Wosoul platform business plan

Abstract

1 Executive Summary The business idea is a platform to connect SMEs with Service Provider to deliver social media marketing services. The Problem need to be solved. SMEs face the challenge of low advertising budget, which makes them conceptualize advertising as a cost where it should be an investment to the business (Cole et al. 2017). However, when marketing gets a significant consideration in the early stages, it will enhance the performance of SMEs (Shane 2008). When SMEs try to reach freelancers for lower costs, the process of will be time consuming. Also, finding local marketing agencies is difficult due to rarity of them in the local market. This problem is expected to increase due to the large number of SMEs in Saudi Arabia where it was estimated to be around 950 thousand (SUSTG Team, 2019). Service Providers face difficulties in finding jobs as Saudi advertising market is highly depending on foreign labour, difficulties on providing the full experience to their clients when they work as a free-lancer such as local payment options. This problem will increase since large number of undergraduates from 30 Saudi colleges all competing in the same market (Said 2019), (Hamada 2020). That is where the worth of Wosoul can be abstracted. To deliver the service that will help SMEs find their Service Providers to enhance the marketing activities in the lowest costs. Goals for the business. The short-term goal is to be able to develop the platform that includes all features visualized in the prototype (see appendix 1). The long- term goal is to increase the market share and include special services that will solve problems in this context. 3 Proposed target market. The ideal customer for Wosoul is the SME (Micro to Small businesses in particular) who give more value to the business’s online presence, and the Service Provider who value the opportunity of generating extra income. More specifications in segmentation section. Competition and what differentiate the business. The competitors are divided into three categories; marketing agencies who target low budgeted users (Artem for instance), Marketing agencies who target large enterprises (Upbeat for instance) and platforms that connects free lancers from any field with businesses from any size. Wosoul can be differentiated against each category. For example, the differentiation against Artem is the ability to provide specific functions and serve larger number of consumers due to having more capacity of human resources, Upbeat is offering the full experience with the high costs therefore Wosoul can be differentiated with the low costs selling point, and platforms to connect freelancers with businesses cannot give customized options to this field which will make the process more hectic. More analysis to in the competition will be in later section. Key members. Wosoul’s team can deliver the competitive edge with the prior experience they have. The four members are teaching assistants in an entrepreneurship institute for 3-years. The team consists of CEO (Alhumaidi - Information Systems degree), CTO (Aleyoni - Information Systems degree), Sales manager (Alnmomai – Finance degree and had previous experience in starting a new business) and Accounting manager (Almuqhim – Accounting degree and had a previous experience working as an accountant in small firm). Financial outlook for the business. This business will need £26,660 of funding to be established and operating for one year. By end of 2021 the business will expect: • To serve 600 SMEs. • To have 300 service providers registered in the platform. • To make partnerships with 6 organisations. • To generate £16,510 from advertisements. • To reach break-even point by Q3 of year 2021.