Confed Solutions – Business Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Confed Solutions Limited, a company that offers business and financial consultancy services for clients within the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector. This business plan contains the focused services and the strategies to achieve the business goals of the organisation. The company has been incorporated as a Private Limited company based in Leeds and is jointly headed by two directors – Mr. Fahad Ejaz, who would be heading the management consultancy services of the company and Mr. Imran Iftikhar, who would be heading the financial consultancy services of the company. Both the directors possess relevant academic credentials, which would help them in running the company successfully. The mission statement of the company is based on the principles of quality, integrity and value delivered to customers. The vision for the company involves striving to become the number one choice for business and financial consultancy services for SME clients. Key services offered by the company include identifying business and operational inefficiencies, analysing the financial position of clients, and offering suitable remedial measures and recommendations to optimise the same. Competitor analysis includes a listing of other firms offering similar services within Leeds. SWOT analysis showed that the academic credentials of the founders and the sound financial condition of the firm were its strength while the lack of experience and brand identity were the weaknesses. Offering services to clients outside the SME sector were the opportunities while clients resorting to in-house resources to advise on business and financial issues were the threats. PESTLE analysis showed that the political and economic climate within the UK in conjunction with social trends and technological developments were conducive for the operations of Confed Solutions. The marketing strategy of the company consists of advertising on business and finance journals and adopting a penetrative pricing strategy. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY COMPANY DETAILS COMPANY MANAGEMENT DETAILS MISSION STATEMENT COMPANY VISION OBJECTIVES KEY FACTORS FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE COMPANY IMPORTANT SERVICES OFFERED BY THE COMPANY TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS COMPETITOR ANALYSIS SWOT ANALYSIS PESTLE ANALYSIS HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY MARKETING STRATEGY STARTUP COSTS CASH FLOW FORCASTING...................................................15 APENDIX

COMPANY DETAILS

Confed Solutions Limited has been incorporated as a private limited company. The incorporation of the company took place on the 19th June 2014 in accordance with the Companies Act 2006. As shown in the above table, the company is headed by two directors – Mr. Fahad Ejaz and Mr. Imran Iftikhar. The directors have an equal distribution of the company’s shares. The company focuses on two major functions – offering management consultancy and offering financial consultancy for clients. The company is headquartered at Leeds and is subject to operating hours of between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm. However, employees may be required to work overtime occasionally, owing to times of increased workloads. They would be compensated appropriately under such instances.

COMPANY MANAGEMENT DETAILS

Confed Solutions would be jointly headed Mr. Ejaz and Mr. Iftikhar, as mentioned earlier, with each contributing their relevant expertise to the services of the company. Mr. Ejaz has done a degree in Master of Business Administration in International Management and has taken subjects such as Business Organisation and Entrepreneurship in his course. He would be overseeing the management consultancy aspect of Confed Solutions’ services. On the other hand, Mr. Iftikhar has pursued a Master of Science in Business with Financial Management and has taken core financial subjects such as Analysing Organisations, International Corporate Finance and Financial Markets and Fundamentals of Modern Financial Management. Accordingly, Mr. Iftikhar would be involved in the financial consultancy aspect of the services of Confed Solutions.

MISSION STATEMENT

“We at Confed Solutions seek to offer quality business and financial consultancy services. Our founding principles are based on quality, integrity and value for money. We strive to offer our clients exceptional quality analysis to resolve general management and financial issues encountered by our clients”.

COMPANY VISION

The corporate vision for Confed Solutions is to become the leading provider for business and financial consultancy for companies belonging to the small and medium sized enterprises (SME) sector. The company would aim to achieve this by recruiting the best and the brightest talents from carefully chosen applicants.

OBJECTIVES

• To achieve an increase in the number of new clients by over 25% over the next 12 months
• To attain an average customer satisfaction rating of over 90% over the next 24 months
• To become the leading provider of business and financial consulting services to SME clients
• To deliver exceptional quality in all professional advice offered to clients
• To deliver superior value for money paid by clients by minimising operational costs and maximising efficiency
• To give importance in increasing the market share of the organisation through the development of our clients

KEY FACTORS FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE COMPANY

• Offering clients excellent value for money
• Delivering superior quality of service to clients
• Recruiting and retaining only the best and the brightest talent
• Offering an environment which is conducive for the productivity of employees
• Remain updated on different financial products, changing client needs and legislation

IMPORTANT SERVICES OFFERED BY THE COMPANY

Management Consultancy Services

• Analysis on the goals and organisational objectives of the clients and offer suitable business strategies to achieve their goals
• Identification of the problems faced by the clients in their business strategy
• Provide recommendations for the issues faced by the clients in their business and marketing strategies
• Recommending our clients to implement effective management practices to improve the organisation’s performance level
• Implementation of effective growth strategy and international marketing practices to improve the services of our clients in the domestic and international organisations

Finance Consulting Services

• Providing financial solutions for our clients and help them to make appropriate investments for their business development
• Analysis of current market situation and position of our clients to identify the financial problems and other threats to these organisations
• Identification of the suitable financial services to client to fulfil the organisational requirements

TARGET MARKET ANALYSIS

The target market for Confed Solutions would consist of clients belonging to the SME sector for both management and financial consultancy services. Clients belonging to the SME sector are generally constrained in terms of financial resources to spend on recruiting in-house resources to handle the identification and resolution of problems pertaining to the company’s business or finances. To this end, there is a strong demand in the target market of the SME sector for management and financial consultancy services.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

Figure: Threat from Competitors Competitors for the Management Consultancy Services of Confed Solutions

SA Business Consultants Ltd 17 Hovingham Mount,Leeds,LS8 3RB Tel:07846 914236 Z Chaudhry Services Ltd 72 Luxor View,Leeds,LS8 5JT Tel:07830 863424 Leeds Business Solutions Ltd 273 Harehills Lane,Leeds,LS8 3RG Tel:0113 240 5517 BServe Shine Catalyst, Shine Centre, Harehills Rd,Leeds,LS8 5HS Tel:0844 4930670 ZK Management Solutions Ltd 275 Harehills Lane,Leeds,LS8 3RG Tel:0113 328 0392 Gozie Business Services 3 Seaforth Grove,Leeds,LS9 6AL Tel:07956 216391

Competitors for the Financial Consulting Services of Confed Solutions

Roger W Williams Financial Planning Ltd 641a, Roundhay Rd,Leeds,LS8 4BA Telephone:0113 2401000 Mobile:07845 130133 Oakleaf Financial Services Ramwood House, Mansion Lane,Leeds,LS8 2HL Tel:0113 3228167 Oakleaf IFS Ltd Tel:01482 422283 Oakleaf Independent Financial Services Ltd Margaret House, 2, Devonshire Crescent,Leeds,LS8 1EP Tel:0113 268 4341 S B B Consulting LLP Devonshire Hall, Devonshire Avenue,Leeds,LS8 1AW Tel:0113 269 7808

 

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

• Relevant academic qualifications of the directors is a great strength of Confed Solutions
• The financials of the company are also sound. To this end, appropriate investments could be made in various aspects of the business such as marketing and advertising, decorating the premises, etc.

Weaknesses

• Confed Solutions is a new entrant into the domain of business and financial consultancy
• Lack of brand awareness about the company amidst the target consumer base

Opportunities

• The company could expand the scale of its operations to cater to clients outside the SME sector such as larger multinationals
• The company could move on to other domains besides business and financial consultancy such as consultancy for marketing and operations

Threats

• Confed Solutions faces stiff competition from other established players offering similar services with regards to offering business and financial consultancy
• There is also a threat of potential clients using in-house resources such as full-time business analysts or financial analysts to undertake the task of identifying and resolving business and financial problems within the company

 

PESTLE ANALYSIS

Political UK is governed by a stable government which has been introducing pro-business policies such as steadily lowering the levels of the corporation tax over a period of several years. To this end, the political climate is favorable for the operations of Confed Solutions. As evident from the above graph, the political risk of the UK is much lower compared to that of the world average. Economic The UK was a victim of the global financial crisis and the accompanying recession. However, it has emerged strongly from the recession to experience a robust growth during the past year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other investment banks such as Citigroup are predicting that the UK economy would continue to post further growth in the coming years. Companies in a growing economy generally experience profits, which they would be likely to spend on external consultancies to help them identify the business and financial issues within the firm. Therefore, Confed Solutions faces a favourable economic factor for its operations. Social As explained earlier, there is a strong inclination within the companies belonging to the SME sector to employ the services of external business and financial consultants to identify the prevailing management related business issues, operational and financial inefficiencies within the company. Technological Different technological advancements seek to help Confed Solutions achieve its business objectives. The advent of ultra high speed internet and technologies such as real-time streaming enable the company to effectively carry out in-depth research by quickly downloading research material and showcasing the findings to clients via web-conferencing. Legal The legal system prevailing within the UK is conducive for the smooth commencement of new business and functioning of the same. There is less bureaucracy and red tape associated with starting a business and other aspects of it such as filing taxes. Thus, Confed Solutions is favored by the company-friendly legal system prevailing within the UK. Environmental There is an increasing concern among environmental activists regarding the reduction of pollution and the conservation of the environment. This also leads to increased pressure among companies to comply with the demands put forth by organizations which work to conserve the environment. In line with these pressures, Confed Solutions needs to ensure that it follows environmental-friendly policies such as reducing the amount of papers printed, adopting recycling and other green practices.

HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY

Human resources strategy is vital for Confed Solutions. The company would primarily use its corporate website to advertise the positions available for prospective candidates. However, since the brand awareness of the company is low, Confed Solutions would also resort to the use of placing advertisements on job portals such as Monster to source its talent. Recruitment agencies would also be used to fill in specialist roles. The company would be recruiting 1 HR executive cum receptionist, 3 analysts for managing consulting, 3 analysts for financial consulting and 3 marketing professionals.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Product/Service The services offered by Confed Solutions would center on offering business and financial consultancy services for clients within the SME sector. Management consultancy services would seek to identify operational inefficiencies and offer remedial measures to rectify the same. Price There are different pricing strategies such as discount pricing, penetrative pricing, price skimming and discount pricing. Since, the company is a new entrant in this domain, the penetrative pricing scheme would be adopted wherein initially low prices would be set for the company’s services with respect to the market levels. Once the company is established, prices would be appropriately altered to match the levels offered by other players in the market. Promotion The company would primarily advertise its services on business and finance journals, magazines and newspapers. For instance, dailies such as Financial Times and City A.M are excellent choices for Confed Solutions to advertise its services and promote awareness among potential clients. Online marketing strategies would also be used by the company, wherein the company would post advertisements alongside the web pages of reputed business and financial sites such as The Economist.com, FT.com, etc.

STARTUP COSTS

Startup costs for the company are presented in the table below, and are mainly dominated by the expenses for enhancing the ambience of the workplace through means of furniture and other decorative display.

CASH FLOW FORECASTING

Financial Summary	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Revenue
Revenue from services	45,000	66,500	90,600
Other income
Total Revenue	45,000	66,500	90,600
Expenditure
Organisational Set-up	3000	450	750
Business Insurance	149	180	220
Rental for premises	5000	6000	7000
Marketing & Advertisements	600	900	1300
Implementation of information technologies	4000	2000	1500
Official Website for the organisation	450	0	0
Stationery Expenses	600	800	1000
Cost for Legal procedures	800	0	0
Salary for employees	0	14500	32200
Other expenses	1000	1200	1400
Sales Commissions @ 2%	0	2520	4032
Total Expenses	15599	28550	110142

Table: Cash flow forecasting (Values in A£) An investment of A£50,000 is available on the date of commencing this business.

APPENDIX

Company Number:	9093240
Company Name:	Confed Solutions Limited
Company Type:	Private Limited Company
Registered Office:	54 Dorset Mount Leeds LS8 3QX
Director Names Job Titles	Mr. Fahad Ejaz, Management Consultant
	Mr. Imran Iftikhar, Financial Consultant

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