You are Susan Dean, a 35 year old woman who has always beeninterested in owning your own business. You graduated from GorhamHS, attended SMCC, eventually transferring to USM where you earneda bachelor’s degree in Business with a major in Marketing.Eventually you went to graduate school and earned a Master’s ofBusiness Administration (MBA). For the last 10 years you haveworked as a marketing specialist/management specialist with Yum!Brands, Inc. where you helped management open several Taco Bellsand Pizza Huts in southern Maine. In addition, you evaluatedseveral underperforming stores that had to be closed. Aftercontacting several major corporations you find that McDonalds isthe only major brand looking to open another store in the town ofGorham near the USM campus. There is a Burger King in the area. Youin fact actually worked at McDonalds when you were a youngster. Youhave decided that you would like to open a McDonald’s franchise inthis area near USM. Your grandparents have left you with asignificant amount of money for which you are grateful. You wouldlike to use this towards your new business adventure. But you willneed to finance the remaining balance. You apply for a businessloan to a local bank. The bank requires you to submit a detailedbusiness plan. This business plan will include projections foroperating costs, revenue stream, profits, human resource needs,your business strategy, etc. There are multiple topics that have tobe analyzed and for which projections have to be made. Because ofthis you will have to conduct a survey(s) in the Gorham region toassess multiple demographic, supply/demand issues, and othertopics.
Discussion Question/Directions:
You are Susan Dean. You need to discuss issues for which youthink a statistical study would be helpful (in obtaining theinformation needed for your business plan). his could bedemographic information, assessing the desire for a McDonald’s inthe region, traffic studies, household make up, what the projecteddemand would be, etc. There are hundreds of topics to zero in on.What topics do you think are important to knowbefore you invest your money into such an important undertaking?What type of statistical study should be done? What types of datawill you need to collect? How will you collect your data? How muchdo you think it will cost to gather your information?
