Business Plan of University Scooters - Essay Example

The company’s ability to rapidly join the market with such a low entry cost is one of the greatest strengths portrayed by this individual plan. With a little over 100,000 dollars, the firm can buy stock, rent space, hire staff, and make the product offering available to the target market.

Opportunities
The opportunity for expansion is high because this firm requires a very modest amount of initial investment to operate and will likely quickly draw a residual revenue. Likewise, a secondary opportunity lies in the ability of the firm to branch out and offer services to other universities statewide or at the national level with the same type of business plan and the same level of initial investment
A further definite opportunity that this project enjoys is the fact that people are becoming increasingly mindful of the level of carbon emissions they produce. As such mopeds/scooters are the perfect means to combat this while the entire time providing rapid, easy-to-park transportation to meet the needs of the customer.

Threats
The most obvious and extent threat that such a business endeavor faces is born out of the strength that this analysis has previously mentioned. Because the cost of entry is so low, it is conceivable that such a firm might have several competitors – seemingly overnight. Due to this fact, it must be incumbent upon the firm to ensure that its product is offered at a reasonable price and that its service leaves nothing to be desired. Because entrants can come and go so easily, the firm must leave nothing to be desired on the off chance that they will lose a great deal of customer patronage if a competitor can outdo them concerning any part of the business plan

Weakness
Unfortunately, the weaknesses of the plan far outweigh its strengths, opportunities, or even threats. The first of these is the question of why a student would choose to rent rather than buy. With such a low cost per unit (between 400-700 USD), one wonders why any college student would rent such a device rather than pay for it outright. Understandably college students lack a great deal of discretionary income; however, at such prices, it beggars belief that an individual would not perform a rapid cost-benefit analysis and determine that they would be better off purchasing a scooter rather than renting it because they could effectively pay it off in the space of a year.
Although it is a stereotype, it is without question that a broad majority of college students will not necessarily take careful care of their leased moped during the period in which they are using it. As such, no mention was made in the plan about how University Mopeds work to recoup this loss when a moped is returned to poor operating condition.

Furthermore, most parts of Oregon experience a great deal of rain. As anyone with prior experience riding a bicycle, moped, or motorcycle can attest, doing so in the rain is a miserable experience. How will University Mopeds work to provide these products in a market that experiences such high precipitation levels?

A further weakness of the plan is the lack of information provided concerning where the demographic data was obtained (University Mopeds, 2011). The figures and statistics were interesting but without a citation, the analyst can't make an informed decision regarding their voracity. Similarly, the statistics that were projected for overall sales represented that at least half of all first-year revenue would be generated by the sale of accessories for these mopeds. As even a casual observer might note, this cannot be reasonable. Because the firm will be selling moped accessories in tandem with their moped rentals, it only makes sense that accessory sales contribute to but a small percentage of fir t year sales.