My name is ___________________ and this is a proposal for a new online company involving the ever popular home improvement industry. I am a recent graduate of X school, where I obtained a bachelors degree in business, with a focus in accounting, and a minor in economics. Prior to pursuing my degree, I spent nearly five years enlisted in the United States Navy. While in the U.S. Navy, I received extensive training not only in computers and electronics, but I also had the privilege to receive training and experience in web design. For approximately one year, I worked on the U.S. Naval Safety Center website as an assistant webmaster. Perhaps the greatest skill I acquired while working on the Naval Safety Center website was the ability to attract substantial traffic to the website. During my time at the Safety Center, the website experienced unprecedented growth for a safety oriented platform.
Although my familiarity with web design will be extremely valuable throughout this venture, it is not the only relevant experience I possess. Prior to my enlistment in the U.S. Navy, I spent several years climbing the ranks of the construction trade. I began by working at a local lumberyard assisting customers, and in just a few short years, I worked my way up to be an independent general contractor. This knowledge of the building industry, along with my various experiences with do-it-yourself projects, has provided me the adequate foundation to succeed with this e-commerce venture.
While my experience may be notable, I clearly understand that without a creative and innovative idea, this venture will not likely succeed. As I mentioned above, the website I am proposing deals with home improvement. This website will essentially collect a vast amount of detailed information on a wide spectrum of products and services pertaining to the building and home improvement industry. This information will be delivered in a single site, simple "any one can use", format. Due to the wide array of information contained on the website, traffic will come from a similarly wide range of visitors. This site will prove useful to everyone, ranging from the home builder or remodeler to the do-it-yourselfer.
My proposed website will also include a feature that will operate as an interactive directory that links potential customers to suppliers, retailers, builders, and subcontractors. This directory will be maintained as an internal database by selected website staff. The element that ultimately makes this feature interactive is the ability of customers to post comments, as well as rate, the suppliers, retailers, builders and subcontractors. Extensive control will be necessary to maintain an objective and verifiable database of review. This will be addressed later in this proposal.
My proposed website can be broke down into two distinct facets. The first is an extensive database of products, both common and uncommon to the home improvement and building industry. This database will serve as an informational tool to visitors. It will contain a detailed description of the product, provided by the manufacturer, as well as pictures, applications, and directions, if applicable. Each distinct product will occupy a separate webpage. There will also be a separate review section at the bottom of each webpage that users can utilize to comment on the pros and cons of the product. These comments will be policed by the website staff to the extent that malicious or unfounded statements are presented. To ensure the legal protection of the website, all comments will be proofed by the website staff prior to being published. Along with the proofing of comments, all product information provided on the site will be verified by the manufacture of said product.
The product database will be searchable in two distinct formats. One will be a simple search box appearing on the homepage. This search box will be titled "Find a Product." A visitor will be able to simply type in the specific or common name of the product. Once the "Search Now" button is pressed, a results page will be displayed. The results page will consist of a list containing all possible matches to the search criteria. As the visitor selects one of the items from the results list, they will be taken to the individual product webpage.
An alternative way to search for products on the website will be by selecting the "Search by Product Line" button from the homepage. By selecting this search option, visitors will be directed to a page where they can select from several general options such as plumbing, electrical, flooring and many more. Once they select a category, they will be directed to another page that will provide even more specific options. This search process will continue until the visitor reaches the specific product webpage they are searching for. The product database will prove to be an extensive information and research tool for builders, suppliers, manufactures and especially homeowners.
The other aspect of my proposed website is the service provider database that will provide potential customers basic information on local companies. Similar to the product database, each individual service provider will appear on a separate webpage. The database will be searchable by visitor's location as well as the service provider's specialized area. From the website's homepage, there will be a search box titled "Expert Locator", where a visitor can type in a city, state or zip code. Once the visitor clicks on the "Find me and Expert" button, a search results page will be produced. The search results page will list out all the experts identified by the search parameters, and categorized by field. Fields will consist of categories such as plumbers, electricians, general contractors or tile installers. Each category will serve as a new hyperlink, taking the visitor to a new more refined level of their search. On this next page the visitor will be allowed to select from an alphabetical list of companies, whose names will serve as hyperlinks, taking the visitor to the company's independent page. Each company's independent page will consist of three main areas: a company overview and description, the scope of work the company is involved in, and a customer review section. The company overview and scope of work sections will be provided by the company itself, through the distribution of information request cards, or through the website's online information submittal form. If no information is received from the company, then this area will remain blank.
The review section of the company webpage will be one of the major draws to the website. Although this section will certainly take a time to build up, I believe that through the traffic generated by the extensive information provided throughout other sections of the website, this time will be relatively short. From the homepage, there will be a link titled "Have you had a good, bad or ugly experience with a service provider? If so, tell us about it!" This link will take the visitor to a comment submission page where they can type in the name of the company, the individual they worked with, and any comment they want to share. The comments submitted by visitors will be reviewed and scrutinized by select website staff prior to publishing them on the company's site. There will also be a confirmation email sent to the visitor's email address to verify the authenticity of the comment. These steps will reduce the likeliness of malicious or false comments being posted by individuals. Furthermore, a full analysis of the posting procedures will be conducted by a qualified legal staff in order to protect the proposed business from any and all possible liability claims relating to libel.
The proposed website will certainly be a profitable one. The main source of revenue will come in the form of advertisements. Each page on the website will contain a header bar. This header bar will consist of a dropdown menu that will allow for easy and simple site navigation, as well as valuable advertisement real estate. The advertisements located in this header bar will generally be generated from large national companies looking to reach a much broader audience. There will be an additional advertisement box located down the left side of every webpage. This vertical box will be reserved for more advertisements relating to the content actually provided on the page. For example, if a visitor is searching for a plumbing contractor, a local contractor can purchase the advertisement space on the left side of all pages pertaining to plumbing. The website will also track the location of each visitor to ensure that local advertisements appear relative to the visitor's location. This will allow local businesses to purchase advertisement space that will be very effective at reaching their target audience. It will also allow the website to host thousands of local advertisements, and increase overall revenue.
Another mechanism for generating revenue for the website will be through affiliate referral fees. Each webpage will contain links relative to the product or service contained on the page. These links will take visitors away from our website and to an advertiser's website. The most common of these links will be manufacturer or service provider links. Each manufacturer and service provider will have the opportunity to pay a nominal per click fee to include a link to its own website. This link will only appear on the individual product or service provider webpage, and revenue will only be generated to the extent the links are utilized. This will provide an inexpensive option to many small, as well as large, businesses in generating traffic to their sites. I am confident that through advertisements and affiliate referral fees, the proposed website will certainly generate a healthy profit for its shareholders.
The costs associated with the proposed website will be overwhelmingly fixed. Very few, if any, variable costs will exist. The major cost to operating the website will be the support staff, location and site fees, advertising, and hardware/software maintenance and upkeep. The most significant of these costs being the advertising. I have carefully selected the domain name "homeimprovementconnection.net" for the proposed website. I have verified the availability of this domain name, and it can currently be acquired for a minimal fee. Several other domain names, which could be commonly entered in error, will also be purchased in order to ensure adequate connection to the website.
An extensive advertising campaign will ultimately be the force driving traffic to the website. This campaign will include advertisements on television, radio, magazines, as well as the internet. The website will be advertised on television in 15 and 30 second commercials, as well as programming sponsorships. These advertisements slots will be synchronized with home improvement channels and programming. Perhaps the most notable of these are Home and Garden Television (HGTV) and the DO-it-Yourself Network (DIYnetwork). These two national programming platforms will also be utilized for online advertising through their respected websites. There will also be an attempt to place ads at the ends of the Today show's home improvement segment each day. This will allow the website to reach the broadcast market as well as cable.
The website will also advertise heavily in magazines. The magazines will range from This Old House to Better Homes and Gardens and from Consumer Reports to Architectural Digest. Radio advertising will also be a small, yet important, segment of the marketing campaign. Advertising will be targeted during home improvement or building shows broadcasting on local am radio stations. There are several of these themed shows in virtually every market of the United States.
Perhaps the most significant segment of the advertising campaign will be conducted on the internet. Online advertising will begin by purchasing sponsored links on Google's website. We will bid on as many of the top word searches as we can, relative to our website, as well as a reasonable budget. These keywords will include: home improvement, contractor, builder, faucet, roofing, windows, and hundreds more. Another avenue that will be utilized for online advertising is links on as many of our own advertisers' websites as possible. A reciprocal discount will be offered to any of our advertisers that will allow us to place a similar ad on their respected websites. This will not only increase our web presence, it will also provide us with an economical form of advertising and an avenue for building long term relationships with our customers.
A major concern of the proposed website is certainly its competition. Perhaps the greatest competition will be other websites that rate products and services. These websites include names like Consumer Reports, Epinions, and NexTag. The primary strategy to competing with other rating sites is to produce and promote a more consumer oriented approach to rating products. It is nice to see what Consumer Reports says about how good a tool is, but it is much better to hear from a contractor who uses the tool everyday. Another area of competition lies with major home improvement retailers such as The Home Depot and Lowes. The strategy for competing with these giants is simple. Unlike The Home Depot and Lowes, our website will not be limited to only the products we carry. Instead of traveling to several, if not dozens, of websites to research all of your faucet or window and door options, you can simply visit our website and have access to virtually every option available to you. Not to mention the fact that on our website a visitor can research not only the product, but also its installer. Clearly, the competition facing the proposed website is great; however, through the building up of alliances with many of our competitors, and promoting our sustainable competitive advantages, we can not only survive in the market, but thrive in it.
Endnote to instructor:
While I feel that this proposed website has a very good core concept, I am afraid that the startup costs associated may be too much for its unlikely outcome. I am aware that the concern of startup costs is the main purpose of attracting venture capital; however, it would take a significant amount of market analysis to determine if companies would be willing to advertise or commit to a website that allows its ultimate customers to critique it openly and virtually uncensored. I have to admit that if I were a major manufacturer of a home improvement product, I would be extremely weary of this venture, and would likely distance myself from it.
Another issue raised in regards to this website proposal, is the possible concern of advertisers' reactions to negative postings in the site’s review section. It is possible there would be significant numbers of negative reviews submitted by the visitors of the website; however, due to the strict scrutiny of all review comments, I believe the majority of unfounded, negative, and/or inflammatory comments would be filtered out. With this being said, there is still the possible suspicion from advertisers and viewers as to whether or not all comments are being posted. It could be assumed, from visitors and advertisers alike, that when a valid and confirmed negative review is submitted in regards to a product or service of one of our best advertisers, we would and/or could omit the review statement. Even if we were able to eliminate the possibility of occurrences such as these, I’m afraid that the apprehension of our advertisers could limit their support, and consequently, our revenue.
Although this website could prove beneficial to the general public, one must realize that more often than not people are more willing to complain about products and services than they are to praise them. Thinking back on products and services I have personally used and experienced in the past, I tend to remember more vividly the ones that I had the most problems with. Unfortunately, I believe that this is the social norm, and would oftentimes lead to an irrelevant review. For this reason, I am unsure at the overall effectiveness this site would have, as well as its sustained success.
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