Week 4
Day 17: Workflow Dissemenation:
Directing: How is work-flow disseminated to the employees?
- How do you get things done?
- Who does what?
- Design a cohesive plan for completing all tasks on time.
Day 18: Controlling-Keeping all employees on track?
- A plan needs to be in place to finish all assignments on time.
- What are the consequences if employees do not accomplish given tasks?
- What type of reporting mechanism is in place.
- Who is in charge of each area and what are the consequences if they do not perform their jobs?
Day 19: Market Analysis
- Look at competitors in the marketplace.
- How many similar companies exist in the real world and how many competitors do you have?
- Is this market growing or in decline?
- Identify strengths and threats to be addressed in long and short term planning.
- Compare company vision and experience against averages for similar operations.
Day 20: Product/Service
- What are you actually offering the consumer?
- What are they getting for their money?
- How do you plan to interest potential customers and clients in your product or service and persuade them to buy the product of service you have to offer?
Day 21: Placement
- Associated with the channels of distribution that serve as the means of getting the service/product to the target customers.
- Channels might include wholesaler, middleman or jobber and retail outlet.
- Clothing and electronics might buy their goods from a wholesaler instead of a retailer in order to get a better price.
- Every one in the channel of distribution tacks on a percentage to make a profit.
- Federal Express or UPS would be considered a part of the channel of distribution
Example: week 4: Workflow, keeping employees on track, market analysis, product, placement
Week 5
Day 22: Price
Takes into account profit margins and the probable pricing response of competitors including list price as well as discounts, financing and other options such as leasing.
You should do some secondary marketing research here.
Find out what your competitors charge for similar items or services.
What types of discounts and special offers will you have?
You might want to undercut the competition's price.
Investigate companies offering equal pricing.
Come up with the price for each item in your sales catalog.
Calculate individual percentages of profit for all items.
If the item is very expensive, consider leasing it.
Investigate sales tax in your target market area. Cities within each county have different sales tax rates that need to be collected.
Day 23: Promotion
How are your customers going to find out about your product?
Most companies have a web site.
Many companies list their businesses in the yellow pages in the phone book
Today many companies have their busineses listed in Yelp
The information below about Yelp was found in Wikipedia.
Yelp's website, Yelp.com, is a crowd-sourced local business review and social networking site. Its user community is primarily active in major metropolitan areas. The site has pages devoted to individual locations, such as restaurants or schools, where Yelp users can submit a review on their products or services using a one to five star rating system. Businesses can also update contact information, hours and other basic listing information or add special deals. In addition to writing reviews, users can react to reviews, plan events or discuss their personal lives. According to Sterling Market Intelligence, Yelp is "one of the most important sites on the Internet." As of Q2 2016 it has 168 million monthly unique visitors and 108 million reviews.
Consider creating Internet e-mail ads to be sent to other businesses in the area explaining catering possibilities.
Contact other companies that offer complimentary services and have them link their site to yours in exchange for prociding a linl on your site to theirs.
Develop a FaceBook page for your company. How to make a business page
Run ads in Facebook. Ads in Facebook
Use Twitter and other social media to promote your business.
Create links to the social media sites from your web site.
- Internet Advertising Examples
Target Market Day 24
A defined segment of the market that is a strategic focus of a business.
This target market has a lot of things in common and are likely to purchase a particular product of service.
The target market represents who are your customers.
Who you want to sell to?
Most markets have segments: smaller parts with somewhat different characteristics
Look at the segments in in your target market.
Demographics refer to things like age, sex, income, education, etc.
Geographic refers to places in the country, states, cities, countries, etc.
Psycho-graphic refers to buying habits or preferences for products and services.
Doing some marketing research will reveal these psycho-graphic characteristics.
Market Segmentation Day 25
Markets can be segmented or divided into smaller parts.
The more closely you can define your particular target market, the better success you will have.
Looking at income, buying patterns, needs can help you define your market
Try to find a niche, a special place in the overall target market.
For example, There are lots of yoga studios in town. What if you defined a market where you brought the instruction to their business at the time they wanted and geared the instruction to employees 40 or over?
Day 26: Balance Sheet: Assets needed to run the business
All businesses need assets, things of value, to run their business. Examples include equipment, inventory, supplies, etc. Research is needed to find out what these start-up costs are. Calculate the assets and their costs for your business.
In order for us to apply for a business loan, we will need to create a balance sheet. A balance sheet is also needed in our business plan. A balance sheet is a document that shows what is owned, what is owed and what the business is worth on a specific date. The balance sheet contains: the assets, the liabilities and the stockholders' equity accounts. The first line of a balance sheet names the company, the second contains the words "Balance Sheet" and the third has the date.
Assets and Liabilities will differ based on the nature of the company, its size, number of employees , type of business, etc. An example of a balance sheet for a company that carries merchandise appears below. You will need to quite a bit of research to determine what these items are for your business.
Cash | |
Accounts Receivable | |
Furniture and Fixtures | |
Acc. Depreciations Furniture | |
Office Supplies | |
Other Assets | |
Office Equipment | |
Acc. Dep. Office Equipment | |
Prepaid Insurance | |
Merchandise Inventory | |
Total Assets | |
Notes Payable | |
Accounts Payable | |
Workers' Comp Payable | |
Federal Income Tax Payable | |
FICA Tax Payable | |
Medicare Tax Payable | |
Federal Unemployment Tax Payable | |
State Unemployment Tax Payable | |
Sales Tax Payable | |
SDI Tax Payable | |
State Income Tax Payable | |
State Employment Training Tax | |
Total Liabilities | |
Common Stock | |
Retained Earnings | |
Total Liabil & Stock. Equity |
When any new company is started, the owners must invest their own money into the business. A bank will not loan money, unless they see that the owners have a vested interest in the success in the business.
Example: week 5: Price, promotion, target market, market segmentation and balance sheet