1. 5 Days In The Life
Business Plan
Presented by H2,LLC
Copyright 2012
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2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary……………………………………………………3
Company Description…………………………………………………4
Products and Services………………………………………………..6
Market Analysis………………………………………………………….8
Competition………………………………………………………………10
Marketing and Sales………………………………………………….11
Financials………………………………………………………………….13
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3. Business Plan
FaceBook: 5 Days In The Life
Website: www.my5days.com
Founder & CEO: Christopher L. Hale
Co-Founder & President: Terre Holmes
Five Days In the Life
2621 North Moreland Ave
Suite 111
Cleveland, Ohio 44120
Phone: 614.783.4028
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At 5 Days In The Life we strive to help high school students and young adults find
their passions in life and lead them to their dream career. We want to encourage
young people to think deeply about the things they enjoy most and then translate
these into careers that will drive and motivate them for the rest of their lives.
Careers not of their parents making, but of their own, based in their hopes,
dreams, talents and aspirations. We will expose these young minds to lesser know
exotic careers like anthropology, zoology, careers such as these can bring them
global and multi-cultural experiences. All of this will be done virtually via our
website. We will reach out to teens and young adults where they spend a
significant amount of their time, on the Internet.
We will market our product through social media by advertising on Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter. We will also sponsor local career events at high schools and
universities to discuss how to take advantage of the services being offered by 5
Days In The Life.
5 Days in The Life is owned and operated by its founder and Chief Executive
Officer, Christopher Hale. The company has been co-founded with Terre Holmes
to plan/execute strategy and efficiently run the organization. In the interim the
company plans to work with independent career counseling consultants and
educators to fine-tune our offerings and provide the highest level and quality of
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4. services to the consumer. Our funding and financials can be found at the end of
this business plan. We speculate that our company can generate high gross
margins and show positive net income as early as our second year of operation.
GENERAL COMPANY DESCRIPTION
At 5 Days In The Life, we believe that everyone should enjoy their career and look
forward to going to work each day. Regrettably, not everyone is able to follow
their passions in life. People believe that if you attend college that you will find a
decent job with good wages to secure your future. This is not the case any longer.
With the economy spiraling downward and the skyrocketing costs of tuition along
with the lack of job security come a greater need for career specialization.
With this transformation shift under way, many parents are unaware that career
counseling services exist for their teens. Parents feel that guidance counselors are
doing an adequate job for a few students. At 5 Days In The Life we are trying to
bring career counseling services to the masses through an online and engaging
format which will educate and inform teens and their parents.
5 Days In The Life will create an online website that offers career counseling,
career introduction videos, profiles and career maps for each student. Each
student that participates in our programs will have an opportunity to win an all
expense paid “5 Days In The Life Experience” where the student will work in their
chosen field for 5 Days. We are seeking to create a market leader in the online
counseling industry and also creating a name for ourselves among the high
schools and universities in America by offering superior services and programs at
pricing affordable to all.
Due to the embryonic nature of this industry, there are no exact figures on the
projected value for the size of the online career counseling industry. However,
we do know that the tutoring and test preparation industry makes more than $4
billion dollars preparing students for standardized tests. According to
Eduventures, a Boston research and consulting firm, students spent $2.5 billion a
year on preparation and tutoring, including the SAT.
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5. Mission Statement
To provide students and young adults with a vision and pathway into exotic and
non-traditional careers that will expose them to multi and inter-cultural
experiences. Careers most likely to have a long and beneficial outcome to both
the careerseeker as well as those they come in contact with.
Company Goals and Objectives
The goal of Five Days In The Life is to be a central web based destination for
sourcing unique and satisfying but not often pursued careers for any with a dream
and to provide ideas to those young person’s not typically exposed. Our company
seeks to turn a profit by obtaining sponsorship from national colleges and
universities along with commercial establishments that find value in our services,
along with a yearly subscription plan for career counseling services. Commercial
entities may target our audience by placing paid advertisements on our site that
will be of interest to students, parents and others.
Business Philosophy
It is important to our business that our website not only generate revenue for our
investors but more importantly regularly and consistently deliver on our promise
to help students and dreamers achieve by helping them develop a career vision
and a path that leads to fulfillment of their dreams.
Target Audience
We plan to market our services to internet savvy teens and young adults as they
seek to understand their many career choices. This would include in large
measure those that participate in the most heavily trafficked social sites. We will
also target parents, colleges, universities, middle and high schools responsible for
exposing young minds to career opportunities based on interest. Lastly we will
target commercial entities that have products and services that appeal to the
college bound.
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6. PRODUCTS and SERVICES
The primary offering from our company, Five Days InThe Life is a web based
career counseling and education service. The goal of our company and associated
website is to introduce young people and career seekers to not only the standard
careers in the sciences and business, but also the lesser known more exotic
careers that carry with them the opportunity for a multi and intercultural
experience. In addition, the career paths may be the most likely to have a deep
and meaningful impact on society, both nationally and globally.
Five Days In The Life will use videos to document five working days in the life of a
professional currently working in the students career of choice. During these five
days, the student will have an opportunity to learn the mundane as well as the
highlights of the chosen profession and will gain some near to real life
experiences in what the profession entails. These video-graphed professions can
range from 5 Days In The Life of an Accountant to Five Days In The Life of a
Zoologist. Our vision is that the videos will be shot by a professional videographer
of our employ but will be narrated by the professional themselves.
The videos will be posted on our website where after filling out a profile and
creating an account, the student may then have access to the streaming video.
The information gathered on the profile will be exhaustive and will be used to
help the students, counselors, parents and teachers to identify with the young
person’s interests early on and create a curriculum to keep the students
interested and focused on her/her career of interest. The information gathered
on the profile will also be used by universities and colleges to help them identify
students most fitted for their unique programs and provide them suitable
materials and processes to help them stay focused and be successful in their
educational choices as they move forward.
The website will also provide students with one-on-one guidance from vocational
counselors. The counseling can be done via email, phone, chat, virtually or in
person depending upon the location. This counseling service will be utilized to a
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7. greater degree by higher income bracket families as the cost of individualized
attention from counselors will be an additional cost for additional hours.
Furthermore, the website will provide some SAT/ACT preparatory information for
high school students. 5 Days In The Life will look into partnering with a major test
preparation company like Kaplan to give them free advertising space on our
website in exchange for discounts for our subscribers.
The website, 5 Days In The Life will be established through a subscription model
primarily but will also seek out advertising revenue. Students will pay a tiered
yearly rate for access to test preparation services, videos, information and career
prep materials as well as the career counseling provided by our staff. After a set
amount of timethey will be awarded additional counseling sessions for free as a
means to build loyalty to our brand as well as retention of customers.
To encourage prospects to create a profile and to fill it out completely each
quarter we will award a deserving student, or multiple students, a Five Day- In-
The Life Experience in one career path. This will be a fully paid experience
provided in a scholarship format and will be based on performance metrics. For
example grades, scholarly efforts and other educational pursuits.
Educational institutions, commercial entities will have opportunities to advertise
their products and services on our company website to our target audience.
Job Search Boot Camp
The job search boot camp teaches students how to look for the job they want not
just reacting to the same postings that everyone else does. The goal of the class is
to teach students how to find jobs in the hidden job market, how to network
within their chosen field, build relationships and uncover opportunities. We will
teach our students how to present themselves offline as well as online and help
them prepare for corporate culture. These classes will be offered at or near a
college campus. The class will also help teach these students to develop a
personal brand including a LinkedIn profile, scrubbing their Facebook profile and
creating a clean professional online presence. We will teach students how to
uncover latent job opportunities, find the hiring managers and how to speak to
them. This will be a completely interactive class. Student will be searching for
positions, writing and submitting cover letters and resumes. We will help students
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8. to create a systematic approach to their job search that they can use repeatedly
once the class is completed.
Pricing Model
The website subscription plan would be a tiered yearly subscription model which
would include full access to the website. The subscription would come with
access to free email guidance relevant to each students particular career
interest, assessment tests, career exploration information, career
counseling sessions (with the ability to earn more over time) as well as the
ability to create a profile and network with other students with profiles on
the site. The subscription will also entitle each student an opportunity to
qualify for and have a chance to win a “5 Days In The Life Experience”.
Plan A - $49.95/Year
-2 hours online counseling sessions in 30 minute increments
-Identify gifts, talents, passions via standard assessment tools
-Access to ten minute career introduction videos
-Access to online and moderated career group requiring student participation
-Opportunity to win a 5 Days In The Life Shadow Experience
Plan A - $59.95/Year
-2 hours online counseling sessions in 30 minute increments
-Identify gifts, talents, passions via standard assessment tools
-Access to ten minute career introduction videos
-Access to online and moderated career group requiring student participation
-College test preparation assistance and test discounts
-Opportunity to win a 5 Days In The Life Shadow Experience
Plan A - $69.95/Year
-3 hours online counseling sessions in 30 minute increments
-Identify gifts, talents, passions via standard assessment tools
-Access to ten minute career introduction videos
-Access to online and moderated career group requiring student participation
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9. -College test preparation assistance and test discounts
-Develop criteria for acceptable schools
-Develop a short list of grad schools and plans for admittance
-Resume review and editorial commenting – one instance
-College admittance essay assistance
-Access to corporate /college sponsored internship opportunities
-Opportunity to win a 5 Days In The Life Shadow Experience
The Job Search Bootcamp will be offered for $700.00 but may be paid in monthly
installments of $58.33 for 12 months.
Additional counseling hours outside of earned time can be provided to the
student at $90.00/ hour.
Market Analysis
Five Days In The Life will specifically target high school students in the top 25 U.S.
cities as well as post-secondary institutions as a smaller secondary market. As
high schools are experiencing increased pressure to prepare students, not just for
college but for the rest of their lives, career counseling is becoming anincreasingly
important factor in deciding a student’s career. Likewise the unemployment rate
for college graduates is approximately 4.5%, more than doubling its previous rate
of 2.1% in March 2008. As a result, more and more parents, as well as students
are choosing to utilize additional resources to assist in finding one’s optimal
career path.
Primary Market
According to a 2010 study conducted by The College Board Advocacy and Policy
Center, high school guidance counselors are overloaded with students. The
recommended student to ratio is 250 to 1. Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont
and Wyoming are the only states that meet the recommended student-to-
counselor ratio.
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10. Most people believe that guidance counselors spend most of their time helping
students choose a career path and prepare for college admission. In reality only
22.8% of public school counselors time is spent on college admissions counseling
(compared to 54% in private schools). Not only are student counselors
overloaded, but less than one quarter of their time is devoted to helping students
and their families with college planning, including career exploration, choosing a
major, applying to schools, filling out applications, and obtaining financial aid.
Only 20% of a counselors time is spent on “personal needs counseling”, 25% of a
counselors time is spent scheduling a students classes, 15% is spent on
administering academic tests and 10% is divided between teaching and other non
guidance activities. Only 8% of a counselors time is spent on such vital tasks as
helping a student to explore career interests, educational requirements and salary
expectations. This statistic is especially shocking when you consider what 8% of
time means for the average student. Most guidance counselors work 40 hours a
week for 40 weeks a year (40 hours x 40 weeks = 1,600 hours per year). From
what we can determine, if a counselor spends 8% of their time on career guidance
(8% x 1600 = 128 hours) and the average counselor in the U.S handles 467
students per year, this mean that your students gets an average of 17 minutes of
career guidance per year. With this limited number it is not too much of a leap to
assert that students that are more aggressive or have parents that are true
advocates are getting more attention, while many students get none.
Five Days In The Life will partner with school districts, high schools, colleges,
universities and the secular establishment to alleviate some of the strain on
parents, guidance counselors and others when it comes to helping young people
find their proper career direction and focus. In the U.S.not having a clear career
path and direction has become acceptable, most people believe that it is
impossible to know what you really want to do. In reality students are not being
encouraged or given the opportunity to devote an appropriate amount of time to
career exploration and this is where Five Days In The Life will provide an added
benefit to students, families and industries across the U.S. Five Days In The Life
will use actual video stories of A Day In The Life of….to help a students understand
the depth of a particular career interest and will give them a close hand
experience. A select number of students will be selected for an all expense paid
‘experience’ in the career of their choice for five days. Through our website, a
large amount of time will be dedicated to helping students get a clear picture of
how to get from high school to career explaining the education or training
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11. required and give them direction on applying to colleges and universities that
allow them to pursue their chosen field.
Competition
Primary Competition
While competition for online career counseling is not great, Five Days In The Life
will be competing for ad revenue generated by commercial companies placing
advertisements on our websites. The potential competing websites will generate
revenue by offering subscription services to the parents of children with
developing educational and career needs. Five Days In The Life seeks academic
innovations ranging from young adults to students with a career exploration
curriculum to tailor an individual career map for success. Here we will detail our
potential competitors, from strongest to weakest, noting each company’s major
focus within the industry as well as their offerings and pricing structure.
MyMajors.com – MyMajors.com targets students and markets to universities to
help them figure out suitable majors and recommendations through assessment
at no cost. Additional services are provided such as career booklets and other
assessments to clarify a student’s desired path at no cost.
MappingYourFuture.org –MappingYourFuture targets students with various
counseling portals and a virtual gaming service called Show Me The Future. The
game allows students to enhance their financial literacy and life skills with real
decisions within the game at no cost. Individual counseling services are not
provided.
Marketing and Sales
Marketing and Sales Management
Five Days is a young vibrant company with very non- traditional marketing
techniques. We will focus much of our marketing effort on high school and post-
secondary institutions and commercial entities selling products of interest to
parents and teens. Because the majority of the audience we want to reach are in
school and online spending huge amounts of money on traditional advertising is
not necessary.
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12. We are ultimately targeting Generation Y and social media will be at the pinnacle
of our social medial strategy. It will encompass %80 of our marketing budget.
%90 of Gen Y own a computer
%82 own a mobile phone
%72 of Gen Y mobile phone users send or receive SMS messages
They spend more time per month online than they do watching television;
%42 watching online videos at least once per month.
The above statistics indicated that technology is integrated into the very core
of the way Gen Y lives. This means our target audience is considered native
online so it is imperative that our marketing strategies focus heavily on social
media outlets.
We will use %20 of our marketing budget to forge partnerships with educational
institutions that will lead to endorsements and recommendation of our services
to families. At high schools we will sponsor Career Days and other similar events.
At the college level we will work with the career services departments to extend
their reach.
We will create YouTube videos to high-light our services and success stories and
will use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook (Includes creating and
maintaining a Facebook Page) to drive traffic to our website and generate
interest. The blogs we write are intended to provide guidance for students to find
a best suited -career path via personality traits and interests about the career
profiled. We will also seek sponsorship to web sites and companies that cater to
the needs of teens and young adults with products and services of their interest.
Market Development and Penetration Strategy
With no substantial leader in the career exploration industry, 5 Days will be
a leader in an emerging industry with a first mover advantage. A large number of
people in the United States are dissatisfied with their careers which leads them to
seek assistance in career exploration and education opportunities. Today most
settle for counseling and guidance provided at their schools because current
options are minimal and costly for career counseling.
Growth Strategy
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13. Our growth strategy is horizontal. 5 Days will operate and manage in all the
core markets in the United States. Core markets for high school students will be in
school districts with the highest guidance counselor to student ratio. Our core
markets for colleges will be the largest colleges and universities based on
enrollment.
Communication Strategy
Our main method of communication will be via social media and events.
We will prefer social media because the majority of our target market lives and
thrives in this world; media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on.
We need to present our message in such a way that there exists two way
communication from our consumers.
We will also seek to advertise on radio stations and conglomerates that
target an urban audience . We will advertise at school sporting events,National
Public Radio and minority television and cable stations. We will also work with
large education centric commercial organizations like McDonalds restaurants and
Banks like Chase Manhattan to help up propel our message to our target audience
during their commercial play and via sponsorship.
Financials
Five Days In The Life (5 Days) expects its start up expenses to be roughly
$189,000.00 along with first year salaries of $100,000. Including other
miscellaneous costs, the company expects to incur $289,000in first year expenses.
Conservative estimates are that the company expects to produce $268,000 in
revenue in the first year leaving the company with a negative net income of
$44,000.00. In year two we expect to generate conservatively $353,000 in
revenue and conservatively $581,000.00 in year three. These assumptions are
based on retaining all existing customers, growing ad revenue and doubling
subscriptions from year two to year 3.
Start Up Expenses Expected Costs Frequency
Website Development $25,000.00 Continued Cost
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14. Office Lease $12,000.00 Continued Cost
Travel Expenses $25,000.00 Continued Cost
Office Expenses $5,000.00 Continued Cost
Equipment $20,000.00
Legal & Copyright $15,000.00
Consulting $25,000.00
Graphic Design $5,000.00
Database Management Consulting $20,000.00 Continued Cost
iPhone/Android App Development $10,000.00
Insurance $2,000.00 Continued Cost
Advertising/Social Media $25,000.00 Continued Cost
Total $189,000.00
Total Continued Yearly Costs $114,000.00
Continued Expense on Monthly
Basis $9,500.00
Financial Projections Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
$ $ $
Revenues 268,750.00 353,250.00 581,550.00
Subscription Price (Yearly) $10.95 $10.95 $10.95
Expected # of Students 5,000.00 10,000.00 14,000.00
Ad RevenueYearly $25,000.00 $50,000.00 $75,000.00
Start Up Costs (Investment) $189,000.00 $0.00 $0.00
Continued Annual Expenses - Reinvestment - $114,000.00 $114,000.00
Leased Office Space $12,000.00 $12,000.00 $12,000.00
Payroll $100,000.00 $150,000.00 $200,000.00
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15. Projected Net Income -$44,250.00 $191,250.00 $369,550.00
Company Personnel Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Chief Executive Office $40,000.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00
Chief Learning Officer $40,000.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00
Chief Marketing Officer $0.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00
Consulting Counselors $20,000.00 $30,000.00 $80,000.00
Account
Representatives $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Total People 2 3 3
Total Payroll $100,000.00 $150,000.00 $200,000.00
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