See Description Final Business Plan

BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMARTPHONE SERVICE OUTLET 11

Business Plan for Smartphone Repair & Service Company

Student’s Name

Institution

Introduction

The opening of the new business requires planning, preparing as well as sourcing of finances. According to recent studies, most business fails within five years of startup because they did not have a roadmap on how to conduct and execute the strategies formulated. From my recent studies, the service industry has a huge gap especially in New York City where there are a lot of people. However, they are few companies offering such services. Therefore, the business plan would be for Smartphone Repair and Service Company. Currently, the technological advancement is overwhelming users especially in the smartphone repair and services. Thus, the company would offer these services to the users. The purposes of this business plan for smartphone repair and Service Company in New York City.

Description and Background of the Company

Smartphone Repair & Service Company is a licensed and repair one stop shop for smartphone servicing and repair as well as smart electronic. The Smartphone repair and Service Company would be located in the Central Business District of New York City (Beal, 2013). The facilities is strategic position and easily accessible to everyone. The major services that the company would provide would be smartphone and smart gadget (Karami, 2016). The company would likely face stiff competition from the service industry not only in New York City but also other cities across the city. The company would be positioned strategic to gain market share.

The major services of the company would include smartphone repairing services, repairing tablets, water damage repair, battery replacement as well as phone screen repair for all marks of smartphone including china phones (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The company would have specialist who would help consumers with App related problems and services. Other services such as formatting of smartphone and installation of new software would be also be done. The company would differentiate itself from the competition by creating a customer centric culture that would focus on the giving consumers the best value for their money. The company would aim to put the interests of the client first as the services would be guided by the values and professional ethics.

Competitive Analysis

The biggest competition that the company would face stiff competition from Apple Service Centers and Samsung Service Centers. These companies have the largest smartphone and smart gadget in the world not only in New York. Apple Service Centers is the largest in New York with 50% of the customers (Beal, 2013). On the other hand, Samsung Center Service had the second largest smartphone users. These smartphone service and repair has the largest customers of the smartphone as they give warranties to the customers. The second strength of the competition is their good reputation and good will. Therefore, the competition would be stiff, tough and would make it difficult for the competition (Burns, 2010). Furthermore, another strength of the competition is their strategic positioning that is known by the customers.

It is important to understand that Apple and Samsung has enormous wealth and resources. Therefore, they have the latest services and professional as they are able to get the global talent pool. Therefore, the competition would offer a stiff competition to the company. It is fundamentally important to analyze the competition using their marketing tactics (Fidelman, 2014). The Apple and Samsung Service have a lot of resources to invest in any type marketing techniques.

On the other hand, Smartphone Repair & Service Company would capitalize on the weakness of competition. Samsung and Apple Service only service smartphone and smart gadget that they market (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). Additionally, they do not service smartphone from other marks such as Microsoft, Nokia, Google Nexus, and LG amongst others. Therefore, the company would attract customers from other smartphone companies. Additionally, the Apple and Samsung service are inefficient as smartphone takes a long time to be services and there is long queue (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The Smartphone Repair & Service Company would have shorter queue and repair and service smartphone within 3 hours of submitted.

Strategies and Marketing Tactics

For the company to attract and retain first customer there must be proper strategies and marketing tactics that would be effective. It is important for the strategies to be formulated and implementation in the interest of the customers (Beal, 2013). The strategies that the company would implement to attract new customers would be through strategies such as creation of customer-centric culture, cost-effective and latest technology and services. The implementation of customer-centric culture would attract customers as they would their smartphone would be repaired within the shortest time possible. It would also avoid long queue and improve efficiency through customer-centric culture (Fidelman, 2014). The customer-centric culture strategies would be implemented through training of employees to focus on customer care services. Hence, the customer would be the Kings in the company. The strategy would attract first customers because the customers would feel valued at the company. Therefore, they would be impressed with the services of the company.

The current models of smartphones are agile and fragile and they can break at any time. Therefore, the customers are cost sensitive (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The company would ensure that the repair cost is cost-effective. The cost of repairing smartphone and smart gadgets would be below the industry average in order to attract new customers. The cost-effectiveness strategy would ensure that customers are attracted. The final strategies would be updating of the latest technologies and smartphones. Technology keeps on improving and changing fast (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The company would ensure the service attendant have knowledge and skills in the latest technology that would attract customers. It is strategy that would ensure that employees are trained on the latest technology, software and firmware.

To supplement the strategies of the company, the company should formulate marketing tactics that would be appropriate (Fidelman, 2014). The marketing tactics that the company would use includes social media marketing tactics, guerrilla market tactics as well as community building. The first tactic would be social media marketing tactics is not only the cheapest but also effective as it would reach most people in New York Grand Central area. Social media strategies would ensure that the company gives consistent message on all social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn as well as WhatsApp (Fidelman, 2014). The marketing on this platforms would give the company the largest reach to most customers who uses smartphone to access social media platform. The second marketing tactic would be guerilla marketing strategies within New York City (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The guerilla marketing strategies would ensure that the company gives posters in subways and wraps public transportation buses. Additionally, the company would give T-shirts and caps with the company’s logo on them. Finally, the company would use community building as marketing tactics by attracting celebrities that would repair their smartphones on the shops to attract customers.

Types of Strategic Positions

The positioning strategies would help the company to formulate object attributes, application, completion as well as the features and consumer involved. These attributes would help the company to represent a different approach when developing the positioning strategies as they would have a shared objectives (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The strategic position of the company would include customer benefits, pricing and strategic positioning using application and use. The first strategic position would be the customer benefits. The repairs and servicing of smartphone would ensure the customer benefits by having functioning smartphones. The strategic position offers a unique opportunities for the company to gain market share as smartphone is part and parcel of daily life in today’s activities (Burns, 2010). Therefore, with this strategic position, the company would gain a market share in New York City as it would emphasize on maximizing the benefits of the customers.

The second strategic position would be using pricing. The company would use pricing to attract and retain customers. It would enable the customers to get value for their money. Pricing is a sensitive issue when it comes to repairing and servicing of smartphone since the customers are always to prepared for it (Burns, 2010). Therefore, penetrative and competitive pricing would give the company another opportunity as it would give the company a quality approach in relation to money and performance and services offered by the company. The company would gain customers and have good reputation when using pricing a strategic position. The final strategic position would be the use or application. Smartphone Repair and Service Company is a service company and using application for positioning strategy would be fundamental (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). It would make the company differentiate itself from the competition. The company would position itself as the repair and servicing company that focus on the customer needs. It would enable the company to formulate customer-centric strategies that would be essential in gaining additionally customer care (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010).

Types of Risk facing the Business Opportunity: Internally & Externally

The smartphone repair and service companies have the lowest market barriers and therefore, many companies can enter the industry. The first external risks is stiff competition from the established repair and service like Apple Service and Samsung Service centers as well as other new entrants in the industry (Burns, 2010). Stiff competition can lead to serious consequences such as reduction of market share as well as losses. The second external risks would be lacks of funds for daily operation and setup of the business. These risks should be minimized as it could lead to grave consequences (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). Finally, the company can face risks from the economy state such as recession and depression. Recession and depression of the economy would reduce the customer base as few customers would afford smartphone let alone repair of smartphones.

The second types of risks that faces this business opportunity would be internal ones. The first risk would be incompetent and unqualified employees (Drummond, Ensor, & Ashford, 2010). The company faces a huge risks of employing incompetent and unqualified employees since the company cannot afford to pay for the huge compensation and payment packages. The risk could cripple the company’s operations and strategies as it requires the company to have competent and quick learning employees to help achieve their objectives (Karami, 2016). The second internal risks would be poor marketing and strategies that would lead to failure of the business.

Assessment of Different sources of funding

The sources of funding are important as it helps to fund and finance the startup of the business. Without correct strategies for sources of funding, the company can fail as it cannot return profits and earning if nothing is invested (Burns, 2010). Therefore, money is invested in staff, operations as well as gadgets in order to get earnings. Additionally, sources of funding ensures that the business is self-sustaining both in short and long term goals. The sources of funding enable the business to grow and gain customers through marketing (Burns, 2010). There are different types of funding such as personal saving, bank loans, crowdfunding, angels investors as well as venture capitalist.

Traditional saving are the obvious sources of funding. It is solid sources of funding as it enables the owners to have 100% ownership of the business. It enables the owners to gain 100% of the net earnings (Burns, 2010). However, the savings are never sufficient to fund a business as the business have many activities. The second source is bank loans. Banks loans are very common sources of funding with numerous advantages such as flexibility as well as people qualify to a determine loan (Burns, 2010). However, default to pay bank loan can lead to the liquidation of the business and dissolution.

The third sources of funding is crowdfunding which is open to the public to fund the business opportunities and get atleast dividend in the earnings. Unlike venture capitalist or bank, crowdfunding is cheap and easier to raise (Burns, 2010). Angel investors is another sources of funding. Despite their numerous advantages, angel investors are only restricted to funds that is less than $500,000. The final source of funding is venture capitalist. The venture capitalist are interested people with interest in the business venture (Beal, 2013). The venture capitalist offer unlimited amount of money. However, the venture capitalist are difficult to deal with as they demand the amount of money and earnings for the company to earn. The company must earn the set profits by the venture capitalist.

References

Beal, V. (2013). Small Business Mobile Marketing Strategies That Work. Retrieved from Small Business Computing: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/News/Marketing/small-business-mobile-marketing-strategies-that-work.html

Burns, P. (2010). Entrepreneurship and Small Business: Start-up. Growth and Maturity. Palgrave Macmillan.

Drummond, G., Ensor, J., & Ashford, R. (2010). Strategic Marketing (P. 251). Routledge.

Fidelman, M. (2014). 8 Cutting-Edge Marketing Tactics That Work Better Than Facebook Ads. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2014/08/26/8-cutting-edge-marketing-tactics-that-work-better-than-facebook-ads/#5fe44e96277f

Karami, A. (2016). Strategy Formulation in Entrepreneurial Firms. Routledge.