Business Analysis Publishing Business Plan

We plan to collect an extensive network of bright and talented college students as writers and analysts. We will gather student representatives from schools across the nation. The position of writer and analyst for The Wonderkind will become more coveted than an internship because of the manner in which our newsletter will provide students with a voice to be heard. Lastly, the college community has a perspective and insight that the overall investing world needs to hear.

5.1 Value Proposition

Subscribers have access to the stock ideas and societal trend/theme analysis generated by our analysts. In addition, subscribers will have access to a more personalized form of communication with our advisors regarding their own investment ideas as well as further exploration into those ideas already put forth by our analysts.

While traditional stockbrokers and Wall Street Analysts are biased in their buy/sell recommendations due to their financial incentives being aligned with the quantity of trading and preconceived investment banking relationships rather than the soundness of individual investment decisions, The Wonderkind analysts remain independent and unbiased in their advice. The Wonderkind analysts have no incentives other than to offer practical stock picking and trend/theme analysis based upon independent and thorough research.

5.2 Competitive Edge

The Wonderkind is a collection of the best young financial minds in the U.S. These people see trends and issues in the market that the Wall Street analysts fail to realize. In addition, our analysts do not have the investment banking ties that create a major bias in the Wall Street analysts’ opinion. Certain trends cannot be read in yearly reports and can only be realized at the earliest moments by those with a feel for the future of trends in business and technology. Furthermore, our analysts are willing to perform the more hands-on research carried out by the Wall Street analyst of thirty years ago. This kind of research could include actually eating at a restaurant with the intent of judging the quality of food service, or perhaps visiting the local mall and witnessing the consumer traffic at Abercrombie & Fitch vs. The Gap vs. J. Crew. If a hot new MP3 player is creeping into the popular music scene, then college students with an astute wit will detect the trend first. Our team of college students will be the Wall Street analysts and business professionals of the future. The Wonderkind provides a forum for these brilliant students to voice their observations and ideas before they become biased by their investment banking counterparts.

The Wonderkind’s uniqueness stems from its elite team of college students who embody America’s most technologically savvy and dynamic generation of youth. College students of today command more respect from business professionals and society at large than ever before.

5.3 Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy for The Wonderkind will focus on our differentiation by virtue of representation of college students and their opinions and advice. We seek out the brightest and most motivated students at colleges and universities around the country. The name ‘The Wonderkind’ is a play on the German and American word wunderkind, which describes a person of remarkable talent or ability who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age especially in business.

5.3.1 Promotion Strategy

Our most effective means of gaining exposure to a wide audience will come as a result of communicating with the business/entrepreneurial offices at the top 100 universities in the country. We will look to establish permanent links with these institutions in order to generate interest for student writers as well as publicity from university publications. Also, we will be mailing brochures and information to selective lists of potential subscribers and investors.

Our promotion strategy will be in-line with our main competitive advantage from a business perspective: our ability to contain costs. We will rely upon inexpensive forms of publicity that reach a large number of potential clients. Examples of such publicity will manifest in the form of articles written for student-business publications. One publication in which we have already contacted regarding our proposal is Business Today magazine. Business Today is the largest and most influential student-run publication in the country and is distributed widely to over 200,000 subscribers nationwide.

It is our assumption that one effective means of promoting our service will come by word-of-mouth from all people connected with our service including our analysts, writers, and customers. We expect that networks of friends and family will represent a portion of our initial cliental base and that word of mouth will continue to spread. We will be offering incentives for clients to sign up their friends and colleagues. This incentive will take the form of credit toward our existing services for referring clients. We will reward two free months of service for each new subscriber that is referred by an existing subscriber.

5.3.2 Positioning Statement

The Wonderkind will be positioned as an alternative form of investment advice designed to offer an enjoyable and energetic source of investment advice from an otherwise unrecognized group of people–college students. We provide investment advice from those who will be making the rules in the future. Ultimately, we fall into the category of an  informational publishing service utilizing the Internet as well as traditional paper printing methods of distribution.

5.3.3 Pricing Strategy

While we believe that our services are premium in quality, we have decided to offer them for a flat monthly charge. We believe that we should enter the market with a pricing strategy that is focused on convincing possible clients to give us a try. If we were to initially charge a much higher amount, possibly more in-line with the quality of service our clients will be receiving, we may experience a more difficult time selling to new clients. Once we have established ourselves in the eyes of our clients, we will begin raising our prices accordingly.

We will initially charge a fee of $12.95/month or $129.95/year for our basic service which provides access to all articles and content on our website in addition to a quarterly newsletter mailed to the subscriber.

5.4 Sales Strategy

We imagine that our sales strategy will be a natural follow up from our marketing strategy. Once we have attracted users to our website, the natural progression will be to retain them as subscribers. The majority of this process will be carried out through the website itself. The website will describe the specific benefits of subscribing to our service as well as address any questions prospective subscribers may have. We will give prospective subscribers a sample of the services offered by The Wonderkind. Sample articles and abridged articles will be available free of charge by accessing our website at www.thewonderkind.com. We will make an extraordinary effort to accommodate new subscribers in the beginning and throughout the duration of his or her subscription. We will strive to familiarize our subscribers with our services both on the website and through the comprehensive quarterly newsletter.

5.4.1 Sales Forecast

Our objectives for growth in our subscriber base are as follows:

Assuming our yearly subscription fee of $129.95, projected subscriber bases translate into yearly revenue projections of:

For fiscal accounting purposes, this plan begins in June even though we do not expect to receive income from subscriptions until January of the following year. In the seven months between these dates, we will be carrying out an aggressive marketing campaign to attract both subscribers and contributors.

5.5 Strategic Alliances

Once we have established The Wonderkind as a viable entity, we will begin to evaluate strategic alliances and co-marketing initiatives. One possibility for a future alliance exists in another student-operated investment service called WallStreetProdigy.com which offers recommended stock portfolio analysis via its website. WSP offers analysis and live quotes for all stock picks and represents some of the best investing students in universities and colleges in the U.S. However, for now, our main focus will be on building the foundation of The Wonderkind alone.