Running Head: BUSINESS PLAN: NERD PATROL 1

Business Plan: Nerd patrol

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 BUSINESS PLAN: NERD PATROL 2

Table of contents
1………………………………………………….. Introduction

2…………………………………………………… Organization of the business

and key players

3……………………………………………………..Financials

3.1…………………………………………..Anticipated operating costs

3.2………………………………………….Anticipated investment
requirements

3.3………………………………………….Anticipated revenue

3.4………………………………………… Pro-forma cash flow projection

for the first year

3.5………………………………………….Payback period and Revenue

forecasting

4. …………………………………………………… Marketing and sales

5………………………………………………………. Operations

6………………………………………………………..Legal and Sundry issues

7…………………………………………………………Assessment of the
challenges facing the new venture and solutions
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1. Introduction

This business plan outlines a proposed venture to create a computer services company

with the name Nerd patrol. Nerd patrol is created to offer a range of computer services. The

services range from hardware and software upgrades, hardware repairs, debugging and also

tackling the office and home networking services. The business is expected to grow to a more

significant capacity with the capability to handle several clients at a single time. The firm plans

to start up as a small scale with one employee and grow to a large extent by ultimately allowing

more partners on board. Currently, there exists other competitor’s in the market such as Geek

squad to which the company expects to battle with control over a share of the market.

2. Organization of the business and key players

The firm plans to begin the operation with John as a sole proprietor who would also serve

as the manager and later to admit two additional partners. Before the admission of the new

partners, John would operate as the as the single manager occasionally requesting support from

the two anticipated partners that’s Mary and Nabil. John, the sole manager, has experience in the

field of software and systems engineering. John holds an exceptional expertise in handling

Microsoft and Oracle software. The roles as the single manager and proprietor revolve around

offering services in the software and networking sector. Additional employees would be initially

hired on short-term contracts as and when the need arose. The first preferred assistant in case

such need arose is Mary who holds similar qualifications. Employees’ roles would include the

provision of the computer-based services. As the venture expands Nabil would take over the
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marketing and customer management roles while the Mary and John would supervise and assist

in the provision of the services.

The additional vendors hired must have a reasonable experience either in the field of

servicing and upgrading the software or either marketing the new software developed. The

primary roles would include offering the software upgrading and networking services while at

the same time advertising newly introduced software. The vendors are also expected to run the

upgrade services. Additional expected experience includes identification of the network

problems with efficiency and innovative networking services.

3. Financials

3.1 Anticipated operating costs

The projected operating expenses within the first year include rent for the office space in

the first outlet, telephone expenses, computer repair equipment, fixtures for the new office,

licensed software inventory, Office interior improvements, licensing and franchising, marketing

costs, professional services, salaries and insurance costs. The monthly fees are estimated below.

Rent/leasing costs (Interior office) $180

Telephone expenses $5

Computer repair equipment $500

Fixtures for the new office $150

Licensed software inventory $100

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Office interior improvements (decoration) $50

Licensing and franchising $150

Marketing costs $200

Professional services $100

Salaries and insurance $200

Total $1635

The costs are estimated on a monthly basis. Rent and leasing are pegged at the cost of 6

dollars per person per day which may vary depending on the office location. Commercial

telephone services are estimated to be five dollars considering the assumption that most of the

communication will be facilitated through the mail and social media platforms. The wireless

connectivity is assumed to be catered for in the office lease costs. The computer repair and

networking equipment would also be acquired such as a complete repair tools box and many

clipping tools for networking purposes. Fixtures would also be placed in the new office to the

specifications upon acquisition. A few licensed software inventories would also be acquired in

the first month of operation. The most commonly used software would be obtained to cater to the

demands that would quickly arise.

Nerd patrol is also expected to decorate the room according to their demands just as the

norm with many offices across the states. Licensing and franchising costs include the local

authority authentication and licensing fees from companies dealing in software creation. For

instance, obtaining a dealer approval would be necessary to increase customer confidence in the
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products offered. Marketing costs would include videos and advertising content. The launch

would involve the use of branded shirts and social media trends. Online blogs would also be

created in the first year of operation to sensitize people. The launch would also include calendars

and a few branded T-shirts to be distributed to the promoters. The inception of professional

service costs include accounting fees and the legal fees procured. Accounting fees include

services for estimation costs and preparing the books of accounts.

On the other hand, legal fees include the incorporation costs, and the contracts signed the

certification. Salaries costs cater to the expected payment for services offered by the employees.

Insurance provides for injury and damages caused in the line of repair of the computers and the

network system. The total estimated initiation costs total to 1635 dollars. Upon the inception of

additional partners, the expected capital is expected to change with each of the partners

officiating over a store. Other loans would also be acquired to cater for expansion costs. Legal

fees would also increase step by step as the business expands.

3.2 Anticipated Investment Requirements.

The anticipated investment requirements include the incorporation costs of the first

venture. The incorporation expenses in the first year would be estimated at $2000 to cater for any

under quoted prices and costs. As a sole proprietorship venture, the business would mostly be

funded by the savings and personal investments and friends donation. Some borrowing may also

happen at the early stages of establishment. The expected expansion is expected to create the

need for more investment funds in both equipment and available software inventory. The mode

for growth involves incurring more franchising cost to come into partnership with the software

manufacturers to offer additional software for use at a lower price and a convenience level.
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Besides, the partnerships are also expected to promote the expatriate capacity in offering services

and even for growth.

3.3 Anticipated revenue

The primary expected revenue flows include networking services, computer repair costs,

hardware and software upgrading costs, software debugging problems and solving network

problems. On estimations, Nerd patrol is expected to generate a revenue of above 1000 dollars

because some software licenses would be usable on more than one device such as computer

antivirus software with more than one permission. Additional services that are expected to rake

in a lot of revenue include the hardware repair services that may amount to many computers over

time. The statistics collected on the estimated number of clients considering the numerous cases

of clients seeking computer services lead to the estimation of 1000 dollars in revenue in the first

month of operation.

3.4 Pro forma cash flow projection for the first year.

Revenues Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5

Computer 200 400 700 800 1000

software

sales and

upgrade

Computer 300 500 550 600 700

networking

revenue
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Hardware 200 300 400 500 650

repairs and

upgrades

Software 300 600 650 700 850

debugging

and network

solutions

Costs 1000 1800 2300 2600 3200

Rent and 180 180 180 180 180

leasing

Telephone 5 6 7 10 10

Expenses

Computer 500 550 0 50(maintenance) 0

Repair

Equipment

Fixtures for 150 150 0 0 0

the new

office

Licensed 100 150 400 500 700

Software

inventory
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Office 50 20 10 5 5

interior

decoration

Licensing 150 200 350 500 500

and

franchising

Marketing 200 200 100 300 100

costs

Professional 100 100 200 300 300

services

Salaries and 200 250 300 400 550

insurance

Total cost 1635 1806 1547 2245 2345

Net cash flow -635 -6 753 355 855

3.5 Payback period and Revenue forecasting

Payback period is estimated to be three months considering it’s after 3 months that the

company would start earning profits.

The three-year focus indicates the net cash flow would grow to 3000 or 4000 dollars

expecting a yearly growth to 1000 dollars per year. The expected areas of growth are pegged on

the assumption that the sales, services and repair costs are expected to grow with increasing

clients monthly. Again the advertisement costs may drop significantly with increasing fame

about the services offered by the company. The return would also be reduced insurance costs due
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to accidents resulting from the services field. The admission of new partners is set to be done in

the fifth year after which the income is expected to double close to three times considering a

smaller increase in franchising costs while at the same time accessing a huge base of clients. The

seventh year may see the revenue monthly grow to ten thousand dollars with the three outlets

fully functioning and reducing costs of acquisition of licenses and acquisition of other services.

4. Marketing/sales

The marketing and sales strategy includes all the attainable marketing strategies that

include a number of activities such as self-promotion and advertising. The first strategy exploited

is the creation of a website that seeks to promote the company on other online platforms. The

link provided would allow the customers to access the services available from the website.

Besides, initial promotions would be done within urban centers using branded shirts, banners,

posters and fliers. Media instigated advertisements would also be useful at this stage. Media

contents to be used include designed videos, customer testimonials provided by the first

customers, animated infographics, animated explainers and influencer marketing from other

system developers.

Blogs would also be created to offer a link to potential customers who may just be willing

to solve problems at home and in the offices. Social media platforms would also be useful

especially in the earlier stages of development. The social media platforms such as Facebook,

Instagram and Linked in would also be helpful at the early stages of development. As the

company grows, strategies such as public relations approach would also be pursued to strengthen

consumer confidence. Email marketing could be beneficial at this stage. The marketing sales

strategy would be used alternatively in different periods of time to create differentiated

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impressions to the potential customers. The selection of the sales and marketing strategy would

depend on the aim of marketing at that time.

The pricing of goods and services would strongly depend on the current prevailing prices

in the market offered by fellow competitors. For instance, the networking services would be

provided depending on the type of cable chosen and the meter coverage given. The maximum

pricing is charged on the clients would vary at least five dollars per meter of installation. For

networking services, the service is expected to cater for transportation of the employee for

instance where the charges are ten dollars per hour for fixing a day’s work the maximum

allowable margin above the average price would be five dollars more. Upgrading software would

vary with the cost of acquisition of the new upgrade license plus a twenty dollar charge fee per

upgrade.

The pricing would, however, vary as a marketing strategy to cater to the bulk acquisition

of services. For instance in cities and other urban regions where the cost of labor is low the

prices for services would also be lowered to cater to the price differential. The pricing strategy

would be dictated by the current market preceding with little fluctuations in the market. The

main products dealt in include computer hardware repair, software upgrades, software debugging

and handling networking problems. The sales and marketing strategies would be mixed and

would cater to all the products and services dealt with at the company. For instance, animated

infographic and videos would mainly market the services provided while the fliers and self-

promotional models would cater for the products sold.

Nerd Patrol seeks to open at least an outlet office at every major urban center. Before the

company can reach a better level of managing all the requirements to establish outlets in every
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neighborhood most of the services would mainly be web-based with hotline numbers to call and

request for products and services. Social media platforms would also serve a secure

communication channel to the clients. All the outlets would get a unique branding as a way of

promoting the venture. The outlets would similarly provide workshops where the clients can

check in any time and request for the services. The promotion strategies would be controlled by

the head office and not at the outlets.

The current competitors in the market include small to similar establishments such as

Geek Squad. The companies’ strategy to beat competition includes specialization and branding

to suit to gain prominence in the market. Since companies such as Geek have expanded the

services to cater for a range of electrical products the company intends to explore a range of

services mainly concentrated on home and computer-based solutions. The specialization seeks to

allow partnerships and innovation that would eventually edge other competitors out of the

market. Partnerships with other IT based companies expect to encourage large scale operations

while at the same time regulating costs.

5. Operations

The company would establish the headquarters within Richmond Virginia State with the

intention of covering several urban markets in the first few years of establishment. The main

clients’ base would vary from households to business entities seeking computer-based solutions.

The business would offer a customer care based platform to handle customer requests for those

who would not get access to the outlets for services. Nerd patrol would also run a website to

allow the clients access all information about the hotlines and the products and services sold by

the enterprise. The enterprise would offer services from 8 AM to 8 PM. Clients who request
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office, and home repairs and networking would also receive feedback within twenty-four hours

unless they seek for a postponement of the delivery of the services. Customers would be required

to drop their emails for certification and future communications.

6. Legal and Sundry issues

Some of the legal and sundry items that would be observed include the case for

intellectual property law observation. The enterprise would ensure the original companies duly

certify all the software licenses acquired. Similarly only authorized software upgrades would be

allowed by the company. The main aim is to avoid legal battles and any penalty fees expected to

arise. To accommodate the expansion exchanges a few statutory provisions would be issued to

allow for the admission of the two partners. At that level, the incorporation laws would change

with some legal requirements. The business seeks to be general partnership upon that

declaration. Every idea invented in the line of operations would be documented in the name of

the alliance as a patent to the partners. All the partners would be general partners liable for all the

actions of the business. All liabilities owed would be shared equally, and the same would be

communicated in a duly signed document of partnership deed.

Every partnership the company comes into with the software companies and other entities

would be documented indicating all the expected benefits and franchising costs if any. Before

offering services, clients would be allowed to go through the terms and conditions of the services

to prohibit complaints regarding loss of data and other problems. The attorney handling the

services would legally stamp the final form. Clients would, however, be given the opportunity to

request for data backup at a smaller subsidized fee of one dollar for 100 Gigabytes of data.
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Where the clients do not demand such the company would be excluded from such complaints in

respect to the legal documents.

All the networking services would be preceded by the signing of a legal form that

excludes the company from hacking claims. Upon the completion of services, the client would be

requested to take over the security issues of their network. In any case, the clients would need

additional security advisory legal forms would be signed making Nerdy Patrol responsible for

security lapses.

The company prefers seeking outside legal services as a way of cutting down the costs of

operation. Where the company grows beyond the United States boundary, an attorney would be

hired to tackle all the legal issues associated with the company. The goals of the company

include maintaining the costs as low as possible in the early years of operation.

7. Assessment of the challenges facing the new venture and solutions

Some of the difficulties that would meet the new venture include licensing and

franchising arrangements. Some fully grown companies such as Microsoft would insist on the

acquisition of franchise licenses to allow them to operate in their products and services. The

franchisee licenses would be too expensive especially in the early years of operation. Other

challenges that would affect the company in the early stages of growth include the acquisition of

a fully available force of employees to tackle the client's demand. The company, however,

assumes the traffic of customers would be minimal in the early years of operation to be handled

by close to five people. Since most of the information technology-based operators often run most
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of the services from homes or workstations, it would be expensive to maintain them permanently

for the company.

Nerd Patrol seeks to solve the problem by creating a network of employees that would be

issued with badges. The employees would be covered under the company’s legal setup to allow

handling of the tasks. The network of employees would be paid according to the hourly basis

served. The company would be charged with the responsibility of providing all the software

licenses and repair tools to be used by the employees. Other challenges that would be faced by

the companies include cyber security breaches caused by increasing cases of hacking. The

company can mitigate the risk by acquiring only genuine software from the manufacturer and

getting into certification contracts to ensure software security. The company would have to battle

with the challenge of raising finances because of the business structure that is a partnership in

this case.

In comparison to public listed companies, Nerd patrol would only obtain funding from a

few financial institutions with high confidence in the profitability of the venture. However, with

the availability of several companies willing to finance any profitable venture the company

would be able to seek finances from other financial institutions. The company would also face

the challenge of transitioning from the sole proprietorship level to the partnership level of

operations. Nerd patrol is expected to begin as a single proprietorship mode of business with the

transformation into a partnership with the admission of Mary and Nabil. The change in the

alignment of the business operations would provide a challenge to the initial mode of operation.

The partnership arrangement would come along with a new mechanism of action. The problem
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would, however, be solved by adaptation with each employee taking up their role and serving

conclusively.

Maintaining the speed for growth and innovation would also be a significant challenge

since Information Technology firms are expected to continue the pace of growth in offering

innovative services to the public. At the initial stage, the company would not be expected to

maintain the speed of innovation and growth. To address the challenges the company can carry

out data analytics as a way of identifying what the potential clients usually look for most.

Maintaining a social presence is also a mechanism to identify the challenges clients seek to

solve. The company can, therefore, choose the lines of innovation along the complains and

concerns raised. Maintaining a highly skilled employees’ team could also become a significant

challenge since employees would continuously quit and get to better opportunities opening

opportunities for new, inexperienced employees.

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