| 1.6 Expansion Plan
The Founder expects that the business will aggressively expand during the first three years of operation. Mr. Doe intends to implement marketing campaigns that will effectively target small and medium sized businesses on the web.
2.0 Company and Financing Summary
2.1 Registered Name and Corporate Structure
Internet Marketing Firm, Inc. The Company is registered as a corporation in the State of New York.
2.2 Required Funds
At this time, the Internet Marketing Firm requires $100,000 of debt funds. Below is a breakdown of how these funds will be used:
2.3 Investor Equity
Mr. Doe is not seeking an investment from a third party at this time.
2.4 Management Equity
John Doe owns 100% of the Internet Marketing Firm, Inc.
2.5 Exit Strategy
If the business is very successful, Mr. Doe may seek to sell the business to a third party for a significant earnings multiple. Most likely, the Company will hire a qualified business broker to sell the business on behalf of the Internet Marketing Firm. Based on historical numbers, the business could fetch a sales premium of up to 4 times earnings.
3.0 Products and Services
Below is a description of the internet marketing offered by the Company.
3.1 Internet Marketing Services
The primary offering of the Internet Marketing Firm will be the development of traditional, internet based, and viral marketing campaigns that are intended to drive traffic to a customer’s website. This aspect of the business will encompass a number of strategies including properly developing pay per click marketing strategies, working with search engine optimization firms to rank a client’s site higher in search engine results, developing affiliate networks (for company’s that operate in an e-commerce capacity), and placing public relations notices on several high ranking websites to further increase visibility of a Company’s website.
3.2 Per Hour Consulting
The Company will also generate per hour fees from advising clients on the proper layout of their websites and the use of pay per click technology. Through his years of expertise, Mr. Doe will be able to effectively guide clients on the proper usage of these internet marketing strategies, which in turn will make a client’s site more profitable.
4.0 Strategic and Market Analysis
4.1 Economic Outlook
This section of the analysis will detail the economic climate, the internet marketing and advertising industry, the customer profile, and the competition that the business will face as it progresses through its business operations. Currently, the economic market condition in the United States is in recession. This slowdown in the economy has also greatly impacted real estate sales, which has halted to historical lows. Many economists expect that this recession will continue until mid-2009, at which point the economy will begin a prolonged recovery period.
4.2 Industry Analysis
The technical consulting industry has mushroomed in size over the last five years. Rapid increases and developments in computer technology has caused the average user to rely on computer professionals to handle their web development, internet marketing and internet marketing needs. In the United States, the market for computer and information technology related (including internet marketing) services is immense. Last year of $300 billion dollars was spent nationwide on computer and computer related services (which includes internet marketing firms). The United States Economic Census estimates that there are more than 200,000 businesses that provide services similar or identical to that of Company. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2007 report on aggregate internet marketing budget statistics, it is anticipated that internet marketing expenditures in the US will reach $7 billion dollars per year by 2009. Currently, internet marketing is a $5 billion dollar per year industry. Approximately 80% of this revenue is from keyword search advertising with the rest of the revenue generated from rich media, banners, classifieds, sponsorships, referrals, and email advertisements. This industry is expected to continue to grow as the numbers of businesses increase. The growth rate of the industry over the last five years has been well over 40% per year with this trend expecting to continue and then level off over the next five years.
4.3 Customer Profile
In this section of the analysis, you should describe the type of customer you are seeking to acquire. These traits include income size, type of business/occupation; how far away from your business is to your customer, and what the customer is looking for. In this section, you can also put demographic information about your target market including population size, income demographics, level of education, etc.
4.4 Competitive Analysis
This is one of the sections of the business plan that you must write completely on your own. The key to writing a strong competitive analysis is that you do your research on the local competition. Find out who your competitors are by searching online directories and searching in your local Yellow Pages. If there are a number of competitors in the same industry (meaning that it is not feasible to describe each one) then showcase the number of businesses that compete with you, and why your business will provide customers with service/products that are of better quality or less expensive than your competition.
5.0 Marketing Plan
The Internet Marketing Firm intends to maintain an extensive marketing campaign that will ensure maximum visibility for the business in its targeted market of small and medium sized businesses. Below is an overview of the marketing strategies and objectives of the Internet Marketing Firm.
5.1 Marketing Objectives
• Establish relationships with SEO and web development within the targeted market.
• Implement a local campaign with the Company’s targeted market via the use of flyers, local newspaper advertisements, and word of mouth among small businesses owners.
• Develop an online presence by developing a website and placing the Company’s name and contact information with online directories.
5.2 Marketing Strategies
Management intends on using a number of marketing and sales strategies to promote traffic and sales of its internet marketing services. To that end, Management intends to develop a number of strategic partnerships, affiliate programs, and alliances among other companies that will send clients to the Internet Marketing Firm. This is a central strategy to the success of the business as there are now many internet marketing firms that operate in a similar or identical capacity as the Company. The primary marketing expenditures of the business will come through pay-per-click advertising which will allow the business to continually appear on the first page of search engines. This is a non-organic marketing technique as the Company must continually pay for these services from online search engine portals such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, and other recognized search engine portals. Management expects to spend $20,000 per year on these marketing campaigns. Finally, the Company will aggressively develop relationships with web development firms that will provide referrals to the Company among their clients that are seeking to rapidly increase the visibility of their websites. Commissions, based on the size and scope of the project, will be paid to the referring party as an incentive to continually send new clients to the Internet Marketing Firm.
5.3 Pricing
In this section, describe the pricing of your services and products. You should provide as much information as possible about your pricing as possible in this section. However, if you have hundreds of items, condense your product list categorically. This section of the business plan should not span more than 1 page.
6.0 Organizational Plan and Personnel Summary
6.1 Corporate Organization
6.2 Organizational Budget
6.3 Management Biographies
In this section of the business plan, you should write a two to four paragraph biography about your work experience, your education, and your skill set. For each owner or key employee, you should provide a brief biography in this section.
7.0 Financial Plan
7.1 Underlying Assumptions
• The Internet Marketing Firm will have an annual revenue growth rate of 16% per year.
• The Owner will acquire $100,000 of debt funds to develop the business.
• The loan will have a 10 year term with a 9% interest rate.
7.2 Sensitivity Analysis
The Company’s revenues are not sensitive to changes in the general economy. As there are now many internet entrepreneurs operating among all industries, the demand for this type of traffic enhancing service is in strong demand, and is expected to remain in demand in the long term. With competition among e-businesses at an all time high, Internet Marketing Firm will be able to generate substantial amounts of traffic for its clients, vis-à-vis the broad menu of services offered through its website. Only in a severe economic recession does management expect that the business would have issues regarding its top line income.
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