Resource Guides: MATH: Shark Tank Week: Proposal Resources

Next Steps

After researching your widget, you will need to create a business proposal and marketing plan. There are several ways you can approach this - figure out which works best for your project. Questions you should be prepared to answer:

what's your marketing audience?
how long did it take for similar products to become popular?
why your widget over what's out there now?
what are similar products, and how are they doing?
what are the basic costs for manufacturing, marketing, etc.?

Helpful Resources

Census Business Builder
The Census Business Builder (CBB) is a suite of services that provide selected demographic and economic data from the Census Bureau tailored to specific types of users in a simple to access and use format.
SBA Young Entrepreneurs
Learn to evaluate your ideas, choose the best financing options and legally register your business
Incubator Without Walls Project

Bureau of Labor - Location Quotient Calculator

Look for similar industries and where the parts they need are manufactured (in the US? overseas?) and then research those. You may need to break your widget down into component parts and work from there.

Business Model Planner

Using this planner can help you as you go forward - have you done enough research? can you fill in each of the blocks?

Download a Business Planner