Online College Bookstore Business Plan

The College Cafe was founded in July and is presently in its start-up stage.  The College Cafe website has been in operation with limited functionality since August of last year.  The College Cafe is currently being test marketed at Georgia State University.

2.1 Company Locations and Facilities

800 Peachtree Street – Unit 8429
Atlanta, GA 30308
United States

www.thecollegeCafe .com
www.thecollegeCafe .net 

The College Cafe’s data center is hosted and maintained by Atl-Connect Internet Services.  Atl-Connect is located in Atlanta, Georgia.

2.2 Mission

The College Cafe’s mission is to provide college students a valuable and unique source for products, services and information.  In order to achieve our mission, The College Cafe commits to the following philosophies:

• It’s all about the product.
• Our customers are our employers.
• Don’t be greedy.
• Keep our employees happy.

2.3 Ownership

The College Cafe is a Limited Liability Company and is solely owned by its founder, Gerald Owens.

2.4 Keys to Success

Our key to success will lie in our ability to execute our business model.  In order to achieve success, we need to focus on the following areas to establish The College Cafe as a successful and profitable enterprise.  They are:

• Recruit an exceptional management and marketing team with extensive domain experience in the college market.
• Create and maintain a “Grass Roots” marketing campaign.
• Offer innovative and unique products and services.
• Form strategic alliances and partnerships with companies suppling products to the college market.

2.5 Management Summary

The strength of The College Cafe’s management team stems from the combined expertise in both management and technical areas.  The College Cafe recognizes that additional staff is required to properly support marketing, sales, research, and support functions.  Currently, The College Cafe is supported by three people with experience in e-commerce strategy, website architecture and design and graphic design.  Additional employees may be required in the areas of senior level management, Web development, marketing, sales, human resources/recruiting, administration, customer support and other critical operational positions.

The College Cafe will utilize current college students to fill positions in the areas of regional campus marketing, local advertisement sales, administration, customer support other non-critical operational positions.  These positions will be full-time, part-time and intern positions depending on the local market.  Using current college students will enable The College Cafe to receive inexpensive local employment and valuable market feedback from The College Cafe’s target market while also providing real world work experience to college students.

The College Cafe will utilize consultants and contractors during website enhancements and development efforts.

Board of Directors

At this time The College Cafe is seeking individuals for a Board of Directors.  These individuals will include highly qualified business and industry professionals/experts along with members of the investment team.  These individuals will assist our management team in making appropriate decisions, forming strategic alliances and taking the most effective action to be the industry leader.

2.6 Management Team

Our management team consists of three dedicated employees and two technical advisors.  Their backgrounds consist of more than 30 years of experience in e-commerce, marketing and the Internet technology.  In addition to their professional experience, the management team has over 30 years of college domain experience. 

Gerald Owens, Founder, Chief Technical Officer/Web Development
Mr. Owens has over 12 years of work experience including engineering, programming and sales.  He was successful in founding the start-up company, DCSi-Online, an online intermediary serving the building automation industry.  Mr. Owens has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering form North Carolina State University and a MBA with a concentration in E-commerce and Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University.  He is an active member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the Southeastern Regional Internet Society (SERIS).

Kelly Mitchell – Online User Experience and Marketing
Ms. Mitchell has 7 years’ experience in the interactive space, specializing in online branding, marketing, and user experience design.  Her most recent position involves leading a user experience team for a Fortune-50 company.  Ms. Mitchell has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Georgia and has received art direction training from the Woodruff School of Art in Atlanta.  She is an active member of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association.

Andréa Powers – Marketing and Communications
Ms. Powers has 10 years marketing and communications experience.  She has worked for two major corporations headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and has experience  in sales, employee communications, public relations, interactive communications and technology marketing.  Ms. Powers has a wealth of knowledge regarding interactive web management, project management, account/vendor management, customer needs analysis, concept strategy, and building quality strategic interpersonal relationships.  She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Florida State University.

Chris Durant – Advisor
Mr. Durant has 10 years technology and business experience in system integration.  He has worked for both large corporations, such as Georgia Pacific Corporation, and small start-up firms.  Mr. Durant has a Bachelor Business Administration in Management Science and Computer Information Systems from the University of Georgia as well as an MBA and graduated top of the MS/CIS program from Georgia State University with a concentration in electronic Commerce.  He also holds extensive network design experience and is an industry certified Network Engineer.

Brian Dupree – Advisor
Mr. Dupree has 20 years experience in the technology industry.  He has extensive experience managing and developing mission critical software systems for business applications.  Recently, he has worked as a senior consultant for an e-business consulting company where he has participated in advanced web application projects.  Mr. Dupree holds a Masters Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a MBA with a concentration in e-commerce from Georgia State University.

2.7 Start-up Summary

Our start-up costs assumptions are shown in the following table and chart, and include Web hosting, software, development and marketing expenses.  The start-up costs were financed by direct owner investment.