Description
The Recommendation Report: -Use the Report Template attachment – he’s picky -See Report Requirements & Instructions attachment for more details and requirements. -I can extend the deadline a day or two if needed. -Please feel free to contact with any questions. – And no wikis can be used as sources
The Recommendation Report:
- Make up any company Name
- Company must be in the Finance Industry
- Company is currently located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
- You can choose whatever city and state to move the company to – not expand.
Fictitious scenario to base your report on: About 2-4 years ago and in Florida, you and a couple of your fellow FAU friends created a startup business which is not a traded public company, but could be a corporation, partnership, or LLC. Even as an academic assignment, your start-up must be practical; for example, you will not consider selling snow blowing equipment in South Florida. Think of your limitation and potential.
Your start-up has been so successful that you and your partners believe that your company needs to relocate to another state (within the continental United States)
To ensure more profitability, expand, and to stay competitive; these three factors should drive the essence of your report.
- Your company started with 3-4 partners
- Your company has grown to 30-50 employees.
- Note: Relocation of the entire business will be permanent; do not suggest expanding the business to another region.
Your Role/Task: YOU have been assigned to research potential relocation of your start-up to another state.
You will first write an ANALYTICAL RECOMMENDATION
REPORT persuading your partners and Advisory Board to relocate to another state/city.
The essence of your report will compare/contrast you’re the City, St you are recommending with current city/Florida to establish pros and cons of your argument.
NOTE: Should you argue for staying in Florida, you must still research another city/state to produce a comparison/contrast scenario. CONCERNS will acknowledge challenges (and provide solutions) staying in Florida.
Limit your memo report to 3-4 SINGLE-SPACED pages of text; excluding Title Page, Table of Contents, and References Page. To ensure a tightly formatted report, follow double spacing between headings in template. I will adjust unnecessary white space which could result in your report being shorter.
NOTE: Tables, charts, figures, and graphs will not be required for the RR, but you will need these visuals for your Power Point.
Audience: Your partners and your company’s advisory board. NOTE: Report should identify current city/area in Florida and potential city/area in potential state of relocation.
Assignment: Follow these guidelines/requirements:
- Nature of Start-Up: Determine the type of start-up company based on your major—e.g., Accounting, Entertainment, Finance, Healthcare, Hospitality, International Business, Manufacturing, Marketing, Merchandizing, Technology. Should you decide to create a start-up outside of your major, please email me your reasoning for this option before you start working on your report.
- Name of Company: Create a name for your company with a brief description of the nature of your company.
- Geographical Region: Report must identify current city/area in Florida and city/area in state of relocation.
- Critical Factors: Identify 4-5 critical factors in determining the best state/city in which to relocate your business; make sure that your 4-5 reasons for relocation are practical and will benefit your company. Sound development of ideas, logical explanations, and keen analysis will determine a quality research report. For each critical factor, you must explain relevance; if you are arguing that another state/city has more people with degrees, you must point out the nature of these degrees and how graduates in Accounting, for example, will benefit your Accounting firm.
- Benefit of Savings: From a persuasion point of view, it is always more convincing when you produce actual or estimated dollar amounts to represent savings. For example and if you are arguing for the benefit of taxes, then you should produce possible $ amounts to reinforce your argument for savings.
- Compare/Contrast: Using your research, compare and contrast Florida with the other state you selected; analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two locations; for each argument for relocation, there should be a corresponding disadvantage for staying in Florida. CAUTION: In some instances, it will be impractical to compare entire states; you will need to limit your comparison to cities. Do not compare entire states
- Your Argument: Recommend which location you believe is better for the company, present your rationale, and acknowledge any concerns/challenges; be able to explain and present solutions why you’d recommend the location despite those disadvantages under the section CONCERNS; see report template.
- Format/Organization: Use the memo report format; Primary and sub-headings are required
- References: To demonstrate that you are basing your analysis and recommendation on substantive and credible evidence, your References page must include a minimum of 6 credible and reputable sources; it is expected that in-text citations will be more than six.
RESOURCES
Use reputable sources. No blogs, no Wikipedia, no wikis of any kind! Also, NO Investopedia!
CAUTION: You are required to paraphrase most of your extracted information and cite accordingly. To produce a Recommendation Report with a majority of quotations to support your persuasion defeats the purpose of scholarly practice especially regarding the 80/20 rule. Cutting and pasting should be done carefully.
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
The following link will connect you directly to a Library Guide; this is the same guide used for the library presentation. http://libguides.fau.edu/business-boca
NOTE: To compare cites/states, click on the lib-guide, go to “Best Census & Statistical Sites” then click on “U.S. Quick Fact Tables” under Locating and Using Census Date.
IBISWorld under Databases in lib-guide also provides credible and timely information; this database is considered “…the United States’ most comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings.”
For all state taxes, go to https://www.taxadmin.org/current-tax-rates
U.S. Small Business Administration. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/establishing-business/business-types
Bureau of Labor https://www.bls.gov/bls/proghome.htm
https://www.bls.gov/bls/occupation.htm
United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation. (2014). Enterprising states dashboard. Retrieved from http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/enterprisingstates/#map/T/WY/.
APA
http://libguides.fau.edu/ld.php?content_id=15655762
OTHER DIRECTIONS
- Use the Times New Roman 12pt. font. Create an appropriate page header and number the pages—position in the upper-right corner of each page.
- Use the memo report format
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
- You are relocating for the benefit of your start-up; refrain from any argument for benefits for your employees since at this point you do not know how many will relocate, however, you may list this fact as a concern for relocating the business.
- Tone of report must be persuasive – use strong persuasive action verbs
- An argument for Demographics, for example, should also include and explain relevance of the following factors: age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment.
- Cost of living should also discuss other factors such as food, healthcare, housing, utility services, and even taxes.
- Your employees are not aware of any potential relocation.
Recommendation Report: Relocation of (Insert Company Name)
To (Insert City and State)
Prepared for (Insert Company Name)
Prepared by
Name of Student
Date
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents should match headings in recommendation report template
TO: Actual Names of Partners
FROM: Name of Student – Your name
CC: Advisory Board
DATE: Date of Report
SUBJECT: Recommendation Report
Introduction
The introduction paragraph should also include:
- Reason for the report with a background of the start-up from its inception date; # of employees from start-up date; # of current employees, economic status of start-up to date; clarify whether startup is partnership, corporation, or LLC
- Describe nature of your business so relevance for relocation will be understood
- Current location (city and state); number of current employees
- A brief explanation that you have conducted comprehensive research to support your recommendation for relocation to city/state (NOTE: Rephrase if you are staying in FL.)
- Closing sentence should include THESIS that clearly explains the 4-5 critical factors for the relocation or decision to stay in FL in addition to your overall reason to ensure more profitability, expand, and to stay competitive.
REASONS FOR RELOCATION (Rephrase if you are staying in FL) [4-5 Reasons required]
First Reason: Taxes [“Taxes” is only an example.]
In a paragraph format, present your first reason/argument justifying relocation to this other city/state. To avoid dense paragraphing, you may use shorter paragraphs with white space in-between.
Begin with transition. Example: To begin, the first reason to relocate (Company Name) (City, State) is because of taxes. Explain your reasons supported with in-text citations.
As you justify your reasons for taxes in your chosen City, State, you will also provide a comparison/contrast of existing city/state, for example Miami, to show disadvantages propelling you to recommend relocation.
NOTE: For every positive reason you provide for relocation, you must also provide a negative comparison in your existing city/state; this is the essence of the comparison. You can produce this comparison point by point or in separate paragraphs within each critical factor/argument.
Second Reason Follow example in Taxes.
Third Reason:
Fourth Reason:
Fifth Reason:
Potential Concerns and Solutions
In this section you will explain potential concerns relocating company to City, ST. You must provide a potential solution to each concern. NOTE: If you are not relocating, this section will acknowledge challenges (and provide solutions) staying in Florida.
CONCLUSION
- Summary: Restate your reasons and key points.
- Memorable Closing: End with a memorable statement that motivates your audience to consider your recommendation.
References
- Alphabetically arranged by author or title of document/website
- Second line is indented 5 spaces