BUSINESS PLAN

Business Plan

Business Plan

3.0 Source of Innovation Opportunity and Market Potential

A company (Caecus Ltd.) that makes a profit by designing, licensing and supplying its single product, “The Virtual blind dog”; a virtual guide dog with the aim of improving the quality of life of the blind and partially sighted, to organisations affiliated with the blind or partially sighted (www.bplans.com). In accordance with the operations strategy, product manufacturing and fulfillment will be outsourced. Price quotes and invoicing terms have been obtained from these vendors. This information has been incorporated into the financial projections where appropriate.

The product aims to target not the end user, but the corporations which supply the visually impaired with aids for their disability (www.bplans.com). By targeting the supplier, it is believed that business growth will be quick with the product gaining large market penetration within a short amount of time. The downside to this approach is the fact that there are few large suppliers, and all of the suppliers are predominantly endorsed by one organisation in the UK. Failure to gain recognition by this one key organisation may lead to the failure of the business organisation as a whole. As a result, a considerable amount of time and effort has been invested into ensuring that the charity, RNIB, will gain everything from an endorsement of Caecus Ltd., and its product, “The Virtual blind dog”.

This statement reflects the organisation's complete commitment to helping the blind and partially sighted to help their valued customers. It is therefore the job of the management team to prove that the proposed product offers them the opportunity to at least partially fulfill this task (www.bplans.com).

Initially, no capital equipment is required which external investors will pay for. The initial costs of software and the first prototype will be met by the management team, who will invest approximately £3,000 into software acquirement and utilise Personal Computers already owned by themselves, and a further £1000 into the manufacture of the first prototype. A small sum of money (under £500) will be allocated for consumables and the initial work conducted does not require additional premises (www.bplans.com).

After the initial 18 months it is thought that it will be absolutely necessary to move the business to its own dedicated premises. This may have to be done as early as 12 months into the operation, and this is the scenario to be planned for, as the costs will be increased. Business premises for the company, as well as overhead costs are expected to cost as much as £5000 / quarter for the second year of trading. This includes a new business premises rate reduction (www.bplans.com).

The Existing Patents are currently in development or already developed that may pose a threat to the Product. Additionally, indirect competition is present in types of medical sight replacement technologies that are on the horizon. However, it is envisaged that the proposed Product will offer a significant cost benefit over these organic sight solutions, and that this will continue into the far ...