Sample Business Plan On Group Members

Business Plan: Fitness For You

This business plan evaluates the feasibility of Fitness For You, a new fitness center to be established in Halifax, Canada. It describes the strategies the business should embrace in its attempt to gain 1 % of the Canadian market and thereby gain 0.2 % of the global market by the end of its second year of operations.
This marketing plan introduces the business idea before moving forward to describe all the elements of its marketing strategies and plans. Moreover, it describes the financial requirement for establishing the company’s two fitness centers and a robust website through which it will offers professional information and updates pertaining to fitness, sell DVDs and promote its fitness supplements.
The report concludes by analyzing the risks inherent in the business and provides recommendations to mitigate the risks.
2.0 Introduction
Fitness For You is a fitness company based in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, in Canada within which it will serve millions of customers. It intends to offer high quality fitness services to millions of customers who have expressed interest in the products and services it intends to provide. The company intends to offers two major category of products and services; physical fitness training and a database of information relating to fitness. Through these two service categories, the company will serve customers residing in Halifax through the two physical fitness centres and those based abroad through the robust website through which it will provide information relating to fitness and health in general. The website will feature several leading languages such as English, German, French and Chinese.
The company will employ qualified trainers, nutritionists and dieticians to run its business and promote the welfare of its customers. These staff will work in shifts to ensure that the company serves its customers for more than 20 hours each day including weekends. To promote regular revenues, Fitness For You intends to establish a robust membership program through which its customers will par regular fees to enjoy the services offered by the company. As such, customers will pay relatively lower rates in case they opt for longer subscriptions. Moreover, those who refer their friends to the company will receive free months of unlimited access to the company’s facilities and website, whichever they choose based on their subscription plan.
3.0 Industry Analysis
The fitness industry has witnessed an upsurge (5 % - 6 % increase: IBISWorld, 201) in the number of players due to an increased awareness of health and fitness (International Business Publications, 2007; Statista, 201). This has been occasioned by the fact that Canadians have developed a renewed call for high quality fitness training materials besides demanding healthy foodstuff (International Business Publications, 2007). The demand has attracted several high-end companies such as GoodLife Fitness, 21 7 Fitness Center and 21 Hour Health Club Ltd which provide high quality fitness services to their clients based in Canada and beyond. These companies have striven and established a brand name for themselves. With the rising demand, the industry remains attractive to more investors who have spent millions of euros in purchasing state-of-art facilities. Others have gone ahead to establish robust websites through which they provide health information and guide to physical fitness. With several competitors, the industry still remains competitive and is open for new players.
Despite focusing on the younger generation, the industry is expected to pay keen attention to the aging population over the next years due to the aging population which the country is expected to achieve over the next 20 years (International Business Publications, 2007). This implies that the companies will have to diversify their operations and major on swimming and water aerobics as they exert less strain on the participant’s joints. Moreover, more women continually participate in fitness activities as they become sports fans and join sporting clubs though which they sign up for membership of reputable fitness companies. These trends promote the growth of the industry and attract additional investors, such as Fitness For You.
In terms of government control, the industry attracts less interference from the government.
4.0 Marketing Plan
Vision Statement: Fitness For You intends to offer quality fitness programs that will attract and retain youths to its fitness program. By providing both physical fitness centre programs and online advice to its customers, the company will cater for customers domiciled within Canada and those residing outside the country. The company aims at allowing its customers access quality fitness materials and information at their convenience.
4.1 Marketing Objectives
4.1.1 Corporate Objectives
The overall objective of this marketing plan is to make sure that Fitness For You attains a 1 % markets share of the Canadian fitness market and 0.2 % of the global online fitness companies by the end of its second year of operations.
4.1.2 Marketing Objectives
Make Fitness For You a household brand within two years of implementing the marketing plan. The brand should be known both locally in Canada and internationally.
Attain a 1 % market share of Canadian market and 0.2 % of the global fitness market within the second year of the company's operations.
4.1.3 E-Marketing Objectives
The company aims at achieving the following as regards its E-Commerce platform.
Create worldwide awareness of the existence of its full-blown website within 15 months of the implementation of this marketing plan
Build a website into which loyal customers can log and earn points for referring their colleague and friends when the referred individuals make a purchase. The points can be redeemed for a discount for subscription into the company's services. The proposed website should be operational by the end of eighth month of the implementation of this marketing plan.
Create brand accounts in the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and 2go within eight months of the marketing plan's implementation. Any time a new package is introduced into the product line, a new account will be added.
The implementation of an online customer service department by the ninth month of the implementation of this marketing plan.
4.2 Marketing Strategy
Kotler & Keller (2011) define market segmentation as a process through which the overall market of a service or product is divided into smaller manageable groups. This allows the business to define marketing strategies that target the identified market. It is noteworthy that the resulting segments are usually identical in terms of the criteria used meaning customers in each segment tend to share the same purchasing behavior.
The company segmented its market by identifying the location of customers who are ready and willing to part way with a portion of their income to stay fit, relax and lose weight. Research has shown that several individuals are willing to increase their expenditure to stay fi and lose weight, thereby attaining the ‘required; or ‘desired’ weights. It is this category of clientele that the company targets for its physical facilities and online website providing information on fitness tips and training programs.
4.2.1 Profiling by Age
Fitness For You targets individuals aged between 18 years through 35 years, commonly referred to as youth. This category of individuals should be in college, university or in employment. They face the stress associated with daily hassles of life. As such, they are susceptible to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The company will target this caliber of customers in its bid to provide relaxation services, physical fitness and advice on health and fitness issues.
1.2.2 Active Students
Fitness For You has identified active students in high schools and primary schools as a second category of customers. With increased hours of schooling with children spending more than 12 hours in class each day, these children are exposed to lifestyle diseases such as obesity. Through a robust and subsidized membership program, the company will advise customers’ parents to enlist their children into the program. Apart from reducing the children’s exposure to lifestyle diseases, the program will reduce the amount of time at their disposal, the time they can use to engage in misleading behaviors.
4.2.3 Women (60 %) and men (10 %)
The company has opted to attain a customer base composed on 60 % women and 10 % men. Even though this target is difficult to achieve, the company intends to pursue its subscriptions to the ratio while expanding its operations to accommodate more customers.
4.3 Positioning
Fitness For You strives to create a brand for itself and build a perception in the minds of its customers. Customers will view the company as a one-stop shop for DVD on fitness exercises, fitness supplements and real-time customer care support. This will assist the company to curve out a niche for itself. Moreover, by offering fitness centers and online help, Fitness For You will attract and retain a sizeable size of the market.
4.3.1 Service Positioning
All marketing initiatives adopted by the company aim at presenting Fitness For You’s products and services as the best in the fitness market. To the youth aged 18 – 35 years, the company intends to provide an opportunity to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight free from obesity. To the active students, the company will offer an opportunity to relax after school and keeping them busy away from negative peer influence.
4.3.2 Feature positioning
Fitness For You’s services will provide better terms due to lower subscription fees and robust website with several trainers and experts to attend to customers’ needs. Online customers based in other countries will find Fitness For You’s services as tried and tested.
4.3.3 Benefits positioning
Fitness For You will assist its customers to stay fit and healthy and maintain a recommended weight. Moreover, exercising will enable the company’s customers to keep lifestyle disease at bay while they stay healthy.
4.4 Promotional Strategy
Fitness For You will market its products and services through its website which will display images of the products in addition to detailing the prices at which the products would be retailing at any given time. Moreover, the company will run a robust referral program through which all customers will receive discounts on all referrals they make to the company and are actually closed as sales. Finally, discounted prices and rates will be offered for customers during selected months and seasons of the year.
5.0 Operation Plan
Fitness For You intends to recruit new customers to attend its physical fitness center for actual fitness classes and online platforms for information on fitness and healthy living. The company will provide its services through two major platforms; website and a physical fitness center. The physical fitness center will serve customers based in Canada while the website will serve customers across the continent including those from Canada and beyond. This implies that a customer living in Canada can benefit from the physical center and online website powered by the company. In addition to providing materials on physical fitness such as its benefits and remedies from non-compliance, the website will market the company and its products and will also target customers who intend to move to Canada on employment or education prospects. Through the two channels, Fitness For You will offer high quality services to its customers and will ensure that the services meet customers’ expectations and are above board.
The physical fitness center will offer a wide range of products and facilities such as swim balls, weights and chin-up bars in addition to providing protective equipment such as helmets and mouth guards for trainers and participants during their stint at the facility. The company will allow its customers to use these facilities within its premises and would not be authorized to take away any of the equipment from the facility under any condition or situation. There will be no exceptions to this rule and violators will lose their membership to the center.
On the other hand, the website will provide and regularly update information and technologies related to fitness. This will provide an opportunity for its online subscribers to access vital information on health trends and latest equipment which can boost their health. Moreover, the website will sell DVDs and fitness supplements to its customer drawn from different provinces including Alberta and Quebec. The level of access will depend on the type of program for which the customers applies. To begin with, a customer can sign up for access physical fitness center and ignore the website while others may sign up for the website and ignore the physical fitness center due to distance or personal schedule while others will sign up for the two facilities offered by the company.
The company will run a robust and competitive subscription through which its customers will pay for access to the physical fitness center and website. Fitness For You will assign its customers membership cards depending on the category of subscription they opt for. All customers who sign up for the online platform will receive a secure log in username and password through which they will access the company’s website. With time, the company will differentiate several levels of access with other users accessing live chat options for a premium price. The live chat option will enable the company to answer all queries raised by its customers. Moreover, the company will frequently email its customers whenever it accesses new information it wishes to send its customers.
6.0 Financial Plan
The business requires a huge investment in the purchase of fitness equipment. To begin with, the company must purchase several units of each equipment required for fitness training. $ 333,150 will finance this purchase. The equipment will be used in the two fitness centers to be opened in Halifax.
Once purchased, this equipment will be depreciated over a three year period.
In addition to acquiring the equipment, Fitness For You will lease two building which it will renovate and modify to accommodate the equipment. This involves adding another layer of flooring to the house to hold the equipment to be fitted on to the floor such as treadmill and PhysioStep. This will cost the company $ 156,000 in expenses. These costs will be capitalized and ammortsed over a five year period. However, the company will aim at purchasing its own house to reduce lease rentals.
Fitness For You will build a website to offer vital information on fitness and health to subscribers who pay the required funds. To attract experienced staff, the company will offers competitive salaries and better terms of service. It will begin with 10 trainers to work in shifts, to cover 21 hours each day. Moreover, it will hire 4 network administrators to man its website and 4 customer care representatives to respond to all queries raised by customers over email and online platforms.
Finally, the company will hire qualified and highly experienced trainers and professionals to attend to customers while in its premises.
The revenues would be received from physical fitness training hours charged at $ 10 per hour and website subscription charged at $ 25 per month per subscriber.
Financial analysis reveals the amount of losses during the second year of operations as $ 29,200 before generating $ 116,800 and $ 383,800 during the second and third year respectively.
7.0 Risk Assessment
The fitness industry is less risky than other industries which operate on the international front. However, Fitness For You is likely to face few challenges. To begin with, international operations expose the company to political intolerance due to the increasing acrimony between the East and West. The company can mitigate this risk by employing local citizens to market its operations. The second risk emanates from cultural differences between countries and perceptions to fitness training and healthy living. Fitness companies should reduce the risk by enlightening customers of the benefits associated with exercising and staying fit.
8.0 Appendices
References
GoodLife Fitness (201). About GoodLife Fitness. Accessed on 20th March 201 from www.goodlife.com/about
International Business Publication (2007). Canada Business and Investment Opportunities, Year Book. Washington D.C.: International Business Publication
Kotler, P. & Keller, K. (2011). Marketing Management (11th edn.). London: Prentice Hill
Statista (201). The Statistics Portal: Total Numbers of Health and Fitness Clubs worldwide 2009 to 2013. Accessed on 20th March 201 from http://www.statista.com/statistics/275035/global-market-size-of-the-health-club-industry/