Business Plan

For my homework I have been asked to design a business plan for the Lapdesk product. The lapdesk is made by Hebden Design Ltd (which is not me) and this is a picture of the lapdesk. What follows is my idea of a business plan:


HEBDEN DESIGN LIMITED
LAPDESK
Business Plan.


INTRODUCTION

This business plan is intended for show the general ideas and methods we will use to promote our product and get as most profit as possible. It will contain analysis of both market and organization, in order to clarify the modus operandi when the business starts.

The Lapdesk is a very useful product that is both healthy and practical, and it can be highly spread in the business environment, mainly in meetings and related activities. It will improve the comfort of businessman and with it, the results of concentrating in the meetings will be shown: more participation, mental and body relax.

We are in an age of innovation. Each product which goes on the market and offers a new way to get a task done is widely accepted. The human needs to feel new emotions and explore new fields of thinking. Combining a folder and a portable table which offers the best angle to write without compromising the user's back health means an original and innovative way to take care about your back and increasing the performance in concentration. Again, the principal market would be businessman and meeting guests, where you don't have a flat and firm surface to write notes.

Beginning by investing a considerable quantity, buying a huge number of Lapdesks, the buying process should be contacting directly the original vendor and getting the desired number of products to market with. The selling process will be both online shopping and retailers distribution, which will buy stock by mass and sell for earning profit for them and paying a percentage to the distributor (this business). TV advertising and TV Sales will be also considered as a selling process.

This business differs from competition in various points: first, this business will have special offers on mass sales to main companies and main retail stores, and also we will add the TV Sales, for non-businessman customers who want to try the benefits of the product. We offer more variety of getting this product.




MARKET ANALYSIS

As said in the introduction, this business' market orientation will be businessman and other people who periodically assist to meetings, conferences and other activities of the same branch, as they involve sitting on a chair, taking out a notepad and write tips about the speakers' ideas. Also independent buyers who want to take advantage of innovative ideas, or stop to compromise their backs when sitting in an unhealthy position. Customers which have this need will be the main target of the sales; that will be the final user, the one who wants the product to use it.

The next market level will be the retailers. Retailers are the first economic entity after the consumer. They are the ones who are in contact with the market, so they can modify (stopping or accelerating) the Wholesalers' and producers' marketing and merchandising activities. Those would be stationers, technology stores (laptop stores) and other smaller and independent sellers. Our business will distribute directly the products to these stores, avoiding the process and cost of hire a third party distributor and ensuring the effectiveness of the business. They won't be the major target of sales because the control of the product selling and the marketing pass to their hands unless they specify they want advertising help, which is a secondary point in the business; so the constant distribution of products depends on the selling ability of the retailers.

Other wholesalers will be also a minor market target. There is no good point to focus the business on them because the longer is the way for getting to the final customer, the more expensive the product gets. The sales to other wholesalers will be made only if a good offer is given from them, in both quantity and price. Again, those organizations won't be the centre of the market because they also can become competitors if they decide to get the same product from the producer itself.

The main sales will be on big companies who care about their employees' comfort, we can advertise our product directly in those companies, because they appear as a profitable mass sales objective.

Preferentially we will offer mass sales to those customers who express desire to get lots of our products, due to the investment amount on the Lapdesk. Mass sales gives a great advantage to a distributor (our business) because increasing the original price by 10% generates a considerable profit. And also when marketing the product, the rise of the price seems negligibly. Two great benefits (ease of marketing and profit multiplication) obtained by only one feature – mass sales.


As the Lapdesk stands for an innovative product, and focusing its sales to the stationery and meetings guests, it matches the Diversification description, as the Ansoff's Matrix explains. Diversification implies showing up a new product in a new market (for the company)






PEST ANALYSIS


Political:
Lapdesk trade right will be negotiated with Hebden Designs Limited, in case they exist. The business will start as a local trading, so neither international issues nor major political affairs should appear in the process. The trade policies would be generated in the moment when our company deals with the producer (Hebden Designs).


Economical:
A possible concession of taking part in the manufacturing of the Lapdesk will be considered, a partnership with the producer company. The investment could be 50% of the budget, as economical support for the manufacturing, as the other half would be invested in buying directly the products for making profit from them.

The taxation process should not be a barrier for the business, it will be paid with a percentage of the profit.

Seasonal issues are non-existent. The Lapdesk is not influenced by seasonal buying, neither for weather issues. Is a product for indoor use (meeting rooms, conference halls, trains, air planes, classrooms...) so its functionality is for the whole year.

The market routes are two:
From our company to...
Final Customers. This process is direct, by internet or TV Sales, using the company's distribution team.
Main Companies. Here we sell mass quantities of Lapdesks to private (or public) companies who wish to take advantage of the product giving it to its employees (e.g. Law Firms). The final customer will be the company's employee.
Retailers. Again selling mass quantities, the retailers will sell the products to the final customer, making the Lapdesk more expensive (the retailer has to generate profit).

As a local business, interest and exchange rates do not apply.



Social:
The costumers' attitude will change, they won't buy just any folder to store their files, but they will buy Lapdesks to also help their back when taking notes in a place where they don't have any firm support but their laps.

Also will change a little bit the lifestyle, because the customers will care more about their own health and they will search for products which provides functional features and innovative ways to complete a task.

The original brand and manufacturing company doesn't helps at all because the Hebden Designs is a small company and also in virtual bankrupt, so socially it is a negative point.

Technological:
In this topic, the Lapdesk is not the big deal. Its materials are the same of common file folders. The only different thing is the design (the two side supports) but this is not considered a major technological upgrade. Also its patent is still pending, so anyone can copy the design, make it better, sell it and generate more money than its original “competitor”.


NOTE: The above is just my idea of a business plan for the lapdesk. This is not my product and I do not sell it. Neither do I represent Hebden Design

EF Peace Day

In EF Oxford we organised 'peace lessons' on 21st September.
In all subjects, topics were focused on peace, like investment on peace industries (Business) or ecological research (Science)

Down you will find a clip of Peace Day at EF Oxford.

Ways to make money online

There are lots of activities you can do online to earn money. All of them require from you perseverance, because you start those business with no precedents. You are a real newbie. So, here are a couple of ways for you to start in business, generating passive income, and some of them can generate a profitable business.

1. Pay Per Clicks. (and other CPA's) As explained before, it's matter of time, paying each time someone clicks on your web site, and earning a percentage after a number of clicks.
   


2. e-Books. It's simple: you look for a book on internet (ebook) and read it. Then you can sell it on ebay. Also you can write a book about your favourite topic and sell it. You don't pay for printing, just for copy protection.


3. Selling web sites. If you are good at web design, you can produce a series of templates and sell them. You can use ebay, amazon, yahoo or your own method.


4. Design logos for companies. Start your own web page and make a name for yourself as a good logo designer. Some customers will come to you for getting a good image for their sites, products, companies... and if you're lucky, your customers could be (small) companies.

It's all mater of desire. If you desire to generate money on internet, you will find more ways to do it.

NeoBux: The Innovation in PTC

Last time i just summarized the operation of PPC's; the company (reflected on the site) pays you some cents for clicking links and taking a look of the advertisement. The more advertisements you click, more money you earn, so simple.

Neobux is one of all the PPC (also known as PTC, that stands for Pay to Click) existing on the Internet. But be careful, most of the sites scam you, they don't pay you when they have to.

Neobux has good payment proofs, you can find some in NeoBux Forum.
Also:
Payment proof 1.
Payment proof 2.

As you see, NeoBux figures in the most trustworthy PTC sites, it means they really PAY when you reach the payment deadline, and if you have earned the minimum payment quantity, $2.

In NeoBux you earn money for clicking advertisements and taking a look of the web page for 30 seconds. After the time runs out, $0.01 will be credited to your account.

Then you can have referrals. What are those? A referral is an user who generates money for you, each of its advertisement click generates $0.01 to him and $0.005 to you. It's a kind of employee.

You can have three kinds of referrals:

• Direct Referral: when you persuade a friend of yours to participate in NeoBux (speaking directly to him) and he signs up in the system, he will do that thanks to you, so you earn 50% of the credit he generates.
• Rented Referral: you can rent a random NeoBux user for 30 days which will work as a direct referral.
• Bought Referral: paying a little bit more, you can have a random user to generate money for you forever. As if it was a Direct Referral, but buying it (like an employee)

Obviously the first week you won't generate much money, because you have a limited number of advertises per day, but when you collect enough money you can rent some referrals and the earnings will be multiplicated.

It's just a matter of time, like every investment, you have to 'sacrifice' something to have profit from it.

Will you try?

Think And Grow Rich - Chapter Two

Think and Grow Rich - Chapter Two (pdf). On this chapter, N. Hill explains deeply the power of desire in the achievement of our goals. "Desire, The Starting Point Of All Achievement" means that you have to mix the will for gaining something with the possibility of getting it. All the great inventors had a big desire to materialize their ideas, that's why they succeeded in their tasks. Edison, Marconi, Volta, the Wright brothers... All of them wanted so much to reach their dreams.

That is the second key point in business, dream. Don't be afraid to be a big dreamer, because the more you dream, the more you want to reach success. You need to meddle with your dreams, ideas, beliefs so they become part of you. "There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for a thing until he or she believes it can be acquired." as the book says.

Also it insists on the fact that each crisis carries an opportunity after it. Bad things have to be balanced with good things, so no bad circumstance comes without a posterior reward. It's the basis of equilibrium, every system has its own methods to counteract the variations by setting up something of equal magnitude and opposite sense.

"Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.” That means we can make things happen if and only if we wish them to be done, if we act with passion and perseverance to achieve them.

The example given in the book of the last statement is the author's own son. He was born with no ears - he should be deaf mute - but with his parents' desire of teaching him how to hear and speak, adding hard effort and perseverance, the boy could hear and speak. At the end, the hearing skill was improved with a technological aid, so he supported the manufacturing company to create best ways to help deaf mutes. His parents' effort was worth.

The Big Idea Book

Do you think that there aren't new things to be developed in the world? If you do, you are wrong. The Big Idea Book was published after the initiative of the web site Idea a Day, which each day received an idea which could be developed and transformed into a profitable business, or just would help to change the world in a certain way.

500 of the best ideas in the web page were taken and compiled into this book, ranging from intelligent gadgets to absurde inventions.

It's a good way to motivate your creativity, thanks to people who shared their ideas with the rest of the world.

Pay To Click

Making money always seems hard. The idea of setting up a business from scratch does not gives a good inspiration to start in the money making world. But business involves not only physical trading, doing something and getting paid for it; you can earn some pounds by using Pay-to-Click systems.

And what are the PTC's?
It's simple: earn money by visiting web pages. Does it sounds hard? You just have to sign in, configure your payment account and start browsing! Monthly, your account balance will be credited to your payment location. Most of the PPC sites request the user to specify a PayPal account to credit the earnings. Then you can transfer the money from PayPal to your bank account, just paying a little fee for the transaction.

If you focus on working with PTC, first you need to check if the site has payment proof because the internet is full of fake sites, scamming users. Is better to start with well known sites as Neobux, You-Cubez.

Each service has different payment rates and dates. You can read more information on their own sites. And some of them offer a referral service: you can buy (forever), rent (30 days) or refer the page to a friend so he creates his account thanks to you. Each of those will generate money for each page they visit, 50% of the income that each click will generate to them. So the point is have more referrals and click daily so the activity becomes profitable.