hi there, actually this is a Introduction to Entrepreneurship:Business and Social Perspective course... and this is team work , everyone has done their parts, only parts are left . i have add a word f

ParkSimply - Business Plan

ENTR 2030 (D01)

Group #28:

Jessica Tannous - 7895725

Ben He - 7849667

Anqi Teng - 7910125

Jahid Hasan Sagor - 7901351

Jiaming Zhang - 7876627

Dr. Wenlong Yuan & Dr. Zhenyu Wu

Two-page (double-spaced) executive summary (20%) [Anqi]

The proposal of our project is to create an application that can find the desired parking space around the destination in downtown. On this app, you can quickly find the parking space you need in the menu bar through preference filtering. According to the questionnaire, all the respondents do not live in downtown (see appendix questionnaire), and as many as 89% of people come to this area for shopping or appointments. "Unfamiliar with downtown" and "clear empty parking lot" are frequently mentioned, they need an app to facilitate their parking preferences. For example, in winter, you want to find a parking space closest to your destination to reduce walking time; the place is more complex and has a lot of traffic, and you want to find a safe indoor parking lot; you just want to buy a cup of coffee, you want park the car in a parking space on the side of the road; I don’t need to drive for the time being, I want to find a free parking lot for overnight parking... “Can’t find a place” and “Parking is too expensive” are the most mentioned downtown parking inconveniences in the survey.. "Humanization" is the most unique and outstanding feature of this product.

Even the most comprehensive collection can become dated. In the future, I hope that the biggest selling point and business opportunity of this product is its timeliness. Open every parking space has a comment area, every driver who gets there can leave his comments and ratings. Updates on that space will be relayed by drivers who have just been there. A safe and spacious parking space will be well received by drivers, and high scores make this parking space the first choice of nearby drivers; parking spaces that are crowded and overcharged will also remind nearby drivers, allowing them to consider as appropriate and avoid losses in advance.

It is possible to use the beta version to test this plan. Try to expand the audience of users, from students, office workers, to shoppers, etc., and reflect the existing problems and possible improvements of this product through people's application to actual use.

The problem/need and solution (10%) [Jahid]

• Clearly and convincingly describe the problem/need (with relevant backup data to show the importance of the problem/need)

• Clearly describe the solutions (specific, creative and unique solutions that have a great potential in the market)

Competitor analysis and differentiation (15%) [Jiaming]

Our main competitors are those parking apps that already exist in the market, like HonkMobile and Green P Parking. HonkMobile is currently the most popular Canadian parking app, Honk allows drivers to easily search for various parking options nearby and in some areas they can also reserve parking spaces in advance through this app. Just enter the purpose of your trip and estimated time of arrival in the search field: it will show you the best parking rates in the area and you can even view the street view of the area. This parking app basically covers all major cities in Canada.

Moreover, Green P Parking is one of the main competitors, and Green P is the only official "green app" in Toronto that makes it easier for motorists to find parking spots on Green P. Green P not only allows users to find parking lots and street parking spaces, but also allows you to pay for parking directly from your smartphone, track Green P not only allows users to find parking and street parking, but also allows you to pay for parking, track time left in parking and extend parking reservations directly from your smartphone. Moreover, with up to 160 municipal parking lots and up to 45,000 parking spaces in use, Green P has a wide coverage. It's easy to find a parking spot even without using the parking app. These parking lots are usually much more affordable than private parking lots and are more systematically regulated, so you don't have to worry about getting towed because you can't figure out the rules.

ParkSimply is the software for parking, it can tell drivers the available parking time on different roads, like some roads have no way to park, some roads have parking time limit. All this information will be told to drivers. Not only that, we can have different parking options depending on the driver's needs, we will have two options, one next to the road and one indoor parking lot. For example, in winter, you want to find a parking space closest to your destination to reduce walking time. This is when drivers can use our software to find all available parking spaces related to their destination. If some drivers want to find a free parking lot to spend the night, then they can use the indoor parking option and request to find available parking spaces on the map.

Also the core of our product that distinguishes it from other competitors is "Humanization". We will create a review section and a REVIEW section for all parking spaces. Every driver who arrives there can rate and write a review for the parking spot, so that all those who are ready to go to their parking spot have enough reference. And, the latest condition of that parking space will be updated in real time by the drivers who have just been there, if that parking space cannot be used properly. When a safe and spacious parking space is available, it will be very popular among drivers. High scores make this parking spot the first choice of nearby drivers; crowded, overcharged parking spots will also alert nearby drivers so they can exercise discretion and avoid losses in advance. Unlike other competitors, ParkSimply updates the status of each parking space in real time and does not require drivers to bookmark each parking space; even the most perfect bookmark is not as good as real-time updates. It is possible for a driver to go to a parking space they used to use today and be told there is no way to use it properly today, which would greatly affect every driver.

Customer profile and market size (15%) [Ben]

People between the ages of 18 and 40 make up the demographic profile of our ideal customers for the business concept that we have in mind. Within this age range, the population that we will focus our attention on are individuals who live in those major cities including Winnipeg, and those have a propensity to drive into the downtown area quite frequently for a variety of reasons, including employment, shopping, appointments, and so forth. We consider individuals between the ages of 18 and 40 to be our ideal target customer because they are more likely to make use of mobile applications and would be more comfortable navigating our app. In addition, as opposed to minors and persons of advanced age, people in this age bracket are more likely to be in possession of a valid driver's licence.

According to the National Household Survey that was carried out by Statistics Canada (2011), approximately 69.8% of all employees in the city of Winnipeg commuted to their jobs using a car, truck, or van, in 2006. This figure does not take into account the individuals who are travelling as passengers in those automobiles. By the year 2011, this percentage had increased to 71% (Statistics Canada, 2011). Moreover, in 2016, Statistics Canada conducted a new set of statistics regarding employees in the city of Winnipeg. According to the statistics, there are 272,070 people working in Winnipeg who commute to their jobs via private car, truck, or van. And the 2017 statistics show that in Winnipeg, there are a total of 346,050 employees (Dandewich, 2017). If we assume that the number of people working in the City of Winnipeg has not changed significantly between the years 2016 and 2017, we can safely estimate that approximately 78.62% of workers commute to their jobs using a car, truck or van. This ratio is essentially comparable to the percentages that are discussed earlier for the years 2006 and 2007. Therefore, based on these statistical findings, it appears that our app will attract a very large number of users.

Furthermore, the morning and evening rush hours on a daily basis are the busiest times on the roads, because this is the time when most people are travelling to and from work. According to the statistics conducted in 2017, there are approximately 101,150 people who leave their homes for work between 7:00 am and 7:59 am, in the City of Winnipeg (Dandewich, 2017). As a result, this segment of the population has a significant need for our app to provide them with appropriate parking spaces near their companies so that they can save time in the morning on their commute, particularly during the winter months when the weather here in Winnipeg is extreme. After working eight hours, a major section of this population, once again, has to travel to the supermarket to do their grocery shopping or meet up with their friends in downtown to hang out. Then, these individuals are going to be the best potential users of our app.

Revenue model and pricing strategies (10%) [Jessica]

Our primary revenue model for our ParkSimply app will be providing advertising for companies on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. This method will charge the companies we are advertising for a fee every time a user clicks on the ad. [site textbook] Due to the fact that we are planning to offer our app for free to our consumers, utilizing in-app advertisements for other companies would be an effective way to generate revenue, so long as we maintain sufficient consumer traffic on our app. While advertisements like pop-up ads are known to be a nuisance to application users, deterring them from continuing to use an app, we have taken this into consideration. We have decided that our main format for advertising to our customers will be through banner advertisements that occupy only a slight portion of the screen, still allowing the consumers to use the app normally without interruptions. This banner format is also important because our customers will be using our application for navigation while driving, so we have ensured to implement this non-distracting form of advertising.

Our secondary revenue model is data selling. There is a growing market for selling location and search history data to other companies, such as Facebook, to allow them to better target their advertising towards their consumers. [provide stats]. For example, if one of our application users searches for parking near a furniture store that they are going to, we would sell that information to companies that would then use their platform to advertise furniture items to that customer. We would be sure to include information about our application’s provision of data to other companies in our privacy policy that users must agree to before utilizing the app. We would also take the proper and necessary steps to ensure the security of the data collected.

While our group had considered implementing a freemium revenue model in addition to advertising, we decided against it. This was due to the results that we received on our survey. It proved to be unpopular to download a paid premium version without advertisements. We had come to the conclusion that it would be more effective to put our focus into continuously improving the free version of the app, rather than trying to focus on a premium version as well. This way we will continue to make the app more attractive to consumers based on their feedback and observed trends.

Although our application is offered for free for consumers to download, this pricing decision was customer-led, as well as competitor-led. According to our survey results, very few people showed interest in a paid, ad-free version of our application, and would rather just have the free version with the advertisements. Based on this data, and the significant potential for revenue generation through advertising and data selling, we decided to charge no fee to our customers for utilizing ParkSimply. Our decision was competitor-led in the sense that we had analyzed other parking-related applications available on the app store, such as ParkMobile, and noted that most did not charge a download fee. To stay competitive with these applications, we made the decision to keep our app free to download.

Our pricing strategy for charging companies for advertising is on a cost-per-click basis at $1.50 per click. We decided on this charge amount because it is the Canadian average cost-per-click in 2022 [site businessofapps.com]. Our strategy for selling data to other companies would be on a cost-led pricing basis. This means that we would calculate the costs of collecting the data and getting it ready for selling, and then add a mark-up to ensure we are generating profit [site lotame.com]

https://www.lotame.com/how-to-monetize-your-data/

https://www.businessofapps.com/ads/cpc/research/cpc-rates/

Basic financials (10%) [Jessica]

• Highlight the key drivers of revenue and expenses

The key revenue drivers of ParkSimply are customers and frequency. Because our main revenue sources would be advertising and data-selling to companies, it is important for us to ensure that we have a sufficient volume of customers downloading and using our app. The more customers we have, the more clicks on ads we will have, and the more data we will be able to collect. It’s also important for us to ensure that we maintain an adequate frequency of repeat customers using the app. We want our customers to use the app continuously, not just once. Increasing customer frequency will also allow us to increase our advertising and data revenue. In addition, having repeat customers that are satisfied with the app can help attract more customers through referrals to friends, family, etc.

To build this customer loyalty, our plan is to create a loyalty program based on partnerships with parking companies, such as Impark. Customers would have the ability to pay through ParkSimply for parking spaces at these companies and earn points while doing so. These points can then be used towards paying for parking through the app. These loyalty points will make the app more attractive, and therefore, will be an effective method of keeping our customers using the app continuously. This loyalty program will create more value for the customer, increasing the incentive to download and continue using. Ultimately, this would increase both of our key revenue drivers.

The key expense drivers for ParkSimply include the costs of producing the app, as well as operating costs. App production costs are expected to be incurred exclusively in the first year when the app is being created and tested. Direct labour costs go towards paying professionals to actually develop the app. The development is split into multiple stages, including planning, creating user flow, actual development, and testing. As an on-demand application, we expect development costs for ParkSimply to be around $80,000, and to take around 7 months to develop. (site spaceo). Our operating costs will include app maintenance and updates, domain and server dues, marketing, and salaries. Marketing will include social media content marketing, as well as collaborations with influencers. Salaries will be paid to maintenance and marketing personnel, as well as customer service representatives.

Sources I used: https://www.mobindustry.net/blog/top-7-biggest-hidden-costs-of-mobile-app-development/

https://www.spaceo.ca/blog/app-development-cost/

https://addevice.io/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-a-mobile-app/

• Provide simple pro forma income statement (up to 3 years)

Writing and presentation (15%) [Ben will do Presentation]

Need to include references (deduct 4% if there is no reference)

The creativity platform (5%)

References

Dandewich, G. (2017, December). Winnipeg, MB - Transportation. Townfolio. https://townfolio.co/mb/winnipeg/ transportation

‌Dandewich, G. (2017, November). Winnipeg, MB - Labour Force. Townfolio. https://townfolio.co/mb/winnipeg/labour-force

Statistics Canada. (2011). National Household Survey - Commuting to work. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-012-x/99-012-x2011003_1-eng.pdf

Passport. (2022, February 23). Updated green P app makes paying to park easier in Toronto. Updated Green P app makes paying to park easier in Toronto. Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/updated-green-p-app-makes-paying-to-park-easier-in-toronto-301488370.html