One Stop Home Solutions: Making habitat related problems a pleasure by offering online and in person aid

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One Stop Home Solutions: Making habitat related problems a pleasure by offering online and in person aid

Executive Summary

The most important part of business plan is the executive summary. It includes the main business idea, market potentials, unique selling points, the service we are trying to sell, the profit making process, the company vision and finally the financial forecast. These points are discussed below:

First of all, our business idea is all about providing the home solutions to the customers who want to purchase or rent a flat(also want to decorate) with certain predetermined requirements. On the other hand we will have the leading REHAB enlisted construction firms of our country which will be the members of our website as well as our revenue generator from their advertisements on the web. The market potential seems to be good for us as we did a market survey where we found that the leading construction companies are interested to advertise on the web so that they get a worldwide exposure. Then again the people who want to purchase and rent home don’t have that much time to look for these in suitable locations and predetermined budget. They will also be more than happy to get involved with such a web that gives them all the solutions within a click. Here we would like to mention that ,we are not charging any fees from the house owners .We will just get the information through our field workers and add those in our web by our data entry operator. We are also giving in person service where people can come and get the consultancy just for a minimal fees. The unique selling points in our business is that it is very much diversified as we are covering areas beyond Dhaka like other divisions. We are including genuine information about the habitats which will save the time ,money, energy of people. After launching the website we will do vast advertising like newspaper, online version of newspaper, cable TV channels, FM radio stations, leaflets etc. We will try to cover the non resident Bangladeshis as we are giving advertisements in online edition of newspapers. So this will fill the purpose of making a home in own country without being cheated. Our market competitors have some competitive advantages over ours which is that they entered in to the market earlier. But through our vast advertising and unique selling concepts we can overcome this .The sales projection and the financial statements shows the feasibility of success which is shown at the end of the report.. Our vision is to provide the best possible support to customers with regard to home solutions through improving quality and remain in business with glory.

Business Idea

Our business idea is all about a web based as well as in person home purchasing or renting solutions provided to both customers and sellers of apartment/houses. Information is available to the members of the website at one spot with a flash of a click and. It will save time, money and effort of flat seekers.

The uniqueness of our business idea is:

  • Online based advertisements of real estates for non resident Bangladeshis
  • Providing online as well as in person service
  • Storing of information about habitats in and outside Dhaka i.e. geographical decentralization

We have thought to develop a project on home solutions. Firstly, there will be two kinds of members /clients of our Service. One who is doing construction business and the other who wants to purchase/rent a house. Secondly, we will provide the service in two ways, online and in person. We are not charging any fees from the visitors of the websites. But the customers who will seek for our physical assistance will be charged a minimal annual fee.

In case of the sellers or the constructions companies they have to be registered under this website, the pre requisite of this registration is that they have to be the member of REHAB(Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh).They will also be allowed to put advertisements of their firms in our websites from where our revenue will be primarily generated. They have to pay a member renewal charge every year to refurbish their contact for keeping their membership.

The website will be designed in such a way where there will be places for area, position, builder, budget and the customer will fill up these, and they will get all the information and options opened to him/her within a second.

If we get positive response from every side, we will also introduce a different faction which will serve clients to décor their interior according to their taste. We will plan to expand the business after two or three years of operations. We think when we will find a smiling face and a key of a new house at his or her hand we will think we are successful. Because it is the client for whom we exist.

Goals and Objectives

Business Goal is defined as the end toward the effort is directed. goal is less specific than a objective, rather objective is more specific and measureable.so goal and objectives are very much interrelated with each other. to get a good business idea we need to have clear, specific goals and objectives. Those are:

· To offer reduced advertising cost to the builders through economies of scale which will in response generate a greater revenue

· As the current market competition is not too strong to capture at least 25% of market share in the first year of operation

· To include at least 50 construction companies along with 20 leading in our website

· To catch up the interior designing business within the 3rd year of operations

· To satisfy customers by ensuring quality and credibility of information

· To catch up a growth of around 20% on an average of profit and revenue(based on our calculation given on appendix)

Risk Assessment

Risk is very much related with business. We are familiar with the saying “No Risk , No Gain”. To assess the risk we have to identify the areas of risk and address the risk. The risk related with demand is that there might be fluctuation of demand of our service. Perhaps the construction companies may prefer advertising in other media rather than websites. In physical assistance , we may face that people will prefer to find out their home solutions by themselves rather than seeking for aid from an intermediary. The supply side threat is that the better performance of the competitors .In a third world developing country like ours, websites are not that much accessible to the mass people.

We can get through the demand risk by ensuring quality and reduced tariff for the advertisers

We will have strong control and mentoring over our business so that others can not capture the whole market.

Finally, we are diversifying our risk by increasing service lines in to three services so that we can be compensated in case of failure in one arena. The risk will be spread over

Market Potential

By market potentiality we mean the possibility of developing our product or service in future necessarily in market. For determining the market potential of our service we first need to identify who are our target markets and then future prospect.

In our project the target market are the people who are seeking for a home either by owning it or by renting. Then there is an another kind of customer chunk for us who are the construction companies (building residential apartments, commercial space etc) and also the owner of the house who want to sell or rent their houses.

Our customers mostly are the affluent people who want to purchase a flat .And we will also serve the people who are from mid income level and want to rent a home for staying. This way we cover a good number of people from different income level and not centralizing our business only for the well off people.

We mainly serve those customers who want to purchase a flat in a particular location, with a predetermined budget and size but do not have enough time to go through all the newspapers and to look for flats in person they are looking for. Then again the people who are looking for a looking for a rented homes and facing the same problem above and don’t want to wander here and there for getting their desired rented houses.

After evaluating our future opportunities of expanding this business we found that we can go for horizontal expansion after a couple years towards interior solutions. So, our target market will also be expanded towards the people who want to decorate their homes from the customers who want to buy or rest merely. First of all as it is a web based solution provider so we do not have any geographical barrier. But we can state it in a different way. Our geographical expansion will be like that we will be covering areas beyond Dhaka i.e. other divisions (Chittagong, Barishal, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi) for the customers who need to buy or rent home outside Dhaka.

Competition

Competition always makes a business more challenging. Competition motivates and sometimes compels a business to perform better and better. The most important thing is to identify the competitors and their natures. In our business truly we do not have that kind of competitors but some business are flourishing now-a-days in this area. Our competitors are some other web based property allied information providers doing business in our country. Another competitors to us are the newspapers and advertising media who provide information through commercials about housings and stuffs.

To occupy a distinctive position in market against the competitors we need to spot the strengths and weaknesses of ours as well as the competitors very well. The strengths of our competitors are:

Have an earlier market entry(in case of websites)

Newspaper more accessible to public

Enjoy higher loyalty level from the advertisers(construction companies)

To overcome their strengths and advantages we need to focus on time as they had an earlier entry. We will go for an exposing advertising to ensure the a very effective entry in this entry. We will try to capture the maximum customer attention so that they prone visit our website or contact us physically. If we can attract the customers by massive advertisement the construction companies who are another type of customers of ours will be eager to advertise in our website.

In case of newspapers we are already in comparative advantage because of specificity of information.

We also recognized our strengths and advantages over the others as follows:

Provide physical assistance in addition to web based aid

Service decentralization covering different divisions of Bangladesh

Provide a wide range of information and make the search engine very user friendly

Reduce cost through economies of scale i.e. will attract the builder category customers by offering a low advertising rate

Marketing Plan

Marketing is the way to reach the product and services to our target customers.. Market positioning refers to occupying a clear , distinctive position in consumers mind. We want to do our market positioning through ensuring our service as:

Solution Provider

Helping Hand

Information in a click

Success or failure of a certain product or service mainly depends on the marketing and promotional campaigns. Our business is not like other conventional ones so that we have to take the marketing strategies in a very effective an calculative way. The more we are able to attract our visitors for visiting the site, it will be more likely that the advertisements in our website will be seen by them. So, the construction companies will have the urge to be registered and put the advertisement in our site. he plans for marketing and promotional strategies are:

IT-based pages of newspaper(e.g. Projukti dot com, Techno Talk)

Front pages of newspapers

Online editions of daily newspapers to reach the NRBs(Non Resident Bangladeshis)

Press release

Free registrations in websites (e.g. Velki, Web Bangladesh, Google)

Leaflets/Banners

Stickers

FM band radio stations of Bangladesh

Sustainability of a certain service is totally dependent on how much sales revenue we can generate. For the website segment of our project, we don’t need any salespeople because the website itself is an automated seller. In case of our in person service we ourselves will provide the selling service to the customers coming to our office(already mentioned ours’ is a partnership firm).As we personally will talk and perform consultancy for our customers it will necessarily upgrade the quality of sales service.

Operations

The operation for a particular business starts with inauguration of developing the product or service and ends up with reaching to the customers. We start with the market survey regarding the current state of the particular business we are opting for. We found a good market potential for this as the construction business is a booming one and people don’t have that much time to find the suitable home they are looking for.

We commence our operation by web development through a well known web developer. The unique feature of the website will be a very user friendly search engine for the visitors and large volume of information regarding selling and renting houses(including all the divisions).The main revenue will be generated by the construction firms who are our members. The membership process includes a registration fee and after paying it to us their information will be added to our website. In addition there will be places for advertisement where they can put their multimedia flash advertisements with a payment . Simultaneously, we will rent an office space for providing our in person service. We need to employ two kinds of staffs. First category will collect information about the vacant houses or flats available by working in the field. And the second category will go through all the newspapers everyday to update the to let information in our website by data entry. In addition they will do the same for the construction companies for selling flats. Our in person service will be operated in a way that those who do not have any access to internet they can be our in person member by paying minimal annual fee. A summarized statement regarding the vacant flats both for renting or purchasing purpose will be sent to them in a weekly basis according to their location, size and budget preferences. We will also provide face to face consultancy regarding any habitat setback. After evaluating the feasibility of our business in couple of years, our operations will be expanded towards interiors decorations too.

To ensure quality we are including only REHAB (Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh) members in our website. The customer will get the authentic information. To exceed the customer expectation there will be fast up gradation of information and we will not take any fees from the house owners who want to rent their houses but we will include their advertises from newspapers in the website.

Resource Requirements

For initiating our business operations we will definitely need some resources including capital expenditure and personnel requirements.

Capital Investments

Capital expenditures (“CAPEX”) are expenditures used by a company to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as equipment, property, industrial buildings.The capital investments needed for our business are:

Licensing fee for partnership business amounting Tk.2,000

Capital expenditure in the head of web development amounting Tk. 1,50,000

Desktop Computer systems: (Quantity 4 ) amounting Tk.1,50,000

Internet connection fee: Tk. 2,500

Furniture and Fixtures : Tk. 1,50,000

Others:Tk.50,000

Personnel Requirement

Personnel requirement refers to appoint the right person in the right place. Our business will require to employ the following personnel:

Data Entry Operators(Part timers) : Position :2 , Salary : 7000×2= 14000

Field Worker(Information collector ,Part timers) : Position: 10 , Salary : 5000×10=50000

Receptionist and telephone operator : Position:1 ,Salary: 8,000

Supporting Staff : Position : 1 ,Salary : 3,500

* The organizational structure is shown on the appendix part.

External Resources

The web developer will be paid an amount of Tk. 1,00,000 per annum for up gradation and maintenance of the website

The construction firms are our suppliers as well as customers

While expanding our business in the later years we will hire a part time interior designer to work with our firm and provide consultancy to the customers

Plan Implementation

Implementation means to put the plan in to effect. The first and foremost task before the commencement of business is licensing the business under partnership act. After that, we have to ramp up the resources we identified earlier. We have to set up the business with the help of capital expenditures. And then these will be supported by personnel to continue operation and in case of expansion we will get the help from the external resources. We will continue the research on development of our website through regular market survey participated by the customers.

Our service will be rolled out by an exposing manner to ensure that, it attracts a large chunk of customers and construction companies. We expect to invite the top level personnel from REHAB and from some leading construction companies in Bangladesh in our website inauguration ceremony.

As soon as an office space will be rented along with the necessary equipments and personnel we can start the in person operation. Last but not the least, we contacted with a good number of web developer who are ready to develop a website for us as per our requirements. So, operational readiness of our business seems to be reasonable.

We will estimate an expected number of consumers for a particular financial year, after that time periods we will compare the predicted and the actual number of customers. In case of material deviations we will find out the reasons operating behind the deviations and find out what is to be done to overcome this. Our steps could be:

Evaluate whether proper marketing promotions are going on

Perform a market survey regarding what more customers want from us

Whether the staffs are performing their duties properly

This is how our plan can be implemented and business can be operated in the current environmental situation of Bangladesh.

Financial Plan & Revenue Projection

Revenue Projection

We forecasted the number of home sellers will be registered under our website and also the number of advertisements given to our website which will mainly generate revenue. We made the projections for 5 years considering our market share, market situation, competition , plan for expansion and risks. The forecasted revenue both in number of customers(units) and in amount are shown below:

Particulars Year 1

Units Tk.

Year 2

Units Tk

Year 3

Units Tk

Year 4

Units Tk

Year 5

Units Tk

Registration Fees(15000/P) 50 750000 55 825000 60 900000 30 450000 5 45000
Ads

(200000/co)

15 3000000 20 4000000 27 5400000 30 6000000 30 60000000
Consul. Fee(5000/cus) 20 100000 25 125000 30 150000 35 175000 35 175000
Renewal fee(1000/cus) nil nil 50 50000 125 125000 165 165000 195 195000
Interior Décor. Charge 1200000 1600000
Total 3850000 5000000 6575000 7990000 8045000

Relevant Financial Facts

We have projected income through the income statement for 5 years which are attached in the appendix. We observed the growth rates of revenue and profits and found the growth rates are respectively 20.23% and 27.39%. We have also found a positive NPV (Net Present Value) amounting Tk.58,37,023.407 which ensures the feasibility of our project. The graphs and calculations are shown on the appendix.

Appendix

One Stop Home Solutions

Income Statement (Year 1)

Particulars Amount (Taka)
Revenue :

Registration fees(15,000*50)

Advertisements(200000*15)

Consultancy Fees(5000*20)

Total Revenue

Less: Administrative Expenses

Web maintenance cost

Salary paid to staffs

Office rent

Internet fee

Office maintenance

In person service expense

Depreciation

Amortization

Total Administrative Expense

Less: Marketing Expenses

Online advertisement(75000*12)

Newspaper Ads

Banners, leaflets, stickers

Total Marketing Expenses

750000
3000000
100000
38,50,000
100000
906000
180000
18000
20000
12000
60000
30000
13,26,000
900000
500000
50000
3,05,000
Net Income Before Tax 10,74,000
Less: Tax 1,53,500
Net Income After Tax 9,20,500

Notes:

1.The revenue has been estimated according to our evaluation of service charges and advertisement charges after performing the market analysis.

2.We are not considering any interest expense as the business is totally self financed.

3.Taxes have been calculated as the rates provided by the government for personal tax rates(as it is a partnership firm).The rates are as follows:

Income Range Tax Rate
0 to 120000 Nil
On the 2nd 250000 of total income 10%
On the next 300000 of total income 15%
On the next 350000 of total income 20%
On the remaining balance of total income 25%

4.Depriciation has been calculated on straight line basis on furniture and equipments assuming useful life of 5 years

5.The initial cost of web development has been amortized over 5 years in equal amounts.

6. The registration fees have been determined to be tk.15000 per annum, and advertisement in the different panels of the website will generate tk.200000 per annum from each and the In person aid seekers will have to pay tk.5000 each per annum.

7.The online newspapers ads and the advertisement rates are authentically judged by us through websites.

One Stop Home Solutions

Income Statement (Year 2)

Particulars Amount (Taka)
Revenue :

Registration fees(15,000*55)

Advertisements(200000*20)

Consultancy Fees(5000*25)

Renewal Fees(1000*50)

Total Revenue

Less: Total Administrative Expense

Less: Marketing Expenses

Online advertisement(75000*12)

Newspaper Ads

Banners, leaflets, stickers

Radio Advertisement

Total Marketing Expenses

Net income Before tax

Less: Tax

Net Income After Tax

825000
4000000
125000
50000
50,00,000
13,26,000
900000
700000
60000
500000
21,60,000
15,14,000
2,63,500
12,50,500

Notes:

1.The increment in number of customers have been assumed to be 10% ,Advertisers is almost 35% and Consultancy seekers is 25%.

2.Adminstrative expenses are held constant

3.Marketing Expenses have been increased as radio advertisement will be introduced in the second year of operation.

One Stop Home Solutions

Income Statement (Year 3)

Particulars Amount (Taka)
Revenue :

Registration fees(15,000*60)

Advertisements(200000*27)

Consultancy Fees(5000*30)

Renewal Fees(125*1000)

Total Revenue

Less: Total Administrative Expense

Less: Marketing Expenses

Online advertisement(100000*12)

Newspaper Ads

Banners, leaflets, stickers

Radio Advertisement

Bill Board

Total Marketing Expenses

Net income Before tax

Less: Tax

Net Income After Tax

900000
5400000
150000
125000
65,75,000
13,26,000
1200000
700000
60000
500000
500000
29,60,000
22,89,000
457250
18,31,750

Notes:

1.One new type of advertisement expense has been included that is bill boarding. For service revenue increment previous rates are used.

One Stop Home Solutions

Income Statement (Year 4)

Particulars Amount (Taka)
Revenue :

Registration fees(15,000*30)

Advertisements(200000*30)

Consultancy Fees(5000*35)

Renewal Fees(165*1000)

Interior Decoration Charge

Total Revenue

Less: Total Administrative Expense

Less: Interior designer’s fees

Less: Marketing Expenses

Online advertisement(120000*12)

Newspaper Ads

Banners, leaflets, stickers

Radio Advertisement

Bill Board

Total Marketing Expenses

Net income Before tax

Less: Tax

Net Income After Tax

450000
6000000
175000
165000
1200000
79,90,000
13,26,000
240000
1440000
900000
60000
500000
500000
34,00,000
30,24,000
641000
23,83,000

Notes:

1.In this year the service of home decoration will be introduced.

2.More marketing expenses will be needed for elaborate advertisements and promotions.

One Stop Home Solutions

Income Statement (Year 5)

Particulars Amount (Taka)
Revenue :

Registration fees(15,000*5)

Advertisements(200000*30)

Consultancy Fees(5000*35)

Renewal Fees(195*1000)

Interior Decoration Charge

Total Revenue

Less: Total Administrative Expense

Less: Interior designer’s fees

Less: Marketing Expenses

Online advertisement(120000*12)

Newspaper Ads

Banners, leaflets, stickers

Radio Advertisement

Bill Board

Total Marketing Expenses

Net income Before tax

Less: Tax

Net Income After Tax

75000
6000000
175000
195000
1600000
80,45,000
13,26,000
240000
1440000
900000
60000
500000
500000
34,00,000
30,79,000
654750
24,24,250

Organization Chart

Calculation of NPV

The formula for calculation OCF(Operating Cash Flow) is ,

OCF = EBIT + Depreciation-Tax

The OCFs are:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
OCF 1010500 1340500 1921750 2473000 2514250

We will discount this cash flows with a rate of 12% because it will be considered as opportunity cost for our business. As we are going for self financing ,we will take the forgone interest rate that would have been provided by the bank if it were kept our for a 5 year term deposit. So, the required return from the investment will be 12% for us.

Now,

Net Present Value(NPV)

= ?PVCI- ?PVCO

= (1010500/1.12)+ (1340500/1.122)+(1921750/1.123)+(2473000/1.124)+(2514250/1.125) – 500000

=63,37,023.407-500000

=58,37,023.407

Growth Rate Calculation

Profit Growth

Average Growth rate = { n-1? (Yn / Y 1 ) – 1} × 100

= { 5-1? (2424250 / 920500) – 1} × 100

= 27.39%

Revenue Growth

Average Growth rate = { n-1? (Yn / Y 1 ) – 1} × 100

= { 5-1? (8045000/ 3850000) – 1} × 100

= 20.23%

SWOT Analysis

Strength :

Vast and authentic information

Key point is to help customers rather than making profit merely

Very effective expected advertising channel

Both online and in person service

Weakness:

Earlier entry by other few competitors that exist in the market

Internet is not widely accessible in Bangladesh

Opportunities:

The growing trend of using internet

The booming of construction business

The raising concern of people for decorating their houses

The intensity of people living aboard to settle in own country

The time constraint of people to find their dream homes (in case of renting also)

Threat

The traditional way of looking for homes in newspaper rather than internet

The hacking of website ( which is very rare in case of proper security system)