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2017 Ms. Anja Papathanassis Module: Business Entrepreneurship International Graduate Center – Hochschule Bremen Prepared By: Hassan Syed Ahmed Enoch F. Toppo FESTIVAL EXPRESS – Business Plan Report

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Page 1: Business_Plan_-_Report

2017

Ms. Anja Papathanassis

Module: Business Entrepreneurship

International Graduate Center –

Hochschule Bremen

Prepared By:

Hassan Syed Ahmed

Enoch F. Toppo

FESTIVAL EXPRESS – Business Plan Report

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

Essence................................................................................................................................................ 3

Service ................................................................................................................................................. 3

Opportunity ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Competitive Advantage ...................................................................................................................... 4

Plan for expansion .............................................................................................................................. 4

Idea Concept and Assumptions .............................................................................................................. 4

Market Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 5

Industry ............................................................................................................................................... 5

Beachhead market .............................................................................................................................. 5

Target Customer ................................................................................................................................. 6

Total Addressable Market ................................................................................................................... 6

Competition ............................................................................................................................................ 7

Short-term and Long-term .................................................................................................................. 7

Strengths & Weaknesses .................................................................................................................... 8

Competitive Advantage ...................................................................................................................... 8

Team ....................................................................................................................................................... 9

Names & Positions .............................................................................................................................. 9

Roles & Responsibilities .................................................................................................................... 10

The Company: Festival Express ............................................................................................................. 10

Vision................................................................................................................................................. 10

Mission Statement ............................................................................................................................ 10

Goal ................................................................................................................................................... 11

Services ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Tagline ............................................................................................................................................... 11

Legal Framework ............................................................................................................................... 11

Entry & Growth Strategy ................................................................................................................... 11

Marketing Plan ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Go-To Market Strategy ..................................................................................................................... 12

Sales Process ..................................................................................................................................... 13

Business Model ................................................................................................................................. 13

Pricing Framework & Strategy .......................................................................................................... 14

Services Strategy ............................................................................................................................... 15

Distribution Strategy ..................................................................................................................... 15

Advertising and Promotion ........................................................................................................... 15

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Operational Plan ................................................................................................................................... 16

On-going Operational Plan ............................................................................................................... 16

Geographic Location selected ........................................................................................................... 17

Facilities and Improvements ............................................................................................................. 18

Development Plan ................................................................................................................................. 19

Development Strategy ...................................................................................................................... 19

Critical Risks .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Competitor Action ............................................................................................................................ 19

Rescue Plan ....................................................................................................................................... 20

Exit Strategy ...................................................................................................................................... 20

Offering (Funding Request) ............................................................................................................... 21

Financial Plan ........................................................................................................................................ 21

Financial Summary ............................................................................................................................ 21

Projected Income Statement ............................................................................................................ 23

Projected Cash Flow Statement ........................................................................................................ 24

Projected Balance Sheet ................................................................................................................... 24

Break-Even Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 25

Website ................................................................................................................................................. 26

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Executive Summary

Essence Festival Express is basically a transportation and facilitator service provider for Festivals

around Europe. Initially, we are targeting Chiemsee Festival held in Übersee, to operate

shuttle services along with excursions to nearby locations around Chiemsee. This company’s

goal is to offer affordable, reliable, and safe transportation with excursions to its customers,

making them to avoid the tremendous inconveniences that often go along with driving to

the venue. The reason to choose our services is to enhance their festival experience by

traveling along with fellow festival-goers along with visiting nearby beautiful locations and

indulging in adventurous activities in the nearby and beautiful locations. This would enhance

their festival going experience as many travel to these festivals but aren’t able to see the

beautiful locations that these festivals are hosted around.

Service Festival Express has a main focus and our sales period is set to the summer months initially

from the Chiemsee Summer Festival and it will operate from multiple locations (five cities or

town )to pick up our customer. Target location are being set to Munich , Salzburg, Trostberg,

Rosenheim and Wasserberg am Inn. Festival Express provides entertainment and true

pleasure of excursions to students and the young generations. Our core services allow

students and young generation to avoid worries of parking and traffic rush, leaving them

with more time and energy to have fun with their friends. Beside the revenue earned from

sales Festival Express will also generate extra revenue from refreshments and festival props

provision services. For the props, Festival Express will offer an innovative type of

advertisement for prop artists and artisans who are willing to expand their market reach

directly to the festival goers. Apart from sales of these props, we shall also rent out these

props to the customers on a deposit basis.

Opportunity There are plenty of opportunities for Festival Express to take advantage of. Firstly Germany

has a lot of festivals happening during the summer months but there is no official festival-

only transport service. The market is still open to players who can enter in to capture this

growing demand, unlike U.K. where Big Green Coach Services has taken over the entire

market by claiming exclusive rights to those services. It has been observed that there are no

transport facilities for festival goers with normal tickets, only the ones with VIP ticket holders

have that service. Also none of the festival transport shuttle service providers are giving

additional excursion services to their customers around the festival venue or enroute the

venue. While booking seats on the current festival transport shuttle service providers, there

is no feature to view seating availability nor is there a feature to have a waiting list for seat

booking for the customers; a feature to accommodate this would make the online booking

service quite user-friendly. This is where Festival Express comes in and provides our

customers with all these features and facilities that are currently lacking in the market.

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Competitive Advantage Festival Express has taken into consideration all the weaknesses of our competitors and we

will be rectifying and implementing those into our current strategies. Currently our

competitors are only focussing on providing transport and accommodation facilities along

with on-board services for comfort and refreshments. Festival Express starts where our

competitors stop to enhance their services by providing convenience, comfort and additional

value to make our customer’s journey so memorable that they will want to re-experience

the same with their friends every time. In addition to this, Festival Express will offer an

opportunity for our potential customers to win free shuttleservices to Chiemsee Summer

Festival on the basis of lottery system which they are guaranteed to win once in their

numerous journeys with us. Working with event organizers, social media promoters, rural

village tourism suppliers, and bus charter companies, Festival Express would be able to

create essential partnerships with them and cater to our customer’s demands.

Plan for expansion We analysed that while Chiemsee Summer Festival would be an attractive place for festival

goers, the demand for excursion facilities is widespread all across Bavaria. Festival Express

plans to extend its operation to more destinations around Chiemsee, establish more

partnerships with other festival organizers within the span of 5 years and eventually recreate

the Festival Express experience for artists traveling from one festival to another. In order to

accommodate all this Festival Express has planned to buy own buses by the end of the third

year and continue buying buses to facilitate our customers and provide clean and green

buses by reducing CO2 emissions and operating on solar panels for electronic charging

thereby reducing fuel consumptions. Also, with the growing popularity amongst festival

goers, event organizers and artists, Festival Express aims to organize its own festival to as

jubilation to the efforts put in creating an amazing name in the market.

Idea Concept and Assumptions The idea behind starting this business for the Festival Express shuttle servicecame from

Enoch’s love formusic and a documentary movie that inspired him quite a few years back. It was

about this Train called none other than “Festival Express”, back in the 1970s, when a train filled with

the music stars of thatera – Janis Joplin, The Band,Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy Blues Band, Flying

Burrito Brothers, Mashmakhan, Seatrain and many more, travelled from Toronto to Calgary, playing

music at the festivals organized in the cities along the route and jamming with everyone throughout

the train.

This sparked an idea within him to recreate a similar experience with respect to the music scene in

today’s time. Hence, this gave birth to our concept the “Festival Express”, a festival transport shuttle

service with a twist. We decided to start our services first with the festival-goers and eventually in

the future, when we make our name and establish strong partnerships we shall host an artist-only

Festival Express bus service, traveling from Festival to Festival to hosting and organizing an entire

festival of ours. However the only twist to that concept is that we plan to involve the festival-goers

with an additional service, of showing them around the interesting places filled with activities that lie

around or enroute the festival venue so as to enhance their festival experience with us.

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Before starting with our Business Plan, we would like to highlight the various assumptions that we

have based our report upon. They are as follows:

- All the licenses to be approved for conducting our services between the mentioned

destinations of – Munich, Salzburg, Rosenheim, Trostberg and Wasserburg Am Inn, along

with the routes for our excursions to Marquartstein, Bechtesgaden, Kampenwand,

Chiemsee.

- We have established partnership with the organizers of the first festival (Chiemsee

Summer Festival) we are targeting to operate our services to and from Chiemsee – CRP

Konzertagentur GmBH based out of Hamburg.

- Our advertising and promotional campaigns have been converted into sales from the

various locations and mediums selected.

- We have achieved 100% sales (Seating capacity) of the target market share we hope to

reach out to during the Chiemsee festival for both the services offered by us.

- During the start of our operations, we hope to charter a certain number of mini-buses

and big buses to accommodate all our customers. We hope to have established

connections with the bus charter companies in order to give us the required number of

buses at the mentioned times.

- We hope to have established rental parking facilities (Warehouse parking) in Augsburg,

for our mini-bus and caravan in the initial stage of our business and then for the other

buses that we would be purchasing after 2 years.

- Employees’ requirements are fulfilled and we are able to hire enthusiastic and loyal

employees to carry out various functions required for managing the business.

- Chiemsee festival is able to attract a lot of festival-goers so that we are able to tap into

our market share.

Market Analysis Before starting the business, a market analysis is required in order to take calculated risks to

avoid major dead-end. We need to see if there is adequate demand for the services we hope to

provide to our customers. Also, we need to analyse the various competitors that are already in the

market to come up with the right strategies to have a considerable market share.

Industry The industry that our business is related to is music, transportation and tourism. It

will be catering to the Tourism value chain from the aspect of a Tour Operator as we would

be providing excursions in a package, along with shuttle service to and from the festival. We

would also be a part of the Transportation and Incoming services sector of the Value Chain

as we are a transportation provider along with day-excursions around or enroute to the

venue.

Beachhead market The beachhead market selected for our new venture – Festival Express is Chiemsee

Festival in Übersee, Bavaria, South Germany.This festival is attended by a lot of youngsters

around 27000 as per the statistics of the previous year (2015). Most of the youngsters

attending this festival are on a summer break and are well funded to make the trip

memorable for them. The line-up at such an event is massive as well, gathering big names

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from the music industry across various genres to play in one are area for 4 days. This would

attract a lot of youngsters in need for transportation to take them without much hassle to

the venue and back to the station for them to return home. With our services they would

not only enjoy the festival at competitive prices but also be able to view the neighbouring

areas (interesting sites) at affordable prices. With such a massive event there comes quite a

lot of competition for us to be blocked out of the market, however, with our Unique Selling

Points, we hope to maintain our stand in the competition. The results of the business are

immediately known within a span of 5 days during the festival through the number of

bookings being placed.

Target Customer As mentioned earlier our Target Customers are students, young professionals or

artists. To give a better description of our target customer, it is as follows:

Gender:Male, Female, and Transgenders

Age Range: 18-30

Region: Germany, Austria, and other European nations

Occupation: Student, Artists, Professionals

Social Background: Culture oriented, Music-lovers, Europeans

Characteristics: Adventurous, Social, Free-spirited, Enthusiastic, Energetic

User Category: Explorers, Bag-packers, travellers, Partygoers

Other: Friendly, seek newer experiences, outdoorsy, escapism, light-travellers,

smartphone users, active social media users

Profile

They are young students or professionals, who are fun &thrill seekers and

want to enjoy their summer in the best possible way – in a festival. They travel

light and prefer hassle-free traveling. They are explorative and adventurous in

nature and are willing to try new things in life.

Deciders:They are the groups of youngsters or individuals seeking excursions or

shuttle services from an easy and accessible city to the festival venue and

provisions to bring them back to the same spot.

Buyers: They are the same group of youngsters or individuals who understand

the value of our services and purchase the same.

Total Addressable Market To get the ideal number of customers we could be reaching out, we would look at

the number of visitors that attended the festival last year. As per the records obtained from

their Facebook page, there were total of 27000 fans gathered on the last day of the festival

in August 2015. Hence we can consider this to be our Total Addressable Market. However,

out of these 27000 fans, we have considered 15000 customers who wouldn’t be traveling in

their own vehicles (car, motorbike, caravan, mini-van, etc.) to avoid the parking issues and

maintenance. Of which, Festival Express looks to cater to 2000 people in the opening year of

its operations, owing to the fact that we don’t yet have a market presence and these

number of people would be attending the festival on a normal ticket and thus are ineligible

to avail the Chiemsee festival shuttle service. Our market share is therefore calculated

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moderately, keeping in mind the competitors and our market presence to gather more

customers for using our services.

No. of Festival goers (2015)

Total Addressable Market

Market Share

27000 15000 2000

Competition There are quite a few companies, already conducting and organizing the basic kind of

services that we would be providing. Therefore, we need to look at the kind of services that they are

providing in order to beat their prices and also provide the extra services that they are currently not

providing and it is something that would take them time to initiate as well.

Short-term and Long-term Our short-term competitors include names like Spotify which has been included recently to

provide shuttle services for a small group up to 13 passengers from Munich to Chiemsee.

They are providing private services to groups of people for a higher amount as they also

include ticket collecting facilities along with in-bus refreshment services.

The other competitors are the Chiemsee festival shuttle service. However, they also provide

services only for the VIP ticket holders and not for the normal ticket holders. They provide

shuttle services from the nearby towns of Rosenheim, Trostberg, Wasserburg am Inn, and

Salzburg.

Our long-term competitors include big names like Bla-Bla car, which is a carpooling service

in Germany. It is a platform for car owners to sell their car seat space online and the seat

occupiers to book it. Usually the car owners mention the source and end destination

according to which they accommodate the seat sharers. Apart from the Bla-Bla car

application, there are also many individual carpoolers who would be catering to the needs

of many individual festival goers.

Apart from the car-pooling services, there is Big Green Coach services, a U.K. - based festival

only transport shuttle service also known as Planet Festival in the rest of Europe. In U. K.

they have taken complete hold on all the major festivals around U. K. by being the official

coach shuttle service. However, their Planet Festival venture hasn’t yet captured the

European festival market. They are currently the official partners for a few major European

music festivals in Germany, Paris, Belgium, Hungary, etc. But they do have the potential and

capacity to capture the markets that we are trying to cater to as they are better known

amongst event organizers and event management companies.

The other long-term competitor identified is the Metal Travels, which is the official shuttle

service for the Wacken Festival near Hamburg. They are also capable of taking away our

market share as they are well established and have more vehicles and can provide more

services in Germany.

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Strengths & Weaknesses Strengths: If we group all the short-term and long-term competitors, we can say that they

have a lot of strengths in the European market. Firstly, they have a greater market share and

more well-known and have a better visibility in the European festival circuit than Festival

Express, a new entrant. Due to their long-standing associations with many festival organizers

they have established many official partnerships and thus are able to provide multiple

festival tickets to their customers travelling on their coaches. Apart from these facilities, they

are also able to provide additional facilities, like accommodation around the venues or inside

the venue, in-bus services like refreshments or comfort (blankets, neck-cushions, etc.) to

their customers. These reasons make them a favoured choice amongst the customers

seeking transportation services to and from the festival venues.

Weaknesses: When it comes to weaknesses, we can say that have quite a few but it is

enough for us to capitalize on the same. None of our competitors provide additional

excursions/side-trips alongthe route of or around the festival venue. It has been observed

that while booking the tickets on our competitor’s website, the users are not able to see the

seat availability options and neither is there any facility to keep them on waiting list, which

leaves them in a limbo whether they would be able to avail the shuttle services or not until

the last moment. They also don’t provide anything extra to the customers – like festival

props which they could use to flaunt inside the festival venue. Also very few in-bus services

are provided, and most of the facilities are provided to the VIP ticket holders only, the

normal ticket holders are usually left behindwhen it comes to availing additional facilities

and services.

Competitive Advantage There are quite a number of reasons why we would have a competitive advantage over our

competitors. They can be categorized under the following:

We provide an easy and user-friendly online booking services for our customers

Customers have the provision to select their seats while on the shuttle service;

Our website would also have the facility to view booking capacity visibility andif

there aren’t any seats available there is an additional feature to show the

waiting list for next available seats, which would give us the chance to charter

additional buses to accommodate our customers.

We would provide the additional benefit of day-trip excursions – before or after

the festival for our customers. The locations we would take our customers to

would include - (Munich/Rosenheim/Wasserberg am Inn – Marquartstein,

Kampenwand, Chemgauer Alpen, Chiemsee & Salzburg – Berchtesgaden, Inzell,

Chiemsee).

Our in-bus services would include welcome tea/coffee/fruit juices, which would

be provided free for the first time and then on the basis of our Festival Express

color bands, we would provide them refreshments inside the venue at slightly

discounted prices in comparison to the normal festival-goers.

Once a customer books a ticket with us, his/her details will be stored with login

details in our database so that he/she can avail our special lottery based free 2-

way transit ticket after availing 5 times services from us.

Apart from the in-bus services, we shall also be providing our customers with

festival props which we would either sell or rent to our customers on deposit

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basis. We would be collaborating with various artists to promote their wares as

well as coax them to promote our services to their friends and networks.

We would provide feedback form both onsite and online to all our customers to

better improve our services/site locations for excursions as well as take their

preferred festival requests for the future to expand our reach, based on the

volume of requests.

In our own buses, we shall provide electrical charging of all electronic devices

through solar-panelled sheets installed on the roof of the buses to reduce fuel

consumption as well as promote clean and green energy.

With the help of our excursion we shall establish good network with the rural

facility providers to enhance our customer’s experiences within the locations we

shall be taking them to.

As part of a clean-up initiative, we shall provide the festival organizers with the

option of cleaning up the venue after the festival and involve our customers who

would prefer to go for an excursion after the festival. In return we shall work out

an arrangement to give discounted prices on the next festival tickets for those

volunteers helping out.

Figure 1. Competitive Positioning; Source: Self-composed

Team Our Team consists of a few people and their names and responsibilities are as follows:

Names & Positions Enoch F. Toppo: Chief Executive officer (CEO)

Hassan Syed Ahmed: Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

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Roles & Responsibilities Enoch has Software Engineering background with 6 years’ experience in the field of

Information Technology, along with a Master in Business Administration in the field of

International Tourism Management. Through his education, he has acquired good

knowledge of Business Strategy, Negotiation techniques, and Marketing Strategy. Apart from

these skills, he is also good in establishing networks quickly, he has a keen sense of noticing

market trends and he has been to quite a few music festivals to gather enough knowledge to

think like our customers.

Hassanhas Finance and Accounting background and has worked in this field for 2 years along

with a Master in Business Administration in the field of International Tourism Management.

Through his education and experience, he has gathered good administration skills along with

team management skills and is good at playing with numerical data.

Apart from the CEO and CFO, we would be hiring 3 more full-time employees to help us out

with marketing, administration and website maintenance. The profile requirements for

these employees would be as follows:

- Young millennials – to better understand our customers

- Updated on the latest trends, music, fashion, festivals, etc.

- Active social media user to operate on the various Social networking channels for our

marketing and distribution efforts – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest,

Whatsapp, etc.

- They would need to be creative in their approach as creativity is basis of innovative

methods

- Website developer and maintenance (IT support) – to handle the website requests and

support.

The Company: Festival Express

Vision Our vision is to obtain shuttle service rights (official partner) for music festivals across

Europe for revellers and artists and to eventually organize our own festival

Mission Statement To provide the joy of travelling with fellow festival-goers

To reduce independent travelling in order to facilitate fewer CO2 emissions and

fewer parking hassles at the festival venue

To provide the benefit of visiting nearby locations from the festival venue thereby

bridging economies of the surrounding areasin growing together

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Goal To obtain exclusive shuttle service rights to 3 music festivals within Germany in the

next 5 years

To provide satisfaction of services provided to at least 75% customers

To become the first choice for festival goers in transportation services to and from

the festival venue

Services Our services include:

Shuttle along with nearby excursion services around the festival venue

Easy booking & booking availability checking and waiting services

In-bus tea and refreshments

Festival props for sale or rental purposes for our customers

Tagline Our tagline is: “Festival Begins Here!!”

We believe, by selecting our services, our customers will be able to enjoy the festival

experience right from the time they board our buses till the time they are dropped back at

their respective locations.

Legal Framework Our company will be a small and medium enterprise and in legal terms will be a Limited

Liability Company (GmBH) with equity of € 200. The registration charges for forming this

type of company will be € 150 and the application charges incurred for the registration will

be € 250. Apart from this there will be additional charges for hiring a specialized startup

attorney to take care of all the legal formalities associated with starting the company.

Festival Express will be registered in the city-state of Bremen.

Entry & Growth Strategy The entry and growth strategy formulated for Festival express are as follows:

Tour Operator License approval is to be acquired to start off with our services in the

mentioned locations

Stronger alliances with Festival Organizers especially CRP Konzertagentur GmBH

(Chiemsee Festival) to have access rights to provide our services to our customers

Right conversion of projected customers

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Our competitors should not have objections to our undertaken service routes

Promotion of and through festival prop sellers with regards to our services as well as

the income generated from commission of selling their props (20%)

Customer sales & loyalty programs through our lottery based customer acquisition

system

Purchase of new buses to curtail our dependency on the bus charter companies as

well be able to install solar-panels to charge the electrical appliances on board as

well as have a considerable amount of fuel reduction

Growth strategy would be to eventually increase our services to other festivals

within Germany

Organize special bus services only for artists traveling between the festivals we are

providing our services to

Eventually organizing our own festival within Germany

Marketing Plan The Marketing plan involved for Festival Express includes certain steps that will be required for

better implementation of our services.

Go-To Market Strategy The Go-To Market strategy for our services is as follows:

A strong alliance with Chiemsee festival organizer – CRP Konzertagentur GmBH – To

promote our services on their website and facebook page along with the online

flyers. This is required initially to get our name recognized amongst our customers.

This will involve an indirect sales distribution to CRP Konzertagentur GmBH. We will

decide on maintaining the sales percentage range of 5%-15% of all sales acquired

through their website and facebook page. The same will monitored from softwares

to track the traffic inflow.

Our employees will track the social media profile pages of previous visits and

enquiries made for Chiemsee festival to channelize our promotions directly to them.

We shall promote at bus and railway stations – Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Hamburg,

Bremen, Heidelberg, Osnabruck & Frankfurt on weekends during peak hours (i.e.

Fridays: 09:00-11:00 and 16:00-20:00 and Sundays: 11:00-13:00 & 17:00-19:00)

Promotion at big university campuses – on weekdays (Mon – Fri, during lunch hours

until 16:00 hours) - Mensas and Studentwerk campuses (Evenings 16:00-18:00)

Flyers near student popular clubs/discos –especially on student nights (Uni-nachts)

Making stronger alliances with bus charter companies to provide the supply when

the demand increases during the season.

Promotion of lottery based customer benefit system to attract the youngsters who

are looking for ways to reduce their expenses.

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Solar-powered electrical charging – Promote Green Tourism initiatives amongst our

customers to make them socially responsible users.

Sales Process The sales process for our customers includes the following steps taken to meet our

expenses.

Short-Term

In the beginning we aim to have mass promotional efforts to get the name

of our company amongst our customers.

We shall encourage only advance bookings through website in order to

match the requirements for the charter services.

We shall be relying upon Indirect sales for atleast 60% in the initial period.

Through social media the task of our employees would be to segregate

customers asking for details for Chiemsee festival and promote all of our

services to them.

We would need to consistently follow-up with our customers for up to 1

month before the start of the festival in order to confirm their ticket sales.

We shall be relying heavily upon word-of-mouth promotion.

Medium-Term

Apart from following all the steps involved in the short-term sales process, we shall

add or reduce certain efforts to minimize our costs.

Once we have gained a name in the market and amongst our customers we

intend to have reduced Indirect sales (through organizer’s webpage).

We shall communicate with our previous customers and encourage them to

opt for our excursion trips as well.

Long-Term

We shall include promoting through local radio for more customer visibility.

Encourage more of our previous customers to opt for excursion trips.

Keep following– up with our customers regarding feedback and informing

them about our improvisations to various services.

Business Model The business model used for our operations is as follows:

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Figure 2. Business Model; Source: Self-composed

The above figure indicates that customer will directly book tickets through our website and

we shall provide them with our services. Also the customer has the opportunity to book our

services through the Event Organizer’s page, however, the customer would still be directed

to our website, and we shall, like explained earlier, provide our services to the customer.

However, since this is an indirect sales, the commission for booking our services through

their platform is involved and we will distribute the percentage sales thereof to the

organizer in bulk, after the festival commences. Apart from the expenses, we also need to

make purchases from our various suppliers who will be providing us with their services to

facilitate our business functions. They include suppliers like the Bank for the loan that we

shall be taking to start our business; Bus Charter Company to hire the buses and meet our

customer’s needs for pick-up and drop; we would also be outsourcing our website

development to a cheaper destination (like South-east Asia) to develop a robust, scalable

website to meet our needs; and other suppliers for festival props, tea and refreshments, etc.

For all these services we shall making due payments to them.

Pricing Framework & Strategy To begin with, we have kept our prices in check with our competitor’s prices to maintain

feasibility by our customers. The prices will also be based upon the additional value in term

of excursions and additional services provided to the customer.

The prices determined would be different for different locations as pick-up points. They are

as follows:

Destinations - Shuttle Price (in Euros - €)

Munich 40

Rosenheim 20

Wasserburg Am Inn 15

Trostberg 10

Salzburg 25

Destinations – Excursions Price (in Euros - €)

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Munich 59

Salzburg 55

Each year we intend to increase the prices by 10%-20% as they are dependent on various

factors – fuel, taxes, bus charter prices, festival ticket, repair and maintenance costs,

parking,etc. The prices would also differ in terms of the services requested and the locations

selected for the shuttles/excursions. For cancellations, the entire price of the ticket would be

refunded back to the customer if they are able to cancel the request 1 week prior to the

start of their services. Otherwise there would be considerable deductions on the amount

refunded back to the customer – 15% deduction for each day after the full refund time (1

week).

Services Strategy For the promotion and distribution the strategies involved are:

Distribution Strategy

For distribution we shall be using the following methods:

Social Media – through all the major social networking applications and

websites –Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.

At the University Campuses – Mensa for the destinations – Munich, Berlin,

Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Salzburg

Outside popular nightclub joints in the major cities, especially on student

nights

Using Google Analytics to get known and inform for promotion of our

website – to get bookings

On board festival props promotion and sales

Advertising and Promotion

With regards to our advertising and promotion, we shall be using the following

strategies and modes:

We shall start with our promotions 8-9 months before the festival

commences.

Heavy promotions through social media applications and sites – Facebook,

Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, etc.

Promotion on event organizers website/social media (Facebook) page

Promotion at University campuses – Mensa (during the afternoons)

Central bus & railway stations (Weekends – Fridays: 09:00-11:00 and 16:00-

20:00 and Sundays: 11:00-13:00 & 17:00-19:00)

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Select few clubs & discos (weekends – Friday and Saturday – between 23:30-

00:30)

Radio (once in the evening – Thursday through Saturday between 17:00-

19:00)

Operational Plan Festival Express will be improving its customers’ ride to the festival by providing a convenient and

enjoyable, fun-filled alternative to driving and experiencing other locations along the route.

Customers will be able to enjoy their experience with us as there is more value in traveling together

and getting to see picturesque and beautiful locations along the way to the festival thus making their

experience more memorable. With regards to the operation plan we have decided to have the

following operations in place for the 3 years that we intend to start our services from. The plans are

as follows:

On-going Operational Plan First Year: o Initially we would need to acquire licenses for operating our own buses on the

mentioned routes, registering company, providing refreshments at the festival venue.

o Purchase of computer systems, telephone, print-scan-copy-fax machine o Creation of website (Outsource) and negotiating prices with payment gateways

for online payments o Hiring of staff for social media and IT services (Website maintenance) o Targeting customers through social media/websites for first few months o Purchase of a used mini-bus (20-seater) & Caravan for refreshments at the

venue. o On basis of bookings, rental buses on hire (104 trips from 5 locations for 30 & 55

seater buses) o Building key partnerships with event organizers and bus charter companies o Printing of brochures, leaflets, banners and service-tags for promotional

activities o Purchase of bag locking tags for the protection of customer’s baggage o Acquiring parking rights for pickup services from convenient locations (near bus

& railway stations)

Second Year: o Increased promotions online and on-site (printing of required materials) o Agreements and networks for chartering more buses for increased trips based

on the target customers o Hiring additional staff for sales promotion, office administration work, drivers

for our own mini-bus o Increased shuttle services and excursions from dedicated pick-up spots

Third Year: o Increased promotions online and on-site (printing of required materials) o Purchase of bus (80 seater) & mini-bus + solar panel fittings on roof-top o Hiring of more staff (Drivers) for the additional buses o Hiring employees to handle day-to-day administration and social media activities

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o Increasing our shuttle and excursion services to more locations o Establishing networks with more event organizers to expand our services to

their event o Rental of office space – Bremen o Rental of warehouse parking for additional vehicles - atRosenheim as it will be

closer to the venue and lesser charges compared to parking in a big city o Pickup services from convenient locations (bus & railway stations)

Geographic Location selected The geographic locations selected for our services include: Munich, Salzburg, Rosenheim,

Trostberg, Wasserberg Am Inn and the service time table which will begin a day before the

festival venue opens its gates for camping is as follows:

Destination – Munich – Shuttle Timings

Hbf 07:00

Hbf 09:00

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 13:00

Hbf 15:00

Hbf 17:00

Destination – Munich – Excursion Timings

Hbf 08:00

Hbf 12:00

Destination – Salzberg – Excursion Timings

Hbf 08:00

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 14:00

Destination – Rosenheim – Shuttle Timings

Hbf 08:00

Hbf 09:30

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 12:30

Hbf 14:00

Hbf 15:30

Hbf 17:00

Destination – Trostberg – Shuttle Timings

Hbf 08:00

Destination – Salzburg – Shuttle Timings

Hbf 08:00

Hbf 09:30

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 12:30

Hbf 14:00

Hbf 15:30

Hbf 17:00

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Hbf 09:30

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 12:30

Hbf 14:00

Hbf 15:30

Hbf 17:00

The return of our shuttle services will commence on the last day of the festival from 10:00

a.m. onwards with an interval of 90 minutes to our designated locations (5 locations). For

our customers waiting for excursions after the festival, the choice of receiving discounted

tickets for the next summer festival will commence a day after the festival is over due to the

clean-up initiative for the organizers. All data for pick-up and drop will be taken at the time

of booking the ticket to avoid confusion and streamline our services with precision.

However, in terms of urgent and/or special requests, additional steps would be taken to

accommodate our customers if it seems feasible.

Facilities and Improvements There would be certain facilities provided on-board the Festival Express bus. They are as

follows:

Provision of Tea/coffee and refreshments for in-bus services

Hiring of staff for sales & marketing, administration & website maintenance

Discounted refreshments to customers wearing our service tags at the

caravan service situated inside the venue

Bag tags for luggage kept in the baggage section of our buses

Sales and Rentals for festival props that customers can use in the festival.

The rentals would be on initial deposit basis and refunded back upon receipt

of the same. In case of any damage done on the prop, subsequent charges

would be taken.

We would also be implementing and rectifying our services based on the

feedback we receive from our customers through our on-board services as

well as online reviews. Subsequent changes would be made to our services.

The feedback taken through our on-board services would be collected and

the data would be uploaded on our website (in .csv [comma separated

values] format) through freelancer or students looking for temporary jobs in

universities.

Destination – Wasserberg – Shuttle Timings

Hbf 08:00

Hbf 09:30

Hbf 11:00

Hbf 12:30

Hbf 14:00

Hbf 15:30

Hbf 17:00

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Development Plan The development plan for our business will be followed through a development strategy mentioned

below:

Development Strategy The strategies are going to take place in sequential order:

Firstly, our company needs to be registered and the location selected would be

Bremen due to known locations.

Acquiring Licenses (Tour Operator, Competition for Commercial License, etc.)

For the start of our services, an additional financing would be required in the form of

abank loan of € 50000

Website development (outsource) along with testing would take close to 2 months

and simultaneously the brochures, flyers, leaflets and banners would be sent for

printing

Purchase of mini-bus & caravan

Hiring of 3 employees for social media, administration and website maintenance

would be made and for remaining sales and promotional activities, freelancers or

students would be required for part-time jobs

Arrangement for charter buses would need to be made (30 & 55 seater) on the basis

of pre-bookings made through the website

Additional staff would be hired for more promotions 3 months prior to festival date.

After first year sales, efforts for the second year would begin immediately which

would require more staff hiring and establishing contracts with charter companies.

In the third year of operations, with the assistance of additional bank loans, more

buses would be purchased, parking facilities at Rosenheim would be secured and

more promotional efforts would be made to ensure more visibility amongst our

customers. Also each year, a follow-up would be made on each customer to gather

their attention and encourage them to promote our services through word-of-

mouth.

Critical Risks

Competitor Action With the commencement of our business, it is evident that our competitors could take

additional steps to take our customer base.

Shuttle services might be increased by our competitors

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A lot of better on-board services could be included by our competitors

Reduced & discounted package fares could be provided by our competitors

Excursions might be included in their packages if they see increased growth in this

demand that Festival Express supplied

Increased promotions to our existing customers

Rescue Plan To counteract the measures taken by our competitors there are a few steps we can take to

avoid losing our customers to the competitors. They can be categorized as:

Improving our customer base by following up with them regularly and informing

them the steps taken to rectify our services on the basis of their feedbacks and

requests.

Inform them about the additional value for excursions accompanied with attending

the festival

Increased Lottery winners + Festival props gifting

Providing on-time shuttle services

Increasing our promotional activities amongst our target customers

Provision of more discounts on tea & refreshments

Building increased & exclusive partnerships with festival organizers and bus charter

companies

Building better networks with the suppliers of our excursion destinations to

provided exclusive services to our customers and in-turn also benefit the rural

suppliers

Exit Strategy To mitigate further risks we need to have an exit strategy in place. It is as follows:

Establish Contract agreements for everything taking place with our business; from

employee hiring to maintaining relationships with all the suppliers and event

organizers.

In case of conflicts arising in the functioning or decision-making process, we need to

involve the services of an external specialized mediator to resolve the same.

We need to constantly improve our services to our customers by taking note of their

feedbacks at the same time we need to constantly monitor our competitor’s

strategies and methods used.

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We need to regularly monitor our financial records to check if we are on track with

regards to our assumptions and strategies and if they are showing the desired

results as expected.

In case of the lean months, proper utilization of fixed assets in other sectors where

costs can be recovered instead of keeping them idle

Offering (Funding Request) First year

o 100,000 Euro required to start Express Festival

o Half is self-funded and rest is loan from Bank

o 27,000 Euro is paid at the end of year to Bank as interest plus principle

amount

o Rental Coach fares Euro 665/= of thirty setter buses – one way

Second Year

o No loan required

o An amount of 26643.75 Euro is paid to Bank as interest plus principle

amount

o Rental Coach fares Euro 668/= of thirty setter buses – one way

Third Year

o An amount of 50,000 Euro required for loan from Bank

o An amount of 27,000 is paid at the end of year to Bank as interest and

principle amount

o Rental Coach fares Euro 671/= of thirty setter buses – one way

Financial Plan

Financial Summary

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Revenue

114780 162300 238200

Gross Profit

57420 83621 178976

EBIT

-6180 8990.625 65523.1

Net Earning

0 10010.66 65523.1

Cash

33620 14986.91 41960.01

Total Equity

23750 0 50000

Total Debt

Growth/Flow Revenue Growth Rate

70.72% 68.14% Net Earning Growth Rate

140% 68.13602015

Financial Statement Assumptions

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Sales Assumptions:

- Operating at 100% capacity of our market share during the summer months.

Bus Rental Service

Rental services meet our requirements and agree to use their buses for Festival

Express

Financial Assumptions

We will raise the Euro 50,000 necessary to start our business through family and

friends.

Bank will agree to give us loan of Euro 50,000

Costing

o Euro 750/ 10 hours for drivers

o Fueling in our buses – Euro 1140

Key Financial Model Assumptions

Destination Number of Trips

Shuttle Services

Number of seats in buses

Excursion Services

Number of seats in buses

Munich 20 30 3 55

Salzburg 21 30 2 55

Trostberg 3 30 Rosenheim 5 30 Wasserberg 3 30

Year 2

Destination Number of Trips

Shuttle Services

Number of seats in buses

Excursion Services

Number of seats in buses

Munich 34 5 3 55

Salzburg 27 3 2 55

Trostberg 5 Rosenheim 4 Wasserberg 3

Year 3

Destination Number of Trips (Rental Buses)

Shuttle Services

Number of seats in buses

Excursion Services

Number of seats in buses

Munich 29 5 0 Salzburg 25 3 0 Trostberg 1

Rosenheim 7 Wasserberg 7

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Year 3

Destination Number of Trips (Own Buses)

Shuttle Services

Number of seats in buses

Excursion Services

Number of seats in buses

Munich 0

4 80

Salzburg 0

10 18

Key Risks :

Failed to contract with Organizers

False assumptions

Lack from Employees ( wrong recruitment )

Market strategies won’t work

Projected Income Statement

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Revenue Sales 111780 157300 231200

Other Income 3000 5000 7000

Total Revenue 114780 162300 238200

(Cost of Revenue) Photocopies -500 -600 -900

Bus rental for shuttle service only Munich - Chiemsee -26600 -45424 -19459

Salzburg - Chiemsee -20000 -17010 -16075

Trostber - Chiemsee -1200 -1015 -206

Rehensehei - Chiemsee -3000 -1212 -2142

Waser burg - Chiemsee -1800 -1818 -2142

Bus rental for excursion Munich - Chiemsee -3260 -9000 -13200

Salzburg - Chiemsee -1000 -2600 -4200

Gross Profit 57420 83621 179876

Utilities -2000 -3000 -5000

Administration -6000 -6000 -8000

Sales & Marketing Sales Person -2300 -3000 -6000

Marketing -2000 -3000 -6000

Parking -600 -600 -2000

Salary and wages -18000 -25000 -28000

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Projected Cash Flow Statement

Year 1 Year2 Year3

Operating Activities Net Earnings/Profits

-6180 8990.663 65523.1

Depreciation

1500 2800 3200

Net Cash by Cash flow

-4680 11790.66 68723.1

Investing Activities Bus

-7500

-60000

Furniture

-2000 -1000 -500

Computers

-800 -1000 -500

Tea Machines

-200 -100 -100

Caravon

-25000 Warerhouse Parking

Office Equipments

-4000 -2000 -3000

Telephone

-400 -200 -200

Stalls

-500 -500 -1000

Self-funding 50000 Incoming Bank Cash 50000

50000

Total investing Activities

-45080 6990.663 53423.1

Loan Payout

-27000 -26643.8 -27000

Cash at the Beginning of Year

100000 27920 8266.913

Cash at the end of Year 100000 27920 8266.913 34690.01

Projected Balance Sheet

Fuel

-1140

Drivers

-2250

Rent Paid

-10000

Interest Paid (1.5%)+ Principle amount -27000 -26643.75 -27000

Depreciation & Amortization -1500 -2800 -3200

Legal Support Fees -1200

-1200

Other expenses -3000 -3000 -3000

Earning Before Interest & Tax -6180 10577.25 77086

0.15 0.15

0 1586.5875 11562.9

Net Profit -6180 8990.6625 65523.1

Percentages -10.76% 10.75% 36.43%

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Assets

Begin Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Current Assets Cash 100000 27920 8266.913 34690.01

Accounts recievable 0 8000 6000 5000

Stalls 0 500 500 1000

Totale Current Asset 100000 36420 14766.913 40690.01

Fixed Assets Website 0 1000 1000 1000

Bus 0 7500

60000

Furniture 0 2000 1000 500

Computers 0 800 1000 500

Tea Machines 0 200 100 100

Caravon 0 25000 Warerhouse Parking 0

Office Equipments 0 4000 2000 3000

Telephone devices 0 400 200 200

Total Assets : 100000 77320 20066.913 105990

Liabilities

Long Term Liabilities 50000 23750 0 23750

Equity 50000 26785 10033.4565 41120

Retained Earning

26785 10033.4565 41120

Total Liabilities & Equities 100000 77320 20066.913 105990

Break-Even Analysis

Revenue

114780 162300 238200

Cost of Revenue Variable

500 600 900

Fixed

55600 500 1000

Operating Cost

Variable

30200 29650 52790

Marketing Parking Fuel

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Drivers Interest Paid + Principle amount Depreciation & Amortization Legal Support Fees Other expenses

Total Cost 86300 30750 54690

Our break even analysis shows that

· In first year we would have break even at 86300

· In second year we would have break even at 30750

· In third year we would have break even at 54690

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