Popular culture is no more regional. Cable television, syndicated radio shows, and the Internet have created a world in which a New York fashion statement can be seen in just days in small towns in the Midwest. The speed of our telecommunications has increased the expectations and needs of young customers for products that make a cultural statement.
FireStarters provides youth with the products and clothing they need in small communities throughout the United States.
FireStarters’ focus on small-town America is what sets it apart from other youth-oriented eCommerce websites. The target audience is a young adult between 11-18 who listens to alternative music, and who participates in youth sport like skateboarding, snowboarding, and other such activities. Our target customer will look toward alternative clothing trends in large urban areas as their inspiration. FireStarters will advertise only in small communities with between 100,000- 150,000 residents. FireStarters will only advertise in small communities with 100,000 to 150,000 residents. These communities already have small businesses that are youth-oriented, such as skateboard shops or alternative CD stores.
1.1 Mission
FireStarters’ mission is to provide unique youth-oriented fashion and products for small-town America.
1.2 Keys for Success
Accessible website that’s fun to surf. Like a trip to your favorite store where you always find something new that you want.
Excellent vendor relationship that will facilitate quick shipment of orders.
Advertise effectively in youth-oriented business communities.
Create a store image that our target customers sees as both attractive and trendy.
Silicon Freight Brokers (SFB), a specialized freight broker company, is located in Hood River. Steve Tookarefol is the founder of the Oregon C Corporation. SFB’ is aiming to be the top silicon chip freight brokerage, increasing their clientele by 20% per annum.
Freight Brokers and Silicon Chips
The freight broker is the middleman of the shipping industry. They are also known as third party transportation providers. Freight brokers are able to connect customers with freight companies and shippers. They are indispensable in moving goods around the country, as there are hundreds of shippers providing thousands of different services. It is easy to locate a shipper with freight brokers.
The silicon chip industry is a growing industry that to a large degree has fueled the incredible growth of the late 90’s Internet boom. Silicon chips are the basis of all types of computers as well as hand held devices such as cell phones, PDAs, even watches and some household appliances.
SFB will be occupying a niche within the general freight brokerage market by specializing in the shipment of silicon chips. Silicon chips require special attention because they are a unique cargo. The chips have a very narrow range of temperature and humidity parameters that must be maintained. These requirements are not the only ones that silicon chip companies must meet. SFB will gain market share quickly by focusing solely on silicon chips. They will become the most trusted broker for chips.
The chip industry is made up of two distinct customers: the manufacturers of chips and the purchasers of chips. While the majority of the chip manufacturers are based in America, others produce overseas. The main chip purchasers are Motorola, IBM, Intel.
Management
SFB’s management team includes Wendy Tookarefol (seasoned) and Steve Tookarefol (seasoned). Steve has more 10 years of experience in freight and has worked for multiple companies. Steve was able to precisely determine the market demand and provide it. SFB has coupled Steve’s in-depth trucking/ freight brokerage knowledge and insight with his wife’s expertise in the silicon chip industry. For the last seven years Wendy has been an industry consultant, working quite close with companies such as Intel.
SFBՉ۪s solid business model is projected to reach profitability by the sixth month. SFB will achieve market penetration by remaining laser focused on their market niche, while fully utilizing their strong management team.
1.1 Objectives
Silicon Freight Brokers targets for the first three year of operation include:
To create a service-based corporation whose main goal is to continuously exceed the customer’s expectations.
Silicon Freight Brokers use in at minimum four of the top ten silicon chip producer, as listed by Silicon Industry Journal.
To increase our number clients served by 20% per year through superior performance & word of mouth referrals.
To develop a sustainable, profitable, start-up business.
1.2 Mission
Silicon Freight Brokers’#8217’s mission is provide customers with the best shipping experience. We exist to attract and maintain customers. This maxim will guide everything else. Our services will meet or exceed customer expectations.
Seacliff Products (Seacliff), has developed a patent-pending fishing rod. Seacliff developed an easy-to-use kit to sell until they found a business partner to license the product. Seacliff forecasts strong sales in year one, and a steady increase in year two.
Seacliff created the Supreme hook, a new, innovative live bait holder. According to tests, there is a noticeable increase in fish catch up. The user will have greater enjoyment fishing if there are more fish hookups.
The Business Model
Seacliff will employ a laser-focused model of business that allows them focus on core competencies and outsource activities that add little value. Seacliff is an industrial design company. They will be focusing on the creation of useful products. They will partner with a strategic company that can take over manufacturing, marketing, as well as distribution. Seacliff will realize significant profits through the outsourcing of non-essential operations. This will free them from the marketing, manufacturing, distribution and other liabilities. Licensing allows a company the right to produce the Supreme hook while Seacliff will realize a steady stream of revenue without the capital costs normally associated with selling a product. Seacliff earns good profits. It has a professional marketing staff and a established distribution and manufacturing system. Seacliff is currently looking for a strategic partner and expects to enter into negotiations in the near future.
The Market
The market for the Supreme Hook is huge. The total market is worth $300 million. Over 39.1 Million anglers are in the U.S.A., who have fished more than 618,000,000 days and made 807 million trips. Even more impressive is the rapid growth of this industry. Between 1955-1996 the number of anglers has increased at over twice the rate of the U.S. population.
Management
The whole foundation of the business model is to concentrate at what you are good at. Seacliff takes this principle to heart, focusing on design. Willamette University JD/MBA is the owner’s education. This dual degree allowed him to gain valuable insights in business development, as well as the useful legal tool of patents and licenses. Following graduate school, he was unsure of what direction his career should take him so headed off to Oregon to be a fly fishing guide. He became passionate about fishing over the course of his 2 year stay. He decided to return to school for a Masters’ in Engineering, so that he could focus on the design and engineering aspects of fishing-related products. It was near the end of his last graduate degree that he developed the Supreme hook. His previous degrees (JD/MBA), made it easy for him to start his own company and locate a manufacturer to license the product.
Seacliff is an exciting company that shuns the typical need for extensive start-up capital for production by licensing a patented product. By licensing the product it frees up Seacliff’s time to concentrate on value added activities such as future designs. Within a month, profitability will be attained.
1.1 Mission
Seacliff has two goals: to maximize the potential profit of the Supreme, its newly patented fishhook invention, via licensing or other means; and to continue developing innovative fishing gear products.
Success Keys 1.2
The following are key factors to maximize profits when licensing a patent:
To separate the manufacturing and marketing for the Supreme.
Make sure you find a manufacturer that is capable of making the hook.
Choose a marketing company with significant fishing gear knowledge who is willing and able to allocate the necessary marketing budget.
Seacliff and marketer can create a well-thought-out, reasonable licensing agreement to ensure mutually beneficial partnership arrangements.
These are the keys for success when profiting off the patent in make–it-yourself form.
Recognize there is a wider market for the product.
Follow the proven price structure formula that provides attractive margins to all levels of the distribution chain (manufacturer’s representative, wholesaler, retailer).
Reach the narrow market niche through free publicity in fishing magazines and catalogs, website, trade shows, etc.
Keep overhead low and stay alive until word-of-mouth begins to generate clients.
1.3 Objectives
The main objectives are:
Locate a suitable manufacturer who is willing, on an exclusive basis, to produce the patented Supreme hook at a reasonable price. This would, at the retail level, cause the Supreme to sell for under 150% of a normal hook of similar size.
Find a medium-sized marketing company that specializes in fishing gear and who is open to the idea of using the patent to mass-merchandise Supreme products both at home and abroad. A three percent royalty will be paid on all purchases made by the exclusive manufacturer under an exclusive license arrangement.
Successfully introduce the product in kit form. In the first three month, you will reach breakeven (370 kits). The first year saw the sale of 8,333 kits.
Complete the website design.
Join the American Sportfishing Association and reserve a booth at this year’s ASA tradeshow in Los Vegas.
Growth Management and Strategies (GMS), an innovative and ambitious new company, is determined to reinvent the small business consulting market. GMS has a President who is an experienced consultant. GMS plans to grow at over 50% per year with solid customer service, a proven sales plan, competitive strategies, and a group that brings dynamic energy to the company’s sales process.
This plan has a financial goal. GMS requires a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan. This document is just one step. It also serves as a guideline for the company. It gives present and future employees as well as the owner a sense if purpose. Although the plan may not be necessary, it becomes more important after it is reviewed, shared, edited, and shared by everyone. It is a living document, which can last beyond the SBA loan purpose.
GMS’#8217’s financials reflect reality and are based on extremely conservative sales figures relative the rest of the industry. GMS’s primary goal is to work with each client individually and treat them as if they were their last. This is how loyalty can be built and maintained. GMS excels at customer service and is an important part of the company’s overall mission.
1.1 Objectives
These are the objectives of Growth Management and Strategies
You can get an SBA Loan immediately after you start your business.
Growth of the company from 2 employees at year 1 to over 10 at year 5.
Increase revenue to over $3 million by Year 3.
Increase client base by 450% in three years.
Maintain job costing that maintains margins of at least 70%
1.2 Mission
Our mission is to provide small business clients with business strategy, logistical, and technical services. All projects will be chosen based on the availability of human resources, and each individual employee will be given the respect of a contract worker, and will share in profits for each job. Politics have no place at Growth Management and Strategies, and to limit the affects of favoritism, the company will implement and clearly communicate a performance review policy that applies to those at the bottom as well as the top of the leadership ladder. Credit will be given to the person who performed and/or innovatively modified a project, and compensation will be both financial and in the form of commendation.
Growth Management and Strategies is committed to meeting the needs and expectations its employees and clients. If either of these are compromised, adjustments will made to ensure that the company culture does not change.
1.3 Keys To Success
The keys to success include:
To maintain client satisfaction of minimum 90%
To keep overhead low.
To ensure professional presentation and marketing of services.
All About People (AAP), was born out of the desire in the owner to make a difference in the lives of others. Although originally from a larger market area, the proprietor recognizes the need for a personnel agency to fill the gap left behind by other temporary and/or permanent placement agencies in the Willamette Valley. AAP matches highly skilled workers to clients, which saves businesses time and money. AAP also ensures that its employees are treated with integrity and honor. This requires great communication. This involves asking open-ended and thoughtful questions. It also means listening, not speaking. This is about understanding the local market to ensure AAP can truly serve each client and employee. Not just sell our products. AAP is quality service.
The long-term vision includes a number of offices throughout the southern Willamette Valley. The proprietor sees the challenge in this vision, not in the growth itself, but in training and encouraging all AAP personnel to treat each client and employee with the same care and with the same level of communication.
Managing our Growth
AAP can be considered a sole proprietorship and will eventually become an S Corporation. As a new corporate entity, AAP will be treated as a start-up in this business plan. The owner provided all services during the past two years. In Year 1, the company will add a part-time office staff person and an employment specialist. In response to this growth, AAP will have a procedures manual for in-house staff to assure that the information is clear. AAP will train employees within their divisions regularly to ensure that they fully comprehend the details of what they do each day. Year 2 projections include an employee representative, another employment specialist, a receptionist, and a field representative. In Year 3, AAP will examine the feasibility of opening a branch office in the Salem, Bend, or Medford/Ashland areas.
The Market
AAP is structured in the same manner as other temporary or permanent placement agencies. However, it will serve clients with needs for select, specialized professionals rather than clerical or light industrial workers. There are several businesses in Portland that provide similar services to specific groups of people. However, there is no such service for the Willamette Valley. AAP has five divisions that focus on the following areas:
Computers
Editors/Writers
Event planners
Graphic Artists
Interpreters/Translators.
Services
AAP can handle all aspects of recruitment, such as skills evaluation, reference checks, and pre-interviewing. AAP acts as an extension of the client’s human resource department, assuring that there is open communication between supervisor and employee, and assisting with any troubleshooting or problem solving that may be needed.
Financials
The company’s start-up requirements are $55,464, of which $7,600 will be provided for by the owner’s personal investment. The rest will be obtained through loans.
We expect to be in a position to charge 50% to business clients. Thus, if an employee is being paid $10 per hour, we are charging the client $15 per hour. According to the company, it expects to be able generate sales of around $300,000. The company doesn’t have sales direct costs. We track payments to employees as regular payroll.
1.1 Objectives
AAP is similar to other permanent and temporary placement agencies. We serve clients who require specialized professionals and not clerical workers or light industrial workers. Many Portland businesses provide similar services to specific groups. AAP followed the model of one placement firm described below.
Temporary employees are employed by contract engineering firms who are both software and hardware engineers. An average of seven employees are hired per month and earn between $80- $100 an hour. The firm recruits through its website, advertises in newspapers, magazines, and trade publications. The incentives offered to contingent workers include medical and dental insurance as well as disability and 401(K) plans. Referrals can also be made for a fee by a reference finder. Their employees are split evenly between 40 percent male and 60 percent female.
AAP provides services to the business client. They locate a professional worker and interview and screen them. If necessary, they set up interviews and handle all paperwork. The company pays the client bimonthly.
AAP will also manage and communicate with the worker about any personnel concerns.
Professional workers have access to employment opportunities at no expense; pay rates that conform to industry standards are available; and health insurance may also be purchased at a starting rate of $124/mo. AAP will cover any coverage from the group package at $65/mo
1.2 Mission
All About People’s mission is to contribute to the community by filling a need for specialized, professional, contingent workers. The company will offer workers a safe and secure environment. The company will provide businesses with high-quality employees who are available for permanent or project work. All About People is sensitive to the needs of each individual and tailors personnel solutions to both workers and businesses.
Borrow My Tools, a start-up providing home improvement tools for rent or lease in San Mateo, CA is Borrow My Tools. The business has been formed as a California S Corporation with Josh Taylor as the primary shareholder. Borrow My Tools is a platform that offers customers common home improvements tools along with benchmarked customer service.
The Market
San Mateo has two distinct market segments that are Borrow My Tools’ most attractive customers. The first segment consists of individuals who are embarking on a home improvement project. While some customers know exactly what tools they need for their project, others use Borrow My Tools to get the help and guidance they need. The individuals have 54,050 potential group members. This segment sees an average growth rate of 5% each year. Handymen are those who have been hired by clients to finish a project. Borrow My Tools’ wide selection of leasing and rental options attract handymen, who are unable to afford to purchase tools. With 1,200 potential segments, and a 4.4% growth rate, handymen can have 1200 members.
Services
Borrow My Tools is able to lease and rent a variety tools. The tools have been categorized into three large groups: wood, exterior, and assorted. Borrow My Tools rents and leases only the best quality tools in an exceptional condition. Borrow My Tools has developed a strategic relationship with a premier leasing company to allow customers to lease tools from them. Leasing is advantageous in many ways: the customer always has the nicest/newest version to work with, precious capital is not tied up, lines of credit from banks are not effected by leases, and certain tax advantages are conferred to the lessee.
Competitive Edge
Josh is a veteran in both the contractor and tool rental/leasing industries. He has taken his industry observations and created a niche for Borrow My Tools by emphasizing two competitive advantages that will greatly help Borrow My Tools gain market share.
Highest quality product offerings – Customers are looking to rent or lease tools and want to make sure they get the best. Borrow my Tools’ procurement process purchases only the highest quality tools in each category. Customers will love the results. In addition to starting with the highest quality tools, the products are meticulously maintained so that they continue to appear as new.
Best customer service. The role of Borrow My Tools sales agents is to help customers in all possible ways. This includes determining what tool is most suitable for the job, explaining how to use it and providing suggestions on how to do the job. Every sales rep is the customer’s personal advisor. Borrow My Tools’ goal is to meet every customer’s needs.
Borrow My Tools, a new concept, recognizes the shortcomings of the competition’s customer service and uses Borrow My Tools’ phenomenal customer support to help the market segment that needs assistance with rental or lease. Borrow My Tools can quickly grow market share and turn this start-up into a profitable enterprise by adhering to a thorough rental business plan strategy.
Mission
Borrow my Tools’ aim is to provide the best home improvement tools to the San Mateo Community. Borrow My Tools will provide the best customer service and support for the tools. All customers will be met with the highest level of customer service.
Keys for Success
Assure that you have sufficient tools of high quality, and keep them in great condition.
Ensure all staff are extremely knowledgeable on all of the offered tools.
Maintain strict inventory and accounting controls, reducing overhead while assuring availability at the same time.
H20 Industries, Inc. (H20 Industries) provides the service of ion exchange portable tanks. This is water purification for industrial purposes. H20 Industries will tap into a market need for segregated regeneration on a mobile basis. The company will primarily focus its marketing strategies on offering segregated regeneration services to the untapped market of customers who require high-quality regeneration for their deionized (DI) water treatment facilities. H20 Industries will use a facility in Newark, California. It is currently in limited production. Full production will begin at the end of September, with sales growing gradually to near capacity by the end of the first year, with very healthy gross sales in the first year, and increasing in the second and third years.
1.1 Objectives
The main objectives of the project are:
To segment the market for portable regeneration service by stressing H20 Industries’s capability at providing segregated regeneration. The goal is 1,710 cu.ft per month of segregated epoxy by the end the first year.
To establish a network 15 well-informed and efficient water service providers who will represent H20 Industries in areas other than direct sales.
To set up a bulk regenerative facility capable of storing 40 cubic feet daily. Then, to sell its full capacity in large portable exchange services market by its own sales force and through a dealer system.
1.2 Mission
H20 Industries’ mission is to provide niche products to specific industry sectors that are not served by large pur water suppliers. It is possible to segregate a customer’s H20 Industries resin and then re-generate it on a portable basis to hospital dialysis unit. This is an excellent example for a niche product that emphasizes quality and service and which can be purchased at a premium.
1.3 Keys for Success
H20 Industries’ #1 keys to success include:
The factory has good quality control. High purity water businesses have very low tolerances for flaws.
Fast response. H20 Industries customers don’t consider water cost a significant factor in their overall costs. However, poor or slow servicing can lead to costly shut downs.
High-profile allegiances. Success in developing a network of service-oriented water businesses is key to company success.
Massage Tools Products Inc. sells tools for the professional as well as retail market. Our products target the pain and discomfort caused by overuse injuries that are common in massage therapy professions. Massage Tool Products was created with massage therapists and massage therapists at heart. Their unique ergonomic shape gives you more control over pressure, allowing you to apply pressure with less effort. This product is great for trigger point and deep tissue massages, reflexology, seated or any other modality.
This business plan was created for internal use and is intended to be used as a guideline for the company during the launch of the business and the subsequent growth. To compare our progress to our plans on a quarterly basis, we will refer to the plan. We will then adjust our business plan to reflect our actual results.
Massage Tools Products is experiencing a boom after discovering the professional massage therapy market. This gave us an opportunity to expand our sales through schools. After being featured in magazines and trade publications advertising our products, we were also able to establish a new channel through the website.
The annual business plan for Massage Tools calls for slow, steady growth with a period of rapid increase in sales. Massage Tools’ break-even analysis shows that it has the right balance between fixed costs and enough sales strength to continue to be healthy. The first year’s break-even is just over $6,000 per months.
We also anticipate being more profitable than ever. Overall, the outlook is positive and shows that the company has good growth prospects. We look forward to managing our orderly growth.
1.1 Mission
Massage Tools Products Inc.’s mission is to supply top-quality tools for massage therapists to increase their effectiveness and decrease repetitive injury in massage professionals.
1.2 Keys to Success
Low cost of assembly;
Favorable profit margins;
Innovative and market leader for massage tools;
Low overhead
1.3 Objectives
To sell Massage Tools’ in at least 100 stores and schools of massage therapy throughout the United States.
Design a website to allow you to place orders online for Massage Tools’#8217 products.
Expand your market share by creating additional products within the next 18 months.
What’s for Dinner? is an exciting, new business with a unique approach to helping people enjoy home cooked meals with their families. Customers will visit our Plano, TX office to prepare 12 meals. They will have enough meals for a month in less than two hours.
We are able to focus on our competitive advantage (no direct competitors within the Dallas/Ft. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area, our customers and their needs. will increase sales to a point that exceeds $1.3M in three years.
What’s for dinner? Kim Kirby and Alan Kirby own the S Corporation. Kim and Alan have combined 15 years of experience as party planners and personal chefs in the entertainment and food service industries. They know the kinds of food preparation available in the Collin County area. Two teenage children have lived the struggle of feeding their family healthy, affordable food. From the beginning of the first year, high sales can be generated by Kim’s relationships with specialty grocers and food distributors as well as Alan’s contacts in local communities.
What’s For Dinner offers several advantages to its target market:
It’s quite affordable to prepare meals for four: it costs $15
A fun, social, and party atmosphere
Convenient: Your prepared meals can be delivered to your home at any time you choose.
Saves time: no shopping, no prep, no clean up.
Seniors will find special menus and transportation assistance easy to eat.
Best of all, you don’t have to decide “What’s for Dinner?”
The plan has two main purposes. The first is to secure funding of $259 708. The second is to create the foundations for our vision, philosophy, strategy and mission to make sure we know where we are and how to get there.
1.1 Mission
What’s for dinner? A specialized business that gives people the chance to prepare healthy yet delicious meals that they can freeze and take home. This process optimizes the time and effort required to prepare high-quality meals for What’s For Dinner? Clients will be able to recognize the importance of this process within their current schedules. They will also be able to adopt the healthy lifestyle that is becoming the norm in a society with poor health.
What’s for dinner? We will offer a unique and memorable service that will blend a party-like ambience with professional food prep that will attract a growing number of repeat customers. What’s for dinner? It will give busy professionals and families the opportunity to make a variety of dishes quickly in a fun environment, away from their homes, giving them more time for what they want.
Our goal is to be a self-sustaining corporate enterprise within 3 years from the company’s inception to begin expanding our menu offerings within 3 months and its location offerings within 4 years. What’s for Dinner It will hire 4 people full-time within three years and reach net profit goals in excess of $100,000 by its second year.
We are here to help you relax by giving you a great selection of dishes to prepare for your family.
1.2 Keys for Success
The keys for success in this business include:
Our goal is to provide high levels of customer satisfaction and retention through our services and products.
Marketing: Get our name out there. This involves an intensive marketing campaign driven mostly by our customers (wordof mouth), and a supplement vehicle of standardised and conventional marketing tactics.
Customers will appreciate the high product quality and variety. This will allow them to retain and grow.
Finances: As our customer base grows, we’ll be able to lower supply costs by purchasing more bulk food through food service distributors.
Variety of menus offered based on seasons, trends and customer preferences.
Exceeding our customers’ expectations by offering them a higher quality of food for a competitive price.
Customers will find it easy to register for and pay for parties on What’s For Dinner’s website.
1.3 Objectives
What’s For Dinner has three years of operation. These are the objectives for What’s For Dinner in its first three-years of operation
To exceed customers’ expectations for food service and food service products.
To increase the number clients served by superior service by 25% annually
To build a sustainable, profitable start-up.
To make an after tax profit of $134K within the third year.
To realize a net revenue of more than 10% in the third-year.
R & R Printing LLC is a brand new print brokerage firm. It was started as a sole proprietorship. As a sales manager, the owner has vast experience in the printing business.
We offer printing services in a wide variety of media such as business cards. Our goal is to meet all of the printing requirements for each company that we work with. Our services, product quality and prices will be outstanding, but our marketing strategy is focused more on building long-lasting partnerships with our customers.
R & R Printing will grow its sales to over $1.5million by focusing on its dedication to helping businesses acquire the printing products, and services they require. R & R Printing will stand out by combining their expertise and reliability with competitive pricing.
To finance the start-up of the business, the owner will invest $15,000, and is seeking a five-year loan of $50,000.
1.1 Objectives
You can easily sell the property for $750,000 within one year.
Sales will rise to more that $1.5 million in the third-year.
Gross margin should be at least 30%. Maintain that level.
Keep existing client relationships intact and get 20 new clients in the first year.
1.2 Mission
R & R Printing focuses on helping businesses to obtain the services and products they need. R & R Printing offers a high level of practical experience, know-how, and a network of industry contacts, so clients save money and time by allowing a printing professional to handle their printing needs. Many print shops don’t have the right equipment and products. Businesses rely on professionals that can provide all their printing needs, from paper and binding to graphics and graphic design, at a reasonable price.
R & R Printing, is one of these vendors. Our top goal is to make sure our clients get the printing they require, with maximum efficiency. R & R Printing is known for its quick response times, expert advice, and high-quality solutions. This results in satisfied repeat customers. This gives you a steady customer base and consistent profits.
1.3 Keys to Success
These are the keys for success in your business:
Consistent, timely and accurate knowledge and information to satisfy the printing needs of our clients.
Offer one-stop-shopping with competitive pricing for the quality of products and services offered.
Develop long-term relationships and loyal customers to create a base of repeat customers.
