Market Research And Business Plan Assignment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

logo

Department of Engineering and Design,

BEng (Hons) Project in Computer Systems and networking Engineering

Innovation and Enterprise

Author: Meshack Dongwe

ID number: 2102916

Academic Session: 2012/2013

Unit Coordinator : Chris Mark Craven Dowlen

Supervisor: Dr. Goran Bezanov

Course Title: Computer Systems and Networks

Mode of Study: Full Time

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Molina is a single owner company based in Columbus, Ohio. The company offers affordable internet-based advertising and promotions solutions. The company’s principal market comprises of small trade owners in the region around Columbus, Ohio. The CEO and owner is Ms Jacqueline James. Ms James is using her funds and knowledge as a former TV presenter and marketer to promote the new business, Ms James is about to create an exclusive internet based interactive magazine to be known by the name of women.com, which has acquired the URL www.women.com. The women.com is 100% owned by Ms James as a single owner. Women.Com will help women by providing them with update news, advice , humour and public discussions. As its name suggests, Women.com will be a very useful resource tool for women who are targeted users. It will be both motivating and stimulating brand. Women.com will mainly aim for women aged between 30-65 who are busy and fully involved in several jobs and who lead busy and hectic lifestyle as a father, Mother or grandparents, and as community members. During first year of functioning, the focus of its magazine contents will purely be from the Columbus area, and will multiply each year thereafter to conquer the whole country and the globe by the end of its three years. Throughout the first three years, women.com will not be paying for unique contents. The Contents service will be given by the increasing number of contributors, links and other Networks. In the course of first year, forty per cent will be given by owners of the business and other professionals who have areas of expertise; twenty five per cent via links to content editors; and the rest from publishers of other blogger and unpaid sponsors. Editorial and graphic art mechanism will make sure that the product identity maintained and continued. After the third year of business, it is anticipated that an increased amount of publications will be delivered by paid volunteers who will make sure that the originality of publications bear the women.com patent. Again throughout the three years period, women.com’s only cash income cause will be through publicity and partner programs. As the product continues to grow and becomes more established, it may be attached to other products such as women.com self-help journals. It is expected that omen.com will start with an initial capital of $.475, 000 which will be provided by Ms James. And the start date is expected to be 30th June 2013. Finally all women.com financial forecasts for the first three years of trading are also contained within this business plan.

OBJECTIVES

The first year`s goals of the women.com will be as follows:

To construct the organisation of women.com which will include creating a website and setting up strictly editorial policy.

To unveiling www.women.com by anticipated date of June 30, 2013.

To present 70 pages of publication this excludes links to other outside contents.

To realize a 50 pages target rate of per month for view pages.

To attain a 100 new visitors who are unique every single month.

Click- through rate outside the content to hit the rate of 2000 per month.

To make sure the company sells $ 5000 worth of advertisement for every month.

To put women.com click-through navigation buttons on approximately 25 other webpages of sponsors.

To inaugurate women.com as a brand.

COMPANY`S MISSION STATEMENT

The main mission of women.com is to promote, teach and uplifting women values. In addition to that the company also believes that it will make a good entertainment for women. The company strive to provide alertness into issues that have big emotional impact to women, to encourage women to realize their potential, to teach women in both real-world and academic subjects, to offer an environment for discussion, and to create a caring and developed community.

COMPANY`S PLAN FOR SUCCESS

The activities leading to the company`s great achievement are:-

To build, Maintain and conduct regular tests on women.com website architecture to make sure it runs smooth without any setbacks.

Recognition and exploitation of quality content sources

Constantly weave the content like a dream into the women.com website experience.

Regulate the overheads while maximizing importance to the user.

For click-through visitors realisation of targeted number is important.

Work tirelessly to attain the targeted page numbers for published articles.

To make and recognise women.com website as a search engine tool.

To obtain and maintain user data by means of secure database which will make universe of women.com authenticated users. This process will help to identify both the number of quality user rise and fall and where the users are concentrated most.

To make and maintain the quality and stable bloggers and supporters/contributors and bloggers.

Attain advertising goals space, duration, and revenue.

Revelation of the women.com product to other market places.

SUMMARY OF THE COMPANY AND OWNERSHIP

Columbus people know and realises that there is an unfilled emptiness in the internet self-help marketplace which needs to be filled. Through consultations it shows that most women are happy that Ms James will create women.com which will serve them as an internet destination for women aged between 25 and 75 years old, and that the website will provide hands-on, motivating, and aspirational information which is peer-generated. Ms James who is a sole proprietor of Women.com will make Start-up funding available for project to the amount of $475,000. It is also anticipated that additional funding may be provided through grants and may be small business loans. The company has no plans to look for help of funding from other venture capital investors or indeed wealthy individuals during the first three years of its existence. The total investment capital required for women.com throughout three year period is projected to be in the region of $1,103,850.

COMPANY LOCALITY

Since women.com is an internet-based business, then its real physical address of the location will not important to customers. However the posting address has been included as:

Apt 6607 Quail Creek Drive ‘

Canal Winchester Columbus

Ohio, OH 43110

USA

PRODUCTS SUMMARY

The produce of women.com is information and the produce will be conveyed through the website www.women.com`s contents. A category of the produce includes:

Educational and general Information

General information about topics related to everyday life— things like work, dietary plans, bringing up of children and education,

Presentation of new Product

General reviews of Product and showcases by women-owned companies

Testimonials and interviews

History and Culture

Availability of publications that provide context and highlight the culture in which we live.

6. Commentary and humour

Will also be a place where women can relax and relief their stress.

PRODUCTION COST

Content will be provided by a growing network of contributors and links. During first year women.com content will be provided by the following:

Promotional: One-third will be provided by business owners and consultants who have areas of professional expertise. Contributors will be invited to submit articles that provide useful or inspiring information to our target audience. In exchange, the contributor will be provided with an opportunity to present a link to his or her business. This will be a non-cash barter agreement.

Links: One-third through links to other Internet content creators. Women.com will provide a brief introductory paragraph or graphic, and a link to the selected content. After third year, women.com may begin to phase out this category of content because it does not enhance the women .com brand as effectively as purpose-written, original, and copyrighted by women.com content.

Bloggers and contributors: One-third will be provided by bloggers and unpaid contributors.

Bloggers: It is a goal of women.com to provide a robust public forum for the exchange an expression of ideas. Blogs encourage participation and build audiences.

Unpaid contributors: women.com will provide a professional platform and an audience for emerging writers who are not yet ready to attract fee-based outlets for their work. Editorial and graphic art control will ensure brand identity and continuity.

Key articles that cannot be acquired in the three preceding ways will be purchased as works for hire.

MARKET ANALYSIS SUMMARY

Women.com exists in an information marketplace. Management believes that a thorough knowledge of this highly competitive marketplace is a key to success. Effective branding and positioning in the marketplace and the possibility of creating a new market can be accomplished only with a clear picture of our competition. Before the advent of the internet, women’s informational content providers consisted of two sources: glossy magazines (Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Family Circle, Vogue), and television programs (Julia Child, the View). Since the development of the internet, a third source has been added: women’s website destinations.

MARKET ANALYSIS: COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

There are several general-interest competitors to women.com. They include:

www.ivillage.com/

"iVillage Inc., is a division of "NBC Universal", It is the leading and biggest media corporation committed exclusively to connecting women at every stage of their lives. Ranked the number one online destination for women with 31.4 million unique visitors (comScore MediaMetrix ), iVillage.com offers an authentic community infused with compelling content from experts on well-being, childcare, prenatal period, prettiness, elegance, fitness, interactions, nutrition and show business. The site’s communicating features include thousands of message boards and a wide variety of social meet people tools, permitting women around the world to link, share their way of thinking, and look for advice and backing about everything from fertility to fashion."

www.style.com

The Condé Nast portal for Vogue Magazine.

Average Unique Users/ Month: 2 Million

Source: Publishers Data, April 2006 - March 2007

12% Male / 88% Female

Median Age: 39.4

74% Ages 18-49

74% Ages 25-54

Average HHI: $81,811

Source: @plan, Spring 2007

http://www.womansday.com/

The online version of the glossy magazine, a unit of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. Their statistics are:

WomansDay.com Traffic: monthly unique visitors: 840,000 monthly page views: 20.4 million Demographics: Female 91% age 25-54 70% median age 46.3 years average Household income $65,280 employed 54% att. / grad. college+ 75% married 69% children in Household 49% own a residence 79%

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/

Hearst Website: "Publication started in March 2006, Hearst Magazines and Digital Media is devoted to forming and realizing the digital online and mobile approach for Hearst Magazines. It is still a part of the Hearst Corporation, the world's most leading editors of monthly journals, with a total of 19 titles for US and over 200 global editions…with over 12million new and unique users every month."

http://shine.yahoo.com/

Shine is Yahoo’s proprietary website that targets only women. "We craved to produce a dynamic, smart place for women to meet obtain information and to link up with others and the world around them… we want you to be a part of it, and not just a bystander. This is not just a magazine or a TV show where you are not active participant but you also can help to create this site.

http://allwomenstalk.com/

"All Women’s Talk is a website created especially for Fabulous Women. It brings the hottest updates on beauty, fashion, love, celebrities and other significant things we, women, need for our general fabulousness, So, what does All Women’s Talk do exactly? It gathers all the finest articles from the most popular blogs and sites for women and shows them all in one place, so that you do not have to go back and forth from one bookmark to another. It sorts and groups all this information by categories, making it easy to find related articles from other sites, so that you get it all!"

http://www.bellaonline.com/

"BellaOnline provides an inspiring, reassuring publishing public for women. We run free teaching, promotions and support so writers may reach their personal goals. Overall, BellaOnline strive to provide very helpful, high quality and trustworthy content for free. We are a community of women who live all around the globe….

http://www.womenworking.com/

A website operated by consultant Helene Lerner.

http://www.womensenews.org

"Mission Statement: Women's eNews is the definitive source of substantive news—unavailable anywhere else--covering issues of particular concern to women and providing women's perspectives on public policy. It heightens

http://www.wowowow.com/

The website offers no information about the mission or management of wowowow. It seems to be a platform for the musings of wealthy and/or celebrity women including Leslie Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin, and Candice Bergen.

STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION SUMMARY

Our strategy is based on becoming a leader in a clearly defined market. Our audience of multitasking women 25-75 is internet savvy, looking for answers to life’s challenges, eager to share advice and knowledge, and brand-loyal.

The task is to reach, inform, and involve our target market with minimal cash expense. Our first year strategy will be to maximize our search engine visibility, leverage affiliates, use email advertising, and create awareness through our link of contributors.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION STRATEGY

Search engine optimization: women.com is being designed to be Google-friendly, with significant numbers of content-rich pages and text, links, and steady site activity. We will avoid the use of short-term tricks such as spamdexing, link farming, or keyword stuffing that is both unethical and detectable by search engine spiders.

Affiliates: It is our goal to build a network of legitimate links with affiliates in order to make finding women.com easy and to enhance search engine visibility.

Email: Selected email blasts will be sent to carefully edited lists to inform and involve prospective users.

Personal outreach: Ms James has built her business Molina through personal networking throughout the central Ohio area, and will apply her considerable experience and skill to promoting women.com.

Our contributors: We will encourage our contributors to become Website Ambassadors, because it is in their best interest to promote their personal contribution to the website.

REVENUE

Throughout its three years of operational period, women.com is expecting to earn income mainly through sales and advertisements. In the first year the advertising rates will be as tabulated below:

ACGIH Home package

size

6 Months

12 Months

160 x600

$400

$350

468 x 60 header

$375

$325

468 x60

$300

$250

160 x600

$325

$275

160 x600

$300

$325

468 X 60 Header

$300

$250

We will also exploit the potential of affiliate programs. Our value as an affiliate will grow as women.com acquires more market share.

Our sales strategy will include outreach to potential advertisers and affiliating partners. Our sales objectives are:

MANAGEMENT

As previously stated women.com is a single proprietorship owned by Ms Jacqueline James. I will be moving in as the company manager and Full-time web designer. The company will also hire sub-contractors to work on areas of Law and finance management. There will be part-time staffing arrangement to cover permanent staff when on holiday or unable to attend work due to illness.

THE TEAM OF MANAGEMENT

Ms Jacqueline James, Owner and President

MBA Franklin University, BSc (Hons) Journalism and international studies from university of London. She is the founder of Melina trading Inc. and women.com a sister company. Ms James Has worked for different international media organisations before moved to United States to start a new life. The companies worked for includes International labour organisation (ILO) and British Broadcasting corporation BBC

Others

James Dongwe Manager & Full Time web designer

BEng Computer Systems and Networking from London Southbank University.

Expertise in website design and Network solutions

COMPANY`S STAFFING PLAN

The following table shows the company`s recruitment plan and expected remunerations package for key personnel:

NAME

POSITION

Y1

Y2

Y3

1.Ms Jacqueline James

Owner and President

$60,000

$65,000

$80,000

2.James Dongwe

Manager & Web designer FT

$34,000

$36,000

$38,000

3.Jill Jones

Sales Executive

$32,000

$34,000

$36,000

4.Clive Soliris

Marketing FT

$22,000

$25,000

$28,000

Dorah Djiouk

Web design & Programmer PT

$18,000

$18,750

$19,000

6. Duncan & Co

Lawyers & Accounting Consultancy

$24,000

$25,000

$27,000

Risk Analysis

An unusual risk factor facing women.com is growth. The company must take steps to not outpace its access to capital and its management capabilities. Failing to manage growth could lead to rapid implosion, a collapse under the stress and strain on infrastructure, on customer, staff members and on cash flow .While this business plan represents our best estimates of the future for women.com and Molina Group Company limited. It should also be noted that not all of the major risks can be predicted or avoided and quite few business plans are free of errors of omission or commission. Therefore, any individual or company thinking about to invest in women.com or its sister company (Molina) should be aware that this business has its own risks that should be evaluated prior to any investment.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

After the company`s initialisation and the website has been launched, it is now the time to focus on the growth of the company which will be achieved by the amount of cash flow made by affiliated sales and advertisement, monies which may be brought in through government or private grants (particularly from those individual intending to promote small businesses owned by women), and additional investment by Ms James, or the solicitation of outside investors. The Company`s Expenses will be controlled by the use of independent accountants who will be contracted by the company by paying a regular fee basis.

COMPANY`S PROFIT AND LOSS PROJECTION

The company expects $ 181,777 in net income after the end of first year of trading and $ 599,305 at its third trading year and the Margins will be 22.04 % at first year and 36.06 % in third year.

PROFIT AND LOSS

2013

2014

2015

SALES

$824,870

$1,291,500

$1,662,000

Cost of Sales

$120,000

$150,000

$250,000

Sales team payroll

$203,983

$270,000

$307,100

Other costs of sales

$0

$0

$0

Total Cost of Sales

$323,928

$420,050

$557,100

Gross Margin

60.73%

67.48%

66.48%

Total sales and marketing Expenses

$500,942

$781,450

$1,140,900

payroll

$108,000

$113,000

$113,000

Other administrative Expenses

$0

$0

$0

utilities

$60,000

$60,000

$60,000

Administrative and General Expenses

Training

$4,000

$6,000

$6,000

Marketing and Promotion

$5,000

$5,000

$5,000

Rent

$19,200

$19,200

$19,200

Insurance

$3,000

$3,000

$3,000

Payroll taxes

$0

$0

$0

Other Expenses

$21,150

$22,150

$22,150

Business travel

$13,000

$12,000

$12,000

Total Operating Expenses

$240,750

$248,750

$248,750

Profit before income and taxes

$260,191

$622,700

$856,150

Taxes Incurred

$77,904

$186,757

$256,845

Net profit

$181,777

$435,768

$599,305

Net profit /sales

22.04%

33.74%

36.06%

CASH FLOW: PROJECTED

The table underneath shows the company`s projected cash flow from the initial figure of invested cash by means of capital. The total of $ 475,000 capital infused expects to yield $818,000 cash balance at the expiration of first year.

2013

2014

2015

Cash Received

Operations

$0

$0

$0

Receivables

$824,870

$1,291,500

$1,662,000

Subtotal Cash Received from operations

$824,870

$1,291,500

$1,662,000

Sales tax, VAT

$0

$0

$0

Borrowing

$0

$0

$0

Sales of Assets

$0

$0

$0

New investment

$0

$0

$0

Subtotal Cash Received

$1,299,870

$1,291500

$1,662,000

Expenditures

Cash spending

$371,928

$443,050

$480,100

Payments of accounts receivable

$240,028

$405,298

$566,230

Subtotal cash spent on operations

$611,956

$848,348

$1,046,330

Sales tax , VAT

$0

$0

$0

Repayment of current borrowing

$0

$0

$0

Purchase long-term assets

$0

$0

$0

dividends

$0

$300,000

$300,000

Subtotal cash Expenditure

$625,456

$1,151,848

1,346,330

Net Cash flow

$674,414

$139,652

$315,670

Cash Balance

$678,414

$818,066

$1,133,737

CAMPANY`S PROJECTED BALANCE SHEET

It is very much anticipated that the company will have projected net worth of $ 668,778 at the end of its first year of trading

PRO FORMA BALANCE SHEET

2013

2014

2015

ASSETS

Current Assets

Cash

$678,414

$818,066

$1,133,737

Accounts

$0

$0

$0

Receivable

$0

$0

$0

Other current assets

$10,001

$10,001

$10,001

Total Current Assets

$688,415

$828,067

$1,143,738

Long-term Assets

Long-term assets

$26,000

$26,000

$26,000

Accumulated Depreciation

$13,400

$15,800

$18,200

Total Long-term Assets

$12,600

$10,200

$7,800

Total Assets

$701,015

$838,267

$1,151,538

Liabilities and Capital

Current Liabilities

$0

$0

$0

Account payable

$28,737

$33,722

$47,687

Current borrowing

$0

$0

$0

Other Current liabilities

$0

$0

$0

Subtotal Current Liabilities

$32,237

$33,722

$47,687

Long-term Liabilities

$0

$0

$0

Total Liabilities

$32,237

$33,722

$47,687

Paid in Capital

$530,000

$530,000

$530,000

Retained Earnings

$0

$0

$0

Earnings

$181,777

$435,768

$599,305

Total Capital

$668,778

$804,545

$1,103,850

Total Liabilities and Capital

$701,015

$838,267

$1,151,538

Net Worth

$668,778

$804,545

$1,103,850