1. Business plan GeePC 124 Glenrothes Street Glenrothes Ky7 4pd 01592 751343 0123210123 [email_address] GeePC.com

2. Summary GeePC is a small family run business that is looking to expand onto the internet to attract more customers. The business fits into a niche in the market that would allow us to sell wholesale to major companys within the local area aswell as running an ecommerce website to increase sales worldwide and to attract more customers. This can all be done of a very small budget due to the experienced in store staff that we have. Despite the drawbacks this company can be the next amazon.

3. Business overview Introduction GeePC is a small family run business. The shop started by a personal interest in computers, The business currently sells computer parts and drop in IT assistance helpdesk. The shop is based in Glenrothes an area where there are a lot of IT companys yet only 1 other computer sales shop. The shop sells everything from hardware components to software products aswell as offering a drop in IT helpdesk which offers PC fault finding and network/infrastructure consulting. Current position The busisness currently has achived a good loyal customer base as well as good relationships with surronding IT companys. The business is currently in the growth phase as word of mouth is spreading and our internet pressence is becoming more popular. The industry we operate in is the IT industry and the industry is growing rapidly. Competitive advantage The competition is another small IT based computer sales shop. They have also created a small local following and have small online presence. They currently arnt looking towards the future and expanding out over the internet. Our competitive advantage is that we are looking to the future and are planning to expanding greatly over the internet and this is the market niche which will give us a major advantage over our competitor. The busisness has been running over several months now and our customer based has expanded rapidly over these months with word of mouth being our key source of the customer based expanding. Our business model is planning to the future and looking at expanding our business over the internet providing an ecommerence website. Growth plan Our growth plan is looking to expanding our sales to the internet developing an ecommerce website. The current reach of our business is local due to not having an internet services and this business plan will expand the company into an ecommernce website and also offering online helpdesk services. Our goals for the business is to expand greatly over the internet and expanding the companys customer base to not over local customers but to international customers.

4. Business strategy Projections following our business plan: Reduce our prices to be competitive with other ecommerce websites. Expand our client base by expanding the company over the internet turning the business into an ecommerce website. Within the next 3-5 years expand our business over the internet to be a major competitor to other ecommerece websites. Tactics The company currently has a small loyal group of customers including some businesses, we want to expand our services over the internet to create an online presence and to keep our rates competitive with the other market leaders in this area. The resources we will need to complete this goal is more local advertising for the business and online advertisments. Strategic issues The external threats that could impact on the business during the strategic horizon are: Within the next year the growth of the IT industry and pricing of the products. The next 3-5 years the IT business grows into another market forcing us to change our business plans and needs. Core values The core values of the company is the pricing of our products this is crucial to our business because as we expand our business onto the internet there is a lot more competitors. Our current pricing is lower than local business and with the company expanding over the internet the prices will continue to be cheaper as the business expands and sales increase. This will motivate staff as they can see the business grow and the popularity of the company expand.

5. Swot analysis and critical success factors The key factors to our success are we have leading brand products on our website, we have all the key distribution channels and our capabilities within the market are huge. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Location Low customer retention Business sector expanding Development in market capabilities Sub-Scale Competitors may be slow to adopt new technologies Small change in focus from larger competitor might take out our advantage Price,Quality,value No market presence Research of market Small staff base Experience Leading Brands Distribution channels

6. Market research The method of research that our company is using is questionaires, every customer that we have will receive a questionaire through either the mail or e-mail. This will be incoroperated into our daily business by every new customer filling out a questionaire or having one sent out. Looking at the current market leaders websites and the yearly reports they have released into the public domain. This market reasearch has helped us discover where companys have gone wrong and the markets current loopholes. Distribution channels The current marketing reach of our business is locally through advertisments and using the internet to market our site by the use of advertisements. The markets we plan to access are: Radio adverts within the next year. Within 3-5 years we plan to take our store to exhibitions to promote our store. Asking local radio station to broadcast our adverts at peak times and get in touch with exhibition planners to obtain a place to set up our shop. Strategic alliances The strategic alliances we are planning are with local industrys that are our current customers to include an advert for our site on there online website to increase our online presence. This will increase other busineses that are partners with this company to be introduced to us through this advertisement and produce more business.

7. E-commerce and technology E-commerce plays a major role in where the business is heading as this is the market we are expanding into. Moving the shop to an online website will lower costs as we will be ordering products in bulk, the speed of the business will increase due to more customers being aware of our company and since the market is large this will provide us with a lot more online sales. Tactical promotion plan The current marketing reach of our business is locally through advertisments and using the internet to market our site by the use of advertisements. The markets we plan to access are Radio to advertise our store. Within 3-5 years we plan to take our store to exhibitions to promote our store. Asking local radio station to broadcast our adverts at peak times and get in touch with exhibition planners to obtain a place to set up our shop. Marketing budget Our marketing budget will be taking up mainly by advertising, radio advertising, event attendance and sales promotion. These will be monitored closely by putting spending limits on each of them so each bit of marketing is on track and not going over there budgets. Following the each type of marketing and checking results for marketing may cause some of them to be dropped in order to increase marketing in a more successful marketing scheme. Credibility and risk reduction The credibility of our business will increase when we ask current customers to evaulute our services we have provided them in the past. We will offer a money back garentee on all products we sell and refunds or replaces for faulty or damaged products.

8. Team and management structure Skills, experience, training and retention Current Staff Team: Manager – Has good knowledge of IT systems and network infrastructure. Currently runs the business finances and watchs over and offers support to staff. Will help network engineer maintain and build website. IT Technician – Has very good knowledge of IT systems but has little knowledge of network infrastructure. Currently works in local IT store selling products and offering advice to customers. Will provide online support for customers purchasing products from the website. Network Engineer – Has good knowledge of IT systems and very good knowledge of network infrastructure. Currently works in local IT store offering advice to companys about there infrastructure. Will be put in charge of website and the day to day maintence of the website. All the current staff will have to be trained to use and navigate the new website and the administration of the website will be left to the manager and the network engineer. Hiring in a professional website site developer to work along with the network engineer to teach the network engineer how to run the site effective and troubleshoot any problems that occour. The incentives to continue working with the company will consist of monthly pay bonuses when targets are met. Since the store wil have a website it can no longer only work 9-5 Monday to Friday. They will need to hire additional staff to maintain the website. New Staff: Network Engineer– Hired to mainly work weekends and evenings to monitor websites performance and keep it online and functional. New staff will work closely with the current staff to ensure they know how to correctly perform there job to the companys standards. They will shadow current staff for a week before being allowed to start there postion.

9. Advisors The core team of advisors consist of website developer to contact in need of support for the website and an out house accountant. Management systems The current management structure is hierachy: Manager > Network engineer’s > IT technician The business currently consists of 3 members of staff each member has been with the company for 3 years and have built a solid relationship with each other. There are currently only a couple of house rules for the staff and they are: Smart-Casual dress code. Show up 10 minutes before you shirt starts to prepare for the day. Lunchtime is an hour and cannot be taken at the same time as other staff members. Since the company doesn’t have its own in house accoutant it employs another company to keep track of finacial data. Reports are produced monthly to show our finacial state.

10. Financial budgets and forecasts Over the next year of the company selling products online we should reach targets of: Next year - £1,000,000 Following year – £2,500,000 Year after - £5,000,000 These are optimistic targets we aim to achive. The pessimistic targets are: Next year - £500,000 Following year - £1,500,000 Year after - £3,000,000 The realistic targets we aim to achive are: Next year - £750,000 Following year - £2,000,000 Year after - £4,000,000 If the company suffers any cash flow problems we aim to increase the number of man hours of the staff and offer special discounts and services with any product purchase so increase our sales.