Reference no: EM131454172

My business plan is Gas Station and this is the information interview, so Please interview someone that own the gas station business

Informational Interview

The informational interview involves meeting and interviewing an entrepreneur or small business owner to gather information.

You should not wait until the due date to prepare as meetings may be difficult to arrange at short notice. Ideally, you should conduct the interview in person; but, a telephone interview is allowed if your schedules don't allow you to meet in person.

I strongly suggest that you seek out an entrepreneur who is running the same (or similar) type of business that you will be writing your business plan about for this class.

Required Elements to include in the Informational Interview Write Up:

Students are responsible for developing questions that will garner the responses necessary to address the key elements of the assignment. 

Include all of the following elements in your interview report:

• Provide a brief description of the business which includes the business form the nature of the business, how many years in business, and whether the business is local in nature, national, or international in scope;
• Why did the person decide to go into business, and what was the biggest obstacle they had to overcome in the early stages of the business;
• Did the owner develop a Business Plan before starting the business, why or why not;
• Discuss what makes the business unique and different from its competition and what is its value proposition;
• Does the company have a clearly defined strategy, what do you believe it is;
• Discuss the owners marketing and sales strategy for gaining and maintaining new business opportunities;
• What core business functions if any did the business decide to outsource and why;
• Discuss the hiring process and the core values that have been established for the organization;
• Discuss the financial management tools and metrics that the business owner depends on too manage growth and profitability;
• Discuss keys to success, from the owner's perspective;
• What the person would do differently if he/she had it to do all over again.
• Critically assess the current status of the business based on concepts presented in class.  What would you say is the future for this business? Would you invest in this business? Why or why not?      
• Interview questions must be included as an addendum to the assignment; however, these should not be counted toward the length requirement of the paper.  Don't forget to include these.  Part of the grade is dependent on the questions.

Required Formatting of Informational Interview Report:

• This report should be double spaced, 12-point font, and three to five pages in length excluding the title page and reference page;
• Title page;
• Introductory paragraph and a summary paragraph;
• Use headings;
• Write in the third person;
• Use APA formatting for in-text citations and a reference page.  You are expected to paraphrase and not use quotes. Deductions will be taken when quotes are used and found to be unnecessary;
• Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder.