Writing an E-Commerce Business Plan as a DECA Competitive Event

Lesson Summary - The National DECA website contains an eight page PDF file entitled “E-Commerce Business Plan Pilot Event, 2001.” It outlines the requirements and scoring guidelines for a competitive event that is part of DECA’s co-curricular program. The students can use this document to create a plan that potentially leads to participation in a DECA event. 

Objectives / SOL Correlation
12.7 The student will develop expository and technical writings. 
· Consider audience and purpose when planning for writing. 
· Present ideas in a logical sequence. 
· Elaborate ideas clearly and accurately. 
· Revise writing for depth of information and technique of presentation. 
· Edit final copies for correct use of language, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. 

Expected Student Outcomes
1. The student will download and save a copy of an Adobe PDF file containing the rules for the DECA competitive event under consideration.
2. The student will follow the directions in the document in #1 above.
3. The student will complete an outline of steps necessary to compete in the competitive event described in #1.

Materials Needed
A sufficient number of computers for your class, with each computer equipped with word processing software and an Internet connection.

Prerequisite Skills
The student needs to possess basic computer and Internet skills.

Procedure - Have the students log on to the National DECA web page, located at www.deca.org. Approximately two thirds of the way down the page is a link to “competitive events.” It is located on the right side of the center column. Then proceed to the link to “guidelines,” and then go to “E-commerce Business Plan Pilot Event.” The student does not need to fully address every point in the document. It is important that they come up with a concrete plan for the competition, but they can do it in outline form. The outline is reproduced below:

I. SUMMARY MEMORANDUM

One-page description of the proposal

II. INTRODUCTION (Background information)

A. Description of the business
B. Description of the target market

III. RESEARCH METHODS USED IN THE STUDY

A. Steps taken to design the study and the instrument
B. Steps taken to conduct the study

IV. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY

A. Description of customers
B. Buying behavior of customers
C. Customer familiarity with e-commerce purchasing
D. Conclusions based on the findings

V. PROPOSED BUSINESS OUTLINE

A. Goals/objectives and rationale
B. Proposed activities and timelines
C. Proposed budget
D. Plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the e-commerce site

Instruct each student to write his or her presentation in Microsoft Word. (S)he will present the concepts to the class in a 5-minute presentation. Students will be evaluated on their written segment and oral presentation using the scoring guide that was adapted from the DECA guidelines. After all of the presentations are given, have each student vote for the top four presentations from the class. Encourage the winners to prepare for an actual competition, and get their classmates that voted for them to become members of their team.

Evaluation
Use the evaluation form found in the DECA Guide.

Parental Involvement
Instruct the students who won the top votes from the class to ask their parents for permission to attend DECA competitive events at the state and national level.

Don Hurwitz
Deep Creek High School
Chesapeake Virginia