Week 3 — What Does It Take to Open? A Meal-Prep Delivery Start-Up

Assignment 3 of the term — build a start-up list and funding plan, read the industry, and explain the plan to someone new to business.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, checkable analysis. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the work you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Business Case Workshop practise the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put the start-up list, the funding plan, the loan's interest, and the five forces together on one small case.

The task

The case is illustrative, built for this course and not real data. A first-time founder plans a meal-prep delivery service that cooks healthy lunches in a rented kitchen and delivers them by cargo bike to offices nearby. Like the coffee cart this course follows, the service is a business: it aims to take in more money than it spends.

The founder's start-up list, line by line:

• Kitchen equipment: 9,000 dollars.
• A used cargo bike and insulated delivery bags: 3,500 dollars.
• First ingredients and containers: 1,500 dollars.
• Cash cushion: 5,000 dollars.

The founder will put in 13,000 dollars of savings and borrow the rest with an equipment loan at 8 percent a year.

Three facts about the service's industry: three restaurants near the offices already deliver lunch; grocery stores nearby sell ready-made salads and sandwiches; and one local farm supplies most of the vegetables the founder wants to use.

Work these two problems, showing every addition, subtraction, or multiplication:

1. How many dollars are the service's start-up needs?
2. How many dollars of interest does the loan cost in the first year?

Beside each answer, add a brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: say what each line of the start-up list is for, explain why the cash cushion belongs on the list even though it buys nothing on opening day, and write the funding plan's check: the founder's money plus the loan equals the start-up needs.
• Problem 2: show the loan amount and say which amount the interest is charged on, explain why the funding request is not a promise of profit, and name the force in the five forces that each of the three industry facts shows. Then say whether the farm fact would be a strength, a weakness, an opportunity, or a threat in the service's SWOT, with a reason.

Explain it to a non-expert

A relative who might lend the founder money asks you, "Does this plan mean the business will make money?" Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains what the start-up list and funding plan show, what the loan costs in its first year, and one limit, including that a funding plan is not a forecast of profit and that this case is illustrative. Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one good answer is possible, and the message gives no legal or financial advice.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a two-person lawn-care crew. Model answer: "The plan lists everything the crew needs before its first job, a mower, a trimmer, and money for fuel in the first month, and it shows where each dollar comes from. It doesn't promise a profit; it shows the crew can open and pay its bills while customers sign up. The loan's yearly charge is a cost the crew owes whether the season is busy or slow. This is a simplified picture, and a real lender would also want to see the crew's expected jobs and costs."

Use that pattern for the meal-prep service, with your own wording and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft both answers, both interpretations, and your message to the relative before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show each addition, subtraction, or multiplication when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one number or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the work for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for an introduction-to-business course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about building a start-up list and funding plan, computing a loan's first-year interest, and reading an industry with the five forces. Do not write my assignment for me, do not invent work I did not show, never invent a statistic, a market size, a study, a quotation, or a fact about a real company, and never give me legal, tax, or investment advice.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The case: an illustrative meal-prep delivery service, built for my course and not real data. In this course, start-up needs are the money a business must have before it opens; a funding plan lists where that money comes from and checks that the sources add up to the needs; interest is what a lender charges for borrowed money, usually a percentage of the loan each year; and the five forces are the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitute products or services, and rivalry among existing competitors.
PROBLEM P1: In the illustrative meal-prep delivery service, the start-up list is kitchen equipment of 9,000 dollars, a used cargo bike and insulated delivery bags of 3,500 dollars, first ingredients and containers of 1,500 dollars, and a cash cushion of 5,000 dollars. How many dollars are the service's start-up needs?
PROBLEM P2: In the illustrative meal-prep delivery service, the start-up list is kitchen equipment of 9,000 dollars, a used cargo bike and insulated delivery bags of 3,500 dollars, first ingredients and containers of 1,500 dollars, and a cash cushion of 5,000 dollars; the founder puts in 13,000 dollars of savings and borrows the rest with an equipment loan at 8 percent a year. How many dollars of interest does the loan cost in the first year?
After the two answers, I must interpret each one: for P1, say what each line of the list is for, explain why the cash cushion belongs on the list, and write the funding plan's check; for P2, show the loan amount and say which amount the interest is charged on, explain why the funding request is not a promise of profit, name the force shown by each industry fact (three restaurants near the offices already deliver lunch; grocery stores nearby sell ready-made salads and sandwiches; one local farm supplies most of the vegetables), and say whether the farm fact is a strength, weakness, opportunity, or threat in a SWOT, with a reason. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a relative who might lend money, explaining what the start-up list and funding plan show, what the loan costs in its first year, and one limit, including that a funding plan is not a forecast of profit and the case is illustrative. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct numbers (20 points), business reasoning (48 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (20 points), and showing the work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1 and P2, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 number points, 12 reasoning points, 5 clarity points, or 3 showing-the-work points. Sum both problems within each criterion. Count my final message only with P2, not again with P1.
NUMBER UNITS: A correct amount = 2; an amount that is off because of one arithmetic slip or one missed line, with the work shown = 1; a missing amount or an amount with no work behind it = 0.
REASONING UNITS: For P1, BOTH the purpose of each line with the cash cushion explained AND the funding plan's check written out = 2; exactly one of those parts = 1; neither = 0. For P2, BOTH the loan amount with interest charged on the loan and the funding request explained as needs and sources rather than a profit promise AND the three forces named with the SWOT label and its reason, plus a relative message with what the plan shows and a limit = 2. If full P2 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0; naming a term alone does not earn a unit, and calling the grocery salads a rival restaurant or the farm fact an internal weakness is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labelled evidence understandable to someone new to business, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the final message with P2 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-THE-WORK UNITS: For each problem, every addition, subtraction, or multiplication written out with the lines it uses = 2; some steps shown but the amount cannot be fully rebuilt = 1; an amount alone or no work = 0. Visible work stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both answers and their interpretations AND written my message to the relative AND revised at least one number or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score and do not round it. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my numbers, work, and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work with both answers, their interpretations, and your message to the relative — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled sketch of the two lists side by side with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 3 skills — building a start-up list and funding plan, checking that the sources match the needs, computing a loan's first-year interest, and reading an industry with the five forces — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same two problems, both interpretations, and the message to the relative. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one number or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The numbers, the work, the reasoning, the revision, and the final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce, and do not let it invent facts about the meal-prep service, its market, or any real company. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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