funraiser business plan, december 2012
DESCRIPTION
Creation of a start-up business from scratch by writing a detailed business plan and presenting the project to a jury. Pitch: "FunRaiser is your new consulting solution to raise employee satisfaction & loyalty, while decreasing stress in the work place." My team and I focused on the consulting market and obtained the grade 17/20.TRANSCRIPT
BUSINESS PLAN International Entrepreneurial Project
Marième Nicole KANE
Cynthia CANTU NIETO
Nora Karelly FLORES
Cécilia COSNARD DES CLOSETS
We take fun seriously.
December 11th, 2012
- 1 -
OUTLINE
THE COMPANY & SERVICE ............................................................... - 2 -
The service .................................................................................... - 2 -
THE MARKET – ENVIRONMENT, INDUSTRY & SECTOR. ................... - 5 -
Secondary data market research .................................................. - 5 -
Pest analysis ................................................................................. - 5 -
The industry & sector .................................................................... - 8 -
The market ................................................................................... - 9 -
OPERATIONAL PLAN ...................................................................... - 12 -
The service supply ....................................................................... - 12 -
Target market and pricing strategy ............................................ - 12 -
Company resources .................................................................... - 14 -
Marketing plan ........................................................................... - 14 -
FINANCE ........................................................................................ - 17 -
Financial Performance Analysis ............................................... - 19 -
APPENDIX ...................................................................................... - 24 -
- 2 -
THE COMPANY & SERVICE
FunRaiser was created in September 2012 by Marième Kane, Karelly Flores, Cynthia Cantu
Nieto and Cécilia Cosnard des Closets. The headquarters are located in Paris, France.
FunRaiser is a company focusing on the B2B market which provides services to companies
and institutions with interest on changing annoying, boring as well as stressful tasks and
processes into funnier and more enjoyable tasks and experiences: this will in fact help
improve employee effectiveness, motivation and well being.
Inspired by the “fun theory” and the fact that “fun can change behaviors for the better”, we
strongly believe that these services can benefit a large variety of companies. Being an
adaptable, flexible and creative team, we will be able to operate worldwide and customize
services depending on the local definition of “fun”, cultural differences, corporate culture and
image and so on. Our market position and our skills will enable us to become a leading
reference and increase our credibility and visibility.
We will start our projects in Europe where cultural diversities are dense and different markets
are near each other. This is why our headquarters are located in Paris, as the city is a key
geographical position to access any European country.
Our mission statement: We want to enable companies to improve employee effectiveness
and well-being in a fun and creative manner.
Our slogan: “FunRaiser: we take fun seriously”.
Our vision statement: FunRaiser aims to be the pioneer fun-specialized consulting
company worldwide by gaining customer trust and always developing new creative solutions.
One question remains: How can we stimulate, motivate and encourage workers in a
simple way to enhance performance and effectiveness in a dynamic and lively working
environment?
THE SERVICE
Presentation
Concretely speaking, what we will be able to offer to our customers fits within a very wide
range of services. However, typical examples include: classes on stress management as well
as classes/seminaries on positive attitudes to embrace (communication improvement,
gesture and body language knowledge, the right posture to adopt while working, etc.). We
can also implement an hour a day for employees to rest or get a massage, create a room
where employees can take a break for a certain amount of time during their working hours.
We will be subcontracting other businesses such as wellness centers, interior designers,
With the help of interior designers, we will also be able to reshape and restructure the office
layout using Feng-shui methods for example, add colors and let employees create their own
workspace (add art, create something in relation with the company they work for).
When looking at Google’s corporate culture (Google is currently ranked no. 1 Best Company
to Work For according to Fortune 500), it is clear that employee treatment is at the heart and
the reason of their ranking and popularity. Google’s goal is to treat employees with respect
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and make them feel important however much they contribute to the company. The company
believes that employee treatment is more important than making money: they have evidently
understood that these two aspects are correlated. Other reasons which explain Google’s
success include the “20% project” (Google employees dedicate 20% of their time on a
project outside their typical work responsibilities), the maternity leave perk, the gourmet
restaurants, the transparency and availability of the company’s leaders, the on-site benefits
such as medical and dental care, the ability to travel everywhere, the Global Education
Leave Program, and so on1. This is a perfect example that demonstrates how important it is
for employees to feel at ease in their company and enjoy the work they provide to their
employers: we could also inspire ourselves from Google’s ideas.
FunRaiser is created to reduce people’s stress, considered as an illness. Therefore, what we
aim to do is provide original, fun and innovative ways to reduce stress in order to help
employees be more productiveat work. We create win-win situations: the companies win in
making more profit, employees win by improving the quality of their professional life and we
win by providing our service in the very best conditions. Our services will also help
companies benefit from a better corporate image.
The services in terms of R&D
What we, as a company, want to do is reduce the stress of the people who work for large
companies affected by stress. The professionals whom we will be working with will enable us
to take actions in our client companies. The Research and Development will be made
simultaneously with the study of our clients’ needs and preferences as we want to
personalize our services as much as possible.
Industrial protection
FunRaiser is a service, it is by definition intangible. However, to protect our ideas, we thought
ofwritingreports detailing the entire process. The details specifying our services will be
protected by copyright.
Key partners
FunRaiser will partner with several third party companies who will participate in the service
that we will provide to our customers. These partners include massage therapists, equipment
distributors such as Leroy Merlin in France (we will be able to buy furniture and paint at lower
prices for instance). Our partners will depend on the nature of the service we offer: our
partner database will then increase as our activities develop.
How we make money
Every time a contract will be agreed upon, the customer will pay 30% of total service price,
which will allow FunRaiser to spend some money to prepare the service. The other 70% will
be paid after the service has been delivered. Our company will also receive money from our
partners, as we represent an intermediary and opportunity for them to advertise their
services and increase their visibility. These are our 2 main revenues.
1"Top 5 Reasons Why Google Is the Best Company to Work For." International Business Times. N.p., 20 Jan.
2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ibtimes.com/top-5-reasons-why-google-best-company-work-553844>.
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MANAGEMENT TEAM
Marième will take the position of Marketing VP: thanks to her research abilities and analytical
skills, she will be in charge of creating the marketing strategy and gather market data as well
as consumer insight for our company.
Cynthia is our CFO thanks to her financial expertise, objectivity and attention to budget: she
will be managing our company’s resources, revenue and expenses as well as finding and
managing financing sources.
Karelly occupies the position of Head of Human Resources: she is responsible for all the
employees we will hire as well as managing partner relationships and customer relationships.
In fact, thanks to her experience in managing people and good social skills, she will excel in
this role.
Finally, Cecilia is the company’s CEO: her leadership skills and vision will help all co-workers
of the company develop activities and prosper on the international market. She is responsible
of writing the final business plan and supervising/coordinating all internal activities.
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THE MARKET – ENVIRONMENT, INDUSTRY & SECTOR.
SECONDARY DATA MARKET RESEARCH
Mark Twain said: "the human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
The moment it arises, all our hardnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments slip away
and a sunny spirit takes their place."
Dr. David Abramis, a psychologist and professor at California State University Long Beach is
a specialist about fun at work as he has studied the subject for many years. The outcome of
his researches is that people who have fun on the job produce better results, make better
decisions, are more creative and get along better with collaborators at their workplace.
Loyalty and productivity are definitely benefits to a pleasant and happy workplace. Also, the
number of absences and late arrivals may considerably decrease as people look forward to
going to work. The workers, less stressed out, benefit from the positive psychological and
physiological effects of laughing and enjoying the environment they work in.
To feel good or distress a bit, many people turn to alcohol or even legal or illegal drugs,
making sometimes overdoses. However, none of those substances can be as powerful as
the endorphins that the body produces. When we laugh, our body releases endorphins that
are much more powerful than morphine. These endorphins develop a sense of well-being
and optimism, taking out fatigue and giving out positive energy.
These results of DrAbramis’s study show how important fun can help employees overcome
the stress and fatigue they feel in their everyday tasks at work.
Workplace stress and unhappiness, according to some studies handled at the beginning of
the 21st century, cost American employers around 200 billion dollars per year because of
absenteeism, staff turnover, lower productivity, sick leave and other expenses related to
stress. If people have fun inside the company, they will work harder, behave better, stay
longer and take better care of the organization.
PEST ANALYSIS
To be able to understand and make the right decisions concerning our market, an extensive
analysis of the environment and the sector is needed. The PEST analysis gives an accurate
idea of where the market stands at.
Political factors
We are setting up our business in Paris, France. France’s political environment is one of the
most stable environments in the world with a Perceived Corruption Index at 6.9 out of 10.
The country is a democratic republic, meaning that it is it ruled by a president (Mr. François
Hollande) and that the legislative (Assemblée Nationale&Sénat), juridical and executive
(Government) powers are separated.
France is one of the founders of the European Union and a member of the Schengen Space:
these 2 trading agreements will allow our company to move freely to most European
countries (where we will be focusing our activities at first) and establish partnerships and
create contracts more easily. France uses the Euro as currency which will enable us to
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facilitate exchanges and price settings and negotiations among the other potential 17
Eurozone countries.
France lost its AAA accreditation from Standards and Poor in January 2012: this implies that
due to the financial crisis, it has become more difficult to borrow money and invest in France:
the country is implementing a strict austerity policy. A new regulation proposal could be a
threatening fact to our company: one of President Hollande’s new measure concerning start
ups states that the company should pay 60.5% tax rates on profits when exiting. However,
the French business environment is mostly made of SMEs and start-ups meaning that
France still represents an attractive country to be starting in2.
For further information on the French business set up, we will refer to this guide: “Doing
Business in France 2012 edition”;
http://www.invest-in-france.org/Medias/Publications/862/doing-business-version-anglaise-
2012.PDF
Economic factors
As of September 2012, long-term rents in France (rates applying on money lent for a period
of 10 year) stand at 2.24%3 with inflation rates at 1.9%, current GDP is at $2580 billion4 and
growth is forecasted to increase by 0.5% for 2013 5 (1.3% estimated in 2016).
Unemployment affects 10.2% of the active population and minimum labor cost (SMIC) have
been increasing these past years: as of July 2012, it is equal to 1425.67€ a month6. This data
shows how France deals with austerity and consumer buying power: both companies and
consumers suffer from the financial crisis.
The demand for our product is described in more details bellow, yet we definitely think that
there is existing demand for more well-being and stress-free working environments in large
companies in France and in Europe, regardless of sector and industry.
In 2013, estimates state that France ranks 34th best country out of 185 other countries to be
doing business in7. Below is a chart that describes the criteria used in calculating the ranking:
2"Entrepreneurs : Des «Pigeons» Pas Si Plumés." Www.liberation.fr. N.p., 02 Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.liberation.fr/economie/2012/10/02/entrepreneurs-des-pigeons-pas-si-plumes_850287>. 3 http://www.ecb.int/stats/money/long/html/index.en.html
4"Eurozone - Country Focus - Ernst & Young - Global."Eurozone - Country Focus - Ernst & Young - Global.N.p., Oct.-Nov.
2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Issues/Business-environment/EUROZONE-COUNTRY>. 5"Classement PIB : Les Pays Les plus Riches Du Monde." - JDN Business. N.p., 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.journaldunet.com/economie/magazine/classement-pib.shtml>. 6 "Smic 2012 Et 2013 : Montant Mensuel Et Taux Horaire." Smic 2012 Et 2013Â : Montant Mensuel Et Taux Horaire. N.p., 16
Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.journaldunet.com/management/remuneration/smic-mensuel-et-smic-horaire.shtml>. 7"Doing Business in France - World Bank Group."Doing Business in France - World Bank Group.N.p., Oct.-Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <>.
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This ease of doing business will allow a good insertion and access to the market as well as
starting activities quickly. All in all, it is true that with the actual economy, it will be more
challenging for us to start a business and be profitable at the start: we need to find good
partners and customers very fast. The economic landscape is not at its best, but this does
not mean that there is no opportunity for us to be able to operate.
Social factors
France is home to a total of 3 432 0898 companies as of February 2012, according to INSEE.
Among these, 2 528 account for large companies over 500 employees. Knowing that the
French business environment fosters more SMEs, this is not surprising. Although the number
seems little, these are the companies that are the most well-known and that could help build
our reputation abroad, not to mention that they generally have the highest revenues.
According to the Happy Planet Index (an index that measures the extent to which countries
deliver long, happy, sustainable lives for the people that live in them. It uses global data on
life expectancy, experienced well-beingandEcological Footprint to calculate the ranking)
France is the 50th happiest place on Earth out of 151 countries9 (HPI: 46.5/100, experienced
well-being: 6.8/10). Although these results are relatively positive, there is still room for
improvement. The French are not very open to change which explains the numerous strikes
and manifestations against the government. They really enjoy complaining and changing
behaviors can be a difficult task to achieve. Many structures exist on the French territory to
help with the well-being of the French population (such as free social security system), but
that’s not enough. There is a crucial need for better communication between employers and
employees (there wouldn’t be that many labor unions if communication was at its best).
These social factors represent great opportunities for our company.
8"Nombre D'entreprises En France." - JDN Management. N.p., 02 Feb. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.journaldunet.com/management/direction-generale/nombre-d-entreprises-en-france.shtml>. 9"About the HPI | Happy Planet Index."About the HPI | Happy Planet Index.N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.happyplanetindex.org/about/>.
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Technological factors
France is one of the most developed countries in the world when it comes to technological
aspects and supply. Its Telecom infrastructure benefits from the highest penetration rate for
broadband in Europe (32.7% in France compared to 26.5% on average in Europe), allowing
fast-speed internet connectivity and telephone communication throughout the whole
territory10.
When not on strikes, the train system is one of the best train systems in Europe with timely
and comfortable trains at relative low fares with connections everywhere in France and in the
neighboring countries (29 640km railways). France also accounts 473 airports with several
international ones such as Charles de Gaulle and Orly that are near Paris11. These means of
transportation will allow our employees to move easily to our clients.
THE INDUSTRY & SECTOR
With the nature of our service, our company belongs to the consulting industry, namely to the
performance and management consulting industry, in the tertiary sector. France’s economy
relies on the tertiary sector as well so this should help us penetrate the market more easily.
Overview
The consulting industry is a global and multi-disciplinal business sector that is evolving and
quickly growing 12 . Despite the economical downturn, French corporate profits are still
increasing, which has a direct influence on consulting firms, as executives are more willing to
contact them. Between 2010 and 2012, EU’s leading consulting firms witnessed substantial
growth in revenue and employee count. However, the consulting industry is a fragile industry:
corporations’budget-cuts impact consulting companies, as this cost is viewed as optional;
corporate clients will tend to negotiate the price of a contract much more nowadays.
The consulting industry focuses mainly on Management Consulting. Management consulting
includes any activity involving the aspect of a company’s business such as marketing,
finance, IT, operations, supply chain management, government relations, environmental
matters, internal communication and many more. Top management consulting firms (and the
most famous ones) include McKinsey & Company, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., the Boston
Consulting Group, Inc. These companies advise Fortune 500 companies and operate
worldwide, thanks to their expertise and reputation.
Though these companies have a larger weight on the international consulting industry, most
consulting companies are actually relatively small companies (50 employees or under). In
many cases, one entrepreneur decides to start his own business thanks to his knowledge
and previous experience in a given field. As competition among these consulting business
grows, the consulting advises become more specialized.
10
"Cracking The Code." : French Tax Law for Start-ups: Ringing the Alarm Bell. N.p., 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://cracking-the-code.blogspot.fr/2012/10/french-tax-law-for-start-ups-ringing.html>. 11
"Central Intelligence Agency."CIA.N.p., Oct.-Nov. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html>. 12
"Plunkett Research, Ltd." Consulting-market-research.N.p., Sept.-Oct. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.plunkettresearch.com/consulting-market-research/industry-trends>.
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Trends
Hereafter are some industry trends concerning the consulting field:
IT consulting firms benefit from a high demand on the market, as more companies
sell their product through the internet; IT has become a crucial department to succeed
in, in order for the company to excel.
Environmental consulting firms have grown in number in the past 5 years as the
pressure to reduce carbon footprint and governmental regulations urge companies to
rethink their activities in terms of waste, disposal, production and so on.
Thanks to economical downturn, consulting companies focusing on reducing cost,
debt structuring, and cost control are highly asked for.
Consultants specialized in the emergence of new markets (BRICS) are also highly
regarded to help companies redirect their activities.
Challenges
The main challenges currently facing the industry include13:
The competition among all the consulting businesses as well as corporations creating
their own consulting department.
The opinion that states that consulting fees are a non-core expense that should be
reduced or removed when companies face economical crisis.
THE MARKET Demand
Large turnover companies often contract services from business consulting companies for
many purposes: to review their strategy to internationalize, to assess their performance in
terms of market presence, to manage projects, etc. The main reasons why consulting firms
intervene in companies are principally related with the business in terms of results, because
consultants offer an exterior and new point of view to the business, and most of the time,
succeed in their work. Therefore, what if FunRaiser was contracted by these same
companies FOR the employees? The demand could be estimated at the same extent than
the demand for business consulting services, and even, at the higher frequency.
Here are our estimatesconcerning our demand through time:
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4
Demand
(number of
projects)
20
27
36
41
Average per
month
1.66
2.25
3
3.41
13
"MarquisParker.com // Business Strategist, Speaker, Advisor, and Coach." High-level Overview of the Management Consulting Industry.N.p., Aug.-Sept. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.marquisparker.com/2012/02/high-level-overview-of-the-management-consulting-industry/>.
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Market size & growth
FunRaiser targets companies that have a large turnover and that operate in different sectors.
These companies employ a large number of employees and feel more and more concerned
about their wellbeing (the incident that occurred with France Telecom was a good catalyst).
The awareness regarding the fact that employees represent the first wealth of a company
keeps on increasing.The table below shows a list of companies based in Paris that may
interest FunRaiser14:
International growth perspectives can be observed in the long-term as some of the
companies we will be working with are multinational enterprises. Long-term relationships will
allow us to work with their different subsidiaries in Europe.In the future FunRaiser is looking
forward to implement its own stress reduction products.
SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
FunRaiser offers innovative services
Exclusivity on the market Our HQ is in Paris, a very active
city. Our team is composed of young
and skilled professionals that have expertise in their fields.
A start-up company not known from big companies
Restricted financial resources Lack of current visibility
14
"Classement Des plus Grosses Entreprises Du Département Paris." VERIF.N.p., Aug.-Sept. 2012. Web. 07 Nov. 2012. <http://www.verif.com/Hit-parade/01-CA/01-Par-departement/75-Paris>.
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Competition
FunRaiseroffers services based on Fun and stress management. We will have the exclusivity
in delivering this type of service on the market. Therefore, our business does not have any
direct competitor.
However, two types of companies can be considered as indirect competitors: Business
consulting firms specialized in Human Resources Management or Social strategy and
Professional Interior Designers.
These Business consulting firms can later in time diversify their services by delivering new
ones similar to what we offer. The professional interior designers principally work on painting
and decorating offices. Their services are offered for practical reasons: make the building
and offices look good. Their objective, unlike us, is not to deliver fun and joy to the
employees.
The competitive advantages of these firms would be notoriety and obviously a well-
established network for clientele. We will have to manage a strong competitive advantage in
order to create solid entry barriers in the market we will be operating in.
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OPERATIONAL PLAN
THE SERVICE SUPPLY The supply of the service undertakes different steps according to the client. We have a
general six-step approach, but the first two steps can be skipped in the ideal case a company
comes to us to contract our services.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
Market
survey about
big
companies’
working
environment.
Identification
of potential
clients
contact
presentation
of services
and
seduction.
Visit of
offices and
study of
employees’
insights,
needs and
expectations.
Proposal of
offer(s),
presentation
and
discussion of
contract
terms.
Concretization
of offer
FUN
Satisfaction
surveys to
asses
employees’
level of
satisfaction.
The lead time for our services will obviously differ from the level of complexity of the work to
be done by our interior designers and technicians. On our website, we will have samplings of
our offers to give an idea of what we do to our future clients, but we stay open to new options
according to what the surveys within the companies will reveal.
TARGET MARKET AND PRICING STRATEGY
The companies FunRaiser will be working with will be:
-Medium Enterprises that employ between 100 and 249 people with a yearly turnover of 20
to 50 million euros.
-Large enterprises with a number of 250 employees and more, or a turnover of minimum 50
million euros.
-Multinational Companies: We will intend to conduct projects with headquarters, regional
offices and subsidiaries.
These companies represent our target market – we obviously also offer our services to Small
Businesses if they want us to.
The number of projects we conduct each month will determine our monthly turnover. It is
important to mention that, knowing that we offer customized services. Our projects will differ
from one another according to the company, its size, expectations and needs. One project is
not necessarily related to one company as we hope that one company could contract us for
different offices, and therefore sign different contracts with us.
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Based on the hourly fees of different consulting firms in France 15 , we have made an
estimation of our fees and monthly turnovers. We are of course taking into consideration the
fact that we do not offer the same range of services as those firms and do not have the same
level of notoriety.
Bureau Tarif horaire
Fakton 225 euros/hour
Deloitte 188 euros/hour
PwC 187 euros/hour
KPMG 185 euros/hour
Brink Groep 169 euros/hour
Hiemstra& De Vries 141 euros/hour
Others >150 euros/hour
A table giving an estimation of our volume and turnover each month in 2013 is presented in the financial part of this business plan. This estimation is based on seasonality. At the very start of our business (from January to April), we assume that the number of projects per month will be low and increase slightly because we will be new on the market. From June to August, we will have fewer projects to conduct since a large number of employees will be on vacation during the summer, and therefore, only a few companies will feel the need to contract our services. By September, we will have a rise in the number of contracts; and during the Christmas period (November – December), we forecast an important number of projects because companies often invest in Christmas decorations, so we could take advantage of that and at the same time offer our services.
Other objectives
Strategic objectives: FunRaiser will focus on providing its services with a satisfactory
lead time. In other words, our team will do its best to handle projects in a perfect
timing from the contact with the HR Department, the negotiation of the contract to the
concretization of the offer. The perfect timing for us would be around one week.
Conducting some projects may take us a little longer if for instance we have to travel
long ways. In order to achieve these strategic objectives, we will obviously be
effective and efficient in both administrative and technical tasks.
Political and Social objectives:The wellbeing of employees should be one of the
principal concerns of companies. The government encourages companies that look
forward to solve HRM issues; we could use it as part of our communication laterin our
marketing strategy. The government could get more implicated in the development of
services such as the ones provided by FunRaiser. For instance, if some companies
contract our services, they will get a better image and therefore, they could get tax
reductions from the government or subventions in certain activities.In this way, the
companies’ employees, the company itself and the government will all three gain
satisfaction. FunRaiser could even benefit from tax reductions or other incentives
from the government.
15
Combien facturent les consultants? - http://www.references.be/carriere/combien-facturent-les-consultants
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We are also thinking of involving other stakeholders such as trade unions as they always claim employee rights and could be a resource and substantial help for our company.
COMPANY RESOURCES
HumanResources
The first thing a firm must have is strategies to prevent problems that may occur among
people within the workplace, then try to give everyone a clear idea of what we want to
accomplish within the company, the aim and the goals for short and long term periods, in
order for everyone to have the ability to manage the company. This is important for the firm
because each and every one of the employees are aware of the needs that should be met to
ensure that the company can comply with what has been proposed especially without
depending on a person.
Special skills
As of year 1 to 3, FunRaiser will not hire any employee due to high employment costs.
However, we do not exclude employing people in the future, once the company is financially
stable. The people we will hire to make our company work must have experience, knowledge
in what they do, must be able to manage difficult or challenging situations,be able to multi-
task.
Here are the people we will need to hire for our team to be the performing well:
Web designers: having an eye-catching website is crucial to our company as it conveys what
we are and will include an important amount of information. We have to let future clients have
the most realistic view of our work. We must count on a creative person to achieve that. The
first impression is the most important.
Marketer: this person is going to be essential to us because he is the one who will recognize
the needs of the market, he must also have strategic insights to recognize opportunities on
the market, creativity to develop many possibilities of promotion and publicity.
Know-how
As a company, we want to be one of the main sources of help for our customers.
We want to be involved in our work as much as we can, talk with human resources personnel
of customer companiesso they can define stress levels of their employees, the reason they
feel stressed-out and how it affects their productivity. By doing this, we will come to
understand, what techniques we have to use to improve our service stress reduction, we will
know more specifically what the staff needs are so they can have a better performance at
work.
It is clear that over time we will get more experience and knowledge through different
companies we will work with, which implies that the strategies would be changing overtime.
MARKETING PLAN
Our company aims at providing customized services to large corporations principally
because these companies usually have access to more resources and benefit from an
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important number of workers: these employees represent our target segment. They can be
more vulnerable and easily replaceable in such companies.
The employees being the “end-consumers”, we can only reach out to them through the HR
departments. As a matter of fact, we will direct our marketing strategy according to HR’s
expectations and view of fun and employee well-being: FunRaiser will therefore
communicate exponentially on stress-management and health by referring to fun. Since we
operate on a Business to Business market, the marketing plan and communication strategies
are slightly different than the B2C market. This implies that we will start the following actions:
FunRaiser intends to hire a webmaster to create an attractive and thorough
information-based website that will allow prospect clients to contact us and learn
more about our services. We will also invest in a search engine optimization in order
to increase our visibility on the internet and generate more traffic on our website. The
website design will be an attractive design, dynamic, colorful yet serious-looking
website that will promote videos of our previous activities, include future press
releases, display the companies that benefited from our services and such. It will
always be up-to-date and run effectively.
During the first months while running our business, we will often need to prospect
clients and use direct marketing methods (e-mailing, phoning) to grow our customer
database and reputation on the market. As our company develops through time, we
will perhaps use this technique a little less. We will target companies such as GSK,
Picard Surgelés, and Labeyrie first which ranked high on the worst companies to
work for in France nowadays16.
In order to grow our network in terms of partners and clients, we will attend
tradeshows (such as 19th Performance and Talent Tradeshow that takes place in
Paris on March 26th to 28th 2013 for instance17). Part of our strategy is to target very
specific tradeshows at first with regard to optimizing our image and company
reputation among the HR directors present during the event. Once our credibility has
increased over time, we will be able to attend conferences and give speeches.
Finally, we will contact trade magazines such as “Management” to write press-
releases about us or publish an advert among their pages. We also intend to send out
news letters once we have acquired a significant database and performed as certain
number of activities (possibly after one year).
A considerable reputation comes with a strong brand. The company name,
FunRaiser, implicitly reminds people of the term “fund raiser”. This will hopefully
trigger the following information process: fun can raise funds, as in more resources
for the company. Our logo will look like this:
16
"Prévention Du Stress : Les Entreprises GSK, Picard Surgelés Et Labeyrie En Mauvaise Posture." Actualité Economie : Le
Point. N.p., 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2012. <http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-economie/2010-02-18/prevention-du-stress-les-entreprises-gsk-picard-surgeles-et/916/0/425227>. 17
"19th Performance and Talent." 19th 2013,Paris,France. N.p., Nov.-Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.biztradeshows.com/performance-and-talents/>.
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The light bulb next to the name shows that we have many solutions to provide. Our
slogan is featured below our logo so that the logo name and slogan always go
together, which builds a stronger brand. The logo will appear on our website, adverts,
contracts, and on other promotional material.
Concerning the pricing strategy, it will highly depend on our resources and fixed-costs
as well as the nature of the service itself (and whether the company is located abroad
or not). However, based on assumptions, it will probably cost a customer between
500€ and 1,000€ a service.
Risk and opportunities
When starting our business, there are of course some risks and opportunities that we will
face.
The main risk facing our activity is that FunRaiser might not be very profitable at first as it will
take some time to establish some credibility and visibility on the management consulting
market. The fact that the global economy is currently down and not experiencing tremendous
growth, potential customers would not consider our services as an opportunity or as
indispensable: this represents an important financial risk to consider.
However, being a service company allows us to avoid any production risk or logistic risk. As
the company develops internationally, some environmental factors such as the cultural
aspects of the country or the economical and political factors are to be considered before
starting any activity.
Concerning the opportunities, companies are becoming more and more aware that employee
satisfaction and wellbeing will give them a good image and reputation. Treating employees
right and with respect enables companies to retain talent, lower turnover and training costs.
This paradigm shift will allow FunRaiser to find its place on the consulting market with a
competitive advantage.
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FINANCE
One of our financial objectives will be to minimize the operation costs as we do not need any
production facilities. We will be located in Paris where rental fees are quite high. So, to
minimize the rental costs, we will settle down in offices subleased by another company in the
suburbs of Paris.
In order to give an idea on the viability of the company, we decided to make a few
assumptions in order to build pro forma statements:
Revenue
The first year (2013), we assume that we will provide a number of 20 services, each with
different prices depending on the season (we believe our services are subject to some
seasonality, as there will be less demand in the summer when employees take some time off
for instance) and depending on the nature of the service with prices of about 6,200€/service.
Therefore, based on our assumptions presented in chart 1, the revenue grossed by activities
will be the following:
1year Revenue activity = 126,533€
The price of our service is based on benchmarks with other consulting companies
(price/hour: av. 180€ times the number of hours we will spend on the project: more or less 25
hours). It is also based on the nature of the service we will provide as some are more costly
than others. FunRaiser expects the customer to pay 30% of the total service price when
signing the project contract and pay the 70% remaining once the service has been delivered.
Expenses
Cost of services:
Being a consulting company, FunRaiser does not produce anything, which means we do not
have any production costs. However, our company will be subcontracting other companies
and service providers such as wellness centers, interior designers, technicians and
massagers. We have decided we will pay them a certain % of the service price after they
have provided the service as following:
- Wellness centers: 10 % of total price
- Interior designs: 30 % of total price
- Massages: 20 % of total price
- Technicians: 25 % of total price
Wages
For the time being, FunRaiser only accounts 4 employees. In order to calculate the expenses
related to wages, we estimated that the minimum remuneration should be 2300€
brut/employee/month. Although we are aware that these wages are low, they are likely to
increase overtime as our business develops. The calculations for wages are the following:
Year 1 Wages: 2,300€ * 4 * 12 = 110,400.00€
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In year 3, there is a probability that we will hire interns or additional employees depending on
our needs. Employee wage will be similar to ours but interns will be receiving slightly lower
wages.
Marketing
The marketing strategy explained in more details in the previous document will incur a
29,570.00€ marketing budget for year 1, that will steadily decrease as our company’s
reputation rises on the European market. Details of the marketing expenditures are shown
below:
Marketing expenditures for 4 months
Brochures and Leaflets18 1,000€
Internet design 1,300€
Tradeshow assistance* 20,000€
Market Researches 600€
Press Releases19 200€
*Due to the tradeshow’s high cost, we will only attend one tradeshow in year 1.
Investment cost
Rents – FunRaiser’s HQ will be based in Paris or in the suburbs of Paris where rental prices
are cheaper. After examining prices on the internet20, we believe we will spend approximately
18,000€/year for a 150m² total office space with 3 rooms of 50m² each (one conference
room, one administrative office and one technical office), a cellar and one WC.
Equipment – As mentioned above, FunRaiser does not have any production cost and does
not run any machine to make any products. This means that we will only need to buy
computers and any office supply that will allow us to operate efficiently. Assuming that we
can acquire all our equipment locally, we estimate that the total equipment costs represent
approximately 5,152€ for year 1. The details of these expenses are broken down in the
following table:
High Internet connectivity 46€/month * 12 = 552€/year
Furniture (tables, chairs, paper, etc) 1520€
Desktops (2) 480€
Laptops (4) 2400€
Printers (2) 200€
This investment will only take place in year 1, as we will use the same equipment in the
following years. We will only right down the depreciation of our technologies in the Balance
sheet.
Travel expenses – Another important expense to take into account is our traveling expenses,
as we will be moving around visiting our future customers. Expenses for year 1 will be
around 5,000€ including train transportation, hotel stays, gasoline, and low-cost plane tickets.
Before booking any ticket, we will evaluate which option is the cheapest.
18
http://www.parisgraphiste.com/tarifs-graphiste-freelance-paris.html#tarifs-brochures-graphiste-freelance 19
http://www.pieceofcakepr.com/start-now/ 20
http://www.bureaux-commerces.com/commerce/location-local-professionnel-paris-75-6-g439
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Initial investment – We intend to start our activity with a bank loan of 50,000.00€ that we will
pay back after year 1. This loan will allow us to have sufficient funds to start our activity
immediately.
Financial Performance Analysis Our analysis shows that the payback period of the project is inferior to 1 year. This
means that we will recover our investment before the end of 2014, and is a sign that our
investment is safe. In addition, profit expectations are relatively high for our business with a
net income over 39,600€ in 2015. Therefore we believe that the project is financially sound,
even with a realistic, pessimistic and optimistic point of view, and could deliver high value for
stakeholders, not only on a monetary basis but especially in terms of benefits for our
customer’s employees, and the image of the company.
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- 21 -
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Number of projects and Turnover/year
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Price per project depending on where it takes place
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APPENDIX
CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT
THIS AGREEMENT is made on [Month, day, year]
BETWEEN
1. [the Buyer] of (the "Buyer"); and 2. FunRaiser,
Collectively referred to as the "Parties".
RECITALS
The Buyer wishes to be provided with the Services (defined below) by FunRaiser and
FunRaiser agrees to provide the Services to the Buyer on the terms and conditions of this
Agreement.
1. Key Terms
1.1 Services
FunRaiser shall provide the following services to the Buyer in accordance with the terms
and conditions of this Agreement:
[Insert a description of the Services here:
-Remodelling of the interior of offices building………………………………….………..
-Rearangement of office supplies……………………………………………………………
-Painting and decoration of offices and common areas………………………………….
-Customization of rest rooms and coffee areas…………………………………………....
-Gym class discounts………………………………………………………………………….]
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1.2. Delivery of the Services
a. Start date: FunRaiser shall commence the provision of the Services on [insert date here].
b. Completion date: FunRaiser shall complete/cease to provide (delete as appropriate) the Services by/on [insert date here].
c. Key Dates: FunRaiser agrees to provide the following parts of the Services at the specific dates set out below: [insert dates here]
1.3. Site
FunRaiser shall provide the Services at the following site(s): [insert details here if
applicable]
1.4. Price
d. As consideration for the provision of the Services by FunRaiser, the price for the provision of the Services is [insert price here] ("Price").
e. The Buyer shall/shall not (delete as appropriate) pay for the Service Provider’s out-of-pocket expenses [comprising [please insert examples here, if agreed]).
1.5 Payment
f. The Buyer agrees to pay the Price to the Service Provider on the following dates [if appropriate]:
[Specify whether the price will be paid in one payment, in installments or upon
completion of specific milestones. These details should be specified here.]
g. The Service Provider shall invoice the Buyer through Elance for the Services that it has provided to the Buyer weekly/monthly/after the Completion Date] (delete as appropriate).
h. The Buyer shall pay such invoices within 21 days of their receipt from the Service Provider.
i. The method of payment of the Price by the Buyer to the Service Provider shall be by:
i. [check][cheque] sent to the following address: [insert details here] ii. wire transfer through Elance to the following account:
iii. credit card payment through Elance Any charges payable under this Agreement are exclusive of any applicable taxes, tariff
surcharges or other like amounts assessed by any governmental entity arising as a result
of the provision of the Services by the Service Provider to the Buyer under this
Agreement and such shall be payable by the Buyer to the Service Provider in addition to
all other charges payable hereunder.
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2. General terms
2.1 Intellectual Property Rights
The Service Provider agrees to grant to the Buyer a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty
free licence to use, copy and modify any elements of the Material not specifically created
for the Buyer as part of the Services. In respect of the Material specifically created for
the Buyer as part of the Services, the Service Provider assigns the full title guarantee to
the Buyer and any all of the copyright, other intellectual property rights and any other
data or material used or subsisting in the Material whether finished or unfinished. If any
third party intellectual property rights are used in the Material the Service Provider shall
ensure that it has secured all necessary consents and approvals to use such third party
intellectual property rights for the Service Provider and the Buyer. For the purposes of
this Clause 2.1, "Material" shall mean the materials, in whatever form, used by the
Service Provider to provide the Services and the products, systems, programs or
processes, in whatever form, produced by the Service Provider pursuant to this
Agreement.
2.2 Warranty
a. The Service Provider represents and warrants that: i. it will perform the Services with reasonable care and skill; and
ii. the Services and the Materials provided by the Service Provider to the Buyer under this Agreement will not infringe or violate any intellectual property rights or other right of any third party.
2.3 Limitation of liability
b. Subject to the Buyer’s obligation to pay the Price to the Service Provider, either party’s liability in contract, tort or otherwise (including negligence) arising directly out of or in connection with this Agreement or the performance or observance of its obligations under this Agreement and every applicable part of it shall be limited in aggregate to the Price.
c. To the extent it is lawful to exclude the following heads of loss and subject to the Buyer’s obligation to pay the Price, in no event shall either party be liable for any loss of profits, goodwill, loss of business, loss of data or any other indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever.
d. Nothing in this Clause 2.3 will serve to limit or exclude either Party’s liability for death or personal injury arising from its own negligence.
2.4 Term and Termination
e. This Agreement shall be effective on the date hereof and shall continue, unless terminated sooner in accordance with Clause 2.4(b), until the Completion Date.
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f. Either Party may terminate this Agreement upon notice in writing if: i. the other is in breach of any material obligation contained in this
Agreement, which is not remedied (if the same is capable of being remedied) within 30 days of written notice from the other Party so to do; or
ii. a voluntary arrangement is approved, a bankruptcy or an administration order is made or a receiver or administrative receiver is appointed over any of the other Party's assets or an undertaking or a resolution or petition to wind up the other Party is passed or presented (other than for the purposes of amalgamation or reconstruction) or any analogous procedure in the country of incorporation of either party or if any circumstances arise which entitle the Court or a creditor to appoint a receiver, administrative receiver or administrator or to present a winding-up petition or make a winding-up order in respect of the other Party.
g. [For European Buyers and Service Providers only] If the Buyer is a consumer and the Distance Selling Directive (97/7/EC) (the "Directive") applies to this Agreement, the Buyer may terminate this Agreement within the relevant timescales prescribed by the regulations or laws in the relevant Member State which implement the requirements of the Directive in respect of a right for the Buyer to withdraw from a contract. In the event of termination in accordance with this Clause 2.4(c), the liability of the Buyer to the Service Provider shall be as prescribed in the Directive or in any regulations or laws implementing its requirements in the relevant Member States.
h. Any termination of this Agreement (howsoever occasioned) shall not affect any accrued rights or liabilities of either Party nor shall it affect the coming into force or the continuance in force of any provision hereof which is expressly or by implication intended to come into or continue in force on or after such termination.
2.5 Relationship of the Parties
The Parties acknowledge and agree that the Services performed by the Service Provider,
its employees, agents or sub-contractors shall be as an independent contractor and that
nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to constitute a partnership, joint venture,
agency relationship or otherwise between the parties.
2.6 Confidentiality
Neither Party will use, copy, adapt, alter or part with possession of any information of
the other which is disclosed or otherwise comes into its possession under or in relation
to this Agreement and which is of a confidential nature. This obligation will not apply to
information which the recipient can prove was in its possession at the date it was
received or obtained or which the recipient obtains from some other person with good
legal title to it or which is in or comes into the public domain otherwise than through the
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default or negligence of the recipient or which is independently developed by or for the
recipient.
Additional clauses AS WITNESS the hands of the Parties hereto or their duly authorised representatives the
day and year first above written.
SIGNED by……………………..)
for and on behalf of……………... )
[the Buyer] )
SIGNED by……………………... )
for and on behalf of
FunRaiser