IT and Entrepreneurship Strategies for Success - Coursework Example

IT and Entrepreneurship Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 2. Business Idea 3 3. Background 6 4. Ownership and Company Structure 7 5. The Team:Leaders and Accountants 8 6. The Product/Service 9 7. Marketing Plan 10 8. Sales and Distribution 11 9. Competitors 11 10. Customers 12 11. Agreements and Alliance 13 12. The Budget 14 13. The Investment Needs 16 15. Profit and Exit 18 19 References 20 1. Executive Summary The business plan has been intended to develop a website design that would be delivering transparent information to people pertaining to price, location, equipment and technology used by private and cosmetic dentists in the United Kingdom. The customers with the help of this website are expected to retrieve transparent information on the basis of which they can decide and choose dentists offering better deal. The website would be registered under the domain dentalinfo.co.uk. The website will adopt B2B business model. Simple and easy navigation in conjunction with quick access of information by the customers will serve as key features of the website. The website will use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a marketing tool in order to draw considerable attention of the people seeking dental care. The website will undertake product differentiation strategy in the form of discount to face the intense competition prevailing at the marketplace. The projected profit before tax is calculated to amount to £81200 for the first year. Besides, ample scope for its growth is expected in the years to come. 2. Business Idea The business idea is to design a website that will be providing detailed information about dentists in the United Kingdom. The website will offer a wide range of information to customers that will be worthwhile for them in order to acquire transparent and relevant idea pertaining to different aspects including locations, price and other relevant features offered by the private and cosmetic dentists. The website will provide customers with easy and simple navigation wherein they will be able to gather needed information at a single mouse click. The key element of the website will be superior customer service and fast delivery of information without many complexities. The website will also ensure that customers visiting the site are offered with unique experience and relevant information that would assist them to select dentists based on their needs and price affordability. The website will serve as a local search engine and its target customers will include every individual seeking information regarding private and cosmetic dentists irrespective of demographic and income differences. The underlying principle of this search engine will be that it will be predominately focused upon offering information surrounding private and cosmetic dentists. The homepage of the website will display the name list of dentists along with their contact information including clinic locations and phone numbers. The name list of dentists will be bifurcated into two categories including private and cosmetic dentists in order to make it convenient for customers to acquire information based on their needs. Moreover, the website will offer customers with the facility to book appointment for their selected dentists. The information incorporated in the website will be based upon the data collected about the dentists currently functioning in the UK. The marketing team of the website will be allocated with the responsibility to gather all the relevant information regarding the dentists. Due ethical consideration will be placed while collecting information about the dentists in order to ensure that only authentic and relevant information are transferred to the customers. The customers will be able to get information regarding the past history and the performance of the dentists along with the fees charged by them and the technologies used by dentists in an easy manner by simply clicking on the names of the dentists. Based on this information, customers will be able to compare the various aspects related to private and cosmetic dentists that would enable them to decide and select the most potential dentists that would best meet their desires and requirements. At the same time, the information related to dentists will be updated at a regular interval based on their performance and other aspects so that customers are able to make wise choice according to their requirements. In addition, the website will also feature the facility of account creation which will enable dentists to create their own accounts and update their information. This facility will also reduce the cost for the business relative to data collection procedure. Furthermore, pay-per-click (PPC) system will be adopted. PPC system will assist in tracing the number of visitors who pop into the website. It will eventually assist in obtaining quality of traffic and generating action necessary for amassing revenue (Douzet, n.d.). Nonetheless, the website will significantly contribute towards generating transparency regarding price and other features provided by dentists that will offer customers with better deal in terms of selecting dentists. Besides, it will also increase the competition amid the dentists which will ultimately lead to customer benefits in the form of improved services. Clearly, the business model followed by the website will be B2B (business-to-business) model. The SWOT analysis which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is crucial to be conducted in order to gain an understanding regarding the internal and external environment. Accordingly, the strength of the website lays on it simple and easy navigation. Moreover, the website would display dentist centric information unlike other websites which incorporate information pertaining to different medical areas. At the same time, its strength of rendering dentist centric information can also be regarded as it weakness as those customers will only visit the site having dental care need while other customers may not find it interesting. The growing size of dental care business as well as increasing number of people relying on network to acquire information can be considered as potential opportunities for the website. The fierce competition from those websites that have already acquired significant market share can be observed as the key threat that may hamper the successful operations of the website. 3. Background The changing lifestyle has a significant influence on the health of people. In the current situation, people are constantly struggling to achieve healthy lifestyle. Against the backdrop of increasing oral diseases, more and more people are emphasising maintaining healthy teeth and gums (Durham Region, 2014). Notably, private and cosmetic dental care businesses are growing rapidly. However, despite the standard procedure followed by the dentists in the marketplace significant variation in the prices can be witnessed amid dentists. Undesirably, those dentists offering better deal to customers are prevented from acquiring justifiable market coverage and price due to advertising. It has been observed that customers often get tempted towards advertisements and fail to make appropriate decisions. As a consequence, customers lose the opportunity to realise the best deal and thus pay more for the services availed by them which would have otherwise cost them less. It is thus crucial that customers are provided with certain important information that would ensure market transparency and further assist them to make purchasing decisions based on comparative prices and performance (Kaže, 2010). In a nutshell, the business idea is to design a website that would ensure market transparency pertaining to the various aspects of dentists which would eventually facilitate the customers to seek better value for the cost they incur. 4. Ownership and Company Structure The business structure of the website will be sole proprietorship where the owner will be acting as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the business. The sole proprietorship form of business structure is selected as it requires low start-up costs as well as minimum working capital. In addition, this type of business structure offers owners with significant control over the business operations. Furthermore, it also offers tax advantage to owners. The sole proprietorship business structure is also subjected to comply with low government regulations (Small Business BC, n.d.). Furthermore, the website will duly comply with requisite legislations and regulations for ensuring successful establishment of the business. With respect to the UK online business environment, all the legal procedures and requirements placed by the government body will be appropriately followed. In this regard, the website will be registered under Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) of the UK. In addition, the online businesses are obligated to comply with the tax provision; therefore the website will also comply with the Value Added Tax (VAT) regulations of the UK. However, as the size and the operations of the business increase, the business structure will be changed to Limited Liability Company (LLC) (Pinsent Masons LLP, n.d.). Besides, the business will be located at 11-12 Wimpole St, London for delivering customers with relevant information about private and cosmetic dentists. The website will be registered under .co.uk domain and will be known as dentalinfo.co.uk. This domain name is selected as a majority of people searching for information in the UK use this domain as a primary mode of searching. Moreover, the business will follow the hierarchical organisational structure in order to render services to customers in the UK. The process of departmentalisation will be placed with the business where head of every departmental unit will be directly responsible to report to the CEO of the organisation. The process of departmentalisation will take the shape of marketing department, financial department, and research and development department. The process of departmentalisation can be best understood through the below represented diagram (Webfusion Ltd, 2014). 5. The Team: Leaders and Accountants The CEO of dentalinfo.co.uk will be liable to monitor all the activities and operations of the business. At the same time, situational leadership style will be adopted across the departments which will require leaders within the business to take decisions based on the situation. A marketing manager will be hired who will be heading marketing department and shall be responsible for gathering information related to dentists. An accountant will also be hired who will be monitoring day-to-day financial activities of the business. Similarly, a research and development manager will be recruited who will be responsible for maintenance of the website. During the start-up of the business, a part time lawyer will be hired in order to execute legal activities necessary for establishment of the business. All the heads of the department will be working in order to ensure greater customer satisfaction through improved information provided to them. The collaborative effort across the department will facilitate in achieving business success and sustainable growth for the website. 6. The Product/Service dentalinfo.co.uk. will provide information in the form service to customers. The service offered by the website will include information about price, features, performance, technology and equipment used by dentist as well as other relevant information. This type of information will be gathered by marketing department from the marketplace which will then be hosted over the website wherein customers or the people seeking dental care will be able to access such information in a convenient manner. The service offered by the website is of great importance as it will facilitate people to acquaint themselves with various information pertaining dentists and compare the information in order to decide the best deal for them. Besides, the information will help people to derive significant value for the cost incurred for their treatment. It is expected that the business will render significant benefit in the form of revenue as there are only few other websites that are currently operating in the same business segment. Moreover, customers will be able to place their feedback regarding their experience while dealing with the website which will further assist in improving service delivery process. 7. Marketing Plan Formulating marketing plan is a crucial element for the success of dentalinfo.co.uk. The efficient use of marketing plan can facilitate in determining the target customers as well as communicating the information regarding the services offered by the website to the potential customers. Undoubtedly, effective marketing plan facilitates in boosting the sale of the business services thus increasing the prospect of greater revenue for the website (Mellor & et. al., 2009). The target customer group of the website will include people of all ages seeking dental care irrespective of income and demographic differences. The business will also be targeting individuals primarily the youth population who are interested at enhancing their beauty through cosmetic dental treatment. The key objective of the marketing plan of the website will be to promote its business among the large customer base quickly in order to capture greater market share. The website will use social media as a primary marketing tool. In this regard, the website will use two social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. Correspondingly, the website will create a Twitter account as well as a Facebook account in order to promote the services offered by the website. At the same time, the website will post latest updates regarding the information about private and cosmetic dentists via twitter and Facebook which will enable people to receive instant updated information. The use of social media platform will also enable the website to capture the comment posts on social networking sites which will eventually facilitate in improving the overall business process. In addition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will be adopted in order to provide customers with easy search facility. The customers will be able to locate the website by simply typing keywords on other search engines such as Google and Yahoo (Safko & Brake, 2009; Prince Edward Island, 2007). 8. Sales and Distribution As stated earlier, B2B model will be followed by dentalinfo.co.uk. Apart from offering information regarding dentists, the website will also sell advertising and subscription in order to generate greater revenue. The website will acquire nominal fees in the form of commission which would aim at amplifying the profit generation capability of the business. The website will acquire commission from dentists for the information offered to the customers. At the same time, PPC system will also aid the company with substantial profit (Douzet, n.d.). 9. Competitors In the current business environment, competition acts as a strong determinant for the success of any business. As far as the health information service providers in the UK is concerned, there exist a fierce competition. There are different other similar search engines like dentalinfo.co.uk who are extensively involved in rendering services to customers in the UK. Correspondingly, Bing Health, Hitachi Healthcare and SearchMedica are the major competitors that are currently operating their business in the UK. These health information service providers are already established and are widely known by people across the UK. Thus, these health information service providers are likely provide an intense level of competition to dentalinfo.co.uk. Undoubtedly, it will be quite difficult for the dentalinfo.co.uk to acquire customers during the initial year of its establishment. Although these service providers are relatively popular in the marketplace which offers them an upper hand over dentalinfo.co.uk but these service providers have certain weaknesses which will benefit the website to attain greater competitive traction. In this regard, the major drawbacks associated with these service providers are related with the large volume of information. Notably, these service providers incorporate a wide range of health related information on different health issues wherein customers often find it difficult to access the needed information. Thus, the ability of dentalinfo.co.uk to incorporate information related with dentists only will be able to draw the attention of people seeking dental care. In order to attain competitive advantage over other competitors, dentalinfo.co.uk will also adopt product differentiation strategy. Consequently, the customers visiting the website will be offered with discount on fees charged by dentists for booking appointment from the web portal of dentalinfo.co.uk. The major strengths of the website include simple, easy and quick navigation facility and the availability of reliable and regularly updated information which will facilitate dentalinfo.co.uk to draw considerable attention of the people seeking dental care. All the strengths of dentalinfo.co.uk will facilitate it to earn substantial growth and profit. 10. Customers Customers are the most important element for any business. In order to succeed at the marketplace, there must be customer demand for certain products and services. Customers at the marketplace have diverse needs. It is crucial to determine the needs of the customers efficiently for successful operations of the business. For the website dentalinfo.co.uk, every individual seeking dental health will be targeted irrespective of demographic differences. However, the website will place significant attention to youths, interested in cosmetic dental treatment. Moreover, parents of the children will also be targeted. The target customers will be offered with valuable information that would enable them to compare information pertaining to price, performance and other features in order to grab the best deal through easy and simple navigation. The website will incorporate a convenient way of accessing information which will enable customers of all age groups to easily acquire relevant information based on their price affordability and requirements. 11. Agreements and Alliance The website will also be engaged in establishing agreements with dentists regarding the terms and conditions associated with the B2B model. It will also enter into alliance with other web portals agreeing to serve sponsored search results. These agreements and alliances will facilitate the website with unhindered execution of its business operations and at the same time it will increase the profit generating capability for the website as well (Douzet, n.d.). 12. The Budget The total start-up cost for dentalunfo.co.uk is estimated to be £16700 for the first three months of its initial establishment. The website will incur £2000 per month for the rented premise where the office of the business will be located. The website will also have to invest £500 on decorating the office such as painting of the wall and making other necessary modifications. Computer and other equipment needed for the operations will require the website to incur £4000. In addition, the accountant and lawyer salary during the establishment of the website will cost around £3300. The website will be required to invest around £1500 on marketing and advertisement purpose during its establishment period. The website will also have to incur cost for the registration of its domain name which would amount to £200. It is estimated that after the first three months of its establishment, the estimated benefits will be £22,000. The start-up cost along with the cost benefit analysis for the website is represented hereunder: Budget for the establishment of dentalinfo.co.uk   GBP Expenses   Premises:   Deposit on rented space 6,000 Modification and decorating 500     Production (capital) equipment:   Computers 2700 Software 500 Other 0     Office equipment:   Furniture 1,000 Computer associated 800 Telephone system 200 Internet 1,000     Advisors:   Lawyer (contract lawyer) 1,500 Accountant 1,800 Other 0     Marketing:   Social Media 500 Other 0     Other expenses: 0 Domain Registration 200 Patents or other IP protection 0 Other       Total expenses: 16,700 Cost-Benefit Analysis (First Three Months)   Initial Cost in £     Cost   Deposit on rented space 6,000 Modification and Decorating 500 Computer 2,700 Software 500 Furniture 1,000 Printers and other computer tools 800 Internet 1,000 Telephone 200 Lawyer 1,500 Accountant 1,800 Social Media 500 Domain Registration 200 Gross Cost 16,700     Benefits   Advertisement 10,000 Subscriptions and commissions 12,000 Estimated Benefits 22,000 13. The Investment Needs The cumulative sales turnover from the operation of the website is projected to amount to £28000 for the first year. It is estimated that the website will generate substantial revenue of £10500 from the sales advertising while £175000 will be generated in the form of commission. Furthermore, the total fixed cost for the first year is calculated to be £198300. During the first year of it operations, the accumulated depreciation is projected to be £500. Correspondingly, it is estimated that the profit before tax for the first year of its establishment will amount to £81200. It is expected that the website in the coming years will able to acquire steady growth with substantial profit. The projected running cost budget for the first year of establishment is illustrated below: Running costs budget for dentalinfo.co.uk   For the period to Year 1     Turn over (sales)   Advertisement 105,000 Commissions and Subscription 175,000 Total: 280,000       cover (sales - variable costs) 280,000     Fixed costs   Salary (including pension and NI) 140,000 Internet 6,000 Rent of premises 24,000 Electricity, heat & water 1,500 Repair and upkeep of premises 500 Cleaning 800 Office supplies 1,000 Postage 500 Telephone 2,000 Marketing/advertising 5,500 Computers & software 4,000 Accountant 7,500 Lawyer 5,000 Fixed costs total: 198,300     Result before interest and depreciation 81,700         Depreciation:   Capital equipment 500 Others 0 Total depreciation: 500     Fixed costs including interest and depreciation: 198800     Profit Before Tax 81200 14. Any Barriers Establishment of a new business is not always an easy task. There often subsist certain factors that hinder the successful establishment and operation of the business. Concerning dentalinfo.co.uk, the competition can be perceived to be a major barrier that might impose significant level of risk for the successful establishment and functionality of the website. Since competitors are already well-known amid the customers, it would be quite difficult for the new website to draw attention of the prevalent users towards the service offered by it. At the same time, the collection of data regarding price, performance, technology and equipment use as well as other features used by dentists will be quite difficult for the website particularly during its initial period of establishment. Moreover, changes in legal environment may also possibly influence the operations of the website. The growing concern regarding data privacy and security may act as the other major barrier for the website as probably not many customers will be keen to access the information provided over its website. Dentists may also reveal their reluctance to provide information about their various facets which might serve as a potential barrier for the sustainable performance of the website. 15. Profit and Exit There lays a significant opportunity for the website to acquire substantial revenue from its operations as it is one of the unique websites providing health information service solely based on dental care. This feature of the website makes it unique over other health information service providers. The simple and easy navigation facility will also enable the website to attract considerable customers having dental care need. With the maturation of the business, it is projected that the website will be able to attain sustainable growth and increased profitability. Undoubtedly, it is projected to be a ‘win-win’ situation for the business in the not so distance future. In terms of exit strategy, an avenue will be kept open wherein a different genre of business will be taken up in place of the present business with gathered revenue. References Douzet, A., No Date. An Investigation of Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising: Modeling the PPC Paradigm to lower Cost per Action. Background Information on the Pay Per Click, pp. 1-7. Durham Region, 2014. Why Is Oral Health Important. Child health News. [Online] Available at: http://www.durham.ca/departments/health/dental/whyOralHealthImportant.pdf [Accessed March 13, 2014]. Kaže, V., 2010. The Impact of Customer Values on Purchasing Behaviour: A Case of Latvian Insurance Market. Economics and Management, pp. 605-611. Mellor, R.B. & et. al., 2009. Entrepreneurship for Everyone. SAGE Publications Inc. Prince Edward Island, 2007. Increasing Traffic to Your Website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques. Original, pp. 1-10. Pinsent Masons LLP, No Date. Taxation of E-commerce. Introduction to Taxation of E-commerce. [Online] Available at: http://www.out-law.com/page-7512 [Accessed March 13, 2014]. Safko, L. & Brake, D. K., 2009. The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success. John Wiley & Sons. Small Business BC, No Date. How To Choose Right Business Structure. Advantages & Disadvantages of General Partnership. [Online] Available at: http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/sbbcfiles/files/How_to_Choose_the_Right_Business_Structure.pdf [Accessed March 13, 2014]. Webfusion Ltd, 2014. Start Your Online Journey with A .Co.Uk Domain Registration From 123-Reg. Domain Names. [Online] Available at: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/domain-names/co-uk-domains.shtml [Accessed March 13, 2014]. Read More