Advertising Consulting Business Plan

Introduction
It is the mission of Marrowstone Advertising Consultants to provide comprehensive marketing consultation and creation of advertising campaigns for the nonprofit industry. It is our long-term goal to become THE preferred advertising agency for nonprofit institutions nationwide. Our firm is not interested in simply producing a service for our clients. We believe in creating a long-term relationship with them so that the delivery of their message becomes a seemless, thought-provoking experience that engenders action.

The Company
Marrowstone Advertising Consultants will be a limited liability partnership registered in the state of Delaware for tax purposes. Its founder is Mr. Curtiss Cole, a former marketing executive with the Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Cole has brought together a highly respected group of marketing, development, and graphic art specialists who, combined, have a total of 35 years of experience with nonprofit organizations.

The company has a limited number of private investors and does not plan to go public. The company has its main offices in Reston, Virginia. The facilities include a design lab, conference rooms and office spaces. The company expects to begin offering its services in January.

The Services
The firm offers a complete, custom advertising campaign that covers all audio-visual and printed media. Examples include radio and television ads, billboards, building advertisements, brochures, direct mailing, business cards, etc. Management has designed a proven and effective seven step process to building a winning campaign.

The company’s main clients will be small and start-up nonprofit institutions and local governments. By focusing on institutions such as these that have special needs, we believe we will be able to better serve our clients and produce a superior service that is more effective that other advertising firms.

The Market
Marrowstone Advertising Consultants will be concentrating on three main types of nonprofits who operate in the environmental, youth development, and cultural awareness fields. This is because these types of organizations have the greatest needs and/or are the best capitalized in the nonprofit industry.

Profitability and growth in this untapped market is expected to be strong, as evidenced by the fact that over the past 15 years the U.S. has seen an explosion of nonprofits in new fields such as environmental awareness. Furthermore with the greater capitalization of such agencies, we are seeing a widening gap between these organizations needs and what conventional advertising companies can provide.

Financial Considerations
Start-up assets required are $122,300, which includes cash needed to support operations until revenues reach an acceptable level. Start-up expenses are $31,700. Most of the company’s liabilities will come from outside private investors and management investment, however, we have obtained $16,000 in current borrowing from Bank of America Commercial Investments, the principal to be paid off in two years. A long-term loan of $45,000 through Charter Bank of Richmond will be paid off in ten years.

The company expects to reach profitability in Year 2 and does not anticipate any serious cash flow problems. We conservatively believe that during the first three years, about three projects per month will guarantee a break-even point.

1.1 Objectives

The three year goals for Marrowstone Advertising are the following:

• Achieve break-even by Year 2.
• Establish a long-term contract with The Nature Conservancy.
• Establish a minimum of 95% customer satisfaction rate to establish long-term relationships with our clients and create word-of-mouth marketing.

1.2 Keys to Success

Marrowstone Advertising’s keys to long-term survivability and profitability are as follows:

• Differentiate our services to nonprofits so that our clients realize that we are able to better serve their needs than a more generic competitor.
• Keeping close contact with clients and establishing a well functioning long-term relationship with them to generate repeat business and a top notch reputation.
• Establish a comprehensive service experience for our clients that includes consultation, analysis of nonprofit’s goals and target markets. Creation of streamlined and custom advertising campaigns based on needs, total design work of all audio-visual advertising tools, implementation, and follow-up analysis.

1.3 Mission

It is the mission of Marrowstone Advertising Consultants to provide comprehensive marketing consultation and creation of advertising campaigns for the nonprofit industry. Our firm is not interested in simply producing a service for our clients. We believe in creating a long-term relationship with them so that the delivery of their message becomes a seemless, thought-provoking experience that engenders action. Marrowstone understands that nonprofit groups and institutions have special needs in delivering their information and messages to the public and creating inspiration to act on these messages.