Executive summary
The aim of the new e-business venture will be to trade in old and used books. It will be a service offered for free but with delivery fee changeable once a customer has placed an order. In addition to that, the e-business strategy will provide an e-platform through which students will access new books that meet their academic requirements.
The business plan will be in line with the mission statement of the proposed business organization. The e-business will endeavor to fulfill the business objectives of the new business with a definite business goal.
Mission statement: To be a market leader in bringing customers and buyers into the online e-market place for the old books while playing a brokerage role through the e-store and e-platform.
Vision statement: This will be the most and highly known service provider in Kuwait and the Gulf region in the provision of second hand books and in the renovation and delivery of old books and access to sellers of books for university students.
Goals
- To ensure the company generates sufficient profits to sustain its functionality and provide quality service to customers.
- To renovate and share old and used books at a price.
- To help university students access and buy required books at a low price.
- Ensure the company provides services in the academic industry that is tailored to meet customer needs while improving on service quality as a continuous process.
- To be successful leader in the brokerage for books and provision of services in accessing old books to students in Kuwait and the Gulf region.
Value Proposition
The value propositions of the company will make it to gain an upper hand on could be new entrants into the market due to a number cutting edge issues. The content incorporated into the website will motivate customers to log into the website for more views.
Content will lead customer university students to discover new books and related materials and exciting opportunities of accessing a variety of books. One of the benefits for the new site will results from the number of service providers and users projected to be hosted on the website and companies that use the site to conduct financial transactions (Rosenbloom, & Larsen, 3).
To be the market leader in the provision of brokerage services for old and new books required by university students. We plan to provide sustainable, efficient, effective and profitable services.
The website will be designed to reflect unique viewer experience. This experience will span individual users and customers and organizations intending to be hosted on site. Cutting edge technologies will be used in the design and development of the site, that will improve and add value to user experiences, provide the texture and color that is lacking in online shopping or market places.
Users may personalize the website which will provide such functionalities that will enable interactive experiences. Specifically, users will experience a textual image dimension where a user typically types textual information describing a product with pops product images or service benefits.
The site will provide abilities for users to enjoy graphical views of products in three dimensions. Service provision will not be left behind. Service provision will be presented in such a way to reflect customer needs and a closes experience with the system and the customer needs.
The site will be customized to user needs and experience. Each system sage will come with enriched experience to afford enriched user and customer experience and satisfaction. The system will incorporate a technology framework that will enable the systems to respond to likely customer needs and present available options based on customer history and continued usage of the site.
In addition to that, a log management systems will be incorporated into the system to ward off could be intruders and security measures will be incorporated to ensure privacy and confidentiality. Security will incorporate an integration of proven security software incorporated into the design of the website (Harris & Moran, 5).
The user interface will interactively guide users into its usage. The site will be characterized by graphical representation of ideas, pictures, and unique service provision links. Each object will be represented in a way that when a user clicks on it, all details specific to that product will appear at an instant. Information about objects will be encapsulated in the graphical interface of the object (Keyes, 4).
The website will build a strong and reliable community of users. These customers will span users, service providers, and product sellers of various categories of books.
A host of benefits are bound to be experienced by sponsors of this project, collaborative partners, and the proprietor. Benefits realized on this website will be the driving force for its sustainability and continued existence. Among the benefits include a large customer base that will be engaged by the e-market place due to the enabling technologies factored in the design and development of the site.
Typically, that will be reinforced by the uniqueness of the site. No such site exists in Kuwait and the Gulf region. These technologies have been discussed elsewhere and their integration will give this site a cost and business advantage.
In addition to that, other benefits will include a large market place for a variety of service and products where customers can select products and services based on their prevalence and prior experience. This will act as a tool to woo customers back for the services they enjoyed from this site (Keyes, 3).
These services will span different student needs and tastes and will be offered interactively. Among the services to be offered will include provision of old books for free but with a delivery fee and a brokerage for sellers of a variety of other books to meet university students needs in Kuwait and the entire Gulf region as well.
Organizational philosophy will demand that customers be able to track their product movements, service provisions and destination service provision points, online and offline price comparisons, and real time customer interactions.
The website will be characterized by interactive browsing capabilities, user experience targeted at user loyalty, and security measures that may demand authentication and system authorizations to system resources access.
The Business Model
Typical of the business model, the business will be characterized by a website that shall provide e-commerce services and act as a platform upon which e-business transactions will be conducted in the purchase of new books. It will provide business-to-business services, business-to customer services, and customer-to-business services. It will play a brokerage or intermediary role between the buyer and the seller, between the service provider and the consumer of the service.
In essence, the business model will be based on computing technologies and will act as a platform, through which products and services will be delivered to the target customer and target market, provide secure and flexible payment methods through the internet (Turban & King, 20).
The website will be modeled to ease work and information flow to and from the target customer and service or product provider. In addition to that, based on the internet technologies it will focus on collaborative working by facilitating collaboration with different organizations with the perspective of intra and inter-organizational working (Keyes, 3).
Some aspects of the business model may include pure and partial elements. Therefore, the business model may incorporate aspects of brick and motor but will be digital to a large extent.
Typically, the business model framework will be defined by people, the legal environment or public policy. Public or legal policies may be defined by the privacy, confidentiality, and the security features incorporated into the design of the website.
In addition to that, the system will be characterized by e-tailing books and provision of old books services at a fee. Customers will be charged on services and products accessed through the website and on demand services like product delivery will be made after arrangements have been made with the necessary teams involved in the process (Christensen, Donovan, 4).
The model will be characterized by marketing models that may span direct marketing, click and motor e-tailers, and pure play e-tailers.
To ensure a successful business based on the e-commerce platform, the organization will be characterized by offering high quality products coupled with a pricing mechanism that shall place the organization a competitive edge with rival companies which sell new books to university students.
Therefore, the business model will be designed to gain as strong brand recognition by the customer and in the market place, provide a guarantee on products and services to customers to gain customer confidence, ensure timely response to customer concerns and queries, and incorporate an online chart to help address customer related issues and problems (Keyes, 3).
Most of these books will be in digital form and the physical books will be accessed upon completion of a payment plan initiated between the consumer and the product or service provider (Harris & Moran, 19).
Other features incorporated in this site will include excellent navigational features and prompt webpage loading capabilities. In addition to that, the site will provide desired information and other directions to assist the customer in searching for a product with a lot of ease.
Besides that, the design will incorporate other useful site navigation capabilities and content. All products and service offered on this site will be sufficiently detailed to afford easy decision making by the customer and other users of the site.
Purchasing of products and payment of services will be based on an integration of the architecture already discussed above, namely, business-to-business, business-to-customer, and customer-to-business models. This approach will provide a competitive edge to the organization due to its flexibility and focus on both the needs of the customer and business organization.
One of the elements that make a successful business is listening to customer feedback. To effectively capture customer feedback, the business plan incorporates customer feedback on every product and service line. Thus the site will act as a platform for generating customer feedback.
Market Analysis
An analysis of the current market indicates that there are no sites that provide old books for free and charge only the delivery fee in Kuwait and the Gulf region. In addition to that, many students in Kuwait and the entire Gulf region have difficulties in accessing cheap new books or library services. In addition to that, online books and series are exorbitantly high (Keyes, 2).
E-commerce and e-business model will be used to sustain a brand image that dynamically targets student needs and the business environment. The projected image will reflect a fresh and resourceful environment for the student customer.
This model will incorporate elements to enable business acquisitions in the future. Business acquisition will be investigated to enable the management to make appropriate decisions that target organizational efficiency and a strong brand image.
This business acquisition element will be achieved by getting expertise support and consultations from academic professionals and well skilled accountants. On the other hand, the attorney who is well versed with legal matters, bankers who are well versed on financial transactions matters and broker who play an important role in brokerage activities through their professional advice.
A valuation analysis will be based on appraisal techniques, methods of purchasing books and providing old books services to the student, stocks and asset valuations, and status of the service providers and product sellers. In addition to that, the status quality improvement strategies, litigations, status payables, tax, and motivational approaches targeting sellers and service providers.
The site will take advantage of the lack of such services in Kuwait and the Gulf region to curve a wide swath of the share of the market to reap early benefits before it starts experiencing rivalry from other interested firms. That will lead the company to achieve its business objective of targeting to be the market leader.
While all these benefits and capabilities will be realized through the new website, it’s worth noting that new market trends are bound to manipulate the benefits and functionality of the system. This is site will be characterized by successful online books business operations.
These business operations will be offered online. The books selling industry business success will also be characterized by incorporating of new technologies in the process of service provision through different operations methods.
It will integrate a new advertising model based on performance improvements and systems capabilities and functionalities. The business model will integrate various service provision content s that covers demographics and psychographics. Graphics are an excellent tool for communicating information to a target audience. This strategy achieves a great deal of business success.
Competitor information will also be factored in the process to identify who they are, how they offer their services, where they are located in Kuwait how they could react to the new look company that endeavors to enter the books brokerage industry through the internet, the length of time they have been in the old books industry, and their operating capital and market share.
Besides that, the organization will perform a market analysis to determine potential returns likely to be earned from this investment. Projections based on a market analysis indicate potential return that will sustain the profitability and operations of the company.
Companies survive on profits generated from their business ventures. Each of the items mentioned in the objectives of the company and other not mentioned are likely to cause positive impact on the revenue of the company. The need for old books is a need that is identifiably in demand and it has been realized through a market research that potential customers are quieted over the issue because they lack a service provider in that field.
Marketing of the service offered on this website will be achieved through enabling technologies and will be strategically achieved through a number of mechanisms. While internet marketing in the e-market will form the fundamental backbone in advertising its services, yet grass root marketing will also pour in a host of benefits.
This will be achieved by targeting online chat groups with the possibility of bringing in a large number of web users. These chart groups can enhance customer access and link the company to other sites, who may eventually log in to the old books website (Harris & Moran, 27).
Competitor Analysis
Establishing links with other online companies that have similar content and offer similar or related services is another strategic tool that will be used in the marketing domain. This will be achieved by approaching similar companies with similar contents to offer to heighten the possibility of more users accessing the sigh and requesting fro services from the parent old books company (Keyes, 4).
Operations of the company will span issues highlighted in the mission statement and identified in the objectives of the company. These will be achieved through a number of techniques and tools. Among the salient features of conducting services management tasks is conducting data mining.
Data mining is a currently available tool that is technology driven. Among the elements to be data mined to enable the industry move to greater heights include profiles based on service providers, among other elements.
Operations will also be executed through various methods. In addition to that, any business organization has a management hierarchy through which business functions can be coordinated. Each managerial position comes with relevant roles and responsibilities. In addition to that, these organizations are partitioned into departments that have definite reporting relationships.
The requisite staff will ensure orders and requests are attended to while customer concerns are addressed in real time. Addressing customer needs and continuously evaluating an organization against established operational standards is a key component to successful business organizations.
In addition to that, the service provider will benefit from early mover advantage. Based on a survey of business organizations that have endeavored to enter into the old books industry, it is clear that the early move advantage will be enjoyed by this company as the field is still uncluttered by competitors or service providers in the same industry.
Operations
Therefore operations will depend on the target audience, an issue already discussed elsewhere and spelt in the mission statement and objectives of the company, target products which have also been highlighted elsewhere, company values and culture, growth projections, technology platform and balanced goals (Keyes, 24).
The company’s financial statements will be evaluated on a period not exceeding six months, company executives will convene and evaluate the cost incurred in the investment infrastructure, projected revenue returns, projected costs, and profits generated in that span of time. That will enable the company to audit its financial health and evaluate it’s the impact of its marketing strategies, both in the long terms and in the short term.
In addition to that, accounting software will be integrated into the system and the accrual method will be used in evaluating the financial position of the organization. This method is largely accepted as being compatible with different software technologies and is cross platform. In addition to that, widget accounts will play a critical role in the accounting section of the company.
Tax issues will be appropriately addressed with the relevant authorities and legal requirements on taxation will be stringently adhered to. Besides, bank reconciliations will be conducted on a monthly basis to ensure figures tally and detect any discrepancies with the accounts.
On the other hand, a balance sheet will be served on request and will be made available on a quarterly basis. In addition to that, a projected income statement will be served upon request that covers the first six months of the business.
The company will employ well experienced accountants particularly the ones that have had experience in the old books industry. Project financing will be partly from a project sponsored and the proprietor of the new organization, and other stakeholders that are interested in the project.
The company is a legal entity that shall be registered following the legal requirements of the Kuwait’s regulatory provisions. The legal document will include details of collaborations and organizations structure based on various concepts. These concepts include limited partnerships, limited liability partnership incorporated in the business structure of the company
The business organization’s exit strategy will include recouping of invested capital from generated profits from the old books services offered on the website. If earned revenue profits exceed projected profits, then ownership will be negotiated on a value that will be agreed upon by stakeholders.
Financial Projections
Judging from our budget we can see that rent and office supplies/equipment have the highest cost at 12.76% and 12.897% respectively. These are long term assets that will benefit us over the longrun so the percentage should not be a problem. Our lease contract is fixed for the first five years so there is no worry about the rate increasing.
Works Cited
Christensen, Clatyon, M. & Donovan, Tovan. The processes of strategy development and Implementation. n.d. Web.
Rosenbloom, Bert & Larsen, Trina. Communication in international business-to-business marketing channels Does culture matter?. 2001. Web.
Harris, Philip. R. & Moran, Robert. T. Managing Cultural Differences, Houston: Gulf Publishing Company. 1987.
Keyes, Jessica. Creating an e-Business plan. Web.
Turban, Efraim & King, David. Introduction to E-Commerce. New York. Prentice Hall. 2002.