A Comprehensive Business Plan for a New Start Up Venture - Essay Example

1031088 - A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS PLAN FOR A NEW START-UP VENTURE Company Aim and Objectives of company The aim of the company is to help in the promotion of education, especially at the pre-tertiary through the production of specific student based information technology (IT) products. To achieve this overall aim, the following specific objectives will be targeted: i. To provide a student based technology that solves academic problems faced by students on daily basis ii. To introduction the syllabus based Slate, which is a basically a student based Tablet PC 50% of students in the target segment in the next 10 years. iii. To make the Slate the primary IT tool used by 80% of students in the target segment in the next 15 years. Location and Size The company is to be located in London with a primary location emphasis on the United Kingdom (UK) for the first 15 years of its existence. The whole of UK is expected to be covered through various market opening opportunities including online sales, franchise and opening of a distribution store in every educational district. The head quarters is expected to be run by a total of 5000 employees comprising those in the production unit, assemble plant and various positions of marketing. Each distribution shop is expected to have 3 shopkeepers. Mission statement The mission of the company is to become the gateway to academic success for students at all levels of education in the UK, especially those at the pre-tertiary level who hardly have any opportunity of owning their own Tablet PCs. Overview of company capabilities The company’s business composition comprises three major aspects of work, which are production, marketing and servicing. For each of these components of business, the company has different capabilities, which are spread across different stages of the company’s lifeline. These are briefly summarised in the table below Table 1: Capacity of Company by Phases Business Component/Timeline Phase 1 (First 3 years) Phase 2 (4th to 7th year) Phase 3 (8th to 11th year) Phase 4 (11th to 15th year) Production 1 million pieces of Slate production per year 4 million pieces of Slate production per year 8 million pieces of Slate production per year 10 million pieces of Slate production per year Marketing 6,000 units sold through UK schools in a month 30,000 units sold through UK schools in a month 60,000 units sold through UK schools in a month 80,000 units sold through UK schools in a month Servicing 50,000 customised service provided in a month 200,000 customised service provided in a month 500,000 customised service provided in a month 700,000 customised service provided in a month Personnel Different components of business are expected to be made up of different personnel in terms of numbers, qualification, job type, and job description. There shall however be no specific requirements by way of gender. The table below outlines the number personnel and qualifications needed for each component by timeline of the company. Table 2: Overview of Company Personnel Phase Business Component Number of Personnel Total Minimum Qualification 1 Production 1,000 5000 Variety Marketing 3,000 First degree Servicing 1,000 Variety 2 Production 3,000 10,000 Variety Marketing 6,000 First degree Servicing 1,000 Variety 3 Production 4,000 15,000 Variety Marketing 9,000 Second degree Servicing 2,000 Variety 4 Production 6,000 20,000 Variety Marketing 11,000 Second degree Servicing 3,000 Variety Hierarchy The three major components are going to be managed by different hierarchies of managers, administrators and supervisors. The hierarchy is needed to make the practice of organisational reporting easier and free flowing. The chart below gives an overview of the organisational hierarchy to be in place at the workplace 2.0 Product/Services Description What is it? The product named Slate is a basically an academic Tablet PC. This means the product can be described from two major perspectives, which are academic and Tablet PC. The academic component is simply made of both pre-installed and customised educational tools. The pre-installed educational tools focus on school based syllabus for different courses at different stages of education. At the secondary level for example, there will be syllabus on courses such as Biology, Geography, Home Science, etc. The tablet component is basically a description of the mode in which the syllabus with its entire learning interface comes with. The tablet makes the product very portable and gives it an electronic system backing (Beamish, 2007). Use of the Product The Slate is prepared to meet all learning needs of students at particular level of education. This is because it serves as an all-inclusive course material, containing a software version of all recommended textbooks according to the provisions made in the syllabus for a particular course and at particular level of education. What is more, there are auxiliary learning needs that are met by the Slate such as basic academic functionalities such as calculations, mapping, drawing, and notes making. The Slate is also used to serve future needs of students by providing orientation based information for the next level of education. For example, for students at the secondary level, information is given on courses available at the universities, the requirements for these courses, as well as the entry requirements for these courses. How the need is currently being met Currently, the needs that the Slate provides are met through a more haphazard and disintegrated format. For example, course materials and textbooks are purchased at different places within the various campuses of students. There are some materials that are also available online. Students also take notes using different platforms such as paper notebooks and other forms of PCs. In terms of orientation, students receive these from their school brochures, the internet and from educational fairs. Alternatives There may be alternative products available to the Slate but none comes in an all-inclusive package as the Slate does. For example, there are websites that seek to provide students with course materials and textbooks but do not contain other services such as the customised learning platforms that the Slate provides. Students also receive orientation courses from various media and avenues including educational seminars, educational fairs and educational conferences. There are also known alternative notes taking platforms, including speech detectors as in the case of the Slate. But the most important fact is that all these alternatives do not come in handy. Product’s USP To survive on the market and penetrate very quickly, a unique selling proposition (USP) is very important for the company (Chang and Rosenzweig, 2001). In the case of the Slate, the USP focuses on two key issues, which are customisation and integration. Customers can be convinced with the customised nature of the Slate to switch products. This is because the company has a whole business unit, dedicated to servicing customer needs by providing very unique customised software and services that meet their educational needs. Some of these customised services focus on learning impairments and added course service. The integration USP also looks at the fact that students are able to get all that they need as part of their academic journey on just a single platform. This will promote accessibility, which is an important determinant for educational success (Buckley and Casson, 2008). Technology Involved The Slate will work largely based on the Android operation system. This technology is expected to make it possible to install, delete and reinstall applications at any point in at. It also makes it possible to access as many Android applications from different sources as possible. As an educational material however, there will be some stop-guards in terms of access to some applications that are not considered educational or are considered adult content. This is an important technology to have as part of the Slate because one of the major competitive urges of the company will be for parents to feel free to make their children own this Tablet PC due to the content safety it guarantees. 3.0 Industry Overview Top 3 firms in the market There may not be specific companies mentioned as the top competitors to the Slate product. However, in terms of the alternatives and the manufacturing of Tablet PCs for kids in general, names such as Amazons Kindle, FreeTime Unlimited and Netflixs kid-specific interface come up (Daniels, Radebaugh and Sullivan, 2011). Competitive Advantage for Competitors With the known competitors, there are three major factors that give rise to their competitive advantage, one of which is used by each company. For example, Amazon’s Kindle focuses on cheaper prices of Tablets whiles FreeTime Unilimited uses a lot of visibility and marketing. Netflix on the other hand focuses on user specification in creating its competitive advantage (Luo, 1999). These competitive advantages have been known to be the factor behind the popularity of these products on the market. Use of Innovation by Competitors In terms of innovation, the Tablet PC for kids industry can be said to be one that experiences constantly changing phases of innovation. This is influenced by the larger software and hardware industry, which on a constant basis is seeing some form of new innovation or the other (Hollensen, 2011). In the light of this, users have also become highly demanding for innovative change as they use their devices. The commonest kind of innovation has focused on access to applications, quality in graphics and speech interfaces. Regulations Available For the UK, there are different regulations that will guide the location of the firm. Two of these have to do with content licensing and labour regulations. In the first instance, the product will be gaining its major competitive urge from the fact that it offers free and paid access to course materials of various educational institutions and educational programmes. In terms of content therefore, the company ought to secure permission from all educational instructions and programmes to be involved. This will usually take the form of payment of royalties to the bodies. With the textbooks, the same thing will happen as there are regulations requiring the payment of royalties to authors who agree for their books to be included. Market or labour regulations on the hiring of employees will also have to be followed as outlined in the Employment Rights Act 1996; particularly on recruitment, rewards and dismissal issues (Orbe, 2008). 4.0 Competition Analysis: Your direct competitors Who are they? The direct competitors of the company include three major groups, which are Tablet PC makers, traditional course and textbook shops, and educational fair organisations. Under each of the areas, three major competitors are identified as follows Table 3: Key Competitors Type of Competitor Name of Competitors / Code Tablet Makers Amazon (C1) Netflix (C2) FreeTime (C3) Bookshop Blackwells (C1) Waterstones (C2) W H Smith (C3) Educational Fair British Council (C1) Education UK (C2) Study Link (C3) * The codes are provided to ensure evenness in the next section where the competitors will be represented with a stacked graph. What are their market shares? The chart below describes the market shares of the key competitors as sampled from various sources including annual reports and stock prices. Figure 1: Market Share of Competitors Details of Products of Competitors Basically, competitors in the Tablet section manufacture tablets that are specially focused on kids. However, these are not necessarily considered as learning or education tools. The basis on which they are considered ideal for kids is because they have easy to use user interface and come with lower prices. The bookshops also have various contractual arrangement with secondary schools and universities to sell all kinds of books students will need on their shelves. The educational fair organisations have also focused on organising seminars and educational conferences for students aiming to pursue higher level education. 1.1. How similar are they to yours? None of the competitors is directly similar to ours because none of them combines all three major platforms that the Slate provides, which are Tablet PC, course materials and text books, and educational orientation. However, each of them offers the exact service or product in its isolated form. 1.2. What are their strengths and weaknesses? The table below discusses the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in the three areas. Industry Strength of Competitors Weakness of Competitors Tablet PC Brand equity Formidable companies that fund them Lack of control on adult content Not integrative Bookstore Brand equity International exposure Overly focused on hardcopy Most lack electronic commerce Educational Fair Brand equity Much focus on universities other than secondary educaton 2. Demand Analysis: 2.1. What is your Primary Market or primary set of targeted consumers? The primary market of the company is schools. These will comprise all levels of schools from the kindergarten level to the university level. The students will therefore serve as the consumers. But apart from the university level, the target purchaser will be the parent. 2.2. Why do they buy? Consumers will buy the Slate because it is integrated; meaning they will have several purposes served through the Slate alone (Prescott and Swartz, 2010). They will also buy because it is focused as it is specially made with the student in mind; noting contents that are good for the student and those that are not. 2.3. What need is your product satisfying? The Slate will serve three major needs at the same time. The first of this is that it is a Tablet PC and serves the need of a portable PC. The second is that it serves the needs of providing syllabus content by way of course materials and books. Lastly, the Slate provides educational orientation services. 2.4. How is the need currently being met? As outlined in 2.3 2.5. What are the alternatives? As outlined in 2.4 2.6. Are your potential customers marked by any demographic specificity? (age, gender, ethnicity, geographical location etc.) There are two major demographic variables that mark the potential customers of the product. These are age and educational status. Age wise, there are three major age groups, which are pre-teen, teenage, and adult. Each of these will have focused content that meet their needs. The educational status will also be divided into four, which are pre-school, basic school, secondary school, and tertiary. 2.7. How frequently will they purchase per month? As a non-consumable product, the Slate is expected to be purchased at different times on the educational ladder, either by using the age demographic or the educational status demographic. In effect, one would need a new product as there is advancement in age or educational status. 2.8. What is the size of your potential primary market? (in terms of the number of units of your product or service that you can sell). What is your Secondary Market or primary set of targeted consumers? The table below gives a breakdown of number of students in the UK according to educational attainement. Enrolment Number of students Primary 4.4 million Secondary 3.6 million Post-secondary 3.7 million Total 11.7 million Source: UK Department of Education (2013) 3. Operations to manufacture your product or service 3.1. What are the facilities required? As with all major Tablet and Mobile Phone productions, the following facilities will be required by the manufacturing plant: i. Resisters facilities ii. Capacitors facilities iii. Pricey processors iv. Colour LCDs v. Screws component vi. Keypad buttons facilities vii. Cingular wireless 3.2. What are the staffing requirements for production? The staffing requirement for production will include the following: i. Material handlers such as forklift operators ii. Equipment personnel who will set up manufacturing equipment iii. Plant inspectors iv. Maintenance officers v. Cleaners vi. Record keepers vii. Operators viii. Factory management team 3.3. Will you use subcontractors? Subcontractors will be used to perform various functions at the assembling unit. Some of these subcontractors will also focus on parts of the Tablet component that needs to be acquired rather than manufactured. Examples of these are subcontractors for battery and resisters (Rodriguez, Uhlenbruck and Eden, 2005). 3.4. What are the protocols for quality control? There shall be two major quality control management teams. The first of this is the internal quality control team, and the second is the external quality assurance team from the inspectorate division of the Standards Board. 4. Marketing & Sales Strategy/Plans 4.1. What is the SWOT Analysis of your products Strength Weaknesses It is integrative It is student centred It is new to the market Little start up capital Opportunities Threat Advocacy for child content with use of Tablet PCs Expansion on technological education at all levels of education Existing competitors with brand equity Licensing issues with regulatory bodies 4.2. What will be the pricing scheme? Why? Because there will be different types of Slates made for different demographic users, the pricing scheme to be used will be by users. On the average however, it is expected that during the first three years, the prices of the Slate will be as low as £90. The notion will be to make it the lowest priced European Tablet on the market. Currently, Samli, 2004) estimates the lowest priced as £90. For the four major levels of education however, prices will slightly change. Details of prices are provided in the table below. Educational Level Unit Price for first 3 years in (£) Pre-school 50 Basic level 90 Secondary level 90 Tertiary level 130 4.3. What is your distribution strategy? The distribution strategy generally outlines how the product is transferred from the company to the consumer. Because the product is going to be localised within UK, the main distribution strategy will be to have distribution agents who will be required to own Slate shops in various regions of the country. These distributors will receive their supplies directly from the company by use of distribution van. After this, the distributors are expected to have their own localised school based marketing and selling strategy that provides that they go to schools to sell. 4.4. What is your advertising and promotion strategy? There shall be two major forms of advertisement and promotion, which are online and offline advertisement and promotion. From an online perspective, the company will use the new media including social networks to a very large extent. There shall also be television advertisement. In the offline paradigm, the company shall start with major cities whereby all schools will be provided with signposts indicating the names and location of schools. The signposts will also bear advertisements of the product. Another important promotional strategy will be the coordination that the company will have with the Ministry of Education to ensure that the product becomes part of the recommended materials for students. 4.5. What is your sales forecast? Based on the capacity that was made in table 1, the following sales forecast are made. Business Component/Timeline Phase 1 (First 3 years) Average unit cost Total annual income Phase 2 (4th to 7th year) Phase 3 (8th to 11th year) Phase 4 (11th to 15th year) Production 1 million pieces of Slate sold per year 4 million pieces of Slate sold per year 8 million pieces of Slate sold per year 10 million pieces of Slate sold per year 4.6. What is sales force structure? (direct sales people or reps? How many?) The sales force shall be directly incorporated into the distribution channel to be used in the study. This will give 3 major structures of the sales force, the first of which has to do with the salespersons found under the marketing department of the company. The second shall be composed of the distributors themselves who will also form sales agents who will come for copies of products from them. The final component of sales force shall be made up of direct salespersons who will sell the products directly in schools. 4.7. What margins will you give to intermediaries? The only intermediaries to be used will be the distributors who will be given controlled stores by the company. This means that the distributors will not be part of the group that makes direct purchases from the company. Rather, there will be wholesalers who make direct purchase from the distributors on a large scale basis for onward sale to agents who will undertake direct sales. 4.8. What are your service and warranty details? The services component of the company is in place to ensure that every customer that buys a Slate from the company will have up to one year free servicing that comes in the form of installation of applications that meet the specific needs of customer. In line with provisions by the UK Standards Board also, warranty of 1 year shall be provided on each product that is bought (Official Gazette, 2005). The product would however have to be certified as an original product from the company and have its warranty features not voided. 4.9. Will you be entering into any strategic alliances? The company will have a strategic alliance with the Ministry of Education who would give their consent for the Slate to be traded as a recommended learning material through UK schools. This way, it will be possible to bill out students to buy the Slate as part of their admission requirements. The gainers of the strategic alliance will be the Ministry, who will receive royalties and commitment fees from the company to this effect (Zhang, Zhang and Liu, 2007) 5. Financial Summary****(very important) 5.1. What are the personnel costs – including all costs? The personnel cost involved in the project is expected to vary from time to time, depending on the phase of the company’s lifecycle. Generally, the cost per personnel will be estimated using the average minimum wage for UK and additional incentives per hour. Other factors that will affect the personnel cost include the qualification of individual workers. The table below gives a summary of the estimated cost for the first phase of the company lifeline. Unit of Service Minimum wage per month Number of personnel Monthly Total Yearly Total Production £1,500.00 1,000 1,500,000 18,000,000 Marketing £1,200.00 3,000 3,600,000 43,200,000 Services £1,189.92 1,000 1,189,920 14,279,040 Total 4,000 6,289,920 75,479,040 5.2. What are the costs of maintaining an advisory board? According to the provisions of the corporate governance principles, the advisory board are not expected to be on a regular salary but on compensation. It is expected that there will an average of 50 members on the advisory board with each of them, taking a compensation of £2,000a month. This will come to £100,000 a month and £1,200,000 in a month. 5.3. What are the costs of maintaining strategic alliances? The strategic alliance group is an important group that will mainly be found within the Ministry of Education. This is because it is expected that the company will have the approval of the ministry at large, so that the Slate will be part of the recommended school materials for students. The strategic alliance agencies will be expected to be given commitment fee on a yearly basis. For each year, an estimated £40,000 is expected to go into the commitment fee, based on response from industry players who were informally interviewed as part of the market research. 5.4. What are the initial fixed sunk costs of starting your business? (infrastructure, equipment, rent, utility, registration with the authorities etc.) The fixed sunk costs for starting the business for the first year will comprise the following budgetary requirements. Expenditure Amount in £ Infrastructure 40,000,000 Equipment 12,000,000 Rent 6,000,000 Installation servicing 2,000,000 Utility 1,500,000 Registration 30,000 Advisory board 1,200,000 Strategic alliance 40,000 Travel 120,000 Maintenance 100,000 Promotions 1,000,000 Research and development 500,000 Corporate citizenship 600,000 65,090,000 5.5. What are the costs of production once the infrastructure is in place? (overheads, labour, materials etc.) Once the production starts, the following costs of production are expected to be incurred Variable Expenditure Monthly Cost (Euro) Cost of Maintenance 50,000 Cost of raw material 1,666,000 Cost of labour 6,289,920 Cost of utilities 1,500,000 Cost of rent 6,000,000 Total 15,505,920 5.6. What are the costs of marketing? The cost of marketing is expected to take two major forms, the first of which is fixed marketing cost and the second, variable marketing cost. The tables below give the monthly average for fixed marketing cost and variable marketing cost. The following data was obtained from the Ministry of Economy (2012) who uses average amounts from the Chartered Institute of Marketers. Marketing variable Monthly Cost (£) Sales force salary 400,000 Advertisement campaign 100,000 Permanent marketing staff 250,000 Sales promotion materials 50,000 Cooperative advertisement allowances 90,000 Total 890,000 The variable marketing costs is estimated to include the following, according to the Chartered Institute of Marketers (CIM). Market variables Monthly Cost (£) Sales commission 70,000 Off-invoice and performance allowance 65,000 Early payment terms 50,000 Coupon face-value payments 70,000 Bill-back for local campaigns 80,000 Total 335,000 5.7. How are you raise the funds for starting a business? Through the bank statement of the existing parent company, the major source of funding will be through the acquisition of bank loans. There will also be private equity cost sharing, whereby private shareholders who believe in the vision of the company will be contacted to undertake private shareholding. This is opposite to initial public offer, where the company will be listed on the public stock exchange. 6. Projected Financials (for a minimum of 5 years – try to break even by the third year at least) 6.1. What are your cash flow projections? From what has been done earlier, the fifth year is in the 2nd phase of the company’s growth timeline. At this phase, the following variables are expected for the annual cash flow. INCOME Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total Unit Slate produced 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 4,000,000 4,000,000 11,000,000 Unit Price 90 90 90 100 100 Total 90,000,000 90,000,000 90,000,0000 400,000,000 400,000,000 1,070,000,000 Expenditure Year 1 (£) Year 2 (£) Year 3 (£) Year 4 (£) Year 5 (£) Infrastructure 40,000,000 40,000,000 40,000,000 80,000,000 80,000,000 Equipment 12,000,000 12,000,000 12,000,000 36,000,000 36,000,000 Rent 6,000,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 8,000,000 Installation servicing 2,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 Utility 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 5,000,000 5,000,000 Registration 30,000 30,000 30,000 40,000 40,000 Advisory board 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 Strategic alliance 40,000 40,000 40,000 80,000 80,000 Travel 120,000 120,000 120,000 400,000 400,000 Maintenance 100,000 100,000 100,000 300,000 300,000 Promotions 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 2,000,000 Research and development 500,000 500,000 500,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 Corporate citizenship 600,000 600,000 600,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 Administrative 10,000,000 10,000,000 10,000,000 100,00,000 100,000,000 75,090,000 75,090,000 75,090,000 241,320,000 241,320,000 6.2. What are your profit and loss projections? Given that profit is the difference between income and expenditure (Metis, 2012), the profit for the first 5 years will be as displayed in the chart below. This means that for the first 3 years, a profit of £14,910,000 is expected to be made at the end of each year. This will increase to £158,680,000 at the end of each year. 7. Appendices – any public information or any supporting evidence for 5-9. Reference Beamish, P. W. (2007). Joint ventures in LDCs: Partner selection and performance. Management International Review, vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 23-37. Buckley, P. J., & Casson, M. C. (2008). Analyzing foreign market entry strategies: Extending the internationalization approach. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 539-561. Chang, S.-J., & Rosenzweig, P. M. (2001). The choice of entry mode in sequential foreign direct investment. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 22 No. 8, pp. 747-776. Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., & Sullivan, D. P. (2011). International business. Environments and operations (13th ed.). Pearson Education: New Jersey. Hollensen, S. (2011). Global Marketing. A decision-Oriented Approach (5th ed.). Prentice Hall: Harlow Luo, Y. (1999). Entry and cooperative strategies in international business expansion. Quorum Books: Westport. Metis D. D. (2012). About the Company. [Online] Available from http://www.metis.hr/en/o-nama/metis-dd/ [March 11, 2014] Ministry of Economy. (2012). Incentives for Investment. [Online] Available from http://www.mingo.hr/default.aspx?id=3240 [March 12, 2014] Official Gazette. (2005). Nature Protection Act. [Online] Available from http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/288893.html [March 11, 2014] Orbe, M. P. (2008). Explicating Phenomenological Inquiry. In M. P. Orbe, Constructuring Co-cultural Theory: An Explication of Culture, Power and Communication. Sage Publications, Inc: Thousands Oaks, California Prescott, D., & Swartz, S. (2010). Joint Ventures in International Arena (2nd ed.). American Bar Association: Chicago Rodriguez, P., Uhlenbruck, K., & Eden, L. (2005). ‘Government corruption and the entry strategies of multinationals’. Academy of Management Review Vol.30 No. 2, pp. 383-396. Samli, A. C. (2004). Entering and succeding in emerging countries: Marketing to the forgotten majority. Thompson South-Western: Mason Zhang, Y., Zhang, Z., & Liu, Z. (2007). Choice of entry modes in sequential FDI in an emerging economy. Journal of Management History, Vol. 45 No.4, pp. 749-772. UK Department of Education (2013). Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics: January 2012. [Online] Available from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2012 [March 11, 2014] Read More