Business

Plan
for
Custom Computers Singapore

I.

Table of Contents

I.

Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. 2

II.

Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. 3

III.

General Company Description .............................................................................................. 4

IV.

Products and Services ........................................................................................................... 5

V.

Marketing Plan ..................................................................................................................... 6

VI.

Operational Plan ................................................................................................................. 14

VII.

Management and Organization .......................................................................................... 16

VIII. Personal Financial Statement ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

IX.

Startup Expenses and Capitalization .................................................................................. 17

X.

Financial Plan ...................................................................................................................... 18

II.

Executive Summary

Custom Computers Singapore is an online based retailer that creates computers customised to the
customers requirements. The customers would be able to choose their components according to
what their computer has to do and how much money they can spend. Customers are also able to
choose from a wide range of accessories such as Mice, Keyboards and Monitors with the purchase of
the computer.
Custom Computers Singapore is run by Luke Richardson. Luke is a computer enthusiast who enjoys
gaming on computers. He has built dozens of computers in the past 5 years for himself, friends and
family. Luke came up with the idea of creating Custom Computers Singapore after hearing friends
planning to build new computers themselves but then changing their minds and buying awful and
overpriced prebuilt desktops because they were too scared to build it themselves in fear of breaking
their components.
Custom Computers Singapore aims to let all those people spend their money on a better computer
that suits their needs and budgets. CCS charges a fee of $200 to build the computer which is less
than any competition in Singapore.
In order to create Custom Computers Singapore we will need a loan of $8,700. This is going to be
spent to a website, equipment and a deposit for the warehouse facility in which the company will
run. We estimate to make a profit of $31,500 within the first year of operating and a profit of
$70,000 in both the second and third years.

III. General Company Description

My Company is an online custom computer retailer where the user is able to choose the
specifications and accessories they want. The goal of my company is to create an online platform
where customers are able to achieve the maximum possible potential for customising their
computer. In my business, it is important that the user is able to choose parts for different usage
scenarios and that they are able to tailor the computer to their needs and price. My product is
marketed towards anyone who needs a computer and does not know how to or is unable to build it
their selves.
Currently, there is only one other company in Singapore that sells custom computers online, but it
does not offer the same level of customisation that Custom Computers Singapore does. We plan to
expand within a year by hiring new employees to build computers.
Our major competitive strengths are that we offer the customers almost complete choice in what
parts they want to order along with the accessories. I have over five years in experience of building
computers and I have built countless systems for friends, none of which have broken. My company
will succeed because we are essentially one of the only options if the user wants to have a custom
computer build to their specifications. Custom Computers Singapore also offers its products and
services at a lower price than the other alternatives.
Custom Computers Singapore is owned by Luke Richardson.

IV. Products and Services

My company essentially offers unlimited products, thus it is almost impossible to list all the price
options and specifications in this plan. In return for our services of building the computer, the
customer is charged the price of the components, plus a flat rate of $200 on top for us to build the
computer. The customers can also order numerous accessories such as Keyboards, Mice, Monitors,
Headsets and more.
Our competitive value is that we charge less for the computer to be built than our competition but
still offer the same length warranties that they do. We also pride ourselves in offering the widest
range of accessories in Singapore.
Our customers are also able to choose the specific parts they want to use in the computer, to match
it to their needs (Such as more storage for a NAS or a better GPU for Gaming).
The disadvantages that our company have are that the customer has to pay for the shipping
themselves, as we already offer such a low build price, we cannot cover shipping (Note, our
competition also does not cover shipping.

V.

Marketing Plan

Market research

We already conducted some market research. Surveys were sent out with questions such as asking if
people would buy custom computers, how much they would spend on it, and what accessories they
would purchase with the computer. The results found will show me the demand for the computers
and what they would be used for. It will also help me focus on that accessories to sell.

According to my results, 57.1% of people

surveyed would purchase a custom computer.
This shows that there is a demand for custom
computers. When asked what they would use
the computer for, 76.2% of the responses
were for Web Browsing, 76.15 were for
Streaming movies, 66.7% were for using social
media, 61.9% were for Word Processing and
33.3% were for gaming. This shows that most
people would look for a simple, fairly cheap
computer. In the next question 42.9% of the
people said they would purchase accessories
while 52.4% were unsure. Finally when asked
what accessories they would buy, 61.9% said
they would buy mice, 57.1% said they would
buy Keyboards, 47.6% would buy headsets,
42.9% would buy speakers and 38.1% of
people would buy monitors. This shows me
what types of accessories I should focus on
selling.

Economics
As seen in the above survey, there is a large demand for custom computers. These trends can
change though depending on stuff such as celebrity endorsements, new components being released
and new games being released. The largest problems that are faced by the company is shipping costs
and import taxes. Shipping the components to Singapore costs a lot and the government charges a
10% tax in imported items. Another difficulty the company would face is the change in technology.
There are a few difficulties that this company can face economically. Being based in Singapore
products cost more as we have to import everything from overseas. The change in technology can
also affect the company a lot. If people start moving more towards consoles and tablets less people
would purchase computers which would decrease the profits of the company. Also, if the economy
goes down, more people would not be able to afford purchasing computers.

Product
Features and Benefits
The features of my products are the low price compared to my competition. Custom Computers
Singapore lets the customer choose entirely according to their needs and budget. Customers have a
wider range of choice than other companies which, for example, only let them choose from two
mice or keyboards.
Each computer comes with a two year warranty which can be extended at an extra cost. Delivery is
not included with the price. Refunds will be unavailable as users could exchange functioning
hardware with broken hardware and use other methods to try scam the company.

Customers

Our targeted customers are anyone that want to purchase a new computer. We offer options for all
ages, income levels and uses. We can build computers for word processing, gaming and other uses.
Our main targeted customers are the people who want to create gaming computers, as we let them
choose any components they want, thus allowing them to make sure the computer is affordable for
them. We also offer a large amount of accessories which would appeal to gamers such as monitors,
keyboards, headsets and mice.
We sell our computers directly through our website to the customers.

Competition
What products and companies will compete with you?
List your major competitors:
The main competition Custom Computers Singapore faces is a company called Aftershock PC. They
offer custom Laptops and Desktop Computers. Although they are a fairly large company, they focus
more on Laptops. Their Desktops cost more than what Custom Computers Singapore will offer. They
also have a fairly limited range of products, with only two lines of Desktops for sale. They only
compete against us for people interested in Gaming Computers as that is all that they sell.
Our other competition are companies such as Dell, HP, Acer etc. who create prebuilt desktop
computers. While these are fairly good work computers, their gaming computers are often
overpriced and their hardware is not balanced (Expensive CPU while they contain cheap GPUs, the
most important part for gaming).

A smaller rival are Microsoft and Sony who sell consoles. People with smaller budgets would lean
towards them as they offer cheap prices, but their performance is very poor and in order to play
online customers have to pay extra. Also, the games on these platforms are much more expensive
than games on PCs.
Table 1: Competitive Analysis
Importance to
FACTOR

Products

Me

Strength

Weakness

Aftershock PC

Offer large

Customers

Can cause

Limited

range of

have a lot of

confusion with

number of

products

choice

customer

choices

Good quality

Customers

Can cause

Limited

have a lot of

confusion with

number of

choice

customer

choices

Customer

Cheap building
Price

Quality

price
Good quality

Wide range of
Selection

selection

Can cause
Service

2 year

Happy

warranty

customers

extra costs to

2 year

warranty
company

Reliability

Stability

Experienced
Expertise

Experienced

builders

Company

Unknown

Reputation

company

Customers

Known

might avoid it

company

2
Builders

Importance to
FACTOR

Me

Strength

Weakness

Aftershock PC

Location

Appearance

Online.

Customer

Internet is not
Sales Method

Easy to access

Convenient

always
trustworth

Credit Policies

Advertising

Image

N/A

N/A

No advertising

Easy to reach

Not able to

Social media

(only on social

people via

reach users via

and on

media)

social media

other means

newspaper.

Custom Computers Singapore is a strong rival against its main rival in Singapore. The main
advantages CCS (Custom Computers Singapore) is that we offer more choices over our competition
and we offer our products at a cheaper price. The advantages the competition has is that they are
more known and are more reliable since they are well known.

Niche
Our unique place in the market is that we let the customer choose whatever parts they want to use,
thus letting them create the perfect computer for their needs. We also offer cheaper prices than our
competition.

10

Promotion
We plan to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to reach out to our customers. We will
post regularly about new products that we offer to computers. We also will try to feature our
computers in the local technology segment in the Straits Times called Digital Life.
Since social media is free, it allows us to advertise for free.
We also will attend numerous technology shows in Singapore and trade shows where we will sell
different pre-built computers for people to purchase there. We plan to spread awareness by word of
mouth by our customers sharing their great experiences with their friends.
We want to project the image that Custom Computers Singapore has the widest range of
components and accessories available online

Pricing
Explain your method or methods of setting prices. For most small businesses, having the lowest price
is not a good policy. It robs you of needed profit margin; customers may not care as much about
price as you think; and large competitors can under price you anyway. Usually you will do better to
have average prices and compete on quality and service.
Does your pricing strategy fit with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
Compare your prices with those of the competition. Are they higher, lower, the same? Why?
Our prices are about $200 cheaper than the competition. This is because we charge a low building
fee for building the computers.
How important is price as a competitive factor? Do your intended customers really make their
purchase decisions mostly on price?

11

Proposed Location
Probably you do not have a precise location picked out yet. This is the time to think about what you
want and need in a location. Many startups run successfully from home for a while.
You will describe your physical needs later, in the Operational Plan section. Here, analyze your location
criteria as they will affect your customers.
Custom Computers Singapore will be run out of a 200 square foot warehouse facility. This facility will
be large enough to facilitate up to four more future employees which would save money in
expansion. Our location is not important to our customers as we will ship the computer to the
address that they specify.

Distribution Channels
Our computers will be sold in two locations. The first would be on our online store where the
customers have the ability to choose from a wide range of components and accessories. The second
place is at trade shows and other tech shows. At these events we will sell different prebuilt
computers which are focused on certain uses and budgets.

12

Sales Forecast

Unless our company receives a large order from a large company requiring work computers we
estimate that we will sell about 20 units a month. The forecasted sales might not be exactly the
same in the first few months as we will be relatively new, but our growth will not take long as we will
attend numerous trade shows where we will display our products.
We expect a 100% growth rate over our first year as we will be able to invest more money into
advertising. This will push our estimated sales to 40 units a month. Over the second year we predict
to again expect a 100% grown rate. This will be because we would have attended numerous

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VI. Operational Plan

Explain the daily operation of the business, its location, equipment, people, processes, and
surrounding environment.

Production
Our computers are handmade and checked for about 24 hours to make sure that they are fully
functional.

Location

Our facility is a 200 square foot warehouse room. We will have access to electricity and water. Our
facility has easy access to a post office where we will ship our computers from and it is near the MRT
line, which the employees will use to get to work. We will not have to invest anything into
construction as building computers only requires desk space and a screwdriver.
The rent will cost about $500 a month. In order to make the facility appropriate we will have to
purchase desks and chairs. This is estimated to cost about $1,000 for four large desks and four chairs
along with enough storage space to store components used for the computers.
The business hours for Custom Computers Singapore is from 10am to 4pm.

Personnel
Custom Computers Singapore will start in year one with one employee. We plan to expand to having
three employees by the second year. The employees will have to be skilled in building computers.

14

Staff will be found by advertising on newspapers along with on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Employees will be payed $16 an hour. Each day consists of six hours and five working days a week.
All the Employees will build computer while the Manager (Luke Richardson) will manage the social
media and relay orders.

Credit Policies
We do not plan to offer credit to customers. They are expected to pay the full price on purchase.

15

VII. Management and Organization

Since the company will only have up to three employees within the first three years there will not be
a board of directors. In the first year the single employee (Luke Richardson) will manage the social
media accounts and build computers.
Once more employees are hired they will build the majority of the Computers while Luke will resume
the role of manager. He will manage the companys website, respond to customers, relay orders to
employees and occasionally build computers.

Manager/CEO
Luke Richardson is an enthusiastic computer builder who prides himself in building dozens of
computers in his 5 years of experience. Luke pays attention to the details and strives himself to
make sure that the product achieves its best possible outcome and that his clients receive the best
prices possible.

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VIII. Startup Expenses and Capitalization

Startup Costs:

Website:

$6,000

Website Domain:

$154 (3 years)

Work Materials (Desk, Chair etc.) :

$1,000

Rent (3 month deposit):

$1,500

Total:

$8,654

The startup costs for Custom Computers Singapore is fairly low. Since there are no employees in the
first year no wage deposit is needed. The largest cost is the creation of the website which will cost
$6,000. This is because we will need to have algorithms to calculate the total costs after the
customer selects the components they need. In total Custom Computers Singapore will need about
$8,700 to get itself up and running.

17

IX. Financial Plan

12-Month Profit and Loss Projection

We estimate to sell 20 units a month at a $200 profit per unit. Each month we will make $3,000. This
adds up to $36,000 in a month. In the first year we have to pay for 9 months of rent (Since the first
three would be covered by the loan). This would add up to $4,500. We will make a total profit of
$31,500 in the first year.

18

Projected Cash Flow

Custom Computers Singapore will be able to pay of its loans easily if its projected sales are met. The
loans monthly payments will be easily met.
The company will not need a lot of cash on hand, as the customers pay before the computer is built.
This is to prevent the customer from ordering a computer and never paying for it. The components
will then be purchased according to the customers selection in the mall called Sim Lim.

Break-Even Analysis

*+,-..
/,0..

= 3

Custom Computers Singapore would need to run for just over three months in order to make back
the money it took out in the loan.
Its monthly expenses are $500.
In order to operate at a profit Custom Computers Singapore will have sell 3 units (at $200 profit) a
month. This will net about $100 profit a month.

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