| Course | BU 351 Introduction to Business Analytics |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Reporting to a business audience |
| Length | About 830 words, 5 pages |
| Format | Business memo with analysis, APA 7 references |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Analytics |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 351 Unit 7
Memorandum
To: Owner, Basecamp Climbing
From: Analytics Intern
Date: April 15, 2026
Re: What is happening to memberships and what to do about it
Recommendation
Start calling every member whose autopay fails within two days of the failure, keep the free introductory class for new members at its current 95 seats a month, and spend the rest of the $5,000 monthly retention budget on guest passes for members who have stopped visiting. Together these steps should keep about 36 members a month who would otherwise leave. The single most useful change is the payment-failure call, which keeps a member for roughly $50 in staff time.
What Is Actually Happening
Memberships are not falling. We closed 2025 with 1,590 active members, up 131 on the year, and at the end of November we were 17 percent ahead of the same point in 2024. What feels like slipping is that cancellations rose by almost a third, from 910 in 2024 to 1,193 in 2025, while new sign-ups stayed flat. Because we have more members, the same share leaving each month means more people leaving. Our monthly cancellation rate barely changed, about 5.9 percent in both years, except for a spike in April and May 2025, when it reached 6.7 and 7.7 percent, shortly after the March price increase.
For that reason, the monthly cancellation count on its own will keep looking worse as we grow. I recommend tracking the monthly cancellation rate alongside it, so that growth is not mistaken for decline.
Who Leaves
Most of the people who leave do so early. Over a third of 2025 cancellations came within 90 days of joining. Among members who joined from mid-2024 to autumn 2025, about three in ten left within 90 days. Three things stand out. Members whose autopay has failed even once left early about twice as often as those with no failures, 44 percent against 24 percent. New members who took the introductory class left early about a quarter less often than those who did not, 25 percent against 35 percent. Student-plan members left early more often than others. Aurora's cancellation rate is nearly a point above the rest of the chain, and only part of that is explained by its larger share of student members.
How Sure We Are
I am confident about what happened: the counts of joins, cancellations and active members come straight from our membership records after cleaning out duplicates and errors. I am fairly confident that payment failures and early months matter, because the patterns are large and appear in every gym. I am less sure that the introductory class itself keeps people, because members who choose to take it may be more committed to begin with; the pattern is real, but the size of the class's effect is uncertain. The figure of 36 members kept a month depends on three estimates of how well each action works, and two of them, for calls and guest passes, are staff judgments rather than measurements. It should be read as a planning figure, not a promise.
What to Do Differently Starting Next Month
Set up a daily list of failed payments from the billing system and assign the front desk to call each member within two days; staff time is available, since the plan uses about 40 of the 60 hours we set aside. Keep the introductory class at 95 seats rather than adding more, until we know whether the class itself is what keeps people. Send guest passes to members with no visit in the past month, up to about 130 a month. Review the monthly cancellation rate, not just the count, at each manager meeting. And run a simple test at two gyms: offer the class to every new member at one and not at the other for two months, then compare, so we learn how much the class really helps.
Appendix: How the Analysis Was Done
The membership file of 4,238 records was cleaned of 38 duplicates, inconsistent gym codes, three impossible visit counts and five impossible dates, leaving 4,195 members. Monthly cancellation rates were computed as cancellations among members active at the start of each month. Early cancellation was compared across groups for the 1,901 people who signed up from mid-2024 to the end of September 2025. A logistic regression ranked members active on June 30, 2025 by their chance of canceling in 60 days; tested on members held back from fitting, its top fifth contained nearly half of all cancellations. The budget split was solved as a linear program with the budget, staff time, class seats and the number of eligible members as limits. Davenport and Harris (2007) argue that analytics creates value only when its results change decisions, which is why the method sits here rather than in the body. Few (2012) recommends that reports place the message before the evidence, and the order of this memo follows that advice. Basecamp Climbing and all figures are composites created for this course (Provost & Fawcett, 2013).
References
Davenport, T. H., & Harris, J. G. (2007). Competing on analytics: The new science of winning. Harvard Business School Press.
Few, S. (2012). Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs to enlighten (2nd ed.). Analytics Press.
Provost, F., & Fawcett, T. (2013). Data science for business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking. O'Reilly Media.
What the BU 351 Unit 7 instructions ask for
The Unit 7 assignment asks students to report analytical findings to a business audience. Most versions want the recommendation stated first, findings expressed in business terms rather than technical ones, confidence described in plain language and the method moved to an appendix. Many rubrics ask what the reader should do differently as a result. Instructors look for reports short enough for a busy manager and free of jargon such as coefficients or p-values in the main text. The report may draw on earlier units' analyses. A memo or short report format of two to three pages is typical, with sources cited in APA 7.
How the BU 351 Unit 7 example is put together
The sample is a memo whose first section gives the recommendation and the single cost figure that supports it. The next section explains what is actually happening to memberships, correcting the owner's impression of decline, and suggests tracking a rate instead of a count. A section on who leaves reports three patterns in percentages. A confidence section separates solid counts, likely patterns and uncertain estimates. The action section lists five concrete steps for the coming month, including a simple test. An appendix summarizes the cleaning, analysis, model and optimization in one paragraph for readers who want the method. Each section is short enough to read in a minute.
Reading the BU 351 Unit 7 rubric
Herzing's grading for the business report usually includes placement and clarity of the recommendation, translation of findings, expression of confidence and actionable next steps. Full marks for the recommendation go to a report that states it up front, alongside the one number behind it. Translation is judged by findings stated in the units the business uses, without technical terms in the body. Confidence scores highest when it is expressed in words that distinguish certain from uncertain results, as the sample does. Next steps reward specific actions with owners or timing. Instructors also credit keeping method in an appendix and a length suited to a manager. A report that fits on two pages usually scores better than a longer one.
BU 351 Unit 7 help before you submit
The most common Unit 7 mistake is writing the report in the order the analysis was done, so the recommendation appears on the last page. Another is using technical language, such as odds ratios or shadow prices, that a manager cannot act on. Students often state confidence with statistics instead of plain words. Some reports recommend actions the analysis did not test without saying so. Others give findings but no clear next steps. Finally, read the first paragraph alone and ask whether a busy owner would know what to do; if not, the report has not yet done its job. Ask a colleague outside the course to read it and say what they would do.
Get a BU 351 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
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BU 351 Unit 7 questions, answered
How much method belongs in the body of the report?
Enough for the reader to know the finding came from somewhere, which is usually one sentence. Say what the analysis looked at and over what period, then move on. Everything else goes in the appendix, where a technical reader can check it. If a paragraph would only reassure you rather than inform the reader, it belongs at the back.
How do I express confidence without a statistic?
By saying what the finding would survive. A pattern that held in every segment you checked and across two periods is worth describing that way, and it tells a reader more than a number they will not interpret. Where the evidence is thin, say which part is thin and what would settle it, since a stated weakness is more credible than uniform confidence.
Should the report recommend something the analysis did not test?
Only as a clearly separated suggestion, and never as though the evidence supports it. Keep the recommendation the analysis can carry in the opening, and put anything beyond it under a heading saying it is a judgment rather than a finding. Blurring the two is the fastest way to lose the credibility the rest of the document was built to earn.
Where can I find a free BU 351 Unit 7 sample paper?
The complete BU 351 Unit 7 memo, with its recommendation, confidence section and appendix, is available above at no charge. If you need a report for a different analysis or audience, share the assignment and your findings, and we will draft the report on your numbers free, normally inside two days.
How do I express confidence without a statistic in BU 351 Unit 7?
Use plain categories. The sample says it is confident about counts, fairly confident about patterns that appear everywhere and less sure about estimates that rest on staff judgment. That tells a manager how much weight each finding can bear.