THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Business Studies

Undergraduate Course: Planning for a start-up (BUST08052)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryPlanning for a start-up is a practical course that asks you to work in entrepreneurial teams to come up with a business idea, pitch it and then write a feasibility plan for your business idea. Your business idea can either be for a social enterprise or for-profit. You can locate your business anywhere in the world.

Through sessions and group clinics, you will learn how to generate start-up ideas, and how to implement and execute your business idea.

Core to this fundamental entrepreneurial process is learning about the role of entrepreneurs, how to evaluate if there is a fit between your idea and your customer, how to build a start-up business model, sell and market your business idea, and what are the sources of finance for your entrepreneurial start-up.
Course description Planning for a start-up is for first year students with limited or no experience of entrepreneurial processes. There is a particular emphasis on providing a practical hands-on approach to understanding how start-ups create, deliver and capture value for their customers.

Integral, therefore, is a systematic learning journey that first explains the entrepreneurial process and then, step-by-step, builds your understandings of how to generate business ideas, create a start-up business model, evaluate how you could sell and market your business idea, and subsequently fund the development of this business idea.

By the end of the course, you will be able to appreciate what is practically involved in setting up a start-up. This process gives you core skills in opportunity recognition, start-up business model development and working in a team setting to pitch and plan out how to go about pitching and planning a start-up idea.

Planning for a start-up will cover:
- Introduction to the course
- The Entrepreneur
- Business Models
- Idea generation
- Product Market fit
- Sales and Marketing
- Competition and Business Infrastructure
- Sources of finance
- Financial plans

To support the course's learning journey are a series of lectures, workshops, and clinics.
Aided by a small number of guest entrepreneurial talks, lecture sessions provide foundational knowledge that develops your understanding of how you can implement and execute your business idea.
Weekly group tutorial workshops themed to each stage of start-up planning provide your group the opportunity to discuss and develop your business idea prior to pitching and writing up their feasibility plan.
Your group will also benefit from presenting how you will implement and execute your business idea in a pitch format. Through writing a group feasibility plan, you will also learn how to begin to produce a professionally produced plan for a new business idea.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Students MUST NOT also be taking Planning for a start-up (BUST08040)
Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  200
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 12, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 16, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 166 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) There are two groupwork assessments and one individual essay:

1. A group pitch (presentation) of the business idea (30%) including 20% peer assessment - assesses learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3.

2. A group business plan (report) (50%) of 2,500 words (excluding appendices), including 20% peer assessment - assesses learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4.

3. Individual Reflective Essay (20%) - assesses learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4.

For the group pitch, assessment is based on a mix of presentation and content. For the group plan, presentation and content are again important.

The group pitch asks students to present their idea (learning outcome 1), to critically assess its feasibility (learning outcome 2) and assess the resources required (learning outcome 3).
The group business plan asks students to build on the learning they have gained from their pitches and apply this to the evaluation of their idea (learning outcome 1), their start-up planning ((learning outcome 2) and the resources they need ((learning outcome 3).
Feedback Students are given an initial formative assessment of their business idea. In these idea clinics, practical advice is given on the potential viability of the idea and likely ways forward for developing their business idea. There is a second series of formative assessment through business model clinics which give advice on ways to take their business idea forward. Finally there is an opportunity for students to gain feedback on their pitch prior to its delivery.

After the group pitches students are given detailed feedback on the positive, negatives and ways forward. They use this feedback to iterate their business plan. Students then are given feedback on their pitch. They then use this to develop their plan.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Generate and evaluate ideas for a start-up.
  2. Practically understand, integrate and critically evaluate key elements of start-up planning.
  3. Begin to be able to assess what types of outside resources are required for start-up.
  4. Critically reflect on the challenges of the start-up planning process.
Reading List
Core text: Francis Greene, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Macmillan Education, 2020.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Communication, ICT, and Numeracy Skills

After completing this course, students should be able to:

Convey meaning and message through a wide range of communication tools, including digital technology and social media; to understand how to use these tools to communicate in ways that sustain positive and responsible relationships.

Critically evaluate and present digital and other sources, research methods, data and information; discern their limitations, accuracy, validity, reliability and suitability; and apply responsibly in a wide variety of organisational contexts.

Practice: Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding

After completing this course, students should be able to:

Apply creative, innovative, entrepreneurial, sustainable and responsible business solutions to address social, economic and environmental global challenges.

Knowledge and Understanding

After completing this course, students should be able to:

Identify, define and analyse theoretical and applied business and management problems, and develop approaches, informed by an understanding of appropriate quantitative and/or qualitative techniques, to explore and solve them responsibly.
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Samuel Mwaura
Tel:
Email: smwaura@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Leah Byrne
Tel:
Email: lbyrne4@ed.ac.uk
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