Certified Success is a new business venture that will offer consulting services and sell intellectual property through a website to help customers with training, certification, and learning for quality assurance and production management. The website will be developed using common web technologies and hosted affordably. The business aims to achieve profitability within two years by growing its customer base locally and expanding its certification offerings through new consultants. Projected annual earnings from the website are over $100,000 in the first year and over $300,000 in the second year.

1. Presented by Team Hephaestus Members: Mike Pinch MIS Concepts Professor Jack Cook Winter 2005

2. Target Audience You are CEO of Certified Success, and are considering business ideas for building the company

3. Critical Assumptions Mike Pinch has the resume, experience, and job as Jack Cook This company will be developed and marketed locally initially, and will be worked on in time spent outside of teaching (~20 hours per week)

4. Executive Summary Certified Success is a new venture aimed at harnessing the information and distribution powers of the internet to augment and complement an ASQ and APICS consulting business CS’s web front is a low maintenance tool that will sell IP to those customers seeking training, certification, and learning The information collected on the website will be used to obtain complementary consulting work in the fields of training, coaching, and

5. Business Model Certified Success Web Site Consulting Practices IP Sales Consultant training Peer Support Job Placement Consulting Courses Seminars Workshops

6. Target Markets Customer Profile New Training Upper Management Students Re-certifications Area Rochester recently rated 18 th most tech savvy city in nation Size Rochester Collegiate Population ~40,200 Syracuse and UBuffalo Population ~ 47,000 200,000 APICS and APQ members nationwide 40,000 re-certifications for APICS annually 65,000 re-certifications for APQ annually

7. Reaching Customers Advertising Print media and online, including viral marketing Guest Speaking Colleges and business functions Partnerships With APICS and ASQ chapters Form new ones where needed Sponsorships Web Site

8. Intellectual Property CertifiedSuccess.com’s technology and processes are easily copied Products that Certified Success sells are usually offered elsewhere for similar prices The expertise, local focus, networking opportunities, and personalized service are extremely hard to duplicate

9. Technologies DB – MySql DML – Php DBMS - PhpMyAdmin

10. Hosting Utilize Netfirms small business hosting package New York Times rated Best Host for Small Business 2GB Disk Space 100 GB bandwidth - $9.95/month Inexpensive to upgrade E-Commerce Enabled MySql DB’s Php Scripting PhpMyAdmin

11. Payment Gateway PayPal Developer’s Toolkit Safe Low Cost Adaptable

12. Business Location Office will be located at RIT High-Technology Incubator Inexpensive Close Proximity Perks Resources

13. Growth Strategy In the next two years, CS will Achieve Profitability Build a strong customer base Expand its expertise into other certification’s through the hiring of new consultants Potential for franchising to similar markets

14. Projected Earnings Critical Assumptions Adding 20 new customers/month, capped at 200 Initial purchase of $50,000 of IP, scaling down to monthly purchases of $10,000 Monthly expenses include marketing expenses ($2500), part time system administrator costs($1000), and part time technical support ($1000) Average price of IP is $299.99 Website Development costs of $5000 with monthly maintenance budgeted at $150/month

15. Projected Earnings Profitability projected in month 9 Potential earnings of consulting practice $16000/month/consultant Projected Earnings of website Year 1: ~$105,000 Year 2: ~$310,000

16. Projected Customer Base (Website)

17. Projected Net Profits

18. Role Out Schedule Today – Begin venture capital search (if necessary) Today – Start networking idea and arranging lectures and sponsorships March 1st, 2005 – Start Software Development Process March 1st 2005 – Enter RIT Hi-Technology Incubator March 1st 2005 – Open account with Netfirms April 1st 2005 – Acquire all initial IP April 1st 2005 – Hire networking co-op student with RIT funds April 1st 2005 – Start Advertising in industry trade magazines April 30th 2005 – Finish bug/security testing May 1st 2005 – Go Live

19. Open Discussion