Sightseeing Bus Tours Business Plan

Double Decker Tours of Washington is a new company that will provide daily sightseeing tours in Washington DC.  Its sales and boarding point will be located at the MCI Center in Northwest Washington, and administrative offices on Third Street in Northeast Washington.  The operation will focus on:

• Providing regular sightseeing tours of the nation’s capital to include monuments, memorials and other sites of interest.
• Provide charter service for special groups.
• Provide tours of other historical and interesting venues away from the city center.

2.1 Company Ownership

Double Decker Tours of Washington will be created as a closely held private District of Columbia Limited Liability Company based in Washington, DC. It will be owned by its founder and principle investors. 

2.2 Company Locations and Facilities

Double Decker Tours of Washington will use the facilities of the MCI Center for its boarding and return point in the city.  The MCI Center affords DDTOW a safe secure place with plenty of parking and public transportation access.  We have agreed to use the ticketing outlets available at MCI to reduce our staffing cost, also it will give us a worldwide ticketing presence by using Ticketmaster.  The other facility that we plan to use will be the Peter Pan bus maintenance yard in Tuxedo, Maryland, as this will also reduce staffing and present us with a fixed cost on maintenance that has been covered in our operating budget.  A small office on Third Street in Northeast Washington will be used for administrative and order processing purposes.

2.2.1 Hours of Operation

DDTOW will be open seven days a week.  Tour service will begin at 8:30 am during the spring and summer months and 9:00 am during the winter.  Our evening tour service will begin at 6:30 pm during the winter months and 7:30 pm during spring and summer.  We will be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

2.3 Start-up Summary

Most of the planned start-up costs are apportioned to the following areas:

1. Purchasing twelve 70-passenger London-style double-decker sightseeing buses, nine of which are open top for beautiful days and nights and three closed top for cold or inclement weather.  We budgeted $225,000 for the buses, and it will cost us an additional $100,000 for the paint job.
2. In addition to the twelve buses, our other long-term assets will include the audio-visual system that will be installed on the buses, for which we budget $80,450.
3. Provisions of a sufficient cash reserve to assure timely payment of operating cost of the buses for the first three months.
4. Costs associated with recruiting, training and paying operational crews.
5. Marketing, advertising, and public relations costs, including the cost of setting up a website capable of offering tour information and making online sales and reservations, and related Internet marketing, as well as conventional print and broadcast advertising, and public relations activities.
6. Administrative and legal costs incurred in setting up the business and the tour operations.
7. A reserve to cover overall operating costs, aside from bus operating costs, over at least the first three months of operations. 

  Start-up capital will be financed through investment and long-term loans.  Start-up details are located in the table listed below.