Business Plan For An Online Brokerage Firm

Master of Business Administration

Financial Management

Group Assignment

Students for Students Online Brokerage

(SFS AG Brokers)

Executive Summary

The following material is a business plan for a start-up of an online brokerage business. It is not based on real company data. The name of the company, the co-owners, the contact information data are invented by the authors.

There is a lot of information in the literature about what one needs to do when starting an online brokering business. One can also find information about what a business plan is and how to prepare it. This project is an attempt for a model of a business plan of a start-up company in the online brokering business, based on the literature and the experience of the authors.

The authors found the most difficult the financial part of the plan. It is a problem to project the sales when the business is in the initial stage. Because of its nature the business plan is under continual development. This project focuses only on the first year of the business with some projections for a further-years period.

Particularly useful for the project was the book: "Der Businessplan: GeschÐ'ftsplÐ'ne profesionell erstellen / Mit Checklisten und Fallbeispielen" by Anna Nagl (2005) and the Information for business opening published by Bundesregierung Deutschland.

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Students in Germany (academic year 2004/2005) 12

Figure 2: Team Structure after expanding 16

Figure 3: Expenditure list 19

Figure 4: Other Costs 19

Figure 5: Depreciation of Staff 20

Figure 6: Balance Sheet 21

Figure 7: Bases of the Calculation 22

Figure 8: List of Fixed Costs 23

Figure 9: Break-even Point 25

Figure 10: Monthly Operation Expense Budget Sheet 26

Figure 11: Operation Expense Budget Sheet Yearly 27

Figure 12: First Quarter 27

Figure 13: Second Quarter 28

Figure 14: Third Quarter 28

Figure 15: Fourth Quarter 29

Figure 16: Cash Budget Quarterly 29

Figure 17: Cash Budget 30

Figure 18: Potential Income statement (At end of the first quarter) 30

Table of Contents

1 BUSINESS MODEL 1

1.1 OBJECTIVES 1

1.2 MISSION 1

1.3 KEY TO SUCCESS 2

1.4 COMPANY OWNERSHIP 2

1.5 START-UP SUMMARY AND COMPANY LOCATIONS AND FACILITIES 2

2 SERVICES 4

2.1 SERVICES DESCRIPTION 4

2.2 TECHNOLOGY 4

3 COMPETITORS, TARGETS AND STRATEGIES 5

3.1 MAIN COMPETITORS 5

3.2 COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES 5

3.3 MARKET FIELD STRATEGY AND TARGET GROUPS STRATEGY (ALTERNATIVE GROWTH POSSIBILITIES) 6

3.4 SWOT- ANALYZE 7

3.4.1 Strengths 7

3.4.2 Weaknesses 8

3.4.3 Opportunities 8

3.4.4 Threats 8

4 PORTFOLIO 9

4.1 PORTFOLIO 9

4.2 SERVICE ACHIEVEMENTS 9

5 SALES AND MARKETING 9

5.1 MARKETING STRATEGIES AND MARKET POSITIONING 9

5.1.1 The company's goal: market leader in the brokerage market sub-segment of young and heeled students. 9

5.1.2 Positioning 10

5.1.3 Internal marketing targets 10

5.1.4 External marketing targets 10

5.1.5 Operative short-term marketing steps 11

5.2 MARKET SEGMENTATION AND POSITIONING 12

5.3 POLICY OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES 13

5.4 PRICING POLICY 13

5.5 SALES POLICY 14

5.6 PROMOTIONAL POLICY 14

5.7 CUSTOMER RETENTION 14

6 MANAGEMENT & HUMAN RECOURSES 15

6.1 OUR PRINCIPLES 15

6.2 MANAGERIAL STAFF 15

6.3 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 15

6.4 CONTROLLING 16

7 CHANCES AND RISKS 17

7.1 BEST CASE SCENARIO 17

7.2 WORST CASE SCENARIO 17

8 FINANCIAL BUDGETING 18

8.1 FINANCIAL PLAN 18

8.1.1 Introduction 18

8.1.2 The capital's resources 18

8.2 FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES 18

8.2.1 Legal Form 18

8.2.2 Expenditure list of Start-up Company 19

8.2.3 Other Costs List of Operation 19

8.2.4 Depreciation of Staff 20

8.2.5 To make the start-up balance sheet 20

8.2.6 The Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis 21

8.2.7 The list of the Fixed Costs 23

8.2.8 The Variable Cost 24

8.2.9 Break-even Point Analysis 25

8.3 BUDGET