorization . Are you approved to spend time and money on the research? Obtain or review your authorization.
• Audience . Who will receive your research resultsboth the primary and secondary audiences? Identify your audience.
• Research problem . Go beyond the managerial problem and its symptoms to the bigger picture. Define the research problem. Putting it in question form usually helps clarify.
• Purpose . What do you hope to accomplish by doing the study? Clarify the purpose of the research. If you can, separate the purpose from the problem.
• Scope . You may not be able to study all parts of the research problem; so ask, which parts will lead me to useful facts? Narrow the scope of the problem.
• Delimitations and limitations . What boundaries are you drawing between what you will and will not study? This question refers to delimitations. Could any practical limits on your research lower its applicability to the problem? This question refers to shortcomings or inadequacies due to circumstances beyond your control. State and explain your delimitations and potential limitations of the research.