Innovation and Enterprise - Business Plan Example

Innovation and Enterprise Entrepreneurship is one of the basic skills that every businessperson should have in order to succeed in business. The idea involves identifying business opportunities and engaging in them to make the most profit out of the idea. The ability of any businessperson to identify and make the most t of a business opportunity makes the individual a business entrepreneur. It is a skill that is learnt from education as well as experience. Innovation on the other hand means creation of ideas that may lead to monetary benefits. Idea Development In every human being, there is a need to communicate. Communication is a necessity in the social life of the human race. Communication, in its many forms can be considered educational, informative as well as entertaining. Communication is facilitated by numerous media, but there is none that has enlisted interest from the world such as the internet. The internet facilitated communication of data in the form of sound, images and motion and live pictures making it an extremely high potential specialization area. Being a student under the computing field, I have realized the need for a means by which persons can communicate and exchange ideas freely with little or no limitation. I intend to start a photo sharing and interactive website that shall be used to facilitate communication and sharing of experience via sharing of photos. This choice of a business idea comes from the current trends in the social networking sector, with new and more advanced technologies coming up every now and then. By market segmentation, I am able to focus on a particular group of young and energetic social networkers to whom the website is of great interest as well as advantage. The current trend in the social networking field is advantageous for other sectors such as the marketing sector in business. The aim of marketing is reaching as many people as possible within a given time limit. By using social media as a platform to communicate to possible customers in an interpersonal level, businesses are saving on both costs and materials, while getting a much higher efficiency from the exercise. Motivated by this idea, I intend to include advertisements in the site where, interested parties shall be given the opportunity to advertise their wares over a given period of time as agreed upon by the advertiser and the site administrator. It is necessary that adequate research into this field is conducted for it encapsulates several challenges that might be the downfall to the site. There are a number of challenges that face the choice of business such as high competition from the existing industries as well as the initial starting capital. Research into this subject shall involve questions such as the affinity in the market for a site that facilitates the postage of pictures over the internet. The young adults and the youth are the main target market for the site, when it comes to its success, for it is by the numbers interested shall investors get the audacity to make investments using my site. The marketing that is to be done shall show that there is a need for the youth to get involved in the photo sharing site, through referrals or associated links so as to facilitate the sites growth. I estimate that the returns from the site shall at first be meagre, but with time and popularity, they shall increase. One of the advantages that are behind the idea is the fact that the site is presented in a global platform. The challenge of working within boundaries has always been a huge challenge for many businesses, but with the site, the work shall be conducted on a global scale, which means that it shall be easy to reach almost every community in the world. Popularising the website may be a huge challenge for the business, but with support from my colleagues and the locals, the site is expected to be a huge employer in the near future. The idea of the photo-sharing site is supported by an ethical necessity for the community to control the content of sites. As the administrator, it is my duty to ensure that no content uploaded on the website is offensive in any manner to the community in general. I have the desire to run a website that is friendly to every member of the community and thus explicit material on the website shall be restricted, as it is being advocated for by governments and the key economic developers: parents. Environmental Factors Environmental factors that may affect my business idea can be identified by using a PEST approach on the issue. The strategy is to analyse the factors which may affect the website based on whether they are Political, Economic, Social and technological. By analysis of these aspects, I shall decide on the best marketing and advertising strategies to use to ensure that the resultant effect is bringing in new customers to the venture as well as retaining the old ones. Political Factors Under the political factors, the main issues that I have to deal with is the stability of the government, policies which govern the legal and taxation fields, the marketing ethics, economy and the culture of the target group. Since my business idea involved a localized service provider, there was no pressure in regards to globalization, though I integrate a plan in which the outlets are increased in number. The current political factor that is to affect the running of my website is the awareness focus on web content and piracy. The attempt by the US government to control content over the web is a hindrance to the communication between different sites and the community at large (Blackwell 201). Sharing of data in recent days may be considered piracy, especially if the data is copyrighted and any site that has activities that seem to fall under this nature of activities is facing a lot of scrutiny from the authorities. My site being a platform where photos can be shared shall face a lot of hurdles of this nature. With the local trends on taxation, being on the increase the website shall need extra cash gained from various activities to secure economic sustainability, which may result to an increase in the costs the advertisers have to foot. Political stands on the conduct and services associated with websites may be another issue that the business may have to face. There are a lot of challenges that may come from political heads such as a challenge of the sites being a facilitator to obesity by encouraging children to stay online at all times. These statements may hurt the social and networking business, though personal adherence to health is not directly linked to the sites. Economic Factors Under the economic level of analysis, the major hindrance to the growth of my idea is the current high rate of inflation. A growing inflation is to challenge my idea in more than one way. The current increasing inflation rates will mean that the cost of products, which are essential for running the website, shall increase, which shall be reflected onto the bills to any advertiser with showed interest on the site. The very same increased rate of inflation shall mean that less investors shall be able to afford the online services, and with dwindling numbers of clients, is hall have to employ a much more aggressive marketing and advertising strategy, which shall cost me more. In this case, the government does affect the prospects of my venture by regulating the rate of inflation on products and services that affect the general population directly or indirectly. Social Factors The social factor that is associated with my idea is the difference in culture presented by the menu I wish to offer. My idea of a website has to transverse through culture (Barrow 281) as it provides a challenge to running the business. A website is meant to be universal and culture should not be a factor that affects its operation, however the current trends in the moiety are favouring the existence of the social networking sites. Under social pressures, I must ensure that the quality of services provided by the website are up to or surpass the current standards. The society needs to have a site that they can rely on and appreciate. The website has to be analysed on its performance based on the ease by which the customers are able to access the website and their ability to use the functionalities provided to them. In the case of the website, it has to be analysed whether it is easy to access, operate, communicate with and make changes to some of the operational aspects. On the users’ part, ease of navigation and clear and concise information are some of the elements in control that are looked into in the performance of the website. Another challenge that can be filed under the social factors is the geographical location of the business. Being based in the United States, there are two main challenges that I face in running the business, its management from afar and the existence of support teams in other parts of the world. It is impossible for me, the proprietor, to be present at all regions where the services of the website may be required, though the use of internet may help facilitate the communication. As a proprietor, it is my obligation to spot an opportunity and exploit it, but being based at a single location allows me to only focus on the opportunities close at hand. Technology Factors Technology represents another environmental factor that could affect the running of my business. In this era, the communication channel that is most used is the internet. This tool can be used as a means of advertising and marketing my services to the community. Technology under this context is profitable since it lowers the costs of advertising and marketing that are to be incurred by the business. Technology reduces the cost of advertising and marketing for the business, which is a positive contribution to the store since it expands the reach of the advertising campaign and provides a platform by which the business can associate directly with its clients. It is one of my goals to develop a website under which I can create a fan base that might be helpful in deciding the contents as well as leave feedback which shall be helpful in making changes in the way the business is ran. The development in the field of technology greatly facilitates the growth of my website (Ready 92) these technologies include personal PCs and handsets that have the capability of accessing and uploading data to the internet. These technologies play a major role in the success of the internet based social platforms, and in the development of the website, I must present an opportunity by which the users can use any of their gadgets to access the site. The android platform is one of the fastest growing technological advances, and I intend to make use of the advantages it brings about by creating an application specifically for the phone technology, which shall provide users with multiple functions associated with the site, and technology. PEST Analysis of the business Competitive Forces in Chosen Market The competitive forces in the market come from the established social networking sites. The established sites have a higher traffic number and most of the clients that I intend on working with are chasing the high traffic sites. The challenge that lies in this case is attracting traffic to my newly established website, since by doing that will the business be sustainable. The technologies that my site currently has are another challenge that the business faces. The business has limited capital, which means that most of the investments made are in smaller capabilities compared to the huge establishments. The limited resources to the business means limited capabilities as since I do not have the web hosting services, I have to rely on other servers, which limit my capabilities. Another competitive element that is in the industry is the presence of similar or complementary services and establishments (threat of substitutes). Presence of other websites who are providing services similar or close to that of my website give rise to another challenge in the competitive sector, the presence of such competition means that more investment in the marketing and advertising department is necessary to ensure success of the business. There is also the competitive force poised by new entrants in the market. New entrants to this field shall give rise to an increased competition in the market regardless of the barriers of entity that the industry has set. A threat of suppliers also challenges my idea since there are numerous services that are providing a similar or close service to the community. Buyer power is also another competitive force that the industry poses to my business idea. Risks Associated With the Business Idea Several risks are associated with my idea of a business. The first risk that is obvious from the definition of the business is the fact that I shall be going against a large and established social networking websites. Websites that have been in operation for a couple of years present some of the largest obstacles to the running of my business. I need a lot of investment in the marketing and advertising departments starting from the right people to do the marketing to identifying the target group wants and desires. Raising capital that is needed for establishment of the website is another challenge that the business idea faces. The website requires a lot of start-up capital. To acquire operational tools, rent an office, employ a technical, support team, and provide their wages, advertisement and marketing costs among others. A challenge that is posed by the lack of funds is the high interest rates, which are associated with the credit facilities. In addition, the reluctance of banks to offer SMEs loans may also be another challenge that might be the downfall of the business idea. Although I may have some savings I have to explore the options of financing the business idea such as taking a loan or involving a partner to help in the bidding. Another challenge that is associated with the starting up of the business is the need for a reliable taskforce. The website needs a team of experts who shall help in running the venture. The process of hiring the professionals is quite tedious and without help from various hiring structures, the process may be long and exhaustive. In this case, the challenge will be trying to find a staff with experience, expertise, innovative ideas as well as training the staff to meet the standards I wish to encompass in running my site. The lack of management skills on my part is another area in which the business is shorthanded. I may have experience in working in the industry, but it is limited to certain areas of the business. I may have to rely on hired help to handle the management of the business, which might not be a very productive idea in the few initial months. Works Cited Barrow, Colin. Starting a Business for Dummies. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print. Blackwell, E. How To Prepare A Business Plan. 5th ed. New York: Wiley, 2008.Print. Blinder, A. S. How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable? Princeton: Princeton University, 2007. Print. EMEA, 2011. Print. Peng, M. W. and Meyer, Klaus. International Business. UK, Hampshire: Cengage Learning Ready, K. Startup: An Insider’s Guide To Launching And Running A Business. New York: Springer, 2000. Print. Read More