Document Shredding Business Plan

Market Analysis Summary

Theft, vandalism, and industrial espionage are becoming ever increasing security problems. There are too many horror stories resulting from confidential information getting into the wrong hands. Today's information explosion can be devastating to a business. With the increased use of office copiers and computers, staggering amounts of sensitive information is being generated and carelessly discarded.

Outdated or inactive company files can also become damaging once they have reached their legal limit of retention. Shredding this information protects a company against potential lawsuits.

The supreme court has ruled that information in the trash is "fair game" to anyone. Privacy laws make any company vulnerable to law suits when personal records are disclosed to outsiders--even by accident.

The 1974 federal privacy act was established to ensure that government agencies protect the privacy of individuals and businesses with regard to information held by them and to hold these agencies liable if any information is released without authorization.

It is estimated that corporate espionage costs U.S. businesses over $7 billion in losses yearly. It's believed that one in four American adults have been defrauded in various identify theft schemes.

A company's trash is a great source of a financial and personal catastrophe. It's an unimaginable nightmare for most people, and a nefarious windfall for the growing ranks of corporate scavengers and identity thieves currently farming america's trash.

Large corporations have internal disposal systems to protect themselves, but small to second tier companies typically have poor or inefficient systems in place.  Madison has 3,000 businesses and companies that have potential need for a document disposal service.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Security First Shredding will focus on the following target customers:

• Small Businesses and Companies: These companies have 10 to 25 employees. They represent a significant market since internal document disposal is not cost-effective or efficient. Outsourcing disposal services is a excellent solution that will reduce the business disposal costs by 25%.
  
• Second Tier Companies: These companies have over 100+ employees. Record disposal is quickly becoming a important concern and is usually poorly organized and inefficient.  Outsourcing disposal services can cap costs and improve the efficiency of the process.