Assignment Task:

Task:

Company Profile

In this section you describe your offering - the strengths of your product or service.  You include how your company is set up, who the owners of the company are and what they bring to the table.

Business Overview – Products/service offered 

Provide a full description of your product/service and its value:  Why will people buy your product or service?  What is the key benefit – your Unique Selling Point?  Try and focus on a few key features and benefits. 

Examples include: Saves time; better quality; easier to use; convenient; minimizes risk; reduces pain; highly credible; socially responsible; increases enjoyment; low cost.

Company History

How long has the business been operating?  Where did the idea come for the business?  What have been the successes and challenges been so far with the business.  Who are the current customers?  What are the sales and profits? 

For Existing Businesses: Summarize your plans for growth. For example, what new expenses will you need to incur in order to achieve this growth, and how much will these new expenses cost? Will you need to hire employees?  Are you expanding to a new location?  Are you offering a new product or service?  Will you be increasing your revenues?

Vision and Mission

How do you envision the company 5-10 years from now?  How will your company be known? Vision is about the end result – your ideal position.

For example a vision statement for a tutoring company reads: To be the benchmark for quality tutoring in the greater Ottawa area.   Or

For example PepsiCo vision statement is ‘Our vision is put into action through programs and a focus on environmental stewardship, activities to benefit society, and a commitment to build shareholder value by making PepsiCo Canada a truly sustainable company.’

 

The mission describes the fundamental purpose of your business.  The mission focuses on the present, while your vision describes the future.  Think of your mission as your guiding principle in dealing with your customers.

For example:  Making tutoring fun and interesting for students.   This entrepreneur knows that, day-to-day, it is her mandate to ensure students are actually engaged in their own learning.  Or

PepsiCo mission statement is ‘Our mission is to be the world's premier consumer products company focused on convenient foods and beverages. We seek to produce financial rewards to investors as we provide opportunities for growth and enrichment to our employees, our business partners and the communities in which we operate. In everything we do, we strive for honesty, fairness and integrity.’

Management

Outline the key personnel in the company and any relevant experience/training they have that relates to the business. This shouldn’t be written like a resume but in paragraph form.  You may include:  Relevant work experience; education and training; industry contacts; life experience; projects worked on; passions; skills; achievements; awards; volunteer work. 

Legal Structure

What is the business structure: sole proprietorship, partnership or incorporated/corporation?  State any rationale for the structure. If there is a partnership or corporation, please state the ownership breakdown, shares issued etc. Who are the owners?  

Location

Where will your business be located?  Provide an address. Provide a rationale for the location. Discuss the rent, traffic and parking.  Is this a location a place where our target market will find you? What businesses are situated around you? For leased premises, most lenders will require either a letter of intent or a copy of the lease from the landlord.

Goals & Objectives

What are your company’s short and long term objectives?  These could be marketing, operational, growth, or financial objectives.  Does your marketing and sales plan support these objectives?  You can outline your objectives in a chart.  Objectives are goals that have time frames and a way to measure them.

 

Category	Objective	Time Frame	Measurement
Operations	Register business, set up insurance, acquire business license	2 weeks	Obtain documents
Marketing	Increase Social Media following by 100 people	2 months	% increase in likes/followers
Human Resources	Hire 1 full time staff member	2 years	When sales reach $xx.xx
Operations	Move to a bigger facility	4 years	When production hits full capacity of 1,000 units a day

 

2.0     Market Research 

In this section you take a closer look at how your industry works, who are the competitors and who are your best customers.

Industry Profile and Outlook

What business are you in? How does the industry work? Who are your key competitors? How is the industry evolving? What are the predictions for the future? Are they valid and how does this affect your business? 

Local Market

What is the market you will serve initially?  For example, if you are opening a store, your immediate market is likely within a certain kilometer radius from the location because customers are only willing to travel a certain distance.  What is the geographic scope?  How many customers are in that area?  Businesses that sell online may also need to target a key geographic area to start.  In the SWOT analysis in the next page, make sure you compare all relevant companies in your location.       

SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)

The SWOT analysis (competitive analysis) forces you to evaluate your competition so that you have a better understanding of where you should position your offerings.  Look at what your competitors do really well and not so well.  What do your competitors charge for similar products/service and how do they market and promote the business?

 

Strengths: What strengths does this company have from a customer’s point of view?

 

Weaknesses:  What weaknesses do you observe? Avoid subjective statements such as “they don’t care about their customers”.  Be specific i.e. “customer wait time exceeds15 minutes”.         

 

Opportunities:  What gaps can you identify in the offerings of the competition? For example, if your competitor doesn’t offer same day service, you might consider offering same day service. In the example below, Zebra Tutoring identified a gap: making learning exciting for students, by exploring the competition.  

 

Threats: What might the competition do to make it difficult for your business?  What might happen in the industry (i.e. new legislation etc.)?  

 

We recommend you assemble your SWOT analysis in chart form, including your own business and several (5-6) competitors. See sample SWOT analysis below for Zebra Tutoring (with one competitor listed): 

Competitor/ Location	Description	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities/ Price	Threats	How they Promote
TOP Tutors		Good reputation Well established Online presence	$145 diagnostic test required $390 for 8 sessions	No fee diagnostics	May decide waive diagnostic fee Offer online tutoring
Zebra Tutoring		Familiar with local community	Will need to rent space	Make learning exciting for students	High schools may begin to offer in-school tutoring

Target Market

Describe your intended customers.  In most cases, you should not plan to sell to just anyone or to everyone.  Identifying a target market will help you develop a much more effective marketing strategy. The aim is to find your best customers and to clearly describe them by their common traits, such as:

For Business to Consumer you will want to look into the following:

• Demographics: Age; gender; income; education; nationality; occupation
• Lifestyle/Psychographics: Hobbies/interests, what they value most, leisure activities, what they like to buy
• Behaviour: What will “trigger” your customers to buy your product or service?  What common behaviour patterns do your customers share? 
• Scope: Where do your customers live and work?  What is the geographic scope you want to cover?

 

Ideally you should list 8 -12 common traits of your best customer.

 

Here is an example:

Target Market profile for Zebra Tutoring:

1. Parents with children in high school (demographics)
2. Students planning on attending university (lifestyle)
3. One or both parents holding a degree (demographics)
4. Family income: $80 k plus (demographics)
5. Parents desiring that their children attend university (lifestyle)
6. Students needing help in essay writing (behaviour)One or both parents are concerned about their community (lifestyle)
7. Both parents and children are computer literate (demographics)
8. Parents feeling overwhelmed with demands placed on their time with increased competition for university admission (behaviour)
9. Located in Toronto’s Riverdale area (scope)   

 

Determine who your best paying customer is – not necessarily who needs it the most, but who values it the most and is willing to pay for it.  Based on the profile determine the actual size of your target market.

 

 

A target market profile can be done for business-to-business clients:

• Industry or specialty
• Size of business (sales, # of employees, budget)
• Organizational culture
• Geographic location
• Decision makers 

 

Here is an example for a target market for Jessie’s Homemade Marmalade, an organic marmalade and jam wholesaler:

• Small specialty grocery shops with $400,000-$2M annual sales
• Health Food stores with  3 - 12  employees 
• Decision maker:  Owner or Purchasing manager
• Greater Winnipeg Area - predominantly in upscale neighborhoods or neighborhoods with a highly educated population.

You can find this information from a variety of resources out there such as:

• Primary Research
  • Conduct a survey
  • Talk to people in your market
• Secondary Research
  • Stats Canada
  • Industry reports
  • Government website
  • Group and association website

3.0     Marketing

In this section you determine how you will market to your target group. What is the most effective way to reach them? Specifically, for each marketing activity how will you reach your target, when, how often, how much will it cost and what exactly will you do?  Marketing is about developing a consistent and detailed strategy. 

Pricing Strategy

It is important to have a clear understanding of what your competitors are charging. In this section outline the basic fees or prices of your competition and what you plan to charge. Why? Give a rationale on your pricing.  The pricing strategy needs to be in alignment with your positioning statement.  In this section list your prices. For example, if you are after the market that will pay for luxury goods, is it priced for that market?

The main competitors, google, sony, microsoft and more all have their VR headsets similarly priced around $400 CAD. Since I am using recycled products for my console I am able to reduce the price to make it more affordable for people pricing my product at $250 CAD. I think it is a good price for my market because it is significantly cheaper than most if not all other companies selling a similar product and your getting more out of it.

Marketing Strategy

List the overall direction of your marketing efforts: What are the most effective and methods to reach your best customers (target market)? What is the messaging that you want to come across about your product/service and business?

 

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