Executive Summary
The proposed name of the company is Glimpse Braille LLC. Glimpse Braille LLC is a company focused on serving individuals who are visually impaired or blind. The company is also focused on providing braille resources to the blind or visually impaired and the people working with these individuals. Glimpse Braille Ltd aims to make the environment more accessible for persons with disabilities and design solutions for visually impaired individuals. The resources include accessible documents that can be read easily using text to speech or screen reading software.
Glimpse Braille LLC. has two locations, Pocatello, Idaho, and San Diego, California. The choice of the business locations was informed by several factors, mainly the significant population of blind and visually impaired individuals in California and Idaho. According to the National Federation of the Blind, approximately 797,300 individuals in California are blind or visually impaired, and some 43,500 persons within the State of Idaho are blind or visually impaired.
The founders of The Glimpse Braille Ltd are Karina Rorris and Yassine Thabit. The founders are focused on providing braille or accessible document resources for people in Idaho and few California states. According to the National Federation of the Blind, individuals are blind if their sight is bad enough even with the corrective lenses. They have to use alternative means to engage in everyday activities like ordinary people. The United States Bureau of the Census adds that significant vision loss includes total or near-total blindness and trouble seeing even when wearing contact lenses or glasses. Different organizations have further defined blindness. These definitions have brought about different perspectives when it comes to how blindness should be viewed. The American Printing House for the Blind (2017) polls each state for data on the number of legally blind children through age 21 enrolled in elementary and high school. The data also includes lawfully blind children who receive reading material in braille, large print, or audio format. The total number nationwide is 63,357.
According to the data provided by the American Community Survey on disability statistics in 2016, the non-institutionalized individuals who are between the age of 0-20 years totaled 706 400. The adults aged 16 to 75 years were 7,675,600. The education attainment for the sampled population was also assessed. The number of individuals with less than high school graduation is 847,000. Those with a high school diploma or GED are 1,201,600. The population with college education/associates’ degrees is 1,151,500. Those with Bachelor’s degrees are 598,800.
Income and Poverty Status (2016)
Ages 21 to 64 years old
Median Annual Earnings: $38,500
Median Annual Household Income $41,300
The number living below poverty line: 1,048,600 (significant need to encourage educational pursuits)
Employment Data (2016)
Ages 21 to 64 who are employed full time is 1,120,700. Therefore 70% of working-age adults who are blind or visually impaired are not used full time; most live below the poverty line (no benefits, no health insurance or inadequate insurance, etc.)
Mission Statement
Empower, promote independence, promote self-reliance for the blind or visually impaired individuals.
The company is an innovative leader within the industry to alleviate poverty by providing resources to needy individuals. The Glimpse Braille LLC will provide high-quality, affordable braille reading materials to the blind in all continents across the globe promptly. The company’s core values include integrity, professionalism, respect for diversity, inclusion, and empathy.
Vision
Glimpse Braille LLC. Strives to be a leader in providing resources to needy individuals and developing technologies to advance literacy on braille for the visually impaired and blind people.
Description of the Business
The Glimpse Braille LLC is a small size company that aims at easing learning activities among individuals who are blind or visually impaired, not only in the United States but also across the globe. The company is inspired by the need to ensure high-quality and highly affordable braille books and other accessible braille-related reading materials for the blind. By manufacturing and supplying high-quality but inexpensive braille reading materials, the company will help ensure more blind or visually impaired individuals can further their education. As a result, such people will be able to acquire an education and become gainfully employed. Also, others will use the acquired skills to create employment for both blind and non-blind individuals. Thus, The Glimpse Braille LLC will play a significant role in alleviating poverty among blind or visually impaired people across the globe.
The company’s core values include integrity, professionalism, respect for diversity, inclusion, and empathy. These values will act as the guiding principles as the company strives towards achieving its goals and purpose. What is more, these core values will help ensure the company remains committed to achieving its vision of being the leading company in promoting education acquisition among blind people worldwide.
The company supply chain comprises both physical stores as well as having an online store. However, to start, the company is selling its products via the online store. It will open physical stores as time progresses. The primary motivation behind selling its products via an online store during the first years of the business operations is to cut down on costs. Different studies have also shown that having online stores can benefit an organization compared to having physical stores.
The cost for establishing a physical store can run to thousands of dollars spent on utility bills, rent, property tax, and insurance, among other expenses.
Besides, the store owner has to employ a couple of individuals; all these make running a physical store highly expensive. On the contrary, with an e-commerce website or store, the start-up cost is usually a fraction of the expense.
Secondly, an online store was chosen as the best platform for selling its products because it would provide the company with an expanded customer reach. Studies show that online retailers are highly likely to increase their sales and consequently their profits faster than brick and mortar shops. This is because selling online provides an advantage of having an open store for 24 hours a day and across the year. What is more, selling online allows retailers to display their products in any part of the globe devoid of additional charges or expenses. After considering these benefits, the founders of The Glimpse Braille LLC felt that it was wise to start by establishing an online store from where customers from across the world would purchase the company’s products. However, for a start, the company is shipping to customers within the U.S.
The company’s core activities include the production of braille materials and the sale of those materials to customers across the globe. The target customers will consist of individual customers as well as schools for the blind. The company’s online stores will be provided with voice output capabilities that enable those who are blind or visually impaired to navigate without many challenges.
Marketing Plan
SWOT Analysis for The Glimpse Braille LLC
Strengths
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Weaknesses
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Opportunities
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Threats
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Summary
The Glimpse Braille LLC internal factors support display its situation while operating in Idaho and California. The company is sustainable in terms of its capital which contributes to its consolidated position in the market. The company’s expertise in different disability services ensures it is well equipped to provide essential services to the target population. The strategic location makes it practical to serve the people in Idaho and California. However, with no expertise in braille and with no workflow, the company’s ability to provide services to the population is affected. The company also lacks the stuff to build a higher capacity which affects its operation in the industry. Considering the external factors, Glimpse Braille LLC has various opportunities to expand the business. The technology change contributes to the ability of the company to build connections and increase revenue. There is a decreased competition that contributes to the company’s ability to consolidate its position in the market. However, the company is expanding fast, which is an aspect that acts against its ability to reduce its place in the market. The increasing competition is also a significant threat for the company.
Target Market
Determining a target market is among the most critical tasks for marketers. Arguably, it is the foundation of the fundamental elements of a business’s marketing strategy. The better a company understands its target market, the better it can target them with pertinent content, messaging, and adverts. A practical determination of a target market will result in higher conversion rates and better return on investment- these are the primary metrics that are important to all marketers.
The target market for The Glimpse Braille LLC is individuals who are blind or visually impaired across the nation and eventually worldwide. The company aims at serving this underserved population by easing its education and learning activities. It will achieve this mission by providing blind or visually impaired people with high-quality and affordable braille reading materials. Also, the company will increase access to these materials by providing an easy and efficient mechanism for the blind or visually impaired to order the braille books from the comfort of their homes, schools, and offices, among other places, by simply logging on to the company’s website. Also, the company will have two physical locations-one in California and another one in Idaho. These two locations will ease access to the company’s products.
Another target market is the government. Governments usually have programs that aim at providing the visually impaired with learning aids. We will partner with governments in fulfilling these programs. Also, schools, especially those dealing with visually impaired students, will act as our target markets. These will include schools at all levels of education, including colleges, universities, and high school, among other groups. The company will reach these people through online marketing, website, connections, attending conferences, through consulting, among other methods.
Relevant Rules and Regulations
Glimpse Braille LLC provides resources to visually impaired persons or the blind, requiring them to abide by specific rules and regulations. As brought out in the Disability act, companies that are focused on providing services for disabled individuals must have a certain percentage of disabled individuals as workers. The employment conditions have to abide by the set provisions in the employment act. Also, a responsive system should be included in the company such that individuals with disabilities can move around. As per the Disabilities Act, private entities should provide easily achievable tasks. Readily achievable according to the act means that disabled individuals can efficiently conduct a job without any difficulty or expense.
In the Amendments Act, private entities are required to offer alternative transportation to employees with disabilities. As this company focuses on persons with disabilities, Glimpse Braille LLC should lease or purchase different means used by persons with disabilities for transportation. There are specific standards that have to be met as per the act, which the company must abide by. Private entities must provide the necessary provisions in the work environment of individuals with persons with disabilities. In the Amendments Act, private entities are required to champion the rights of individuals with disabilities. The Amendments Act, which was enacted as a result of different decisions made by the supreme court, provides a balance between the practices of the employer and employee. As Glimpse Braille LLC is considered an employer, the discriminatory practices must be handled before employing individuals with disabilities. As brought out in section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the programs initiated by any private entity should acknowledge people with different forms of disabilities. Section 504 works with ADA to protect individuals with disabilities from unequal treatment and exclusion from jobs, school, and the community.
Competition
Competition is one of the threats to the financial success of this company. This is because of the idea behind the establishment of The Glimpse Braille LLC. Instead, other companies have had the idea and even established businesses. Therefore, the company will face competition from these businesses. Some of these companies include the Central Washington University, Central Access Center, and Georgia Tech, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation. However, it is imperative to note that Glimpse Braille LLC has several competitive advantages over these companies. For example, The Glimpse Braille LLC is more organized and efficient, is using the latest technology, produces and delivers orders promptly, has excellent customer service, provides customers with fair prices, it deals with more minor, which makes would make communication more accessible and less complicated flow of work has low overhead and has enough capital to face unexpected “problems.” The company will mainly focus on three core points: quality, low prices, and excellent service. Besides, unlike most of its competitors, The Glimpse Braille LLC has an online store to sell its products. Thus, the company can reach many clients from across the world. As a result, The Glimpse Braille LLC will realize huge sales and consequent increase in revenue and profit margins.
Marketing
The importance of marketing in business cannot be understated. Marketing is essential since it increases brand visibility, develops strong customer relationships, enhances brand awareness, recognizes, creates customer loyalty and trust, and helps build brand authority and credibility. What is more, marketing helps to position a business as an expert in a particular market or industry.
Mainly, The Glimpse Braille LLC will be using a website to market the services. Also, it will use word-of-mouth marketing and connections to make the business known.
Besides, the company’s products will be marketed using social media. The choice of using social media marketing is the fact that it has high conversion rates. Thus, most people who will be following the business on different social media platforms will easily be converted to loyal clients. As a result, the company’s client base will increase, which will consequently increase the company’s revenue and profit margins.
Cash Flow and Financial Management
| Cash Flow | Expenses | ||
| Cash Flow (Per year in dollars) | Item | (Expenses Per year in dollars) | |
| Selling Books
10 books x $2500 10 books @ $5000 10 books @ $10,000 10 books @ $15,000 10 books @ $20,000 10 books @ $28,000 60 books annually *30 books annually is 1/2
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$805,000
*5 books: $402,500 |
Office rent | $10,200 |
| Consulting, Training & Presentations | $100,000 | Printing
Example: $36.99 per box |
$10,000 |
| Binding | $5000 | ||
| Shipping | $10,000 | ||
| Travel | $20,000 | ||
| Software/ Equipment
*Start Up *Annual costs of Software subscriptions $600.00 *Replace/Upgrade Equipment 4 to 5 years $50,000.00 (upgrade embossers, laptops, swell printer, 3D printer, color scanner etc. as company grows) |
$52,000 | ||
| Software/website maintenance | $8,000 | ||
| Employee Training & Continuing Education | $5,000 | ||
| Wi-Fi | $1,600 | ||
| Cell phone plans | $2,500 | ||
| Salaries/fringe/benefits
$4300 per month Y $4300 per month K |
$103,200 | ||
| Consultant to proofread | $25,000 | ||
| Miscellaneous/Office Supplies etc. | $10,000 | ||
| TOTAL | $905,000 | $262,500 | |
| Projected Profit | 60 books annually: $905,000 – $262,500 = $642,500
30 books annually: $502,500 – $262,500 = $240,000 |
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Pricing Structure
| Idaho | California | |
| Magnifiers and Reading Devices | ||
| Screen Readers | $1200 | $1200 |
| Optical Character Recognition (OCR) | $1.2 per page | $1.2 per page |
| Writing and Printing Tools | ||
| Braille Keyboard Stickers | $5.99 | $5.99 |
| Braille Printers | $1500- $5000 | $1500- $5000 |
| Calculators | ||
| Low-Vision and Talking Calculators | $25- $50 | $25- $50 |
| Organizers | ||
| Portable Recorder | $37.95 | $37.95 |
| Software and Applications | ||
| Ariadne GPS | $5.99 | $5.99 |
| Braille Translator | $895 | $895 |
| Screen Magnification | $1,195 | $1,195 |
Conclusion
The business concept for Glimpse Braille LLC is viable as there is an increase in the demand for resources for blind or visually impaired individuals in both Idaho and California. The current price of resources is also high, making the prices brought out in this plan viable in the two states. The prices also provide a competitive advantage for the business in Idaho and even after its expansion to California. The current market has a low number of similar companies, which indicates intense competition in both states. The profits for the successful years as projected in the cash flow and financial management chart mean a suitable market for the company. Currently, the market is stable, which makes it viable for the company to survive. With the availability of all the resources and software for blind students in the different outlets of the company, there is an expectation of an increase in demand for these products. On analysis of the number of centers nationwide and in Idaho, there is an indication that there are fewer resources for persons with visual impairment. The business concept is viable as there are also decreased operational costs for the limited liability company. With a considerably initial capital invested in the business, the business will be in operation. The viability of this business concept can be assessed by focusing on the government policies and incentives in place. The government has decreased the taxation of resources for visually challenged children. It also provides incentives for companies dealing with products for visually impaired individuals. This concept is therefore easily applicable in Idaho before venturing to California and other states.