Final Business Plan Team_8

DETAILED BUSINESS PLAN CONTENTS 1) COVER SHEET (A)

BUSINESS INFORMATION

Name: MasterMusic.com Location: www.mastermusic.com

(B)

BUSINESS PARAGRAPH

MasterMusic.com is an entertainment and marketing e-tailing company committed to providing quality service and delivering products to client business and individual consumers, through our experience and expertise to delivering first class music and works of art that allows our independent business partners and customers the opportunity for professional reward. Our vision is to provide the best service and products which meet our customers diverse needs and intends to be a premier music and works of art East African website recognized for its superior business environment, focus on promoting education, east African cultures, traditions and creating a great link for the music and artistic talents within the East African community to the global market at the lowest prices. (C)

AMOUNT OF MONEY NEEDED The initial capital we plan to invest in our business is approximately Ksh 1,000, 000. This constitutes the resources, which are Computers, office furniture’s and stationeries, network cables and Internet charges.

2) TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Cover Sheet………………………………………………………………pg.1

Executive summary………………………………………………………pg.3 Business Context………………………………………………………….pg.5

Business Profile……………………………………………………………pg.6

Market Profile…………………………………………………………….pg.8

Anticipated Challenges and Planned Responses…………………………..pg.9

Marketing Plan……………………………………………………………pg.10

Financial projections……………………………………………………..pg.11

Implementation schedule…………………………………………………pg.12

Statement of resource needs………………………………………………pg.13

Appendix………………………………………………………………….pg.14

3) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (A)

Mission statement

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MasterMusic.com is an entertainment and marketing company committed to providing quality service and delivering products through our experience and expertise to delivering first class music and works of art that allows our independent business partners and customers the opportunity for personal and professional reward. Vision: Our vision is to provide the best service and products which meet our customers diverse needs and intends to be a premier music and works of art East African website recognized for its superior business environment, focus on promoting education, east African cultures, traditions and creating a great link for the music and artistic talents within the East African community to the global market.

Company Values. Profitability: We are committed to fair pricing and continued profitability resulting in our personal and corporate success. Growth: We will pursue professional growth to benefit our company our business partners and ourselves.

Accountability: We individually take responsibility and accountability for our actions and performance. We will be accountable to our customers our business partners and to each other. Focus: We keep the main thing, “Sharing and distributing east African music and works of Art with the world” through quality products. Respect: We will treat one another with dignity and respect. We will always consider the thoughts and ideas of other people. (B)

Unique Selling Advantage MasterMusic.com will offer diverse products and services of the best selection and quality at lowest prices on a global basis at our business partners and customers convenience.

(C)

Projections for the future (sales and profits)

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MasterMusic.com will enter the market by first letting the consumers identify our products as a brand. Since we are a start-up we will have to use the virtual retailing business model where no warehouses or inventory will be put in place and thus we will be collecting products directly from the owners, taking orders and receive payments electronically and then let others fill the orders. We are hoping to change our business model if the company becomes stable and profitable to handle our own inventory through setting warehouses around the region and ensuring proper warehouse management, warehouse automation, packaging and inventory management. (D)

Needs (Capital and resources) The initial capital we plan to invest in our business is approximately Ksh 1,000, 000. This constitutes the resources, which are Computers, office furniture’s and stationeries, network cables and Internet charges.

(E)

Procedures and timeline for repaying the investors We will be repaying our investors based on the percentage of our revenues annually, which we are yet to set the value once the business is commenced.

(F)

The amount of capital needed The initial capital for our business will be Ksh.1, 000,000.

4) BUSINESS CONTEXT

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(A)

Growth potential Since the company is only making a start up in the industry, we have to start with products which doesn’t need large inventory type products so as to ease shipping and delivery, but in future If the company becomes stable we will have to add other categories of products and services from the east African region and if it all goes well, we will include Africa as a whole.

(B)

New products and development Since our products doesn’t really undergo any formal production process this is because we get the products from their owners or suppliers and so as to protect their intellectual property rights we do not take them under any further production process and this applies to both our current products and new products that we will bring latter to the market. Although most of our services both current and new services but this doesn’t affect the products in anyway. We intend to come up with new products and services that will save our customers time and money during the life of the business.

(C)

Economic trends Online business looks very promising because according to statistics carried from www.internetworldstats.com, indicates that the number of people who access the Internet within east Africa as at September 2006 totals approx. 1.9 million And according to pewResearch Center 2005 on an average day, 70 million people go online, around 140 million send e-mail, 8 million have created a blog, 4 million share music on peer-topeer networks and 3 million use the internet to rate a person, product or service and the number is still rising.

(D)

Industry outlook and trends. According to a research from eMarketer, Inc, 2005 and Forrester Research 2005, Online consumer Sales has expanded by more than 23% in 2005 to an estimated $142-$172 billion.

5) BUSINESS PROFILE (A)

Nature of business 5

The nature of our business is Business to business to consumer (B2B2C) e-commerce, where we provide some products or services to client business, that maintains its own customers and we also provide some products or services to individual consumers. It will be mainly an e-tailing company. (B)

Brief history MasterMusic.com is an entertainment and marketing company established within the east African community with the main objective of stopping piracy so that the artists within this region be able to get well paid for their intellectual property. Among other of its objectives are:

(C)

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To help those junior and underground artists who are justr starting to get their items marketed thus encourage creativity.

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To ensure that people in other countries can access the artists products from east Africa thus saving them the time and cost.

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Linking the other countries with works of art from East Africa.

Organizational detail

CEO

CHIEF OPERATION OFFICER

CIO

RESEARCH TEAM

MARKETING MANAGER

IT AND SECURITY MANAGER

FINANCE MANAGER

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Chief executive officer He is responsible for the effective administration and management of the overall business. The primary duties will be to plan, organise, control and direct the overall operation of the business. The chief information officer

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He plans, organizes and directs the information management services including the development, coordination, and administration of corporate information systems and services. IT security officer Builds up his own specialist expertise in IT security and is responsible for all IT security issues in the business. Financial manager Provides planning guidance and oversight in the development of the budget, licence and asset management, legal and contractual adherence, operational and financial reporting and financial controls. Marketing manager Performs market research and analysis. (D)

(E)

(F)

Factors that influence business Since the business transactions of master music will be done online, this will influence the company business since it has to comply with all the laws and regulations regarding the Internet, customers’ information privacy and security. The company will also have to comply with all the copyright and patent laws so as to protect the artists’ intellectual property rights. Research and development patterns The company will have a research team headed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) which will be dealing with performing research relating to the market and economic trends of the business. The General Manager will head the developments intended to be undertaken by the company through a development team, which will be formed regarding the development. Contracts and agreements While undertaking any contract and agreements with any business partners we will ensure that we seek proper legal advice relating to the contract and agreement. We will follow the correct procedures regarding any contract and agreement.

(G)

Operational procedures The lifecycle of our products is that we collect the products from our suppliers or the owners of the products, and then put them online for sale after which when purchased we deliver it to the customer through post. We will make a link with the customer to be able to track the

6) MARKET PROFILE (A)

Consumers of our product and services.

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(B)

The consumers of MasterMusic.com products range from all ages and cultural backgrounds, that is all religions, race, tribes and culture. Geographical scope of market According to statistics from www.internetworldstats.com the number of people who access the Internet within east Africa as at September 2006 totals 1,887,900. This is a very good and promising target for our products and services regionally.

(C)

Growth potential of target market According to pew research center 2005, on an average day, 70 million people go online globally. Around 140 million send e-mail, 8 million have created a blog, 4 million share music on peer-to-peer networks and 3 million use the internet to rate a person, product or service and the number is still rising.

(D)

(E)

Ability to satisfy market demands Our current production capacity as of now is hard to gauge because we have not yet given the business a try but we are doing our best to collect the inventories for our products from owners and suppliers. This will ensure that we meet market demands for our products. How we intend to reach new customers and retain the ones we already have. We intend to reach the customers through offering sample CD’s and works of art with free trial offers in magazines and newspapers across the region. We intend to keep and maintain our subscribed customers through offering packed services that is, all round services ranging from health, financials, property and entertainment.

7) ANTICIPATED CHALLENGES AND PLANNED RESPONSES a) Dealing with competition

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Since this will be a new business venture, which has not been in the east African market, the competition is not very stiff at this stage. However, if it does we will do the following:  Lowering our prices, and through this we can still make revenues through sales volume.  We will offer discounts to those who buy in bulks.  We will offer the best customer care service, by providing free website for customers complaints and recommendations hence winning the customer loyalty.  Supporting upcoming artists in launching their products at a lower cost. b) Weak areas and how we will compensate for them. Some of the weak areas that we foresee to hinder the operations of the company are: • Fraud: - We will put firewalls, passwords and usernames to prevent unauthorised users from getting access to the system. • Delivery delay: -we will provide a way of tracking customer deliveries in cases of delay. C) Legal factors We will obtain a licence of operation from the Communication Commission of Kenya and also get a Lawyer who will help us in dealing with the Company’s legal matters .A trading licence from the Local Government after which we will have the business Launched. (D) Protection issues- copyrights and patents Registration of domain in advance so that our business doesn’t become nullified or to prevent other people from using the same domain name. We will also abide by all the laws and regulations relating to copyrights and patents within east Africa. (E) Contingencies In the case of contingencies we are going to liase with a company operating a website so they can have our backup for us to use in case of loss of information. The location of the business will be in an environment free from floods etc. (F) Staffing We need a total of 6 employees to operate this business effectively and efficiently. A Chief Executive Officer who will overlook the general operations of the business and make important decision of the business. A financial controller who will deal with financial matters of the business. 3 programmers who will develop the website and deal with the website maintenance. A business analyst who will do the market analysis and develop strategies to ensure that the objectives of the business are met.

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8) MARKETING PLAN (A) Publicity publicity will include telephone press conferences, in-studio media tours, multicomponent video news release (VNR’s), newswire stories, and Internet releases. For these releases to be used by the media, they must be of interest to the public ( or at least to the market segment that the media outlet is targeted to. The releases are often customized to match the media vehicle that they are being sent to. Getting noticed by the press is all about saying the right thing at the right time. A publicist is continuously asking what about you or your company will pique the reader's curiosity and make a good story? The most successful publicity releases are related to topics of current interest. These are referred to as news pegs. An example is if three people die of water poisoning, an alert publicist would release stories about the technology embodied in a water purification product. (B) Merchandising Merchandising is a marketing practice in which the brand or image from one product or service is used to sell another.promotion of merchandise sales, as by coordinating production, marketing and developing advertising, display, and sales strategies to increase retail sales. This includes disciplines in pricing and discounting, physical presentation of products and displays, and the decisions about which products should be presented to which customers at what time. making products in retail outlets available to consumers, primarily by stocking shelves and displays. (C) Marketing research MasterMusic.com will ensure that it set out adequate budget for research. Information generated will form the basis for market segmentation, planning and market penetration strategies, which will be vital for the success of the company. (D) Promotion We will involve advertising, which include promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor. For example print adverts, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, sign, posters, motion pictures, web pages and emails. Also through personalization and one-to-one marketing that is, targeting specific marketing messages to these individuals and then positioning the product via competitors to be truly unique.

9) FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS

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We will outsource financial analysts and accountants to come up with the financial projections of the company since based on the knowledge the team has this is too demanding.

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10) IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

11) STATEMENT OF RESOURCE NEEDS

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12) APPENDIX

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