The purpose of this assignment is to build a comprehensive business plan for a strategic initiative.

Throughout Topics 4-7 various components of the business plan for your strategic initiative were created. Review the feedback you received from your instructor on the Business Plan Parts 1-4 assignments. Make necessary revisions to each part of the business plan and put each revised part of the plan together to create the final business plan for the proposed strategic initiative. Evidence of revision based upon instructor feedback will be assessed. Additionally, you will add a new section to the plan regarding strategic evaluation.

In a 1,500-2,000 word business plan that is clear and concise and utilizes business language and style, address the following using bullet points, narratives, and relevant visuals.

The final plan should include the following components:

SWOT Analysis
Financial Analysis and Budget
Strategy
Implementation Schedule
Strategic Evaluation: Discuss specific tools to be used to monitor the implementation success of the initiative and explain why ongoing strategic evaluation and the willingness and ability to adjust strategy is necessary for successful implementation of the initiative.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

ANSWER

Business Plan

Company Description

There has been a paradigm shift in the process and strategies of undertaking a business. Therefore, our firm has been faced with a significant shift where it needs to be more innovative and creative to develop better strategies and ways to ensure increased sales. Venturing into the online business will be the most suitable way to deal with the changes and keep up with the competition. Hence, the company seeks to Establish an e-commerce Platform where more products from the company will be sold online.  The plan aims to identify ways of making the venture a success, where it seeks to address all challenges and opportunities that are likely to affect the business.  The company deals with selling outsourced electronics from various companies. The plan provides an analysis of factors likely to affect the business, the financial requirements and highlights any critical information that is likely to affect the business.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1. The company has enough financial capability, which will help roll out the plans for establishing the e-commerce platform. The resources will be used for training the employees and also marketing the online platforms and the products to the prospective consumers
2. The firm also has high-level skilled workers who are conversant with using IT platforms, meaning that there will be smooth flow into the new venture

Weaknesses

1. The firm is a solid offline player with very little online presence, meaning that this will be quite a complex shift from traditional methods. This may require the firm to adapt to the online market dynamics to capture the market shares and become one of the industry’s best online layers.

Opportunities

1. More prospective consumers prefer to make their purchases through online platforms, shifting their traditional shopping methods. This presents a significant opportunity for the company since it will attract the increasing numbers of online shoppers.
2. Online channels are much more cost-effective as compared to physical stores. They give exponential outputs as a fixed cost, where they can help reach a larger audience with no demographic’s limits.

Threats

1. There is an increased competition from other firms in a similar industry, who are getting to shift to online business, which could directly affect the performance of the firm
2. There is also the threat of more government sanctions and increased taxes on online business, which may mean more costs and charges when venturing into the online platform.

Financial Analysis and Budget

The budget will consist of costs of developing and designing the e-commerce website and mobile application. The developing costs will also consist of hosting, search engine optimization, and integration, all of which will ensure that the platforms are easy to sue for the consumer and enable fast purchasing of the products it deals with.  Other costs that will be part of the budget include training had development program costs, which will ensure that quality training is undertaken for all the company employees. Other costs to be incurred will include Salaries and remuneration for the workers and developers and the cost of marketing the website and the mobile app. Finally, miscellaneous costs will also be included in the budget for the unforeseen costs.

Table 1 Financial Analysis and Budget

Strategy

The key strategy will entail establishing a quality, user-friendly and affordable e-commerce platform that will act as the primary platform for prospective consumers to purchase electronic products. This will then be integrated with social media platforms that help optimize the sites and ensure that the prospective consumers get to make their purchases through the media. The key target market for the e-commerce platform will be young adults aged between 24 to 40, who are more conversant with modern technology and are likely to make more purchases from the online platforms. The market will first entail persons living within the United States, and then ultimately persons in Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world. The company will establish physical stores in various cities and towns across the country. Once one orders certain products, it will be easy to deliver to his/her doorstep without much struggle. Online payment methods will be integrated into the systems, where payment systems such as Visa, PayPal, and Mastercard, among other payment methods, will be used to make a purchase.

The Company Goals

The company’s primary aim is to utilize the opportunity presented by the growing use of modern technology to attract more online shoppers wishing to purchase electrino devices.  The firm also aims to expand its company to other nations, making deliveries of its electronic products that will be purchased through its e-commerce platform. This is likely to make it become a multinational company, where it will also provide numerous job opportunities to people across the globe. Part of its strategic growth plan is to maximize its revenue collection and ultimately increase its profit margins.

Implementation Schedule

The first major step will be drafting the e-commerce idea and incorporating all stakeholders for the most suitable suggestions on the plan. This will then involve delegating teams with roles to play to ensure that the business plan succeeds. The teams will be delegated based on every person’s abilities and prowess, which will help meet the set goals and objectives (YTI, 2015). The next major essential step will entail identifying the website’s most qualified developers and the phone application. The professionals will be mandated to develop a website platform and a mobile application, which will align with the company’s expectations. The two platforms will be required to contain all the firm’s products, the processes, and the information regarding the products. The site and the application will also have information such as what the business entails,  the contact details of the com,0any and the variety of products and the services offered by the company. Through the developed websites and mobile app, the prospective consumers will be able to make an order for the products, make an inquiry, or make the required payments.

A second key strategy for the plan will be to establish various social media platforms that will be used to market both the firm and the e-commerce platforms. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will be the essential platforms since they are most popular amongst populations, meaning that they will help boost the people’s traffic using the e-commerce platforms (Siddiqu & Singh, 2016). This factor is likely to increase the sales of the products. After establishing the social media platforms, there will be a need for thorough marketing of these sites through SEO and other processes to ensure that they reach a massive target market size.

As a part of the strategy, there will be the incorporation of the mainstream media, which will significantly help with the marketing of the e-commerce platforms that will have been established.  The marketing program will help raise more awareness about the platform, where more prospective consumers will be made ware with a new platform where they can be their needed electronic devices at the comfort of their devices (Basil, 2012).  The mainstream media platforms for marketing the eCommerce platforms will include TVs, magazines, dailies, and radio. The remaining prospective consumers will be convinced of the advantages of making purchases with the e-commerce platform.

There will then be through training and development program for the employees. The need for training and development will first ensure that the workers are knowledgeable about new products and the launched platforms. Through training, the employees will ensure that the two platforms’ launch is a success and that they can convince consumers of the need to make more purchases (Explorance, 2021). Through the training and development programs, the employees will also be taught about how to communicate and engage with the consumers, both offline and online, which will help ensure that the complaints are addressed and that any complements are used as a strength for the company to improve on how it performs (Quigley, 2019). Training will make the employees more competent and be on top of the changing industry standards, ultimately helping the company hold a position as a leader and be a strong competitor in the industry.

Strategic Evaluation

Monitoring the business’s success will be very vital in that it will help evaluate the success n of the project. To monitor the success, the customer’s feedback will be considered to determine whether they are happy or not with the e-commerce platform (Eckerson, 2010). Good feedback from the consumers will mean that the e-commerce has been a success, while lousy feedback will require more to be done to improve efficiency and meet the consumers’ requirements. Some of the tools to monitor the project’s success will include questionaries, surveys, and focus groups, all of which will acquire the necessary feedback regarding the project and its success and failures. The tools will also determine the areas of improvement that will ensure that the company goals and objectives are attained.

Other monitoring tools include tracking quantitative metrics, such as spreadsheets, which help list relevant data, projected budgets, the team members, and the backup information in the event of an emergency. Feedback forms will also be vital in that they reach out to the consumers m who respond about the experience when using the e-commerce platform and the issues they feel will need to eb addressed in the future (Explorance, 2021).  By monitoring them, it will be easier to ensure that there are more accountability and future funding.  Monitoring will also help compare the actual progress vs the estimated one, keeping track of what has been achieved and what more needs to be done to attain the set goals and objectives.

References

Basil, M. (2012). Coverage of social marketing efforts in the mainstream media. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 17(4), 295-302.

Eckerson, W. W. (2010). Performance dashboards: measuring, monitoring, and managing your business. John Wiley & Sons.

Explorance. (2021). 5 Steps to Creating Effective Training Programs. Retrieved from https://explorance.com/blog/5-steps-to-creating-effective-training-programs/

Quigley, E. (2019). ADDIE: 5 Steps To Effective Training. Retrieved from https://www.learnupon.com/blog/addie-5-steps/#:~:text=The%20Addie%20model%20is%20an,used%20model%20for%20instructional%20design.

Siddiqu, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social Media its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 71 – 75.

YTI. (2015). REASONS TEAMWORK IS IMPORTANT IN THE WORKPLACE. Retrieved from https://yti.edu/blog/reasons-teamwork-is-important-in-the-workplace#:~:text=Businesses%20thrive%20when%20they%20have,creative%20ways%20of%20doing%20things.