- Learn about the different parts of a business plan
- Plan and write your business plan
These are the activities for this lesson:
THE BUSINESS PLAN
A business plan is a proposal about how you will run your entire company. It is a written document that has important information about
- Your company
- Your goals
- How you will achieve your goals
Think of it as a set of instructions that describes how and why you are building your business. It will incorporate many of the things you’ve already learned so far– you are just putting all of it together!
Let’s start with this video on crafting a powerful business plan.
PARTS OF THE BUSINESS PLAN
Here are the parts of the business plan that you’ll need to submit. Remember, your business plan can include charts and images that help explain your ideas – it doesn’t have to just be words!
Click on each part to learn more.
Suggested length: 1/2 page
The Executive Summary is the first section of your business plan and should be no longer than 1 page.
This is the first impression your reader has of your product and your business. It’s like a trailer for a movie—it has to give the reader an idea of what your business is, but also entice them to keep reading.
Although this section goes first, you should consider writing it last! That way, you know all the details of your business plan and can summarize your thoughts well.
The Executive Summary for a standard business plan should include:
Team name
Team member names
Your business name and location
App name
Products and/or services offered
Suggested length: 1 page
A Company Description is an overview of your business, which should broadly describe
- who you are
- how your company runs and functions (operates)
- what your goals are.
It gives more detail than the Executive Summary. It can include:
- The kind of business you are (corporation, social enterprise, nonprofit, etc.)
- Your mission statement
- The important people in your business and their roles
- Briefly cover:
- What you plan to sell
- Who your market will be
- Why business was created and why your team is passionate about it
- Immediate future goals
- Long-term future goals
Suggested length: 1/2 page
In this section, you describe what you are selling and how the customer benefits.
Include details about how your product is being developed—if you are collaborating with anybody, or if you are creating the product by yourselves. Pictures or screenshots of your app can be very helpful. You can also include diagrams of how your product works.
This section should include:
- In-depth description of your product/service, emphasizing the specific benefits to the customer
- Advantages over the competition
- Product development:
- Current stage of the app’s development
- How the app will be built and delivered to the customer
- Research and development activities that may lead to new products and services
Suggested length: 1 page
Here is where you will show off all of the homework you did in Market Research.
Your market analysis should include:
- Description of the market: Who are the key competitors?
- How do you think your app will perform and why?
- Customer research: A sketch of your customers, including size and demographics
- Competitor analysis: a detailed evaluation, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses
- (Optional) Description of how your app changed in response to your competitor analysis
Suggested length: 1 page
In this section, you explain your marketing strategy, and how you will promote your product to potential customers.
Essentially, you will explain:
- How you will show people your app
- How you will get people to buy it
- What happens once people buy your app
To describe this, you’ll need:
- Clear branding that amplifies your app’s purpose
- An in-depth strategy to reach target users
- Feedback from target users integrated into marketing plan (this should also be covered in the pitch video)
- Details about pricing, promotions, and distribution of the app
- How the company will function, from when the app is produced to when the app is delivered to the customer
- Information on the number and types of employees you have or will need
Suggested length: 1 page
In this section, you must show that your plan is financially achievable and how your business will be successful!
Use tables and graphs to show the information in a simple format.
The key parts of your the financial plan are:
- Budget that clearly explains your revenue model and projected operating costs
- How much money you have now and how will you use it
- How much money you plan to make in the next 3-5 years and how (profit projection)
Here you can describe all of the key people that are in your company. Explain who does what in your business and justify why you have them on your team. If your team is small, you can demonstrate all the different key roles they play in your company.
You’ll want to provide:
- Names and profiles of your management team (first names only for safety reasons!)
- Main responsibilities and past experience (what each team member contributed)
- Job titles for your team members, like Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Chief Technical Officer (CTO). You can get silly with it too, like Chief Idea Maker!
Here are some examples of job titles.
Also list of any advisers, such as your mentor(s).
TECHNOVATION EXAMPLES
Below are examples from previous Technovation Girls teams for each business plan section.
Executive Summary
CEREBRATE is a business originated in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Our goal is to increase the chances of recovery, making the lives of millions better, easier, and happier. The app offers:
- The environment which connects a patient with a caregiver and a doctor;
- Cognitive and intellectual skills restoration via minigames;
- A supportive community for those who feel left alone.
The business is oriented around personalization of recovery through data analysis, comfortability of use for everyone, and building a supportive community of those affected by these conditions.
Climate Change
It is said that by 2050 climate change will be the biggest threat to biodiversity in America. So the way venomous animals would cope with it would be by migrating to new latitudes away from tropical areas into densely inhabited locations, which may put 6.7 million more people at risk of suffering bites or strings.The situation in México
Did you know that Mexico is the country with the highest number of venomous spices with up to 80 of them? Besides, it is followed by Brazil with 79 and Australia with 66. Moreover, the panorama at the national level of people suffering from strings and bites of snakes, scorpions and spiders shows an upward trend, since just by comparing 2018 with 2019, cases increased by going from 275 thousand to 357 thousand. Also, in 2019, León, Guanajuato was the city that had the most scorpion bites worldwide, reaching 43,913 cases.Our Company
Kap is a social enterprise based on an app that allows the prevention of bites or stings of venomous species of scorpions, snakes and spiders in Mexico in order to reduce the number of incidents in the region and encourage people to recognize and learn about the different species present in the country and all along America.
Our Product and target users
What we sell to members of the civil society from ages 16 to more than 50 years-old, either male or female, that live in León, Guanajuato is an app that counts with emergency reports to hospitals and a map of those hospitals so that you would never run out of serum, image recognition using a supervised artificial intelligence model that helps you identify up to 14 different species with your phone camera and counts with more than 20 different species of spiders, snakes and scorpions with their location, characteristics, dangerousness and more.Team Name: ONE WORLD
Team Member Names: A team that is diverse and inclusive, consists of Ritvika W, Shreya W, Tanya S, Pavithra S and Melvine A
Your Business Name and Location: We are a team of 5 members from 4 countries which includes
India, Kenya, USA, and the United Kingdom. Al current members and those who join ni the future will have rights to execute the system on a virtual collaborative model.
Product Name (Mobile App): Goal Shadowing
The Products / Services Offered:
Our solution, “Goal Shadowing””, is a technology driven unique process of pairing children with
similar career-goals, wherein a student from the underserved community, with the help of a NGO or social workers,can goal shadow the tasks done by a child who is privileged to have parents who can lead, so that both children with SIMILAR GOALS can achieve their common career goals through task-mirroring.
Two aspects that are key to our success:
1. The parents in underserved communities should be financially self reliant.
2. Ensure that children from underserved communities, who are part of the system, are provided necessary support. We do this by empowering NGOs and their social workers wherein the main role of social workers in these NGOs is to liaison between the two children who are Goal Shadowing, ensuring that children from underserved communities are provided equal opportunity.
Company Description
I. Mission
RecycleRight’s mission is to promote proper recycling habits in an attempt to propel the environmental preservation movement by addressing the issue of waste contamination.
II. Structure
As a social enterprise, RecycleRight reinvests its profits into the company’s operations. RecycleRight operates as a sole proprietorship business entity owned in full by Victoria Hagenlocker the founder of RecycleRight.
III. Management
All operations of RecycleRight are directed by the owner Victoria Hagenlocker who also acts as the primary software developer. Victoria Hagenlocker, a Miami native, has extensive experience in programming and engineering through her school sponsored programs and classes.
IV. Service
RecycleRight is a mobile application that facilitates and simplifies the recycling process for users who would like to recycle, but either find the process to be too difficult, or do not know the proper regulations for recycling in their area. It tackles the issues of waste contamination in an innovative way in addition to seeking to provide specific information that is relevant to the user’s current location. The app allows people to quickly identify whether an object is recyclable or not through object recognition technology as well as detailing bin specific recycling information via Augmented Reality technology using a specialized sticker that Team RecycleRight has created to place on recycling bins around the community.
V. History
RecycleRight started as a school project to try to encourage students to be more mindful of how they were affecting the environment around them after its founder, Victoria Hagenlocker, noticed several colleagues exercising irresponsible recycling habits. Its intent was always to apply computer science, and new technologies, to address Victoria’s passion for environmental preservation by informing people about recycling restrictions in their area, but gradually shifted to becoming a universal system that people could use to find out what materials belong in each bin to tackle the problem of recycling contamination. RecycleRight was first built using block coding, but as more technology became available, RecycleRight started implementing technologies such as image recognition, machine learning, and augmented reality.
VI. Objectives
In the very near future, Team RecycleRight plans on getting an official launch of RecycleRight on the app store but before then, the software development team must refactor code, and enhance the AR and object recognition technology to optimize how the app runs on all devices. The management team at RecycleRight will also begin local endeavours to reach out to nearby counties in the South Florida area to have their government officials endorse the movement and begin placing the stickers on public recycling bins. Eventually, the long term goals include implementing RecycleRight stickers systematically throughout the state and continuing expansion, as well as forming partnerships with other environmental preservation organizations in promoting the RecycleRight mission and other forms of community outreach, expanding its digital footprint, and adding new features to the application with include options for user feedback, more augmented reality location models to reach a wider audience, and additional information on composting.
Product and Market
Kap is a social enterprise as it is characterized for being an entrepreneurial venture that is focused on creating a positive social and environmental change, as well as a steady revenue. Therefore, we pursue sustainability on different areas of the company such as being environmentally and financially sustainable. This enterprise was stablished in 2020 from our residence city León, Guanajuato, México which, as we mentioned before, is the first place globally while referring to cases of scorpions’ stings. We decided to create this app because we were worried about the medical care and lack of information of poisonous animals, so we wanted to improve the medical attention of hospitals with these specific cases. Moreover, most of our acquaintances, including, neighbors, friends, mentors and team members had suffered from stings, and also they had faced the problem of not finding the serum quickly, which could have lead them to more serious consequences such as losing any limb.Objectives
We look forward to introduce an app that gives the complete information about the most relevant kinds of scorpions, spiders and snakes in the region, helping the users prevent and perceive the most common symptoms after the bite or sting. Also, the app is going to contain the closest hospitals in the zone that have the right treatment and medicine available to prevent diseases as consequence of the bite or sting, improving the medical attention of bite or sting cases in our region and later expand throughout México. In this way, we would contribute to the third sustainable development goal of good health and wellbeing and to the fifteenth on life in terrestrial ecosystems.
Mission
Achieve the satisfaction of our users, including members of the civil society and hospitals by providing them with the necessary information and tools that would allow them to prevent stings or bites of venomous terrestrial animals or, on the contrary, speed up the medical attention received and improve emergency protocols regarding these cases, contributing to sustainable development goals and reducing this public health problem in the community.Vision
In three years, we pursue to become the leading company in the region that incorporates new technological advances in this and other new applications specialized in raising awareness and informing the population and health authorities about the importance and effects of the migratory patterns of venomous species in order to achieve a world with the least amount of accidents due to this cause, while increasing the well-being of current and future generations.We pose a for-profit social enterprise business that will collaborate with the Uzbek government , specifically with the Ministry of Public Education and the new Ministry of Innovation and Technology, to implement the app in schools of Uzbekistan, and with local factories to produce needed hardware equipment (cardboard goggles and mice) at the most reasonable price.
Our mission is clear: we want the younger population in Uzbekistan to have practical experience since they all have rights to qualified education, which applies to the 4th point of the SDGs “quality education”.
We are planning to work with the Uzbek Ministry of Public Education to promote and integrate our app into the school educational system in our country. Our other collaborator would be a local paper factory. We aim to be as eco-friendly as possible, so we will use the waste paper to produce cardboard goggles. Last but not least, a company that will help us produce mice for interactions in our app.
Sinov is a mobile application that implements VR for immersing students that either don’t have access to a laboratory or don’t have a laboratory at all, don’t have practical interactive classes, or disabled to attend school. It can also be a perfect chance for ambitious students to fulfill their willingness to get more knowledge. Our main market is those school/lyceum/college/university students of any age.
From the very childhood, we girls were captivated by science. We were looking forward to the start of chemistry, biology and physics classes in middle school to finally perform those experiments we used to watch on Youtube in real life by ourselves. We wanted to have that real laboratory experience. But in reality, all we got were endless summaries and “not-practical-lab” works. And gradually, our interest in science decreased over the years. And to think that we are not the only formerly interested students in science, if our interest was supported, we all could influence the scientific stage in a positive way. So, when we thought about something in need of fixing, the first thing that came to our mind was the problem of laboratories.
In the immediate future our goal is to connect with the government bodies that will help us gain recognition in the educational sphere in Uzbekistan, expand our language list to another one language so that the app reaches more users, gain up to 100 users in Uzbekistan, and develop more functions to provide our users with a bigger number of opportunities. In the next three years, we want to be applied in most of the schools in Uzbekistan, and become an indispensable part of science education
Products and Services
| Caretaker | Caregiver | Medical | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Login | A short questionnaire for the patient’s profile an diagnosis of aphasia level | A short questionnaire for the patient’s profile. Emails of the doctor, and caretaker to connect accounts | A short questionnaire for the patient’s profile |
| Main interface | Dashboard which consists of
|
The dashboard of the caretaker, including chat | The dashboard of the caretaker. In future: data aggregation on the group of patients |
| Features | The process of recovery itself is based on certain mini—games:
|
Medical resources tab provided to ensure that caregiver does not feel lost in the abundance of the information | Chat with clients is is supported by medical organizations |
- “Community” feature, so users can share their experience and connect with others;
- Data/statistics aggregation for medical workers/institutions/research bodies who can be interested in post—stroke research;
- Update recovery techniques via non—stop consultation with medical institutions;
- Make the app compatible with IOS and Android devices;
Components and Features
- Through the app, it is possible to access information about the location, characteristics and dangerousness of 20 species, including snakes, scorpions and spiders.
- You can use a supervised artificial intelligence model to identify around 14 species using your phone camera.
- It is possible to register the name, age and sex of the users and their families to send this information to the emergency room email of the selected hospital within a few clicks.
- Access a map that would help you find hospitals in León, Guanajuato that do have serum available.
Our future goals overview
Our main goal is to reduce the time dedicated to saving a person from a dangerous situation. Even though there are apps on the market that resemble EnGuard, our app offers many unique features. In comparison with our rivals, our app is capable of analysing the voice of the user and responding exclusively to the user’s voice commands. The neural network will be trained to recognize a “mayday word” that would activate the Conversation Labelling AI. Also, the app will record conversations at the permission of the user and will label the discussion accordingly (e.g. bullying, sexual harassment, verbal harassment etc.) Upon labelling the type of harassment, EnGuard will have access to alerting connected users of the situation, sharing the current location of the phone by using GPS, which is linked with the SIM card. In addition, a real-time map will show which districts of the city, streets, certain locations have higher rate of harassment or abuse, based on the previous reports made by people using the app.
The product is going to be built in Android Studio, using Java as the main programming language. EnGuard uses the basic elements for implementation, such as “for loops”, “while loops”, decisional structures (if, else) etc. Also, we developed a more complex code, by incorporating MVP architecture and Artificial Intelligence into our app, in order to activate the features of the app with voice recognition and to label the recordings as “false alarms” or “real alarms” of harassment. The data is collected and, with the help of Firebase and Firestore, the accounts are securely stored. The GPS is linked to the SIM card so if the Internet shuts down, the coordinates of the victim are still transmitted.
The main features of our app are fully developed as we intend to place it on the market as soon as possible. The survey conducted by us shows that people are interested in trying our Beta version of the application, meaning that the app could be ready in the near future to be regionally or even internationally launched to the customers. Once sent into Beta testing, using the feedbacks from the users, we will analyze the outcomes received and will fix the flagged problems. After this stage of implementation ends, the app will be ready to be launched on Play Store and, in that way, it will be sent to the customer.
Our research outlines the positive feedbacks from people and their desire for an IOS implementation too. In the future, we would like to be able to connect with fitness bracelets and smartwatches via Bluetooth. Also, new features will be available, depending on the increasing in popularity, by incorporating a cloud computer-based API that models the overlay Heat Map by taking not only the users’ input, but also predicted “red zones”
Market Analysis
| CEREBRATE | Competitors | |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths |
|
|
| Weaknesses |
|
|
Widening our landscape to the international market, we shortlisted the number of apps with similar features. The current market of both health and non-health related game apps does not offer the full functionality of CEREBRATE, which makes our offer unique on the market.
| CEREBRATE | 7 Minute Workout Challenge | Elevate | Lumosity | Language Therapy 4-in-1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Version | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Aphasia Treatment | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Caregive and Caretaker Options | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Augmented Reality | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Cognitive Functions Treatment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gamification and Progress Record | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
Initially, we planned to make an app, which focused on mini-games rather than providing a customer with a full post-stroke recovery service. Understanding that the market lacks such products, we shifted to more complex functionality.
CUSTOMER RESEARCH
Developing our customer personas, we relied on the survey results (described in “Strategy and Implementation’), real stroke survivor interviews, and suggestions from speed pitch sessions. Overall, we have seen three characters, one for each type of user, based on real-life people.
| Name | Age | Role | Frustration | How CEREBRATE can help |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serik | 73 | Caretaker | Suffered from a stroke a year ago, developed aphasia and minor memory loss. He is not motivated in his recovery due to depression and believes that nothing will help. | Finds app entertaining and simple to use. Gets distracted from his condition by games. On top, the app’s language and progress encourage him and lift his spirit. |
| Aigerim | 68 | Caregiver | Serik’s wife, wants her husband to recover. Unable to motivate him to regularly visit his doctor. | Montiors her husband’s activities while doing domestic work. She especially enjoys the community feature, because she always knows that there are people who can support and help her. |
| Sara | 45 | Medical Professional | Does not have a full picture of Serik’s progress and detailed medical history. | Gets continuous update on Serik’s progress, thus able to offer more suitable medical help. Aggregated data from other patients helps her understand which tactics are better. |
Market Description
To understand the needs of our target market we surveyed on google forms a group of more than 100 people. Most of the people we interviewed belonged to the range from 16 to 30 years old and the 72.6% lived in León Guanajuato.
The survey indicates that 94 of the people that answered had found scorpions and spiders frequently during the year. It also tells us that the people frequently found dangerous spiders and scorpions more than snakes at school, which could be dangerous for students.
Likewise, 62.3% of them would not have the certainty of which hospital to go if they have been bitten or stung by some kind of dangerous species.
How will our app perform and why?
Due to the survey and our previous investigation, we concluded that the app is required and capable to contribute to this problem, that with the app we would have the opportunity to prevent mayor consequences when emergencies on stings and bites occur, as well as we could combat the lack of information among citizens regarding this growing problem.
Competitor Analysis
Although, In the survey we asked if they’ve used any similar app or website that may help identify the species around them, 92.5% answer that they had not used a similar app. The only resources that exist for this region are the recommendations that the government proposes, such as campaigns of prevention.
Actually, there exist only a few apps that might have similar characteristics, between those, we found the following ones:
Bug Bite AI: which identifies common bug bites in real time using a trained tensor flow model and helps people in the process to know what to do if some bug bites them or if they have an unknown irritation in their skin. The strengths of this app are that it has a real-time response and that it also allows to take a picture of the skin, but it doesn’t tell the user where to go in order to be attended.
Redtox: which although having a wide range of species to learn about and counting with a huge list of hospitals, it doesn`t filter the ones that do have serum available, likewise its interface might seem confusing and not well- designed.
Poison perils: On this app, users take a picture of the animal and it is capable of identifying the most common poisonous animals in the state of Alabama by calling the Regional Poison Control Center. In this sense, even if you get a response from a professional, the problem is that the user may not get it instantaneously.
An overview of the survey
ADVANTAGES AND CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
I. The Market RecycleRight is marketed to everyone with basic smartphone technology (i.e. front facing camera), willing to help the planet by recycling. Team RecycleRight’s current efforts are focused on reaching out to local governments to implement this technology throughout the community, as well as the education of environmentally friendly behavior to students in our local academic institutions.
II. Consumer Research
To gain a greater understanding of the recycling habits of people in our community Team RecycleRight conducted a survey with more than 100 respondents to assess our target audience. Subjects were asked questions about what items and how often they recycle as well as what they believe are the largest barriers that prevent people from recycling. Over 75% of those questioned believed that of all the things they do protect the environment, recycling is very important. Within that same group, more than half provided responses that indicated they were recycling incorrectly.
This brief survey demonstrates that people understand the importance of recycling and have good intentions yet additional education and resources are needed to maximize the potential of recycling programs. They would recycle objects such as dirty pizza boxes, and plastic bags and utensils, which contaminate the recycling bin and cause the entire bin to go to a landfill. When questioned what they personally believe are the largest barriers that prevent people from recycling, more than 65% of those surveyed responded that it was the lack of knowledge on the proper objects to recycle. This brief survey demonstrates that people understand the importance of recycling and have good intentions yet additional education and resources are needed to maximize the potential of recycling programs.
III. Competitor Analysis & Competitive Edges RecycleRight is an innovative application that offers a solution to the problem of recycling contamination in one convenient location. It addresses the issue by using new technologies such as object recognition and augmented reality that make the app engaging and easy to use. This app offers an all in one solution to promote correct recycling, and while other large competitors such as iRecycle and RecycleSmart may provide general guidelines for recycling and nearby recycling centers, they lack the ability to adapt to the differing regulations of specific bins and counties, as well as the engaging, innovative features that improve convenience such as real time object recognition and AR bin animation. When recycling regulations differ so greatly based on a user’s location, it is important to focus on streamlining the information in the most detailed, location-based manner possible, which is what the app intends to do.
Features of the app that allow it to gain a competitive edge include, location (bin) specific information via AR technology, its convenience – (3D object recognition), location specific resources (disposal centers), recycling guidelines, a simple UI – easy to use, the fact that no internet access required to use, and it is a completely free application. Additionally, in light of the recent COVID-19 epidemic, there is an option to view how to properly dispose of contaminated personal protective equipment which has been undressed by other competitors.
| Competitor Analysis | iRecycle | Wastify | RecycleSmart | Gimme 5 | RecycleNation | RecycleRight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recycling Guidelines for all Materials | ||||||
| Real Time Object Recognition | ||||||
| Bin Specific Recycling Info | ||||||
| Nearby Recycling Centers | ||||||
| PPE Guidelines |
Strategy and Implementation
I. Marketing Strategy
To begin promoting the RecycleRight application and movement, the management team at RecycleRight will start local endeavours to reach out to nearby counties in the South Florida area to have their government officials endorse the movement and begin placing the stickers on public recycling bins. We will seek to be endorsed by these local governments by marketing ourselves as an easy way to maximize their profits using their current recycling infrastructure in place by offering a solution to improve the quality of the waste they collect, streamlining their process. Eventually, the long term goal is to implement RecycleRight stickers systematically throughout the state and continue expanding, using community recycling programs and organizations as a gateway to reach the target audience. The stickers produced, to be used alongside the app, are intended to be placed on as many recycling bins as possible. This is the optimal vehicle to increase community awareness of the app by promoting and endorsing downloading the app through the branding on the stickers.
The software development team will continue to update the app’s UI to stay up-to-date and fully functional. Along with this, the development team is already in the works of creating a RecycleRight website to keep users up to date on all the newest functionalities and increase the company’s digital footprint. This website, and other forms of increased social media promotion will help build a strong online presence for the organization. Team RecycleRight will seek to be endorsed/partner with other environmental preservation organizations in promoting the RecycleRight mission and other forms of community outreach. In partnering with these organizations, it allows us to inform those truly invested in the environmental preservation movement who participate in local summits and cleanups about the application which in turn can improve user acquisition and promotion by word of mouth.
Upon releasing the app we plan to conduct a study by comparing the contents recycled by those using the app, and a control group not using the app over a period of weeks. This will allow us to gain conclusive data on to what extent the use of the app improves the recycling habits of users and evaluate the effectiveness of the app’s current technologies, making future updates and changes to address the concerns. Having personally conducted customer research through a survey we have addressed general concerns within the app regarding the barriers to recycling presented, yet we plan to adapt to the market feedback upon initial release, by implementing a new feature to allow users to rate their experience using the app, and offer constructive criticism through the app and website.
II. Distribution
In the very near future, Team RecycleRight plans on getting an official launch of the free iOS version of the RecycleRight application on the app store as we begin the endeavour to reach out to local offices and begin the initial distribution of the branded recycling bin stickers. By promoting RecycleRight as a free app, that will incentivize the downloading and use of the application. After collecting and implementing user feedback, the developers will begin creating the Android version of the app to release and reach a greater audience.
III. Branding
The RecycleRight’s branding reflects its mission to increase environmental preservation. The logo’s color palette uses deep greens inspired by the phrase, “Going Green”, and symbolizing growth, renewal, and nature. The name RecycleRight, is clear, concise, and descriptive, as it is also able to detail the objective and purpose of the app. The app’s corresponding stickers also reflect the similar branding strategy.
BRANDING The name of the app “Cerebrate” is a combination of worlds “celebrate” and “cerebrum”, which is the core part of the brain. Assembling these words indicates that our app is all about the celebration of each step that a patient makes in his or her recovery.
REACHING TARGET USERS We used the AAFFF Framework as a backbone of our marketing strategy:
| Acquisition | Activation | Retention | Referral | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Email seeding and newsletter with the patient’s overall progress to retain customers. | 10% discount for 1 friend joining the app | Based on the subscription model |
- 53% had someone close who suffered from a stroke
- 67% claimed some measurs for post-stroke recovery were taken for their close ones
- 71.6% answered that they would acctively use this app if needed, and 21% answered that they would use the app on a non-regular basis.
PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION Rather than featuring ads in our app, we chose the subscription fee model wiht basic features being free of charge.
Basic/free (no AR, limited pill-taking notificaitons max 4 medicines)FreeFree-
| Caretaker | Caregiver | Medical Institutions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid | $7 per year | $7 per year | $12 per month $80 per year |
We came up with EnGuard’s name intending to find a word or a phrase which would suggest a state of being ready for any dangerous situation that you may encounter. The meaning of this French phrase encapsulates our exact purpose: to assume the prescribed position preparatory to action. We chose to change the original “garde” with “guard” to make people feel “Safe&Heard”, as someone will always look out for them using the app. These choices were not unintentional, the logo, name and motto designed our mission statement: “To bring the image of a safer world closer to reality. There’s always someone ready to help in case of need.”
We wish to make our app known via the Technovation Challenge contest and accessible to users by uploading it on Play Store, buying adds, joining developers and entrepreneurs groups, collaborating with the authorities/hot lines, sharing updates and promotional videos on our Instagram and Facebook pages. We will also take a look at blogs that are relevant to our mobile app and identify the opportunity to add value by commenting on them.
Our app will be free of charge on Play Store, with a 30 days free premium trial, which will be followed by a free standard mode or a monthly upgraded subscription that will cost 2.99$. Our marketing will be based on joining developer and entrepreneur groups, creating a promo video and buying ads.
For the time being, our LLC will focus on developing the app as follows:
- The Programming Department will ensure that the app is further developed to meet our costumer’s needs, so they can fully benefit from the services offered as the real time map, a version for Android and polish the current features on the app
- The Marketing Department will be focusing on doing surveys and sharing to people to see the impact our app does and promoting it, by reaching out to developers all over the world via email and by creating a social media campaign
Financial Plan and Projections
STARTUP CAPITAL Due to affiliation with Nazarbayev Intellectual schools’ network, we expect to receive initial funding of $470 from them. Additionally, our team contributed personal savings to advertise the app. After gaining the first 2000 users (around a year), we hope to gain support from post-stroke rehabilitation centers of Almaty, Health insurance companies and research centers.
REVENUE as 71% of conducted survey respondents (mentioned in the “initial feedback” sub-section) answered that they would use our app regularly, and 21% rarely, we expect a growth of 200-300 users per month after gaining initial auditory. We predict that 30% of users would purchase the full version of caretakers/caregiver and 15% of customers to use medical institution subscription. An additional source of revenue is an advertisement. However, we would not put them in the app itself, and send them via email to our customers. We will charge $1 per advertisement in the first year, increasing it by $5 for the following two years.
OPERATING COSTS In addition to capital cost and rent, we would purchase subscriptions for app developing programs, such as Xcode. As engagement of the app would raise over time, demand for our work would increase. To maintain the high efficiency of our app and such conditions, our team would hire additional staff (mentioned in the employment section).
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Startup Capital | ||||
| Team’s personal savings | $80.00 | $200.00 | $1,000.00 | $1,280.00 |
| AEO “Nazarbayev Intellectual schools” | $470.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $470.00 |
| Local post-stroke rehabilitation centers (e.g. “Aspasia”) | $0.00 | $1,000.00 | $3,000.00 | $4,000.00 |
| Private insurance companies (e.g. “Nomad Life”) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 |
| Medical research centers, that specialize in post-stroke recovery | $0.00 | $0.00 | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 |
| Annual total | $550.00 | $1,200.00 | $8,000.00 | $9,750.00 |
| Revenue | ||||
| Target customer population | 2000 | 5000 | 10000 | 17000 |
| App costs (free version) | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| App costs (paid version for caregivers and caretakers) | $4,666.67 | $11,666.67 | $23,333.33 | $39,666.67 |
| In-app purchases (for medical institutions | $4,000.00 | $18,000.00 | $36,000.00 | $58,000.00 |
| Annual total | $11,666.67 | $39,666.67 | $79,333.33 | $130,666.67 |
| Operating Costs | ||||
| Capital cost (equipment) | $363.00 | $780.00 | $2,100.00 | $3,243.00 |
| Software (e.g. Xcode) | $330.00 | $500.00 | $500.00 | $1,330.00 |
| Service fees | $480.00 | $1,200.00 | $3,000.00 | $4,680.00 |
| Registration for Apple developers & Google developers | $200.00 | $200.00 | $200.00 | $600.00 |
| App store fees (for hosting) | $124.00 | $99.00 | $99.00 | $322.00 |
| Marketing & advertising (Google Ads) | $1,200.00 | $6,000.00 | $12,000.00 | $19,200.00 |
| Mobile developer salary | $1,200.00 | $6,000.00 | $12,000.00 | $19,200.00 |
| Accountant salary | $0.00 | $2,376.00 | $4,752.00 | $7,128.00 |
| Project manager salary | $1,200.00 | $5,760.00 | $8,640.00 | $15,600.00 |
| Dispatcher salary | $1,200.00 | $1,800.00 | $2,700.00 | $5,700.00 |
| Designers salary | $0.00 | $2,250.00 | $3,375.00 | $5,625.00 |
| Rental costs (internet connections, office, cleaning, etc.) | $480.00 | $1,000.00 | $2,880.00 | $4,360.00 |
| Annual total | $6,777.00 | $27,725.00 | $48,886.00 | $83,388.00 |
| Income/Profit | $5,439.67 | $13,141.67 | $38,447.33 | $57,028.67 |
The first step after the foundation of our company will be the request for financing through the national program “Start-Up Nation”, which provides grant funds for new companies in innovative fields. The initial capital of 1000 $ comes from the 5 founders.
The calculation of income from paying clients was done by approximations – e.g. in the first year we grow from the 0 paying customers (at the beginning of the year) to 4200 at the end of the year (estimate), so we calculated revenue = an average of 2100 customers x 2.99$/months x 12 months = 75348$.
Fixed costs for renting, utilities, etc. were budgeted for the first 12 months at about $800/month. In the following years, the costs will increase, with the development of the company and the increase of the number of employees.
The costs of hardware and software also get bigger, with the increasing number of users and their geographical distribution.
For the first year, the budget provides 3 part-time employees (lawyer, accountant, sales agent) at Romanian prices, including taxes, so that the company can access financing and pay 1% of turnover tax (when the turnover will exceed $ 1 million per year, respectively in year 3, we will move to another type of taxation). The team of founders will be paid from year 3 and the profit expected for year 2, 3 and 4 will be reinvested.
As part of our financial plan, Kap is intended to be completely free and available on Google Play and App store due to the fact that our most important goal is to be known by people and hospitals, star toffering our services and help theimprove1ment of the stings and bites attention to private hospitals by the cost of $3,000 MXN per month and for public hospitals we are giving a discount of about 66% monthly which leads us to the price of $1,020 MXN.
o Current financial state: As the application has not yet been launched, we still do not have a certain monetary budget. However, we are in search of alliances and investors that can provide us with intellectual, and even monetary support, referring to the latter only if they want to. 70%
o First year: At first, we are expecting to offer our services to 5 private hospitals and 3 public hospitals during the year. As investors of this project, the first month of the use of the app fee would not be charged but the profit for the subsequent months of use would be employed on Instagram marketing to sustain the app. At the end of the first productive year we expect having a total income of $169,000 MXN.
o Second year: We are expecting to offer our services to 6 private and 7 public hospitals. By now, we would have $301,000 MX from our services and we would plan to invest in more AI functions, specifically on Microsoft Azure, and marketing to the app through Google Ads to later expand to the whole state of Guanajuato.
o Third year: By the third year we are expecting to give our service to 10 public and 8 private hospitals, expand our services to the whole state, make improvements with the mapping and big data tools, specifically incorporating Carto, and continue to invest on marketing of our app through YouTube Ads.
o Fourth year: 10 private and 12 public hospitals over the state and later on expand our services nationally.
o Fifth year: By this year we are expecting to start expanding nationally to 15 private and 18 public hospitals.
(Optional) Team Members
Team Aguacates Unidos por México – Kap
OUR TEAM
APP DEVELOPER
She is 18-years-old, passionate about STEAM areas and future engineer, was in charge of the developing process of the app, including coding the sensors used.
PROJECT MANAGER
She is an 18-year-old passionate about science and engineering, was in charge of the structural design of the app and also the pitch dialogues.
BUSINESS MANAGER
She is a 17-year-old passionate about business and economy of the world, was in charge in the financial, market and business plan.
ACTIVITY: PLAN & WRITE YOUR BUSINESS PLAN
Use the worksheet as a checklist for your business plan.
Note you can make a copy of the worksheet and edit as needed.
REFLECTION
Writing a business plan is a huge accomplishment for anyone, but especially for someone your age! Get excited, you are almost ready to submit!
Follow these steps:
REVIEW OF KEY TERMS
- Business Plan – a formal document that has important information about your company and how you will run it
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Non-Technovation Examples
